Digger, what Tube Amp are you running at 60 watts per channel?

I assume your're following this Thread with interest in how NO Negative Feedback in the push pull ZMA, with no circuit boards, Cryo Jupiter Caps with Tube Regulation can sound/do for your Music?! The ZMA sounds like my SE84CS SET Amp, but with the Power of 125 watts per channel.
This I discerned in its 30th hour! I now have 43 hours on it.

1) It won't be going back.
2) I would own a 75 watt or higher push pull Tube Amp, if it made better music than my ZMA. I have listened to a few in the 8 to 12k range...they sound like Solid State...because of the necessary feedback needed and their being sooooo NOT, Steve's Topology. ...like I said above, SE84CS/CKC....with Power.

I don't blame you for modifying the Polk LS-70. I still remember them compared to the LS-90's/we salesman-did not like them. I sold them at Audio King back in 93'....kinda like an Ultimate Electronics, but with more class.

Anyway, the LS-90's I do have tweeked with necessary large Tiptoe's Spikes under the Speaker's. However, sandwiched between the Tiptoe Cone and the Speaker base, I have 28 lb Vibrapods for each Tiptoe. Night and day Tonal Balance adjustment to the Speaker. Furthermore, for complete Resonance Control, I have 2 Megafeet/Mapleshade Brass Weights on top of each Speaker. You have to be careful with weight on top....not to over do it. End result? ...a great Speaker....that has great driver's....but needed help with the weak enclosure. The LS-70 might not suffer the same issue....with your upgrades to it.

....throw, some good Room Treatment in & Power Treament (you don't need to kill the mosquito with a Sledge Hammar), my Front End & Kimber Select...I have my Nirvana. I also rotate two pair of other Speakers in the Listening Room. I am considering making it 4 pair, with the HR-1 Omni's     -Stone

 Stone,
      I'm running a modded Jolida 502 P at 60 watts. This amp is the 6550 power tubed version not the El34 version. My Polk 70's I wasn't impressed with in stock form. I don't suffer with any cabinet problems as you have mention with your 90's. Mostly driver and crossover modifications needed to correct the LS 70's now very nice. There is no longer a speaker buried in a blanket sound to them. I'm running 60 watts at 4 ohms thru these and a pair of Pioneer HPM 100's. The Pioneers weaknesses may lay in the upper ranges where my Polks with the Morel drivers are very strong. The bass in the HPM 100's with 12" drivers are shining on the bottom end. Need to gut the mids and highs on the 100's and just put a low pass in and use them that way would be nice.
          Yes, I am following the ZMA do to my future interest in owning. I like hearing your and Ravens perspectives of these amps and learning more about your backgrounds on sound in order to make assessments of what is being observed in these amps. I have been around live music for a good number of years when I was younger and spent about 5 years in recording and mixing music as a hobby. My days of playing guitar ended some years back do to life changes and time and energy restraints. I do very much appreciate quality sounding equipment even with older ears I'm sure my hearing isn't what it used to be anymore.
          Keep your comments and assessments coming I enjoy reading about them.

LOL, and I thought I changed my mind a lot!

I still want a set of radials, but that's put off for a while, especially with the P10 on the way, and a possible wedding next year.

I did some quick math. I'm putting in about 25 hours a week, so I figure I'll hit that 600 hour mark that's been Guestimated as the breakin point in about 5 months.

The honeymoon period has clearly passed - Going from ground zero (less than 5 minutes burn in at Steve's), to where I am now - it's clearly a whole different/better amp. I'm honestly giddy at the thought of what it's going to be like once it blooms.

At this point I'm sure all you future ZMA guys are going to love this - it's a truly amazing machine.

stone_of_tone wrote on 01/31/14 at 19:43:39:


Stone, just place your order for the Omnis now. They won't ship til the fall anyway.

Personally, enjoying the amazing sound of my Omnis right now as I type, I think you need these more than a Mk IV. I mean you have great Decware amps arleady. You need their ultimate speakers. You just might retire one of the other pairs you have. No shit.

Cool. I really think the Herbie's stuff (footers and tube dampers) are the icing on the cake after you get the power treatment in hand. I think the P10 is going to make a big impact and after that power cords may make a big impact. I know when I put my Power Plant Premier in I found the sound of every power cord in place to be clearly delineated, sometimes not for the best.

I hear you Lon. I will just straight up order the HR-1's next month. The time table will workout just fine...as you eluded too. I am still getting the Torii IV too....you can find me at 1/06 Larry B.

600 hours?....I know it will get even better LR....but with my Kimber Select 1030 IC & Kimber Select 3035 Speaker Cables...it is the SHit....already....I like taking a great Front End....Cabling....and Decware into my 2K to 4k pair of Speaker's (3 pair alternating)....and make them over achieve. Thus, why, the HR-1 Omni's will be the 4th Pair to grace the Listening Room. All else, is in the Living Room Mid-FI Rig....which does not suck to much. However, it is not the Listening Room with Decware & AA, with Kimber Select, obviously.

I should add, the Torii IV is not coming in to decide whether to keep to the ZMA or IV? It is coming in of its variation. For example, I did not upgrade my SE84CS....because you don't mess with stock perfection. I just got a Super Zen CKC too....which has its own perfection too.

Stone.......of Tone............off to Party.  

Lonely Raven wrote on 01/31/14 at 22:06:20:


Ah don't worry about it! Just put the best cord you have on the P10 for now, and in time you can add power cords to all the components and you'll really reap the benefits. And you'll have great sound in the meantime. I'm really excited that you're getting the P10, I'm anticipating it will be a game changer.

I know what you mean, it's like someone famous once said

In my experience (and boy have I had fun twisting and gropinga round behind the racks experimenting) putting the best cord on the Power Plant yields benefits for all components, I'd try that first.

Looking forward to hearing your jaw drop. I'll keep a window facing west cracked a little bit.

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Well, except for the bikini, I pretty much have that going for me with Brianne as well.  :)

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I have connectors! I bought a set thinking my Styx style power cable would be good enough and planned on making more, but this Pangea showed me I was wrong.

I like "Zen Zilla" - after out meet, that's kind of the feeling I was getting. It's got some of the classic Zen stuff going on, but on a city crushing scale.  ;D

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Thanks Lon, your experience is always appreciated!

I already offered you my unsolicited advice about Brianne  ;)

Ok, I'll dig it out.  Its basically the same cord I am using on Rachael.  I made two a year or so ago.  I was also using the unshielded until recently and one day popped in the shielded and haven't gone back.  You can A/B and see if it helps you out.

I just posted this in the What's Spinning thread - but I wanted to put it here to make sure Steve and crew see it.

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I just had a moment - I'm not ashamed to admit it, I teared up a bit as I got a bit emotional...over a test CD.

I'm still having some imaging issues in my room, I grab the test disc below (ripped to FLAC) and go through all the phase and soundstage tests...they sound OK at best. Then the music comes on and Vaquero sounds great, I turn it up a little bit...then a little bit more...and soon I'm at 80% on the volume. ZMA is sounding great. The next tunes don't excite me much, and I'm about to either turn it down to background level or off and get some housework done, when I see the Toccata in D-Minor is the last track. I love this piece - it's a classic in Monster Movies, my Mom used to play good portions of it on the piano, and I even transcribed some of it to electric guitar with all the fancy two handed tapping, whammy bar, and special FX that make modern electric guitar so fun.

I guess I was a little unprepared for how good this would sound - I found myself cranking it; ZMA 100% full on, balls out - and I kid you not, I teared up with how beautiful it was. I'm sitting here now all puffy eyed as I type this.

Thank you Steve, this is the amp I've been looking for.

When the ZMA was new, it wasn't as loud as I expected. As it aged and the caps broke in, it got louder and I found myself turning it down more. It also takes a while to warm up, so all of that has something to do with volume perception. I've also found it's input sensitive; if it's a loud recording, it really jumps, but on quieter recordings I find myself cranking it due to lower input from my Oppo (I've not measured, but I believe this test CD was on the quieter side).

If it was clipping, I honestly didn't notice, nor did I bother to look at the meters since I was so in the moment. The ZMA clips rather smoothly as well...in one of my previous posts I mentioned where I was cranking Keith Jarrett...and it was clearly clipping, but in a way that made the piano sound like an electric keyboard, not nails on a chalkboard. So I think it's easier to get into clipping and honestly not notice it.

No, unfortunately not. Besides the fact that with so many people there I was lucky to get 15-20 minutes to myself, I also only listened to the MK IV and Mystery Amp the way I would at home - which is source, to amp, do MG944.

On my last visit to see Steve, I asked about adding a preamp, and Steve simply said "it would make more things listenable" - which I gather means you can smooth out some rough recordings.

Yeah, I really don't care about volume much either, as long as it's "enough for the recording", which the ZMA has for everything so far (with my MG944)

I don't recall touching the volume knob at all during our meet, and neither of us took measurements, so I can't say either way.

Next time I'll remember to bring my meter - plus my measurement mic, and we can see how accurate our phone db meters are compared to the Radio Shack one I have.

Still no shipping notification on my PS Audio P10 - hopefully I'll have it before the weekend so I can give it a run and start the burn in process.  I still have *no idea* where I'm going to put the beast...I doubt my glass shelving will handle it!

What should be ZMA#0005 is now "parts pulled".   It's hard not to watch the list every moment.  I already have an outlet timer set aside for "6hours on, 6hour off, repeat" burn in.  Will wire speakers out of phase, facing each other, and let the music play for a long time.  I already know it won't sound as good as my torii3 at first, so I'm tempted to not even compare...But I'm sure curiosity will get the best of me.

 Probably shipped its Monday!






     

I have a ways to go...for even 220 hours Will.

I am in my 69th hour on my ZMA! Having the extra headroom at my beckon call...is so sweet. I just finished: Larry Carlton - Deep Into It. I was deep into it! With the LS90's back in, the ZMA is a combination of power, control, subtlety and agility - for sure.

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 (3lb Brass Weight on each inside Transformer)
Kimber Select 3035 Speaker Cable
Polk LS90 Speakers (Resonance Control Megafeet Brass on Top & Spikes/Large Tiptoe's with Vibrapods on Bottom)

-Stone

This reply is to Stone re mods to LS-90s. Sorry in wrong place, but I'm desperate. Cap blew on one, spooged all over the crossover, tweeter driver is fershlugginer. VRMods too busy, need some help fixing, found this here and I can just tell you know how to upgrade these. Any further detail on what you already wrote, or what the best crossover repair would be, much appreciated!

Dave1210 & SteveC, you're going to love the ZMA!

Lon, a few posts back you mentioned, I don't need the IV. I agree, for now. I ordered the HR-1 guys! I posted in the HR-1 Thread (talking to Lon & Will).

Now, I do have some 0C2 VR Tubes...so I will have to get a Torii MK IV in 2015!   -S

Absolutely LR, I want their gut opinions. I am so glad Steve set me straight with an email...I manned up, got the 7 Amp Fuse in it...and the rest is History. After my momentary lapse of reason...I am glad I did not send the ZMA back an cut my nose off to spite my face.

Here's hoping...Dave1210 & SteveC...whom are communicating with us here...have not much longer of a wait.   Cheers, Stone

Those caps/cryo are totally worth the wait - let alone the whole amp.

You know it Lon X 2 (Pair).

Mine is the last of the Mystery amp group on page 1. Aaron B. I ordered Nov 15th so I don't have as much to complain about but I would love the amp to compare to my Pass Labs xa30.5 and start my speaker search.

Mine as of this morning is the very last line on page 1.  I ordered mine in early December.  I'm hoping now that the guys are on a roll, mine will follow up with minimum delay after that big log jam on the middle of the build page.

I was the first MK IV shipped and I must say it is sounding real sweet.  If the ZMA can sound that good with the added power, I'll be done.  Wow, how many times have I said THAT??  My wife will say every time I buy something.