This week I moved my most recent Decware amp purchase, one of the final Torii Mk IIIs with the white chassis, into my main system after 2000 hours or so in my second system, replacing my trusty well-seasoned Mk III.

The new one has the bass controls, and a stepped attenuator, the former something my other Mk III did not have and could not have added. The bass controls are very cool. In my home in Texas this would have been an amazing control. Here I have less of a compelling need for these controls, but they are still fun to use and dial in the sound. The latter is a nice addition; I find the stepped attenuators add a bit of accuracy that the pots don't.

Both of my Mk IIIs have the beeswax caps, a modification worth the expenditure. I can clearly hear that "signature" in both amps.

Though I expected some differences due to the seasoning of the earlier Mk III, I did not expect as much of a sonic difference. Even though the new one should be 'broken in" there is a clear difference in the depth of the sound and a sense of "ease" to the playback between the old and the new. So much so that I tried a whole lot of tube rolling to see if that might be a factor or could bring about an improvement. I kept going back to the same tube set of VR and rectifier and output tubes leaving the 6N1P input tubes in place. So I tried yet again the 6922 tubes I had on hand and a pair of 6DJ8, and this reinforced my feeling that the 6N1P is THE tube for this position. None of the other sounded "right" in comparison.

I'm tempted to put the former Mk III back in! This leads me to believe that seasoning for years makes these amps amazing machines, they just get better and better and very hard to replace!

I was wondering why I hadn't seen this thread, I don't go into the Taboo section much .  ;D


So, are you saying that audiophile fuse really made that much of a difference?

It's nice to hear seasoning really helped the amp out. I'm tempted to put Jupiter caps in my SE84-A but then I think I'd have to start that 15 years of seasoning all over again! I'm already positive that the upgrades Steve did to the amp, while helpful sound-wise , seemed to have set it back a bit in the seasoning - so I agree with you that this stuff does get sweeter with age.

I had to look it up in the Classifieds. . . IsoClean was the brand.

Lon,  I'm glad to hear that the IsoClean fuse is working out for you.  

Mike in Seattle area

They are pretty small...:)