now i am wondering if you should get the HR-1s or wait for the Eggs

The eggs are currently prototypes.  The first production unit could be as far as a year away assuming we choose to put it in production.  Room compatibility, cost to make, and how well people like them will all be determining factors, so a little soon to starting putting yourselves on the list ; )

Steve

The Egg's and the 6C33C's, will be fun to follow the next 6 months to a year (and if you decide it's feasible, to bring to market the Egg's).

Any update on the horns with 8" drivers? Will they be available in the near future?

Great news! Joe heard these and was knocked off his feet. I may even save up for a set of these. . . .

I'm eager to see photos.

I, too, would be interested in a set of plans for building the projected 8" driver horns.

The CSP3 Anniversary Mod.

Driven by the insane sound from the new soon-to-be released SE84UFO25 (25th Anniversary Zen Triode Amplifier), we were able to duplicate the technology behind the SE84UFO25 in our most popular preamp, the CSP3.

The technology is two fold.  First, the entire high voltage supply that feeds all the tubs must come from the cathode of the voltage regulator tube, which is as close to a high voltage battery as you can get, but with the advantage of better constancy.  Second, the entire power supply filter design has to be updated and then bypassed with the same beeswax caps used for coupling.

Since the CSP3 is made up of six triodes, three per channel, the high voltage node that previously fed all six triodes was split into two nodes by installing the SG5B tubes plates together at the node and then sending the filtered high voltage to each channel from the respective cathodes of each regulator tube. Once there, we collect the clean power and store it in a cap that matches the speed and size of the coupling cap.  In this case that's a .47uf which proved to be ideal as a coupling cap to ensure the proper bandwidth, but too slow for a power supply bypass in an anniversary series, so the .47 beeswax bypass caps were themselves bypassed with .022 beeswax caps, each channel separately.

On the other side of the regulator tubes, the main supply caps must also be bypassed to be fast enough to supply the other bypass caps through the VR tube.

Also the headphone output caps had to be bypassed in order to let you hear everything in front of them so that when you use headphones you get a similar sound to the line outputs.

I have paired this with the SE84UFO25 which is like an electron microscope on the signal path, and it not only passed, but made the damn thing sound enough better that I now can't live without it.



Can you find the tubes in this beeswax forrest?

Parts and labor on this mod is 570.00.  It is of course assuming your CSP3 already has the Beeswax caps option.  If not, you will need four more .47 beeswax caps which adds another 350.00 to job. We also change the input tube from a 6N1P to a 6N5P although you can still run any of the compatible input tubes you have in the past.

The specs of the unit remain the same with 30 volts max output, and 0.7% distortion at full output.

Fun stuff!  Ear Candy that ruins you.

Steve

BTW, I've been following the 25th thread. Sounds exciting.

Thanks, Steve, for turning me on to Boris Blank. Love it.

Quote:


I should think so yes.  The internal layout is a little different so I'm not sure what if anything I will run into in the way of extra costs.

Steve

I feel your pain HK!

I ordered February 9 and will receive April 9. Not that bad at all!

Serendipitously, I sent my CSP3 in for service a week or two ago and it will be coming back soon, SUPERCHARGED!  

It's better to be lucky than smart!  I didn't understand everything Steve told me about the mod but he did say that it makes the CSP3 super fast -- which is an advantage for analogue.  In general, if Steve likes and recommends something, I don't ask too many questions.

Very nice Steve.  Hopefully I will get an invite to listen to the OTL again once it has reached the new owner.  I remember hearing it two years ago at the fest and it was indeed special.  DNA2s sound pretty sweet as well.  I have those Boris tracks so I can get a pretty good idea of how they sound in person.

Having built the DNA with the original tang band and knowing (and liking) the driver compliment of the DNA2's, I may build some.  I have to dig around to find the DNA plans and can scale them up.

One question though, how do you increase the length of the port to 2"?  Are you using an actual port tube or increasing the thickness of the top chamber panel (and reducing the size of the chamber)?

With your saw it would be significantly easier, let me tell you.

Interesting Archie! Keep us posted as you play around with this. I'm using a CSP3 with the Jupiter caps in my second system right now to both feed a Torii Mk III and for heapdhones. . . . I don't plan on sending it back for mods but you never know. . .

I'm sure you're getting similar sound changes with the modded CSP3. I had a love/hate affair with the CSP2+ in use with the Torii Mk III . . . I felt that the ZBIT did more for my source than the CSP2+ and that the ZBIT and the CSP2+ was a bit too much. But the ZTPRE is different, I love what it brings even though I'm hard-pressed to describe what that is. . . It improves things but doesn't call attention to itself. (And with my two other sources besides the DSD DAC it significantly provides sonic improvement). I can imagine the mods both helping and also taking away the invisible nature of the ZTPRE I like so much. Luckily Steve hasn't mentioned any moved towards anniversary mods for the ZTPRE yet (and looking at the innards I'm not sure that there's room).

With the Taboo Mk III and Mk IV and the 25th  Anniversary SE84UFO3 Monoblocks there's no doubt that a preamp improves things--these amps love to have a lot gain coming in, they take on a new full-bodied flavor.

Keep posting impressions, I know I'm not alone in wanting to hear more. . . .

Thanks for your repot regarding the CSP3 A-Mod Archie.  Mines going in next week.  Hate being without it but I’ think I’ll find it interesting to see what I can do with the ZDSD gain stage + ZR-2 + UFO2.

Sent my CSP3 preamp in for the 25th Anniversary modification a couple weeks ago, so I'm hoping maybe sometime next month for the return and burn in.

HK

JOMAN, I concur with pretty much all you said.  If my CSP3 had a veil, it wasn't much and seems to be lifted with the Anniversary mod.  I'm assuming the bump the ZR2 gives in the lower end is responsible in that those details just aren't audible without the ZR2.  While it's a fairly broad adjustment curve, it's not like a full spectrum equalizer.  I wonder what one of those would do for a Decware amp?  I too hear a darker presentation with the ZR2 but every time I go to bypass, I prefer what the ZR2 does.

Yesterday I was getting grindingly low bass out of my HR1s thanks to the ZR2.  The HR1s spec a very low end but with bass rolloff, I never really heard them until the ZR2 came home!

I'm posting this in this thread since the idea of a CSP3 "veil" came up.  I'm not saying I hear one but I made a change in my component order that seems to have opened things up.  

In a ZROCK2 post, Stone talked about having issues with a ZR2 after his ZDSD at higher ZDSD gain settings.  I had my ZR2 after my CSP3 since I wanted to take advantage of the ZR2 for both components I have feeding my CSP3 (Phono and CDs).  I too struggled occasionally with overdriving my ZR2.  I decided to swap things around and feed my ZP3 into the ZR2 and then into my CSP3 (now with the Anniversary mod).  WOW!  It seemed that clarity jumped way up in the new configuration.  I also noticed that I can push my ZR2 setting much higher without getting the muddy bass I had with the ZR2 after the CSP3.  Additionally, in a couple post there was talk of a "dark" sound with the ZR2 that I too had.  I think the darkness has also lifted.

So, if any other ZR2/CSP3 users can chime in as to how they have things set up and what they've experience, I'd be very interested.  I'll listen more in this configuration but I don't see going back the other way, especially since I rarely listen to CDs and can swap cables if I do.

I'm not a good judge with headphones as I generally don't use them and mine have very low impedance making them a poor match in general.

I think the differences between the CSP3 and CSP2+ are the headphone calibration pots and possibly, internal topology.  I bet they can me modified.

If I ran a higher voltage source into the CSP3 then ZR2 I might have had better luck.  One of my MC carts is relatively low output and I really need to crank up the CSP3's voltage.  At best, I only put 1 volt out of my ZP3 and maybe 2/3 volt at worst.

I think he needs to change any non-beeswax caps, which adds to the price.  So that may factor in, one way or the other.

Archie wrote on 04/28/18 at 23:55:04:

Yes, that's how I read it. In my case it's just a matter of deciding which to send in if and when. . . . Probably the one that does not yet have beeswax caps. Considerably more expense, but that gives me better sound for my second system should the modded CSP2+ take the place of the Taboo Mk IV in my main system.