Yeah, I know what you mean.  He is an Artist and a Master but also a business man.  So I figure he doesn't really mind so long as the information gets out there one way or another.  What he really needs is a clone!

Congrats! Looking forward to your enthusiastic impressions.

You know, wouldn't that make an interesting access cable channel show? Audiophiles receiving amps or speakers or sources or cables they've waited weeks or months for and watching them unpack, install, those agonizing first moments of listening full of excitement tinged with worry. . . will this be what they expected? will it be worth the wait and the expense?

Most of the populace would slap their thighs with laughter at those silly nuts and their ridiculous toys. But a select few would watch and think to themselves. . . "I'm not alone."

Sounds like a nice get together.

In fact, it's playing now on Access Channel 12.

Yes, great CDAPS meeting yesterday.  A firsthand experience with the ZMA in my room with my speakers and my interconnects.  Pretty cool.

Pretty easy setting up the ZMA.  As Raven has said in the past, the biasing seemed pretty easy.  He did adjust once during the 2.5 hour session once the amp had warmed up.

Straight out of the Pelican box, I was feeling pretty good about the sound out of my Rachael.    But once the ZMA warmed up, it pulled away steadily and quite frankly, never looked back.

Yes, more grunt, but I think that is too simplistic a word to describe the ZMA.  The ZMA has more power through the range of frequencies, but its not just louder.  In fact, I was somewhat surprised that it wasn't that much louder than the Rachael.  Instead, I felt that notes were fuller and had more attack and decay because the additional power pushes out that detail.  But the detail from one instrument did not get in the way of the others.  Instead, I felt it had better focus and imaging.  It seems to have "well applied power" that makes for a fuller, more satisfying listening experience.  I can say I felt I was getting everything with the ZMA.  Nothing not presented or held back.

So in terms of "liquid honesty," the honesty part is already there.  You get the whole satisfying truth and nothing but that truth.  But it has a  that new amp sound right now.  If that turns liquid (which I suspect it will in a few months) then it is truly a refined music producing machine.

Again, my frame of reference is a Rachael, so a MKIII or MKIV listener may note more subtle differences.  I can't make the leap to a ZMA anytime soon, but the audition does leave me trying to figure out a way to get closer to that sound.  Running my Rachaels as monos?  A used MkIII?

P.S. we switched power cords without turning the amp off and it barely noticed.  Those caps are monsters.

P.S.S Raven makes a great old fashioned.

Interesting.

That's exactly the fear I have of moving to an amp without a treble cut circuit. I heard back from Steve about the treble cut circuit on the ZMA:

I'm not positive I can pull off a treble cut on the Mystery Amp, but if I spent enough time on it, I am 95% sure of success.  It might be better to implement it in a preamp or switchbox, that way you would have one no matter what amps you used.

So that's another expense for that and cables, etc. And I need more inputs on the amp as well.  

I'm listening to the clear and dynamic sound of my Torii Mk III right now and remarking "Don't worry my friend, you're not going anywhere."

PS: Your pal has been using the same tubes for six years?

Lon, doesn't the MK IV has the treble cut, so maybe that's the amp for you rather than the Mystery amp.

Unless you want to buy a ZMA and let me break it in for you till the treble blossoms.   I figure it should only take about 5 years or so.  

Well, the Eagle has landed!  -ZMA-

Anyway, I spoke with Steve today and complemented him on the beauty of this Amp!  The pictures on the web site and LR's pic's, don't do it justice. Very nice. Furthermore, all screws, fit and finish...are all there. Everything secure and tight.

I called him about the Taps...usually, you have a 4ohm, 8ohm pos. and one neg. I just wanted to make sure they "paired". The inner pair, when standing over the Amp is the 4ohm....outer pair near the RCA input is 8ohm=this is correct. Not to get hung up on....I'll be trying both. The nature of the winding of the Tranny's Steve spoke of... . So, 2 & 2....not 2pos. & 1neg.

Anyway, just two minor quibbles.  I did not get my Stepped Attenuator!
Anywho, I told Steve, I am not sending it back to have it done. I will call Sarah tomorrow and have her credit me. Granted, Steve admits, he likes it, can make things a little warmer with the resistor used in the 20 increment Step Attenuation...but I am fine with the killer transparency of the carbon pot!

However, as we discussed, I want the Stepped Attenuator on my Torii IV coming in April...for the best comparison I can discern...being two different Amplifiers. The 2nd quibble is a little plastic gramut out of the bunch of three that was missing-located between the Left RCA input and the positive 8 ohm Speaker input. Other than that, as I mentioned above....beautiful, beautiful Amplifier. I will square up with Sarah tomorrow about the Attenuator and have her send one of the gramuts too. The ZMA is to sweet...not to be perfect. The Pelican case was killer too. I will seriously use it as a piece of checked Luggage.

Now the sound! Well, let me start by saying, after I hung up the phone with Steve...he is busy I did not want to keep him...I forgot to ask about the biasing?  No online manual yet, but I remembered LR's (Eric's) post about it being set at 60...and how to bias & balance. I reviewed that and got it all dialed in.

I did call back though before I remembered Eric's post...and Sarah misunderstood me a little. I am glad Steve did not call me back. I did blow the fuse when I first turned it on....plugged in the Spare that came with it...and was good to go. I thought it was one of the 0A3's at first or worse, in the way it flashed...but it was fine. Always, check the fuse first before jumping to conclusions.

Anyway, the sound, with all of 3 hours on it! Dynamic, detailed and so not Solid State. However, with 300 hours to go...till it is really there...but right now, I concur with LR & his buddy Jason's assessment.

Cheers, back to the Listening Room...with a Summit Pale Ale.   -Stone

You bet Lon. This Amp is pure fun. But, it needs a long, long burn in for sure... .

Harmonics are there...but overall dry presentation right now. I know, I said in a previous post...I would put 30 hours on it before I would comment.....you know that was not going to happen  ::).

Anyway, .....I will now go for the 30 - 40 hours before I return. LR, I wish Steve kept the blue lights in the Bias/Balance Meter's. I did not see them in yours and I don't have them. He must have decided not to go with....obviously....but he had to go do it/we saw it....when showing us the build/design process....now I want them.  ;D  ....he can't be doing that!   -Stone

I just ordered my mystery amp, upgrading from but not getting rid of a Torii MK3. Anyone else taken this path? I would like hear your thoughts.

I called Sarah today to check on the status of my Mystery amp (002) and it looks like it's going to be another 2+ weeks to finish the build.  They are waiting on a batch of caps to come in.  I had a funny feeling the last stretch was going to seem like forever...

I got a Lemon ZMA so far.

It constantly & consistently blows fuses. It was to ship with 6 amp fuses...it came with two fives. I have tried 6 amp fuses as well=still blows the fuse. The Torii uses 5's ....ZMA uses 6's. Obviously, a better final QC checklist needs to take place when you're shelling out 5K.

I spoke with Steve/he recommended the 6's=and I sent an email mid-day yesterday. No response to the email that went directly to Sarah and flagged. So, of course I know she received it.

The ZMA will run periodically, but when you shut it off after a Listening session and turn back on for your next session, it will blow the fuse.

This should have been caught on the test bench...using multiple different outlets! Of course, I trouble shot my whole System and all is working 1st class.  

I will drop another $10 to $15 bucks today on 7 & 8 amp fuses....and see what happens.  ....pissed off-Stone....Amp is extremely truncated and grainy in the highs...and absolutely has no bass...with 14 hours on it. It would have 35 hours on it by now...but it keeps blowing fuses...so it might have other issues too!

Bummer Stone! Not sure I'd do the 7 or 8 amp fuses either. . . but I know how much you wish that would work!

Hope it gets resolved without the amp taking a trip on back.

Hey Stone,

      Don't give up on it work through the problems in the end you will be very happy you did I believe and thank yourself for being patient. I hope to have one myself someday. Its not very far from where your at now to Steve's shouldn't take to long to get her back. If it stay's this cold I would probably follow Steve's advice and try to keep on using it and hope Steve's hunch is right. Sorry to see you having all of these problems that's usually my luck in life almost guaranteed.


Good Luck!

I would probably have had a little "the sky is falling" moment in your situation too. $5K and the seemingly endless anticipation of getting the amp and all.  Happy it worked out.  Have fun with your new toy.

Greg

For those who don't know or haven't seen it, this is the case that Steve ships the Mystery Amp in. It's made by Pelican - it's airline approved for transport of fragile gear and weapons. It's got a pressure valve to balance the internal air pressure when it's in the cargo hold of a plane. They call it nearly indestructible - it's the real deal in gear protection. Yet Steve told me he's had shippers manage to crack them and damage the gear inside!

I have a brief case size Pelican case for my Mac Mini and accessories. They are top flight protection. Only thing you could do I guess is jacket the whole thing with stainless steel armor.

Anyone remember the Samsonite luggage gorilla commercial from the 70's? This is the picture that comes to mind when you say they damaged the amps in these Pelican cases.

Back to your regularly scheduled program.

I forgot to add - I've got one of these on the way! Found an open box deal too good to pass up!

I'm officially broke for the rest of the year. LOL

I could not agree more Digger...it is getting shorter all the time.

I had the luxury today to put the 19th through 26th hour today on my ZMA. I am very pleased. I new my front end could handle the honesty of ZMA in 20 bit dither. The DTI Pro32 is key here...with Redbook.

I switched my Galo 3.1's around, where the bass woofer's fire out instead of in towards each other. These being acoustic suspension, this change really locked in/improved the bass. The ZMA has weight. The high's are extending too/coming along very well.  

I had the Amp at 91.5 db SPL peaks today....hovering in the mid 80's db SPL....just magnificent...no clipping or compression. Just shear music! I recently had a 175 watt/channel, Moon Solid State Amp in, that could not compete with this Amp/ZMA! Harmonics, Harmonics & Harmonics = ZMA! You just want to turn it up and up.....no fatique or grain! It is certainly very far from being burned in too.

Lower level and low level Listening is just as impressive ( I, 9 out of 10 Listening Sessions-listen at 68 to 74 or 74 to 82db SPL). There is even more there in detail, than my SE84CS. I'm having a hard time wrapping my brain around that....but it's happening.

My System for ZMA:

Room is 9' x 11'
Acoustically treated/Michael Greene Room Tunes & Home Brew 18" x 30" open filter panels = 18 of them.
System Tri-configured on floor (no rack) on flat shelves/on full carpeted room/floor underneath-concrete ...Townsend CD Seismic Sync under digital Audio Alchemy components ...XLO Pro Power Cord to ZMA ...Adcom AC-enhancer 515 ...all four components plugged into it...has sequential on off start & shut down

Sony DVD Player as Transport
Illuminati D-60 Digital Coax
Audio Alchemy DTI-Pro32 (Set at 20 bit dither)
i2s Prophecy Cryo Digital (sends music 20 bit dither signal separate from clock signal in which it also sends to DAC)
Audio Alchemy v3.0 DAC (dual ladder DACS-w/remote wand volume/adjustable voltage output/driving directly into ZMA)
Kimber Select 1030 interconnect coax/RCA
ZEN MYSTERY AMPLIFIER
Kimber Select 3035 Speaker Cable
Anthony Gallo Acoustics Reference 3.1 Loud Speakers

-Stone

Hi LR, I get no soft popping as the Amp Powers down or percolating from the 0A3's. However, with powering up/on...the 0A3's percolate quite a bit (with no popping through the Speakers). I DO remember them doing this percolating, as well with my Torii III.

I always turn my volume on the Amp all the way down before shutting off the System. This way, when my Adcom AC-enhancer turns things on in order, from Transport to DAC to Amp/ZMA...I get no "thump" through the Speakers.

Have you noticed how cool temp wise, the outer Tranny's run compared to the warm inside/inner Tranny's?    -Stone

Raven or Stone?
   
     Have you guys noticed as you have gone thru your share of amps as you have climbed the food chain with them as they become so much more revealing, clear and transparent that you find yourself really cranking them louder and louder without realizing they are as loud as they really are? As my systems have improved I have found it to be a symptom of success within my two current systems one tube and one solid state. Things must be good when all you hear is the music floating around within all of this open black space within it all.
     It is good hearing what these amps are bringing to the table for you guys. I'll be looking forward to hearing more! Looking forward to my opportunity to hear one in person.                         



 

    Lonely Raven,
    I guess what I was saying about volume is and I really didn't explain it very well was that the volume can be turned up a bit more than I think do to the sound not having any bad or harsh effects that I have had with some of the earlier equipment I have owned over the years. What I have had happen to me is I'll set the volume to where I can start feeling the bass and hear everything so nice thinking I still have it at a volume for my wife and I to still be able to talk and find out it is a bit louder than I thought. Easy to do with transparent sounding equipment.
    It does sound like your having some fun!

Stone,
      Glad to hear your still liking your Polks with the ZMA. I certainly like my LS 70's for me they are the right size for my room and they can crank when needed. Although they are much better than when they were stock units. 60 watts of tube power is plenty more than I need for sure.  

      I'd say my only dislike with tube vs solid state is listening to certain types of rock music. My solid state set up still rules for punch and speed. I'm speaking in behalf of my current equipment setup!

      Stone, Those Polk's are huge. There was a pair locally for sale a while back and the bells started ringing and than I came back to my senses do to there size and power requirements to make them breath properly. I wasn't sure if I needed such an adrenalin rush anymore in life like I did when I was younger He He!. I'm currently running a custom set of MTM designed speakers with 2 seas 7" woofers and Vifa tweeters with 10" Aura subs running off of a Dayton 900 watt sub amp for the mains in my solid state 2 channel system. I run the Dayton from my McIntosh pre amp along with the Mac power amp. At this point its plenty to get my Ya Ya's out! And your absolutely correct about the S###y recordings but Zeppelin sure can kick some as@@$ when needed.

Keep that ZMA cookin!