PS-Linton.....yes, my LS-2B MkII adds convenience of volume for my beloved ZMA... . Most importantly, the transparency and definition density of this unit with a single Mullard in her class A Hybrid/FET......driving through my ZMA.

Cool part is....I have five Amps:

LS-2B/Mullard 7308/E188CC (Cryo'd) to Tungsram PCC88/7DJ8 ...inputs ZMA
LS-2B/Mullard 7308/E188CC (   "   ) to Tungsram 6922/E88CC ...inputs ZMA

ZMA direct from ZDSD with Ediswan (Cryo'd) CV2492/6922 ....as inputs
ZMA direct from ZDSD with  Mullard (Cryo'd) 7308/E188CC ....as inputs
ZMA direct from ZDSD with Russian 6N23N/P-EB ....as inputs

......constant inverter/ZMA, is.....Telefunken /6922/E88CC ~ 1 pair (painfully expensive/worth it)
......all input tubes and inverter's.....NOS Platinum
......RCA NOS 0A3's
......new production Tung-Sol KT66's (replaced on average/22 months)
......input and inverter 6922 tube variants....good for 7500 to 10,000 hours...worth every penny!

https://www.upscaleaudio.com/collections/vacuum-tubes/6922-6dj8-7308-pcc88

PS-do not get the Matsushita National PCC88/7DJ8 = not good in ZMA/Decware. Now, the Tungsram PCC88/7DJ8....incredible pair of tubes. .....and what my single Mullard from the LS-2B, puts forth to the Tung' 7DJ8 or Tung' 6922....matches made in heaven, when running my ARC to ZMA. ZMA alone, thrives on my Mull's and Edi's alone as inputs...Not driven into by my LS-2B. .....you can say I've found my tube combinations for my 5 ZMA's in one!

The gear is on its way to Stone.

I agree with Jeff; The experience with the SVHS gear is worth it...I'll post my impressions asap

The Eagle has landed.

Look forward to hooking her up tomorrow morning with coffee. I wish I had J of A's Joe.....but mine will have to do.

And Linton...  where you been?  Been waiting to read about your impressions.  

System used for evaluation:  
Sources:  Samsung SVHS, DAC (16-bit, R2R, battery powered)
Pre Amp:  McIntosh C220
Amp: Decware Torii Jr.
Speakers:  Ascend Acoustics Sierra Tower w/Raal

Hi All,

I finally found time to jot down my experiences with the SVHS rig – thanks for including me on the tour!

As I’ve mentioned before, my primary goal was to A/B the Palomino tape with my 320kbps steaming playlist and compare Steve’s recording technique with the digital stream.  Unfortunately, that tape seems to be balanced about 3-5db louder on the left channel: This caused the soundstage to jump to the left and then back to the middle while doing a dynamic A/B switch between the two sources (the other 3 tapes were spot-on with regard to balance). Not sure if Jeff and Stone have experienced this with the Palomino tape or not – I’m curious to find out.

My C220 doesn’t provide a feature to configure balance per source, so I decided to adjust the balance for the tape, sit back and enjoy.  When comparing that tape with my digital source, the sound -- to me --was very similar – there are the added (enjoyable) tape artifacts that I like, but I wasn’t really blown away by this tape compared with my streaming set-up. But then I loaded the Dick’s Hat Band tape…

I was blown away by that tape! Dick’s Hat Band. Great music, analog tape lusciousness. I was really drawn-in to that recording. Surprisingly good sound quality from the SVHS rig. For me, there’s no fair comparison between streaming and that analog sound.

The Ed Pong tape – Amazing talent, the recording made me feel like I was right there in the room with them. I think this was the best example from the set of how good tape can sound – truly realistic audio. I wish there were a few more tracks on this one.

The Toronto Mix – I enjoyed the live venue, with the interesting show introduction and subtle crowd noises – very realistic, great music, enjoyable tape.

My conclusions from this exercise:
1.      Steve has done an amazing job, sharing his experiments with the SVHS format and encouraging those who are interested to try new things with old gear. Thanks for all you do for the Decware community.

2.      SVHS sounds very good to me. However, I have a small room and listen near field; I could hear the relatively noisy deck during quiet passages and between tracks – that bugs me and tends to take me out of the flow.

3.      I’m going to buy a Reel-Reel deck ASAP and begin the journey. I thoroughly enjoyed the analog tape experience and kept saying to myself, “I’ve got to hear more of this” – I love analog, phono being my source of choice. I prefer to sit down and listen to albums, not individual songs. Like the phono, the tape will continue to facilitate the full-album, analog paradigm that I crave and enjoy.

Jeff – Your reviews are detailed, impressive and fun to read, I look forward to hearing from the others on the tour.

Headed off to eBay,
Rob

maddog & J of A....I have been mum...till linton had a chance to respond and ....getting my 3rd session in this weekend.

Maddog....I will get it out to you on Monday and get you the tracking # in PM.

linton! ....same here, the Palomino tape drove me nuts with the left channel skew....but, the Dick Hat's ....was fun too.  I'll say more later..... .

System for Listening:


Room Treatment by Mike Green and my home brew

Samsung VCR HI-FI

WBT RCA Kimber KS1030 ~.5 meter


Audio Research Stereo Line Stage Amplifier w/remote volume & mute LS-2B MkII
NOS Platinum/Mullard 7308/E188CC / Cryogenic


WBT-0102Ag RCA Kimber Select KS1030 ~.75 meter


currently.....NOS Platinum Tungsram PCC88/7DJ8 ~ 1 pair....in for Inputs/ZMA

Decware Zen Mystery Amplifier
~BIASED at *56* mA~
NOS/Platinum/Mullard E188CC/7308's in my A12 an B12 Input positions Cryogenic~NOS/Platinum/Telefunken E88CC for Inverter Tubes~NOS RCA 0A3's & matched Quad/Tung-Sol KT66's

ZMA adjusted at  70-90% Gain ~ w/ARC Line Stage, running via Remote Control



***************************************************
Kimber Select KS6063 Speaker Cable 8ft WBT-0681-Ag Spades
***************************************************
Kimber 8TC new/white & clear jacket/to remind me of how fluid/timbre correct and good the KS6063 are
Also Read.....the lowest noise floor you will ever witness....that a $5180 pair of speaker cables should have....and they do.....(I was fortunate to get them for $2680/Demo pair/mint, from the CableCo....worth every penny/extraordinary realism.....)



Acoustic Zen Adagio - Black Pearl (Modified)
.....enjoying from 8 ohm ZMA Taps


Caintuck Audio Eminence Alpha 15" OB BASS Unit
at 53Hz, with my Velodyne CHT 130 watt plate amp and 0 degree phase.....at 1/6 volume on plate
Plate Amp....regen'd clean ~ plugged into P3


Acoustic Zen Adagio's x-over's Modified/Full Range with Mundorf MCap Supremes-single Cap to each Tweeter/4.5k cross
(Gutted: 3kHz/18dB/Octave, Linkwitz/Riley Crossovers....with all crappy parts = gone)


XLO Pro Power Cord to ZMA
PS Audio P3 Power Plant / Pangea AC-9SE from wall to P3
(Transport, ARC Pre, and ZDSD, Regenerated/*120*~ Multiwave off...ZMA on High Current Output).

Well, it didn't go well.  There are lots of little micro pops for lack of a better term, little holes where there is no music.  I used an old tape that I thought would be good... Lesson learned.  Will try again tomorrow with a fresh tape.

Tape is ready.  I'll need someone to email me (steve@zenamps.com) mad dogs address.

Thanks,

Steve

On its way to Maddog.

Got the address and the package will ship tomorrow on 11/15

Thanks!

Steve

the spousal unit just pinged me and told me that a package arrived this morning from Stone.

I won't have a chance to fire it all up till the weekend... will post more after I give it a listen....

I enjoyed these tapes very much. I could hear where you guys are coming from and your passion for the format. I hope to hear Steve's masters someday by appt. and gear.

Haha... Rapid fashion... that's a good one.  

It makes for a great opportunity though to point out that the trick with hi-end tapes is that there is always a one-to-one transfer rate. It's real time. So if the tape is 50 minutes, the copy will take 50 minutes plus the setup and take down time, so 100 minutes to make the tape. The price of a real of high bias master tape is around $80 a reel and it takes two reels to do an album... so it it makes sense to see prices of up to $250 a reel if the person's equipment is worthy of the dupe, and his time is worth anything it's actually a deal. You have to realize that noone has a music library that is all tape in todays world. And master tapes are rare jewels that if you own a few you can have some real fun amazing yourself and friends with your stereo gear.

On a different note, there are those who heard the defective Palomino tape, that if they had a HI-FI VHS player and wanted to hear a non-defective one I'm sure I could probably make another one and send it out if you wanted to report on the tape.  Otherwise wait until I do another one, from better source files and we can do another tape tour.

If people purchased their own HI-FI VHS or SVHS players, we could make the tape tour a regular and ongoing thing, the only requirement would be a full report posted here in the forum on each tape you hear.

-Steve

I have two SVHS players laying around.  One Panasonic and one JVC.  So bring on the tapes..!!!  

Since DB2 is not responding... and I still have the tour player and tapes - I think I shall give the new Palimino tape "another" listen on the rig I currently(I swap components in/out quite a bit) have in my listening room. Which is a set of Randy's Betsy Baffles (baffle enhanced/braced from the stock Betsy baffle) driven by my beloved Torii III.

Raven....

I am having trouble contacting you.  Please check email and PM's.

We will be tag teaming on this one as I think I am next on the list.  Maybe we will have it for the upcoming CDApS meeting.

Hey Maddog,
Any comments and opinions you can share regrading the tape rig and the tapes that were included in the tour?

Geese guys, I've been sick with the flu for 11 days and have still managed to listen to quite a few tapes.  I realize it's the holidays but lets try to focus here !

Wednesday night I got the deck to play out of both channels, but only very softly.  

I will keep messing with it as well as seeing if I can get my own deck to reliably eject the tape.  If so, I may replace the deck with my own and send it on to the next listener.  

I'll either ship the original deck back to Steve or send it with Raven on his next trip to Peoria.

Jeff,

I'll send you a PM.

Palomino

Send the unit and tapes back to me directly.  If the player has tanked I'll throw it in the trash and see what is available as a replacement.

Steve

For those five people who are still on the list please accept my apologies as we are still waiting to get the tape tour kit back so that I can see what is going on with the VHS machine and repair or replace it.

Palomino and Lonely Raven were the last to receive the kit and it's been over 30 days since I expected to see it so not too sure what's happening here.

Steve

Hey Pal,
Not sure how close you are to LR, but if he is inundated and unable to get the tape machine back enroute to Steve, is there anyway to swing by, grab it, and slap a shipping label on it?  

Cheers,
Jeff

Excellent!  Thanks for the update Pal.

Excellent!  I'm excited to get this tour back on track.  

Keep me posted Steve and I will adjust the schedule accordingly.  

-Jeff