I was there from mid Friday through Sunday and had a great time. Mike Ziegler and DeVon made me feel instantly at home, showed me around, introduced me, etc. It's a very nice atmosphere and crowd at Zenfest.
As an owner of Decware amps and speakers, I already know how good this stuff is. I made the trip due to my curiosity about the rest of the products. I love my HDT's so I was similarly impressed with the bigger vocal presence of the ZOB's. The ZOB's are audio "holodecks", and nobody believed there wasn't a bass driver in the bottom of them. The ERR's filled the room with laid back sound, very clear yet not in your face at all. I noted how they seemed the opposites of my HDT's. The HR-1's seemed to be a middle ground and filled the room like the ERR’s did, and gave a strong focused presence to the listener... the best of both worlds. I was blown away by the big-speaker-sound coming out of the DM945's with the Rachel. That sound was impressive the same way the Trapezium + Zen combo is. I also really liked the Rachel + HDT's. At times, the ZOB's and DNA's were pushed too far on smaller amps (evidenced by the wincing on Randy's face when it happened), but they sang on the Torii. The new Mono's have power out the wazoo... that's my biggest impression of them... Decware clarity with power and authority.
(I don't have the right vocabulary to describe these things correctly. The speakers are all definitely different, but all very good individually on the right amp. )
I also spent a lot of time outside by the fire bs'ing with Mike, Bob, Jim, John, Sarah, and others. It became a circuit for me. Overheat inside listening to tunes... Cool off outside in the cool air fireside... Drink a beer... Rinse, wash, repeat. At one point Mike noted that he's never heard the music play all the way outside of the building the way it was. That was during one of the Torii Mono demos. Power and authority.
The crowd was a mix of existing owners who knew most of the equipment, and those who were hearing the equipment for the first time. I enjoyed helping people mix and match amps and speakers, telling them what I loved about my Torii, showing off how versatile and adjustable it is. The kids in all of us had fun playing with all the cool toys.
Lots of people had questions about amp and speaker matching, tube rolling, cabling, etc. I just told my story... After learning my Zen amp was everything is was talked up to be, I decided to just trust Steve Deckert's experience, judgment, and efforts to make his stuff world class. (I spent some time, but not too much on the hifi roller coaster)
I had a blast at Zenfest. I owe a great big thanks to Steve, DeVon, Sarah, Bob, and Mike for a great weekend.
I've put the photos I took at the fest on a memory card and mailed them to DeVon today.
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Zen Fest 2012 (Read 27756 times)
