Hello All,

I've been a Decware user for years, having purchased a Select Zen amp, reference interconnects, and built the WO32 subwoofer and most recently HDT speakers (all written up on my site).

My system as it stands, does an awful lot right, I'm very, very pleased with how it sounds, but it could do with more "body" to the overall sound.

The system comprises; Origin Live Ultra turntable, Origin Live Silver MkII tonearm, Goldring Eroica LX cartridge, Lehmann Black Cube SE phono stage, Decware Select Zen amp, Decware HDT speakers (self built). Decware reference interconnect and Chord Odyssey 2 speaker cable, plus Vertex Jaya mains filter.

It presents a fantastic soundstage, both in width and front-to-back depth. The separation, coherence and tonality is also excellent - I can hear the spaces around instruments, easily hearing separate instruments and their textures. Also, speed, thanks to the HDTs, is brilliant - everything really starts and stops, with pretty good dynamics.

Overall, then, I am extremely happy.

I'd like to move forward by addressing the lack of body. Some recordings can sound a bit light, for example vocals sometimes sound as though they are not weighty enough, especially in the mid band.

It may well be my listening room, which is an "A" shaped loft room (see photo). The speakers are against one slope and I sit on the other side against the other slope. While I think the shape of the room probably helps to break up standing waves, the high frequency may possibly be reflected up and down the ceiling to my ears.

I am intending to set up the system in our (conventionally shaped) living room to see if it makes a dramatic difference to the overall tone. But, even if it does, I cannot permanently move it down there - I have to look for a solution in my listening room for the time being.

Thinking about the various possible ways forward I was thinking maybe trying a preamp with the Zen amp to improve weight and body and perhaps experimenting with some other cables, or even considering another amp. I am loathe to change my speakers as they do so much right but if they are completely wrong for this room then I am open to ideas.

Your thoughts and ideas would be gratefully received.

John

Your system description is impressive, especially the source.  However I regret to say you haven't heard it even near it's potential yet.  A flaming weak link exists called your phono stage.  That is going to have to be right before you do any room tweaking - which I'll be happy to assist you with...  in a system like yours, the phono stage is everything.

Of course to get the body you want from CD's your going to need the right tube preamp.  If it were me... since money doesn't grow on trees... I would do a ZP3 and also use it as a line level preamp with a reverse RIAA filter so you can feed your CD player into it.  Strange as it might sound, it doesn't get much better.

Steve

Hi John,

The game of room treatments is a fun voyage.  You can find suggestions and products here at Decware and other DYI projects on the internet.  I have some of the Decware diffusers and many DYI absorbers in my room.  For me it has been a lot of fun experimenting with different setups.

Many people will tell you that a cheap stereo in a well treated room will sound better than a expensive rig in a bad room.  I find a lot of truth in that.

Over the last seven or eight years I have found Steve Deckert's advise to be invaluable.

dennis

Hi Yoda,

Thanks for the ideas. What do you mean by "2nd CS or EX transformers"?

I built the HDTs with alt tuning, will certainly look into the Fostex driver swap you suggest.

Looks like I'm definitely going to look at the preamp and phono amp, probably both!

Thanks,

John

John - Steve built special output transformers for the c/cs amps that offer more weight w/ 8ohm and higher full range speakers.  If you add a 2nd CS amp to run a pair as monoblocks, you bridge the outputs in series, and this has a similar effect, but adds more headroom because of the extra tube.  I went through all of these options in my journey, but the best improvement on the amplification side of the equation was to add the CSP2 amp in front of a CS amp.