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Hopefully Steve will respond to this, being the only one who can with no MkIVs out yet. I do recall Steve saying once that he has taken time to listen to all of his amps in succession, and in this scenario, each one he finds to be better than the last, when the last was the best, and finally back to the beginning, it is "the best" again...sort of a perpetual wheel of the best.
So at least from this we can rest assured that from the designer's view, they all have very good qualities individually, while at the same time, the contrasts from the different synergistically refined designs are exciting!
Lon's point is well taken. However, I suspect my quest and his are different enough that my Torii, the way I have it set up, and my HR1s, the way I have modded them...it is pretty sure that I have a notably more detailed, and probably less forgiving sound. But within this, I am also going for a musicality and "forgiveness" that comfortably "awakens" my notably smaller collection of recordings. This is one of the great things of the Torii for me...it is very adjustable with 5 tube sets along with its knob and its switch controls.
I auditioned a Rachel, which is pretty different from the Zens with the EL34s, and a bit less power than your monos together. What I found...I was first very impressed at the striking family resemblance between the Rachel and my MKIII Torii. Also, I loved both. And finally, I preferred qualities of each.
Then I put in the CSP3. I loved what it did for the Rachel (and the Torii) in my system through the HR-1s...it added beautiful body and harmonic resolution that was different and compelling compared to the Rachel alone...not better in terms of harmonic information...compellingly different. But finally, in my room, I was still pushing the Rachel into distortion on more demanding material.
Then when I put back in the MkIII, I did not like it as well for a while...just a little cool and hard by comparison...but the power was the catcher...it so effortlessly pushed the HR-1 drivers giving a more authentic and visceral representation of complex and demanding material especially. In the end, with a little tube play and adjustment, I liked the Torii better.
I have noticed this "driver push" thing every time I have tried a low power amp with these speakers. They are great sounding low power, but with more push, they have an indescribable something that is perhaps subtle on some levels, but really awesome.
That said, if the HR-1s sounded exactly the same as they did with the Rachel, but played louder (maybe several dB more efficient) I probably would have kept the Rachel as a second amp, as I did like it better TOO. I got that thing Steve was talking about, and the benefit of diversity is exciting to the listening body/mind. But I was looking for a second amp and you aren't!
With your system being so good as is, it is hard...For me, your amps might have been just enough, which may have kept me off the MkIV list. The MKIV catchers for me though were these: I really love my MkIII, though it has been a bit demanding at times and the MkIV is going to be "tamer" yet very powerful with bass....the MkIV is Steve's "new baby" integrating all he knows and loves about hearing music at this power level.... also the driver push thing (aside from volume) with the HR-1s... the Torri flexibility with so many tubes and adjustments, and finally, the amp signatures creating in effect two amps depending on using EL34s or KT66...
Some thoughts...but I wish I had tried your setup! I was reluctantly planning on two Rachels bridged to mono if I had too little power with one without buying more efficient speakers. But then came the MkIV mid process and it seems a shoe in for me.
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Need help with a decision... (Read 12754 times)
