Hello everyone. Eric from Huntington, NY here. I'm a lifelong music lover who's spent 30 plus years chasing guitar tone. Every path on that insane journey would end with just a telecaster, a few hand wired effects and a good tube amp so when I decided to take the plunge into hifi, after using home theater receivers for 2-channel as well as HT, I was already "biased." The language lots of you use to describe the Decware "house sound" convinced me that one of Steve's amps would be a good match for me so when a Zen Torii MklV appeared on the classifieds in June, I bit. Many thanks to forum member, Rivieraranch, for facilitating a pleasant and efficient transaction despite some fedex hiccups.

So the Tori... After speaking with Steve and dropping in a matched quad of Tung Sol KT66's and NOS amperex 7308's I'm pretty sure I've found the amp for me. The KT 66's tighten up the bass and in my very live listening space, yes I've got considerable absorbtion in place and am planning on adding diffusion as well, the 7308's tame the high end making it very sweet and airy, hearing the decay on a cymbal hit is magic. Now I'm ready to purchase a preamp that would mate well with the tori.

Here's a list of my equipment so far.
Marantz sr7011 HT receiver
Music Hall mmf 7.3 turntable with a Sumiko evo lll cartridge
Macbook as a Roon core into a JDS labs ODAC streaming Tidal
Monitor audio silver 8's and  matching center speaker
SVS ultra surrounds
Zu audio Omen Def Mkll's for two channel
A pair of SVS SB-2000 subs
Schiit Vali 2 headphone amp/preamp
Schiit mani phonostage
Hifiman HE4xx
Grado sr225i
HT speakers are wired with monoprice ofc 12awg
The Zu and MA towers are connected to the Tori and receiver with audioquest type 4

Currently I'm using the Vali two as a preamp into the Tori to add a bit of weight to the sound. it's been fun to experience with different gain levels, something I'm very familiar with as a guitar player, but I'm sure a better, dedicated higher end preamp would be a significant step up. All interconnects are Decware Zen silvers and I think it is reasonable to assume that my order for upgrades should be preamp, phonostage, DAC, then cables. I'm hoping to benefit from your collective experience and knowledge. My listening tastes are diverse. I'd call it an even distribution of acoustic singer songwriter and bluegrass, classic and progressive rock, classical, mostly piano and string quartets and jazz/world music. Thanks in advance for taking the time to read this. Happy and grateful to have found Decware and this excellent forum.
Cheers

Hi MyBlueSky,

Welcome. I'm new here as well, liking my new MKIV and working on my system also. As I'm sure you'll find if you haven't already, is an unlimited wealth of knowledge and experience along with quite an amazing community of people.
Enjoy!

Best,
Scott

On the Bees Wax Caps...I haven't heard a Decware Amp or Pre Amp without them so I'm not much help but it was on the recommendation of a fellow member that I asked for them on my ZP3 before they were a listed option as well as in my first CSP3.  Both ZROCK IIs were bought with the type II jupiter caps. The rest of my gear has the regular Jupiters. Mark