Quote:LR wrote:
So I was asked by a couple people in PM, what my 16 year old 2 watt Zen amp sounds like on the Zu Omen.
In short, surprisingly great!
Volume is not an issue - I was hitting 86db at my seating position, which is above where the Zu start to get fatiguing (during their break in period), and still had a little headroom left over. I could easily get a comfortable listening level.
Sound wise, it was a slightly more pure/direct sound then the ZMA. It's like the slight detail improvement you get from going source to amp vs source to preamp to amp.
I still feel the little Zen amp has amazing speed, detail, and high frequency extension that I love. But the lack of horsepower is evident in the bass. If I didn't have the ZMA in the same room, it wouldn't be so apparent, but tracks where the bass punches just had no guts. The notes were a hollow outline of the real bass. Percussion soundded amazing, vocals amazing, but really deep, punchy stuff, just felt empty.
For prospective Zen owners, I have a 13 year old Zen and a more recent Super Zen. Back in December I purchased a Peachtree 220se (220 watts per channel) and upgraded my Oppo player to the current BDP-105D.
Now that I have a lot of play on both units I did a head to head this past weekend between the Peachtree & Super Zen. No preamp when using the Super Zen and I had my Hsu Mid Bass Module active with both amps reinforcing the 50hz to 150hz Mid Bass range.
Other than maximum output volume potential it was a Dead Heat in every other department, including low end Weight & Slam. I stated otherwise in an earlier post (my apologies to Steve Deckert) and will explain where I went wrong back on the other thread.
LR's observations are spot on. IMO reinforcing the Mid Bass range evens the playing field for the Super Zen. In fact Super Zen with Mid Bass reinforcement is notably more satisfying than the Peachtree without Mid Bass reinforcement.
Although the Super Zen would not go as Loud, it was still plenty loud on the Klipsch RF-7 for my rock & roll taste. I was playing AC/DC Rock Or Bust with Zen volume knob at 12 O'clock and it was Rockin! The Super Zen output is really impressive when doing an A/B comparison against 250 watts.
Quote:On another site Wind Chaser recently wrote:
Hey DBC,
First, a very big thank you for the detailed write up on the MBM on the Decware site. I took delivery of one last November, and WOW! It is everything you said it was. Thank you, thank you, thank you! I'll tell you more later in a private message when I'm at a real computer.
I have a pair of single driver Omega Alnico Monitors on order (93db) These are not as efficient compared to my Klipsch at 102db. Others have reported these sound wonderful with the Super Zen and play louder than the 93db rating would lead you to believe. After I have had some time with these I will be sure to report.
LR, thanks for all the feedback on your Zu's.