Howdy 76doublebass,

Yep ..... there is a huge number of current owners of Decware gear that traveled a long and winding road to finally end up here .....

Adcom 555, Conrad Johnson MV-50 and MV-75, Audio Research VT-100, modified Dynaco Stereo 70 and Heath W-5s, Wright Sound 2A3 mono blocks and a Jeff Korneff 45.

They were all nice (some very nice) in their own way ..... but there is something special about that little SV83 / EL84 giant killer that Steve has designed .....  

Best wishes,

Randy

Presently still using an ARC LS22 preamp but my amps are currently not in use. VTL MB450 tube monos & Bryston 7BSST monos. My new Torii is sounding better than either of the old amps.

I still have some of my old gear.
amps - McIntosh MC40 monos, Marantz 9b, Conrad Johnson MV75, Golden Tube Audio SE40, Antique Audio Wave 8, Tech-On SE 34i integrated, Audio Research D76, Crown D 150, SAE 100, Apt One, one Yamaha integrated, Nakamichi Stasis, I was an amp whore.

preamps - McIntosh C28, Marantz 7C, Conrad Johnson 12, Antique Audio ? the small one, Audio Research SP3, David Hafler, Apt, I loved the Apt and CJ.

Tuners - Yamaha, Marantz, McIntosh, Luxman, Right now I listen to an old Knight tube tuner with nice pecan case bought for $26 on ebay full of mullard tubes.

speakers - DCM time windows, Rogers LS3/5a, Spendor ?, Magnepans, Crown Electostatics, Quad ELS, JBL L100 & L3, Paradigm, JM Reynaud Twin II signatures, Visonic, M&K sub, Janis Sub, Velodyne sub, Definitive Technologies sub.

Turntables - Dual, Connoisseur, Techniques, Luxman, Linn, Basis, Mitchell, Project

It's making me sad thinking about some of those pieces I let go.

I've never had a truely decent system by any stretch of my imagination. Many moons ago, I'd say the first system I had was a Technics integrated, it was the basement model, analog tuner dial. I was but a poor Jarhead back then. Speakers were a unnamed mini tower base-reflex design that I traded another guy for I think a carton of cigs while we were in the field lol. Since then mostly integrateds, Kenwood, Denon, definitely nothing to write home about. I like DIY because it enables me to hold onto more of my $ while getting decent sound. My first bonefied tube amp was a Bogen rescued from my first mother in law, retubed, replaced a volume pot, and caps and that was not bad. I built one of the K-502 11BM8 kits and thought that sounded good. Coupled with DIY Paradise Simple 5687 Pre and some Infiniti bookshelves life was good. I build a little "Mini-Blok" 13EM7 SET amp, that's my daily listener at work and the best sounding amp I had till finding Steve's site a couple years back, I was revisiting old bookmarks and what to my surprise zkits are a reality!! my CCE modded ZKIT1 is the best sounding amp I've heard in my life.

Quite a few, most of which I still have laying around.  I sent my Decwares in for the CCE mod, and recently had the chance to listen to the old gear once again.

-Yamaha stereo integrateds (most recently a RX396)
-NAD 2100
-NAD C372 integrated
-Emotiva RPA1
-an old Crown pro amp usually used for shows or band practice, with something like 500w/rms and capable of over 2kw output!

They all sound pretty great, with only the puny Yamaha showing any weakness at all, and I think that is due to the crappy built-in pre- section.  With the others, they all gave the impression of effortless power, which I have to admit is fun.  When the zens came home, the difference was stark, as in going from a 'reasonable reproduction' to 'live at the show' experience.  These zens never cease to amaze me.