Greetings,
I've been madly reading, researching and talking on the phone for weeks after ordering Torii MKIV. I've been out of the "audio world" for quite some time. I was in the what we called back then Higher End Audio, had some Stores in Mpls, MN back in the 70's & 80's the called Audio King, then after I sold out to my partner in '86 "Ultimate Electronics" out of CO. Anyway, started out wanting back into the stuff so last month ordered and received a WOO WA6 Headphone amp, a Sony HAP1 music server, and some Sennheiser HD660s phones. well, it wasn't long after hooking up an old pair of ADS L-300 Oaks running off the little amp in the Sony that I got directed to ZU speakers from a very helpful and patient Mike Liang with Woo and spoke with Garrett and after roughly an hour had a pair of Dirty Weekends coming my way sometime soon. After another weekend of reading & researching I called back to ZU and Garrett suggested I give some company I never heard of before a call, their name was DecWare, hmmm...more research and late nights of reading the amazing papers by Steve I decided to give him a call and took an amazing amount of what I'm sure is a very busy guy's time. I have never been more impressed in my entire life the I was with the patience and explanations Steve offered to provide me with, along with total acceptance of my new-found ignorance in the "New" world of high end audio. Well, after hanging up and letting Steve get back to his day job, I placed a call the next day and got my order in for the MKIV. I've learned the importance of "Room Treatment" and have a pretty good size order in with GIF Acoustics and another extremely helpful Zac Marcengill out of Nashville, a few hours from my place. I'll starting with (8) 6A Alpha Panels, Diffusor/Absorber 6" and 6 Free Standing Bass Traps (my room as Steve put it... is going to be a real challenge!) Anyway, probably a little overdone on my first post, but what the heck, hat's it in a nutshell. I look forward to getting to know some of your, seems like a great group.
Best,
Scott

Hey Scott,

Welcome to the forum, and to Decware. You will indeed find a great group of guys here, and a wealth of audio knowledge.

Your setting there looks idyllic, but as Steve said, your room could prove challenging. But with the components/treatments that you have on order, I think that you will get great results.

Thanks for posting,
Randy

Welcome!

Hey Scott,  Looks like your off to a good start. I'm sure you're going to love the Decware audio journey once everything seasons!  Like many have said over the 4 years of my Decware experience...it just keep getting better and better!

Hi Stone,
LOL, I may be off on dates, I started with AK in 1973, I believe.  Al Kempf owned the one store which opened in 1953. The main store and offices were on France Ave and moved across the street to Leisure Lane which Al built. I became a minor partner w/Al  then Randy Carlock joined us from Dayton Hudson Corp, I was Exec VP, did all the buying and advertising. We added the "Dale" stores, then I sold out to Carlock and had sailboat built and took off sailing for 10 years. Another life age, it was a lot of fun, I thought I might come across some old Audio King people or stories if I included that bit of info. Thanks for the reply...

Best Scott

Welcome Scott,

You will really like the decware family. Amazing people and so much knowledge.

I also started with DW from zu. Fantastic first pair of speakers. You may want to think about adding a sub ( undertone is sufficient from ZU)  in near future if you like base.

Which DAC are you using?  That’s the next challenge.

Thanks,
RF

RF,
Thanks, also I’m currently using a Sony HAP Music Server that has, what I’m told is a pretty decent day in it. Will probably be looking to Steve (who I’m working on a reply to for his valued input) for some advise on that and of course, still got the cables to address.
Scott

Cables?
My Shunyata Alpha digital power cord, is a must to Steve's ZDSD.
XLO power cord to ZMA.

I  moved up from my KS3033's, found in my original signature (below) I keep as an homage to my Decware SE84CS (#76).


Nowadays, I kept the stellar KS1030 (and added another AG WBT KS1030) to my Decware Zen Mystery Amplifier and run Kimber KS6063 (8ft pair) to my modified Acoustic Zen Adagio's.


KS6063 = "run of piano notes, played presto, and deliver them to the ear without a hint of smear or indecision and not a single nuance left unexpressed."
"realize a whole new level of resolution and musicality."
.....well put Neil.

I wanted to hate them (KS6063), now, I can't be without them. Tone/Texture/Nuance of Piano, Brass & Woodwinds is stunning.


PS~nice treatments GIK....vs. my Mike Green old stuff and my home brew!

A closeup

Stone,

 More good input. I inherited the table from an Uncle who purchased it while living in Kauai, Hawaii many years ago, my best guess so far is that it's Monkey Wood from Asia, very dense, very heavy. I'm sure that someone in the know on wood could probably set me straight on that.
I would like to encourage you to continue posting here about your thoughts and your system and your experiences with all that great equipment you have acquired, it makes for an easy reference point and certainly is going to be of interest to those beyond myself that happen on the thread. I'm working my way through Googling your equipment, I have years of catching up on who even the manufacturers are, let alone what is out there for the taking. I seriously am counting the days until my speakers and amp show up.
 My original plan was to settle in with my Woo WA6 headphone amp and Sennheisers for a while...that 2 month old thought is certainly "dust" now!
The realization that I'm retired and on a budget is going to have to come to reality here soon, but this sure is an exciting ride so far.
 Thanks again for the replies hope to hear more. How do you like the ZDSD & how exactly are you utilizing it? Would love to hear more...
Best,
Scott

Scott- Welcome aboard! Lots of great info, opinions and humor here on this forum. Beautiful room and I bet will sound good with some hard work. Please keep us posted as things progress, that's how we each learn. Happy listening, Chris.

Stone,

Can't thank you enough for taking so much on the reply, it's gonna take me a bit to get all that absorbed, really helps the learning curve when things are put in context like you did.

Actually..I'm hoping to get my MKIV by the end of JUNE!  ::)
Wishful thinking but the thought of July just isn't working for me right now, just glad that I got the order in before the deluge or it would have been disastrous for me, Zu's hopefully by end of week and the GIF is shipping 6/11 so it'll keep me a little busy.

Best,
Scott

Hey Lon, Thanks.

It is a great bike, love it, but they are all good, lot of fun.

Your Audio equipment if we're taking scales here, has LightYears on me!

Best,
Scott

Jealous of you motorcycle guys. Summer is shaping up nicely for ya.

Thanks to Lon and what's spinning..... My education always continue's.

 Had a nice surprise Sat evening, FedX left me 6 GIK BaseTraps, messed with them last night, got this far at 1:30 and will wait till the Zu's get here to do more. It's very close to the layout that was suggested by Steve, Dennis Foley (Acoustic Fields) and of course Zac (GIF Acoustics).
 I probably should keep this one to myself, but as soon as I unboxed the traps, put the bases on and started to place them, I turned on some TIDAL and immediately noticed a bad driver in the left ADS I had not even heard in the last 2 weeks...hmmm, must be something to all this

ScottNC- Nice change!! Keep us posted and new things come in. Happy listening, Chris.

Very nice.

Thanks All for the ice comments.

Donny, ha...ZU Dirty Weekends are going to fill the space until Steve will take my order for DNA's. Don't even have them yet but they are threatening to ship this week.

Ordering ZBIT and Cables/Connectors tomorrow.

Ordered a Tascam DA3000 and a CD500B tonight.

GIK wall treatments on the FedX truck tomorrow too.

Tic Tok on the waiting list I'm pretty much there...

Best,
Scott

A quick update.
I cancelled my order for the Tascam DA3000,CD500Bal, RME DA Converter, Belkin Thunderbolt Express and have now ordered:

Little Green Computer sonicTransporter APi7 (4TB spinning drive)
Little Green Computer ultraRendu & Linear Power Supply

MyTek Brooklyn MQA-Compatable DAC (Black)
MyTec Balance Headphone Converter

ZU Dirty Weekends Expected this week

Best,
Scott

One more...(the monkey is looking for the missing Zen Torii!)

I expect to see the monkey sitting on top of the missing Zen TORII once it arrives, he can guard it for us!

Steve

Have you tried both positions of the input selection switch?

Great news! You've great listening ahead of you!

Nice Scott....this puzzle should offer some really great sound, especially as you discover optimal synergy! Lots to get to know at once though, including speaker placement and room treatment tuning...

Hopefully, to help simplify, and gain changes not being as big as expected with the efficient ZUs, a few things come to mind.

Sounds like you started gain level adjustments with the DAC, and though yours sounds like it has an analog pre which may be good....unless there is a distortion issue from too much voltage into your gear, the most transparent sound may well be with the DAC pre at 0dB. And though it may be well worth exploring as a pre, if the remote is not critical to you, using the DAC at 0dB could be the best reference point as you learn, tune, and burn in the rest of your system. A thought anyway.

Then, as I understand the Zbit, wide open it puts out the voltage of your DAC's balanced outs, which might be 3-7 volts give or take. Mine is 4 I think. Using the Zbit "volume control" is therefore all attenuation. But I think of its effects based upon voltage out rather than volume out, more about tuning the balance of sound with more or less of the Zbit influence. Generally having a relatively narrow voltage range between no sound and full open, a 1/4 turn may not show in a big way volume-wise, but can be sonically quite notable for fine-tuning the Zbit effects into your over-all sound.

So I think of the Zbit as a signal clarifier and tuning device, its "volume" adjustment defining how much of the traits it offers....clarity, dynamics, density, etc. This makes it a great "gain riding" tool, using more or less of its influence at a given volume as you balance its attenuator levels with the Torii's.

My Zbit use range for optimizing different recordings is typically between 2 o'clock to maybe 4:30. But I am running my DAC wide open>Zbit>CSP3>Torii, so balancing the overall tone, density and dynamics with both the ZBit influences, and the CSP3 influences to pull the best from recordings into the Torii. It is possible that without the CSP3 in the blend I might use a different range on the Zbit. Everyone finds a favorite zone for their setup, sometimes wide open.

Also related to volume, compared to a lot of solid state amps with a lot of wattage, the Torii is powerful, but ~25W nicely spread over a wide volume range. In my setup, (tubes used, speaker efficiency, etc) I can use most of the Torii range without clipping, even 100% with quieter DVDs. I think this is a really nice design factor Steve gives us...no hyper volume issues from touching the knob.

Also on the Torii, your bass switch effects more than just bass, so worth exploring. The impedance switch makes a pretty big difference too, creating more or less push to the speakers. And the reconstructive feedback switches are another really nice tuning tool for space and fine detail in particular. It takes a while for the amp to burnin enough to show the full tonal potential of the reconstructive circuit though.

I would expect there are software volume adjustments in your setup too, and like in-DAC adjustments, computer/software volumes are variable in quality, some really good, some not so. But the Zbit and Torii can do volume/signal power adjustments quite transparently, and using them at first may help in getting to know the influence of each part of your system during burnin, and as you uncover the full potential of your sound.

Hope this helps some.

Will

What? You didn't get the "Stone Soup" beer from New Glarus?  ;)

Lon, Acetone,Will, Stone, Jeff, thanks all for looking and the responses. Will, (as always), Stone, thanks for the extra input and thoughts, very helpful, can't tell you how much the additional input helps to sort things. I've gotten to have several late into the night listening sessions and things are coming together and my head is at least beginning to get wrapped around this whole thing. The combination of gear and Roon and Tidal are freaking AWESOME, totally blowing me away with where they have taken this whole experience. Had a friend over who has been in broadcasting his entire life (also my source for master cd's, 1000's ) he's pretty impressed, spent of few hours listening yesterday with he and his wife, before we BBQ'd, think I might have relit his Audio Bug.
Here's a few shots of my newly implied system, got it on my little monkey table, got rid of the rack, the sonicTransporter just disappears over next to the tv so I can access the cd transport to rip, and the center... my totally awesome ToriMKIV.
I need to hear the new DNA's, this room is very large even with treatment, I need eq, I need more gain, I need more power... I, Am, SUNK! lol, what a gas!  ;D

Last one

Hey Scott,  you need... EQ, Gain, Power ?... Sounds like you might need to go the route of the Zrock2 (eq-weight-gain) and CSP3 - gain/heft-weight/power. The Zrock2 would take care of some of this to start. It's a great tool. Best to check out the forum on both units!

Hi to all,

I recently got motivated by the replies from ginny's post on "AC Receptacle advise" and undertook running a dedicated circuit to my Listening Room. I had a sub-panel next to my main box in the basement, which I re-did and separated out the neutrals and the earth ground buss bars, that panel does a run outside to another sub which feeds a pond pump and a 240v spa circuit, this box I also rewired to separate the neutrals and earth ground busses and also ran an addition solid copper earth ground directly to my meter.(pics are on ginny's post)
 OK, so, everything seems to have worked out well, except, in my listening room on the 20' vaulted ceiling are two Hunter ceiling fans with LED light kits on them. These of course are on a totally separate circuit and cause no problems with the fans running, but when I introduce the LED lights (on a restate, of course) I create a buzz through my system, it is very evident when I have the gain on my ZBIT anywhere from 6 to say 3 o'clock, when I go the last click to 4 o'clock it disappears. I can't detect any other noise from anything else in the house (checked last night, late, when it was dead silent and heard nothing). My only very uneducated guess is that my main panel has "co-mingled" neutral and earth grounds on the buss bars, which I have been told, although not confirmed, that new codes say even the main box should have completely separate busses and not be mixed. Is this correct, and should it be my next move or does anyone more knowledgable than myself (which would be everyone on the forum!) have any other ideas or suggestions.
 Whew... sorry for the wordiness, tried to be concise but it always seems to ramble. Thanks for any input you might have. The "Beat Goes On" late into each night...

Best,
Scott

You might try different LED bulbs. My garage door opener will not work with some of them and the garage door people say they sell bulbs which do not interfere. Just a thought.

To clarify, the neutral and earth buss in your main board are in contact?

A closer look

Hello All,

It's been a while since I posted so I thought I'd throw out a quick update on my system.
I've been working on room treatment and have spent some time discussing my room with Sean Casey the Founder and Main force at ZU Audio. He's been unbelievable helpful (building me a specific filter tailored on my room) and gave me some guidance in regard to my next step, which is ceiling treatment. I took his advice to heart and over the weekend built 8 absorption/diffusor panels. Six to suspend from the ceiling and 2 to add to my rear listen wall and GIK panels. Waiting on color swatch samples from Gilford of Maine Fabric and stainless cable and hangers etc from Amazon, then up on the ladder for installation. A few pics for those interested and as always comments, and suggestions always helpful. Thanks for looking.

Best,
Scott

the insides

Wow, Scott! I admire your dedication - your system (room included) will really be something when completed.

Randy

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Nice... : ).

Lookin good Scott. Give that amp time to season and then sit back and Ahhhhh nice!

Scott,

 The only thing that comes to mind for me is that I have an acoustic system that comes out when the wife leaves for work, and back again before the end of the day. Point mostly that because it is easy to move, I can experiment for placement. It sounds cheesy, but the system is no more than dense pillows on chairs, a memory foam mattress pad, and other assorted pieces. It startles me when I get it right. I simply block the 1st reflection with the pillow chair arrangement, and cover the love seat to the right of the speakers with the mattress pad. I have even used a coat draped over the back of the speakers to hear differences.

For me, the fun of room treatments is moving them around.

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lazy,

I couldn't agree more, at very low listening levels everything is still there, I have surprised myself by turning the output way down, lower than I would ever do what I call "Serious Listening" and they are almost baffling in the way all the detail and fullness comes through. Of course with the right cuts and the right mood, listening quite loud is something to experience. It seems they have the ability to bring out rather unique reactions to the music from people... , actually witnessed it last night. Thanks for the response.

Best,
Scott

Ace, you are aware that it is the same speakers as the Monolith in a different cabinet?