Hello all;

I am new to Decware, but have been a longtime audiophile.
Having stated that, I will go ahead and ask the question that most of do NOT want to read for the 1,000th time (or more).

I cannot decide which Decware amp will be right for me as it relates to my musical tastes and speakers. I have tried to go through a lot of the archived posts to find something I could relate to but I only have so much time.

I currently have a Fisher X-202-B that has been taken as far as it can go thanks to NOS Valves and McShane Design. I have decided to sell it because its way more power than I need for my speakers and I feel there is more un-tapped sound  available.

The speakers are Cornscalas - sort of. They have a Altec 802-8g compression driver and 811b mid horn, Beyma CP25 tweeter, and a Crites/Eminence cast frame 15" woofer. The crossover network is a ALK Engineering extreme slope around 120 db/octave. I would estimate them to be around 96 to 97 db efficient, although I have heard of others claiming similar designs to be 100 db - I believe that to be fantasy as the crossover here is anything but simple.

The rest of the system includes Sony Es 777 sacd/cd player, Schiit Bifrost Uber DAC, Lenco L75 table, Rega rb 250 arm, Denon 103r cartridge, Jolida JD-9 phono preamp, DH Labs Revelation cables and DH Labs Q-10 speaker cables, Mac Mini, Fisher KM-60 FM tuner.

My musical tastes mimick that of anyone else afflicted with multiple personality disorder; 70's & 80's rock, blues, metal, Celtic, a little jazz and classical. When you can go from Simon and Garfunkel "Bridge Over Troubled Water" to "For Whom The Bell Tolls" by Metallica. IB - S-K-I-T-S-O.

So then; Do I get the Zen stereo amp? Do I get two of them and bridge the mono? Should I get a Mini Torii? I would like to stay under $2000.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

My MTorii drives some 92db Ref 3A de Capos pretty loud.  Would love to try it on the cornscalas.

I can only relate to the MT. Being a beam tetrode-based SEP, it is supposed to have more pep and oomph, as well as slightly better bass control than the Rachael, which I believe is a pentode wired as a triode (SET).

OTOH, Rachael is supposed to excel in the mid frequencies, with a special touch on vocals.

In any case, Decware amps are very much optimized around the particular design choices and these differences may well be compensated by the characteristics of the rest of the system the amp is working with.

Rest assure, you'll appreciate the MT very much, as it is so far in my case the only amp I'll ever need. Of course, you'll want to pair it with speakers at 94 dB sensitivities and up.

It's also a great tube-rolling platform if you dig that kind of sound tweaking.

Geezer,

I drive Heresy III's with my Mini and love it. The treble cut circuit is unique and the Mini can also be used as a pre amp.  ;)

I'm sending mine back for the NFB and headphone upgrade. This is an amp I will never sell. It sounds much more powerful that 4-5 watts.

My 2 cents.