Hi,

I'm new to the forum and relatively new to hifi audio as well.  I am getting ready to purchase and amp from Steve and was wanting to get some second opinions from anyone and everyone.  

I am slowly in the process of upgrading to better sounding gear and have been really impressed with Steve's line of products.

I currently only listen to vinyl...rock, classical, jazz.  Here is what I currently have for gear: Rega P3-24 TT, Musical Surroundings Phonomena II phono stage, Harmon Kardon Stereo Reciever, and Mirage FRx-5 speakers and all components are connected to a Balanced Power Technologies CPC.

I am looking at getting the SE84C+ or the SE84ZS.  I realize that my speakers may not get very loud with this amp (not sure on their efficiency rating) but looking into getting a pair of Parker 95 or 98 Signatures or a pair of the Decware MG944, NFX or HDT's later on down the line.  I also would like to get the ZP3 at some point in the future to replace the Phonomena II.

My main question is which amp would you go with between the SE84C+ or SE84ZS?  

Thanks in advance for your comments.

Jon

Thanks Lon,

I've been going back and forth over the past few weeks as to which amp to get.  I've read through the forums several times and couldn't find much on this topic.  I was leaning towards the ZS.  

I was also hoping to hear that vinyl was a good match with the ZS as well since I have a much larger collection of quality vinyl than CD's.  As for speakers down the line...I really like the Parker 98 signatures (2-ohm 96db), NFX and HDT's.  I figured that I really could not go wrong with the ZS or C+ with any of these since they are all 96db or greater.

Jon

Thanks for the insight yesterday Lon!  

I put in an order for the ZS yesterday afternoon and am waiting anxiously for its arrival!!  Now it's time to figure out what speakers I want and how soon (once the bank account fattens up again) I can get them!

Jon

Welcome to the forum Jon!

Glad to see that you made a decision on an amp.  I own a Torri MKII and have never heard any of the other amps, but I don't think that you could have gone wrong with any amp that you may have decided on.

Like you, I listen primarily to vinyl.  Besides the Torri, my analoge system consists of a MusicHall MMF5.1 TT with Goldring 1042 cartridge, ZP3 phono stage, and HDT speakers.  Although I am not as musically descriptive as most on this forum, I would be happy to share any thoughts that you may have on the ZP3 or HDT's, or anything related to vinyl as far as that goes.

Later.

bill

Jon,

Congradulations on your raise.  I am retired (military), so extra dollars are hard to come by for me these days.  Not complaining mind you, I have it a LOT better than a Lot of people in this economy.

Anyway, on to your questions.  The first is my impression of the HDT's.  I origianlly ordered the HDT's to go with the system I had at the time, figuring at some point in the future that I would get into SET amps.  I was using PSB toweres at that time, but they were not very efficient and I really wanted to try single driver full range speakers.  I also wanted to stay with towers because I wanted the speakers at my listening height without having to put the speakers on stands.  Shortly after ordering the HDT's, Steve offered up the Torrii MKII at a bargain price, so I ordered that along with the ZP3.  I got them all at about the same time.  First impression of the speakers was their weight and build.  Extremely well built and good looking speakers.  They came well packaged with no damage.  Once I MUSCLED the speakers into my listeing room and got them hooked up (I also use Signal Cables and interconnects), I powered up.  I don't remember what music I had on the TT at the time, but I was AMAZED at what I was hearing.  As I recall, it was some orchestral piece because I was hearing something that I hadn't noted (from the listening session earlier in the day) prior.  Turned out that I was hearing sheet music being turned.  As Steve mentions in his remarks on the speakers, they will bring out everything that your system has to offer (good or bad).  I was also very pleased with the frequecy response.  The bass wasn't quite as deep as with the PSB speakers, but the quality of the bass was much better.  I had problems with bass colorations in the past, and I had installed room treatments to help alleviate some of it (helped but didn't solve).  In simpleist terms, I couldn't tell where kick drum ended and bass guitar picked up - they all sort of blended together.  With the HDT's, I could now hear the different instruments as being distint from each other.  The speakers sounded great from the gitgo, but they are just plain sweet now.  I should also mention that the high frequencies were just beautiful.  Absolutely no graininess what so ever.  The only thing negative that I would mention is that they take a bit of positioning to get the best in soundstaging, but almost every speaker needs to be properly positioned to match the listening room and habits of each individual.  You CAN'T go wrong with these speakers if your budget allows.

I am also very pleased with the ZP3.  My only phnono stage before the ZP3 were solidstate circuit boards installed in my Rogue Cronus integrated amp, and the same for my Rega Mira 3 (also solid state), so I really can't compare it to other tubed stages.  Mine does have an inherent hum, but it is very negiliagable and I can't hear it from my listening position.  I have changed tubes (EH tubes for the inputs, and I replaced the other 2 tubes with NOS tubes).  The only reason that I would consider a different phono stage is if I was going to be using MC cartridges (which I am not).  I THINK that some other stages with more flexibility might be preferable to buying one of three options available from Decware for the MC cartridges.

If you arn't cleaning your vinyl with some sort of machine right now, definatly plan on getting one sooner rather than later.  I was just using a wet brush up until a year and a half ago.  Like you, I just wasn't sure that I wanted to go through the expense of a machine.  I finally decided on a GEM record cleaner (I think that Sleeve City has them, and a link to a review by 6Moons.com).  Anyway, it is completely manual cleaning using your sink and faucet to clean the records.  I was AMAZED at just how much better my records sounded, not only playing much quieter, but playing with MUCH more detail than I was used to.  Just like with the HDT speakers, I was hearing new things in the music that I had never heard before.  The only thing that I didn't like about the GEM system is that you have to dry with a lint free towel and let air dry for a bit.  I finally purchased a VPI 16.5 machine this past winter have never looked back.  I can really scrub dirty records, or just do a quick go-over, and be playing the vinyl in literally minutes.  

Hope this helps.  Let me know if I an answer anything else for you.

bill

Thanks for the information Bill!  I will look into those cleaning methods.  I have also been looking at Mapleshade's record cleaning package which is of some interest as well.  Seems totally different from the other machine type of cleaners.