You're seeing what I'm seeing Stone.  Those tube cutouts look large - so hopefully it's what you've been waiting for!  (technically I've been waiting for too, but I can't fathom being able to afford anything for a long while)

It's killing me Steve. Throw us another bone about that CAD/CAM shot?!

......as I bask, listening with my ZMA this evening. .....you can never have enough Decware.

Holy Hanna! Nine of Decware for you.

I'm only at four: ZDSD, ZMA, DM947 Monoliths & PAC-S (all new, except DM's).

I have also owned (new), Torii MK lll, SE84CS & SuperZen CKC.

I will need to get this new Amp(s)....to start my catch up path with you Jeff.  ;D

LOL!  Well technically we are tied since my Torii and 2nd Rachel (non-UFO) are not in my signature block - nor is my Zen Switch Box  ;)  12 total for me.  

UPDATE:  Lon, you have two sets of HR-1's which puts you at 13, actually.  You still win!

Jeff of Arabica wrote on 07/16/17 at 18:22:40:

Actually I have 15. Two CSP2+ and two Torii Mk IIIs.

I feel so inadequate!  

Most certainly!  Does this mean we all get free entry tickets to Decfest 2017?  

By 1998 . . . definitely. I had Zen Amp #27 for a spell by then. Wow. I had been enjoying my EICO HF81 for a while before that but the Decware gave me CLARITY and started a long journey.

Ha! I'm so glad we managed to wrangle you into this herd of cats Jeff!

Listening to some Jobim from my Denon DVD-A1UDCI to my ZBIT into my Taboo Mk III to my Peatchtree Audio bookshelf speakers upstairs and enjoying the sound. Life is good.

Okay, back on topic. Besides the rest of the story about the CAD Steve posted; I'm hoping he brings to market his Zen Switch Box with ALPS remote control volume. This ZSB-RCV, could send my ARC Line Stage to the AgoN.

Oh yeah LR, stay with silver contact manual switches for sure. Give us the remote control volume. I want just two inputs and the purity of one output.

Steve, from his, in this Thread/Reply #260:
"I just made a ZSB (Zen Switch Box) variation with a remote control Alps volume control that is working rather well...  "

.....and knowing Steve's "variation".....sure it's a pretty damn close to the holy grail of straight wire with gain. The original ZSB, when you read the details is touting a passive volume control, caps and stepped volume, if you want it........ . Now lets go stealth active/remote control volume....... .  .....and keep this gem, dragon slaying, arse kicking and affordable.

I doubt that the full output from the XLR of the DirectStream will overload the ZMA inputs. I've tried it with two Taboos, my Torii and a modded C amp with no distortion at all. I don't think the ZMA input section is that different.  . . .

I was actually using it as the volume for all my sources via the DirectStream and was running it generally 60 to 85 percent or so, but I have run it without any attenuation with no problem, I just liked it best in that range when using the DirectStream and Torii fully turned up in my system which gave me the best sound.

Though I took it out of the system a few weeks ago and am using a CSP2+ right now and getting amazing sound--working with the preamp in my second system got me understanding its setup better and this CSP2+ has two stereo outputs which lets me run one to the Torii and one to the Taboo Mk IV, and I confess I'm getting the best sound yet this way. The ZBIT is now used with my Denon DVD-AU1CDI player feeding the Taboo Mk III in my second system

given the Zen Masters recent discoveries with transformers - It would not surprise me to see transformer/autoformer volume controls appear in future Decware products.

The ZROCK2 is finished.  You can find some info on it in this thread:

https://www.decware.com/cgi-bin/yabb22/YaBB.pl?num=1501188791/0#0

Also the ZROCK web page has been re-written to accommodate the changes.

While I couldn't be more pleased with the final sound, from an engineering standpoint it is the operation that I am most pleased with.  It took a long time to create the EQ control and get the tapers exactly right to work the way I wanted.  I had to custom make a ganged pot with both an audio taper and a linear taper and on top of that had to make it so when you turn one up the other turns down an equal amount. It was quite the Zen puzzle for about a month.

I recommend reading the owner's manual linked to in the other thread to see how this unique control actually works.

Steve

.....and I must add to my post above, I'm kicking my ARC Line Stage down to my other Rig. I am so spoiled/ruined by your ZDSD run direct to ZMA.....only another CSP3 or what you might have new cooking/Line Stage, with remote volume will do for me. Oh, and I'm not opposed to what that CAD you teased us with is.....? ......rotate my ZMA with.


.......all in good time, I know.

PS-6C33C Mono's, have not been forgotten.

Yeah!!

Hopefully I can listen too once you get to that point?? Although, maybe not. LOL  

Happy Birthday by the way! Thanks for almost 20 years of making my life happier and more musical.

Here's my two cents: I think remote volume control is better suited to a DAC or a preamp than a power amp.

I used to believe that the purest path was the best path. . . but I've actually discovered along my audio journey that if it's a quality and appropriate component it can add so much. For example . . . the Decware preamps--they offer so much with gain and flexibility. The top of the line includes the option of a remote control and that is a good place for a remote control if not in a DAC in my opinion.

I'm a person who doesn't use a remote much and it seems to me that Decware embodies the old-time spirit of manual volume control . . . that they are not incorporated into the amps is a good thing for me, and keeps the sound quality up and the pricing down.

So I've been making great progress with the secret egg speakers...  progress on two fronts; 1) wrapping my head around them and 2) positioning them in the room.

The progress has been in my head not any changes to the physical speakers so far.  

These are so different from regular speakers.  With regular speakers you have toe-in which determines frequency response which in turn dictates sound stage width and sound stage depth. A tool every audiophile uses to great length to "dial it in for his or her own head". These speakers have no toe in, and no way to create such a thing.

The other thing they have is no comb filter effect from the floor.

What they do have is 360 degree horizontal dispersion across the entire frequency range and 270 degree vertical dispersion again across the entire frequency range.

What I have learned is that even with diffusion, these speakers like to be far away from the walls. Also the distance from the rear wall and side wall should be approximately the same. This is going to put them closer together than regular speakers which is counter intuitive to a wide sound stage, yet that is what happens.  

In my room placing them in the normal perfect location for our HR-1's they were good, but problematic with respect to the head-vise thing.

Too close to the side walls and they become a hard core head-vise speaker, the tightest I've ever heard. It's incredible when your head is in the vise, but move even a half inch and everything jumps. Properly positioned the opposite happens, literally.

So far with this new found knowledge resulting in the proper setup, it is the best imaging speaker I've heard in my room. The grand masters of the grand illusion. The longer you listen to them the more you respect them. That said, it's also the hardest speaker to place I've ever had since everything about it is counter intuitive.

I have noticed that they magnify the differences in everything meaning placement and how the recording is mixed which again is disarming until you realize what's going on and then it becomes almost the key feature that makes the speakers special I think.

Right now it's just past midnight and the speakers are being fed by the 6C33C monoblocks, the ZP3 and the silver fidelity research cartridge/arm combo and the sound is transcendiary.

In fact if you want something that will complexly destroy your brain, put on side one track one of "Caverna Magica" by Andreas Vollenweider.  The imaging is just sick with this combo right now!

Boy my memory is bad. I looked up that album and I indeed used to have that and white winds many years ago. I unfortunately had my vinyl collection misplaced while moving in 1989 and they were among them. I am back up to around 900 albums now and a lot more to go it seems.

Steve,
I had to chime in regarding your comments about the SE84UFO2.  Mine is driving a pair of  S3HOXRS which have 150 hours on them and still burning in.  I've posted an ongoing review of the combination.

I believe that to some degree I am experiencing what you have described with the Egg speakers and I attribute a lot of what I'm experiencing to the SE84UFO2.  How close or far apart the two systems are is not the point.  Rather the the experience I've had often defies logic, what I thought I knew and I find that I have to force myself to believe not just my ears but all my senses.

I read a lot about the ZMA and the other Decware amplifiers and for good reason.  In fact those comments gave me confidence to buy Decware components.  I'm sure that all the Decware amps have their place, but I do feel that they may lead some to think that it is necessary to "go the distance" to get the Decware experience.

I'd like to say that give the SE84UFO2 (any 2W Zen Amp) the right accompanying components and you will get far more than you expect and likely more than one will ever feel that they need.  

Cool. Look forward to the impressions. I went from 13 pairs of Speaker's to just 2 pair now. Still, looking for the pair that is worthy of rotating with my Adagio's in my Listening Room. These could be it.

I'm always happy to design some diffusers for you if you have someone that can build them.

Or follow the decware design for a good, small, lightweight diffuser that will definitely add air and sharpen your imaging.

More design notes about the creative process behind the eggs...

The EGGS Hatched today and I didn't even know they were alive!  

Tonight I was guided to act on repetitive visions of what I thought would be a bandaid on a promising but imperfect design... my "egg" speakers... While more than enticed by them I've had a nagging feeling something was missing, or clearly that they weren't finished.

In fact the feeling from the onset made me think something else was needed and that it was going to be A) visual and B) functional as a wave guide. I pictured dozens of trick compliments to the simple stick holding the egg.

So I now know that if I wouldn't have tried to figure it out with my mind (ego) I would have simply seen the done speaker in the future. We are our own worst enemies in this regard. Anyway, despite my distorted visions of the end speaker... the truth became more and more aggressive as if getting exasperated by my blindness.

So tonight I finally tuned into the right channel and the answer, albeit bizarre, was revealed. I went for it because it has never been wrong in 25 years and Decware is proof of it's wisdom.

Turns out the joke's been on me. The missing component wasn't a bandaid to fix an imperfect design... because the design turns out to have been imperfect due to the missing component.

This was the completion of the design, and now having implemented it I'm just trying to take it all in.  

I'm tempted at this point having heard it, to say "holy shit"...

So it turns out I have been stubbornly working with an unfinished design for months now. All these little signs... all these little urges.  Then things started appearing that I would need to finish the design, things I thought I had purchased for other projects...  you see, that is how it works.

The creative process is one of the most humbling experiences a man can have because he has to go outside himself to something so much larger... something with all knowledge - including whether or not to waste time giving it to you.

(So in the final hours as is the tradition, the Audio Gods, pleased that when teased he didn't fold, released the final piece of the puzzle and left him speechless and tickled shitless.)

I now believe I am experiencing the finished design for the first time.

So to take it all in, we have a speaker that could take a ZMA turned all the way up on disco music without distortion and completely "wreck the room", but yet is efficient enough to enjoy indefinitely with something as simple as the SE84UFO 2 watt amplifier.

The 2 watt thing is a big one on my list of accomplishments for any loudspeaker design.

We have a single-driver, crossover-less full-range speaker with no tweeters, no bass augmentation and perfect frequency balance even with 2 watts no one who can hear would even consider adding a subwoofer.  

And all this in a full range omni. Nothing else like it (as is the tradition from inspired designs) and frankly and literally a dream come true. I would have never thought it was possible to accomplish anything like this in a true radial point source.  

When I added the final component to the speakers (which I'll point out later after photos of the finished speakers surface in this thread), it only took 3 hours to initiate a patent application and it's the first time I've ever done that... but I've heard most of the Omni's at the audio shows, and am well aware of what has been done.

These speakers have a completely haunting sound.

for 30 years... since my very first serious speaker design (HDT MK2) I have from an imaging standpoint always been frustrated that some of my favorite speakers sound (image) better when the listener is standing up (short people under 6 foot) vs. sitting down.  The EGGS were one of those, and I was so hoping they would be the one to break that curse.  

The curse has been broken.


Retrovision is a form of clarity.  I now see looking back on the sequence of events that the Audio Gods were waiting for me to throw them a bone. Wanting a better sounding speaker was the wrong motivation therefor no answer was delivered. Making the room sound better was the correct approach. Once I did this of my own accord without contract, it has taken less than 72 hours for the answer to arrive.  I can see it now... "Why should we bother with something this good if he's going to handicap it in an unfinished room. Clearly he doesn't get it.


-Steve

All- Truly a great read!! Sitting behind the lines, listening to our ZP3/Rachael, I have to say that if Steve has researched the 6C33C and played with it for years, I know the amp will be a major piece of work. I look forward to reading about the birth of this new baby. Thank you all for a great forum and happy listening, Chris.