Ahh, couldn't resist!  

I'm hoping that Steve finds that he doesn't have to charge all those extra $100s if all mods are done together.  

My ZMA is packed up in it's Pelican case (what a necessary accessory!) and I'll be taking it over to UPS soon!

BTW, Steve does not think a stepped attenuator will give any sonic benefit.

I put my NAD C352 80 Watt amp in place of the ZMA and to me, it sounds good.  Of course in front and after it is a lot of great Decware gear and a very good TT.  Either that or I'm the wrong person to be evaluating gear!  

Yes, the big red Mallory's are stunning.

Hey, solid state has its place. I can't get the tone & texture from it....as I can from my ZMA obviously..... But, I have enhanced my Rock concert from a Box XPA-2...some year's back with an Kimber PowerKord, Palladian 10. Full retail $1600 cord....I got it for 575 used....one hell of an upgrade it gave to my XPA-2!

Yup, cables should not matter...but they do. My Shunyata I run into my ZDSD is another....scratch your head and go wholly sh _ _!

Quote:


But that'd be like fake hood-scoops on a car.  

One thing I will say in SS's favor is that it gets loud.  (Unfortunately, not a loud that sounds great.)

Close, but not quite Mallory Red.  

You know, as I write this morning, I'm just 1.5 hours in on my 6 hour till noon Musical bliss journey-I have to scratch my head and say: "for now, I can't change my ZMA."

The evolution of my 5th year journey with this Amp and Tube Rolling, has been nothing short of extremely pleased! So, I am afraid to modify it.

Plus, my evolution of unlocking the ZMA's potential with the right power cable to it and to my ZDSD (shout out to the CableCo Library). Furthermore, my evolution of IC's and Speaker Cable (8TC, as my control and having owned for some time KS3033, 3035 & now KS6063). Having my Acoustic Zen Adagio's modified, completes the picture.

I'm continuing my tube rolling of NOS inputs and new production power Tubes. ....KT77's and 7027A's are next. Enjoying my 7581A's today with Ediswans and Telefunkens for inverter's. No secret that the Tele's let you hear what the input communicates to the output. Or is it still a secret till now?

Look forward to reading the brave souls that take the plunge.

.....weather report ~ the jaco years .... Now playing, nough said.

Hi folks,
I myself upgraded all the components that Steve is offering as optional and thought I’ll share my experiences – which were all excellent by the way. I live in Canada and sending the amp to Steve for upgrades is expensive: taking into account shipping and customs duty. Necessity is the mother of invention so did it myself – no regrets though. While the components replaced/added were the same as Steve is offering as options, the manufactures of the capacitors and resistors are different. Jeff of A and I collaborated significantly on this and learned from each other. I mostly from him. The parts used were generally more expensive than Steve is using (more cost may not necessarily mean better but Steve has a business to run so has to consider longitivity (life time warranty) and cost - I was driven far more by performance more than cost). As I was doing it in stages I can say that after each of the options there were gains as follows:
I first changed the large 2000 uF Mallory caps to MUNDORF MLYTIC HV plus 4700 uF – 4 pole caps. I mentioned this improvement in earlier comments. Background improved - primarily being a 4 pole cap and also because of the lower ESR and ESL values improved PRAT. This was not subtle at all.
I followed this by bypassing the 4 47 uF F & T caps on the return rail with 10 uF, 0.47uF and 0.1 uF Obligato Gold Premium Film capacitors. Also bypassed the 47 uF F & T caps at the tube sockets with 0.47uF and 0.1 uF Obligato Gold Premium Film capacitors. This felt like an improvement but was harder to tell. Same improvements as above. At any rate it did not deteriorate matters.
Then I replace the input 330 ohm input 0.5W resistor with 1W 330 ohm Audio Note non- magnetic ones along with about 70% of other resistors connected to the input, inverter and output tubes (Anode and/ or cathode resistors). These were replaced with resistors that were 3 time in size and 10 times or more increase in Wattage but same resistance (ohmic value) so as not to change the respective voltages. I used Mills MRA-12 Series 12W resistors. These are wire wound resistors  well known for exhibiting minimal noise. Being 3 times the size they were very difficult to install in the confined space available. But where there is a will there is a way, I suppose. The resistor upgrade surprised me. Until now I did not think resistor could change matters unlike capacitors. But now I am a believer. The improvement was very obvious and massive on my already improved amp. Simply put made my music more lifelike. All aspects drums, cymbals, voices etc. etc moved further towards realism. True to their function background feels blacker than before and more importantly the far larger wattage removed some imaginary blockage or stifling of signals (my best way of putting it).
Finally I added 180 ohm Mills Resistor MRA-12 Series 12W between the ultra-linear taps of the output transformers and the screen grid pins of the output tubes. This sort of relaxed everything exactly as Steve said. And I am not say this because he said it. This improvement is un- describable since I find the background and speed are the same but all the same it feels better to the ear and I am not going back to no resistors in UL taps.
All of the above was done over 2 months.
Attached is a picture after all changes. You will also notice ESR shielding, shielding the input and output RCA connections from EMF and RF exhibted from the rest of the circuit. The lay out is a little crude on purpose as I wanted to be able to go back if a particular upgraded made matters worse so placed components with that in mind (easy removal and replacing with original components). So far there is absolutely no reason to go back. Having experienced the improvement that would be unpalatable even though the stock ZMA is absolutely fantastic in its own right.

Cheers,
Bonny

Thanks for posting that Bonny. If I do part with mine to Steve over the next few months....the full enhancement needs to be done. Not just option one & two. Cool.

Stone and Arch my pleasure.

Stone having read your posts, I know you like your setup as it is and may be reluctant to go the whole hog. I can tell you non of these will degrade your situation at worst it will remain the same. Just looking at what those upgrades are makes sense viz: replacing with faster larger caps will reduce ripple in the power supply, bypassing caps of various values shunts noise at different frequencies to the return circuit purifiying the power supply, improving resistor types reduces noise induction, higher wattage resistors improves dynamic response.

I also was thinking how much better my system can get before each of the upgrades. I am coming to realize that it can always better no matter what.

Have you seen this from Steve about the ZMA mods?

Quote:


I'm hoping he has a pair for my amp (on his bench) or I'll be reconsidering this mod.

Good to know.  My ZMA arrived at the Mother Ship yesterday for the mods.

I believe the Nichicon caps Steve are using are still 2-pole - so a direct bolt on modification.  The Mundorf Mlytic caps I installed were 4-pole which required some wire reconfiguration.

Thanks for the replies.  Then I definitely would put them in myself, if necessary.  I haven't heard from Steve but I'm hoping  he'll be done soon.  Now I see that he is working on a ZP3 upgrade.  --  Will it ever end!?  

Arch, you said in reply #520, about the back order of the Nichicon's/Steve. I looked at his last 15 posts as I often do (15 or 100). I saw no mention of the BO or did he send you a PM? I could have missed it too. I need another cup of joe.

We have the caps in stock for the two ZMA's that are here for the mods.  

Steve

Totally understandable Steve...if you can't get um - you can't get um. I'm fine with getting 3 out of the 4 mods done....and run with my big Reds.

Question: Are you okay with me installing the Nichicon's in 6 or 7 months and NOT void the warranty? I could text picture details for your approval.

I don't consider that good news--I placed an order for a ZMA with the anniversary mod on the 21st as soon as i got a reply about if it could be ordered yet and now the situation is a half year wait--that's ridiculous. I have an unmodified (obviously) ZMA in house and need to replace a torii mk3 that I'm biamping with that unit with with the new ZMA+anniversary mods and would move on to modify the unit I have if the results of the mod are as good as everyone is talking about-spent alot of time saving money for this and a half year, i could be dead by then!!

Christefan -

No worries, we said up to 27 weeks (worse case) but I have already secured another pair for your amplifier.

Steve

I knew Steve would take care of you c426. He took care of me ASAP back Feb/2017 and my ZMA came back even better/update meter's and resistor's.

I'm cool with the 1, 2 & 3 enhancements......if I need to send it back when the Nichicon's come in/I'm fine with that. Yes c426, this Amp is really something in its original form. Now to get her on the road to the mother ship!

well you'll be getting my in house zma back for mods if the modded one arrives and its all its cracked up to be so keep a pair on hand, thanks again for your help in securing a pair so my build can go forward without a long wait--steve

Fellow audiobuffs,
Here is something I absolutely must share with you my fellow die-hard music aficionados. I just finished bypassing the attenuators on my ZMA and CSP3 that I use as a pre-amp and decided to control volume via my DAC only. I really really really …..  recommend this mod if you are in a similar situation of having multiple attenuators in the signal path from source to amp. If you listen to music at lower volumes it is absolutely recommended. But it gets even better. When playing at higher volumes it is even more amazing. This is by far the best bang-for-the buck single modification I have done rivalling all other upgrades I have done earlier put together as mentioned in my earlier post (#514) even though those were worth every bit by themselves. Not withstanding that those upgrades  were significantly more expensive and difficult to do. It is as if this mod of  bypassing of the attenuators are pushing the former upgrades I did to perform at their full potential. I am kicking myself for not thinking about this earlier.
It suddenly dawned on me a couple of days ago in a eureka moment that in my signal path from the DAC to the amplifer I have 3 volume controls and that cannot be good at all. I have silver signal wires thoughout the signal path (all interconnects and internal to the amps up to the input tubes in the CSP3 and ZMA) and in between these wires there are these attenuators (upgraded stepped attenuators BTW) with their degraded, worn out and oxidized (over the years) contacts surfaces between the wipers and connectors utterly defeating the good that the silver wires are doing in transporting the original signal finally to the amplification stages within the ZMA.
Having done this mod I can categorically say that those attenuators do reduce the subtleties of the incoming signal to a significant extent.
Steve says "If the 1st watt sucks, why continue?". On a similar tone I'll say "If the input signal sucks, why amplify?".

 

Dana, turning the amp all the way up is not exactly bypassing the attenuator. There is still that contact issue between worn out/oxidized  wipers and the contact associated with the potentiometer output pin within the potentiometer.

Why did you decide to no doe the ZMA upgrade?  What in Steve's letter put you off?

I was asked: "Why the Torii JR?" ....the ZMA & JR, are similar.
https://www.decware.com/newsite/TORIIJR.html


The whole deal is I want exactly similar (well, not exactly/they won't be-to an extent/it comes from the Torii MK4). The ZMA without 25th and the JR with 25th.

No second System either....the Amps will be rotated.

Plus, the JR can run my Speaker's too. Actually, Rachel could drive mine...but I want the JR's headroom, etc... .

Furthermore, it runs all current tube compliments I run. I also get to roll rectifier's. We don't need UF O-utput transformer's in are ZMA's-they have their own awesome animal's. Nice, for the JR to have them though.
(I'm being purposefully redundant of my previous post to drive my point(s).)

My rationale. Once again, similar is the whole idea! 25th with/JR and without/my ZMA.

~S

PS~plus, nice Steve will make the 25th mod's available in the JR/package for those where the freight is to high to obtain the ZMA/25th.
{ZMA/25th/6825.00.....hoping the JR/25th comes in at 3225.00 to 3425.00}.
(Note: the ZMA, has twice the power. The per watt price is not cheap for Steve's Class A genius to A1 cross ~ and rightfully so).

I was fortunate to get my ZMA, Adagio's, when I did and Cabling.

I knew the ZMA was going to be one hell of an Amplifier. I ALREADY knew what Tone Mag found out long after me. (I took delivery of mine, Jan 22nd/2014...Serial#: 001 ~ subsequently had her in to the Mothership in Feb/2017 for a check-up and robust new Meter's and Resistor's). I know the Torii JR 25th, is going to be one hell of an Amplifier too.