I think the obvious theme of this years show will be the Zen Torii Mono's since they are the highest power amplifiers Decware has ever released.



After a year a fine tuning and recently having some VERY SPECIAL caps custom made for it, I got to hear a final broken in pair the other night...  let me tell you how that went...

Put them on the typically back side of the room in place of the acoustats because there was no other options... hooked up the DM944's because they were right there... listened to them on digital... actually started out by warming them up with MOG, streaming internet music service, and within an hour or so I completely forgot I was listening to streaming internet music (320kps) - it may as well have been CD or high res downloads, it sounded so good I suddenly found myself exploring new albums I'd never heard but always wanted to (the beauty of MOG) and next thing you know it was 3:35 AM and I realized I had a real winner on my hands.   The combination I had put together, which involved the Zen ULTRA preamp, and a happy sounding DAC reeked of musicality.  Then I stuck in a "high end" dac of another respected name and the sound suddenly became incredibly clear, polished, analytical and amazing, yet musically dysfunctional and boring.  I lost interest in less than 5 minutes.  I then decided to call it a night, but I haven't heard the amps on a "premo" source yet, and the curiosity got the best of me.  After all, my good turntable was just sitting there and the more I looked at it wondering what it was going to take to try to hook THAT up in the dark, the more I realized it WAS already hooked UP!  Not only that, it was on!  In fact it has been sitting there, hooked up, and ON since the last time I listened to it, which was over 4 months ago.

So, I went and got one of my M&K direct to disk LP's out from my collection.  It was a recording of a harpsichord... something even the best digital systems have difficulty with.  I then grabbed a head-shell for my Fidelity Research silver wired tonearm that was pre-loaded with one of my favorite cartridges.  I inserted it into the tonearm waiting to hear the typical hum and nothing.   Damn, I thought, that's about right.  Great....  the damn thing isn't hooked up after all.   Nevertheless I brushed the stylus to just be sure and launched myself across the floor over the back of the couch!  Holly crap, it WAS on and fully cranked, 120 watts of class A KT88's raging at 98 mills per tube on 94dB speakers...  louder than ol Stevieboy has heard in many years, especially in his own listening room.

This is going to be good I thought, so without hesitation, I turned everything down a bit and dropped th e needle on the record...

Aprox 28 seconds into the first track, I spit my beer onto the carpet in disbelief followed by a twenty minute break while I cleaned the carpet.  Of course after that I finished listening to the LP and must have thought at least 100 times how seriously badly this is KILLING the best digital I have.

It's now after 5 AM and since I have to get up in two hours anyway, I have to hear some music I actually like... so I grabbed one of my cherished Dynagroove LP's and dropped the needle on track one... and in less than 5 seconds I'll be damned if I didn't spit my beer out onto the floor again.  Now, I only had two beers the entire evening, so it wasn't from being drunk... it was the best sound I had ever heard in my room, in my life.

That means at this years fest I am fully armed and dangerous to once again demonstrate the absolute superiority of analog over digital and you can trust me when I say it will be a memorable experience.

I woke up the following morning looking at the red spot on my forehead from all the times I slapped myself there in disbelief of what I was hearing....

These amps are good,  really good.

So my main agenda for this years fest, is going to be a DEMO on all three nights, immediately after it gets dark, Friday Sat and Sunday.  I'm going to play the same recordings I just described for everyone who is still here to hear them.

Please try to factor this into your schedule.  It gets dark around 8 PM.  I will not give the demo during the day.


The other mind blower, and fittingly so, of this years fest will be the new Super Zen!  Our dear little SE84C+ takes one more huge leap into seriousness with the CKC mod and a new chassis to fit it.  As many of you know the SE84C was the recipient of the CCE mod (Christmas Comes Early) aka Hazen Grid Mod, which was huge a couple of years ago. This year we stumbled upon a massive update that involves the front end driving the output tubes and it is called the CKC (Christmas Keeps Coming) mod. When you hear this, you'll be listening to a 10,000,00 amplifier that costs under a grand.  By far the best 2 watt ZEN to ever come out of this shop.

If you've ever thought about attending this down to earth, casual event, this is the year to do it.  Please consider attending at least one of the three days if there is any way you possibly can, because lets face it... life it short, and how many times do you get to have a high end audio experience where something at the event completely blows you mind?   It's guaranteed this year...

To bend your arm a bit further, like most years, I'm pretty sure I'll be handing out coupon codes worth 10% off your next purchase, regardless of what it is.  In the case of the Monoblocks, that would be the same thing as putting about 11,00.00 in your pocket, just for attending.

OK, If that doesn't do it... it IS 2012 and if the world really DOES end on Dec 21st why not spend one of your weekends in these final months doing something special for yourself!

.... yea yea, over the top, I know.   Just come.

Steve

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