Right now, the meeting is tentatively scheduled for December 16th at my house at 1:00PM.  Sorry for the short notice but that's the best date we've been able to come up with so far.

Our agenda will include Bad Wolf's anniversary amp, my new baffles and Raven's modified ZMA.  If we have time and he sorts out his volume issue, we'll also listen to the latest firmware update on Raven's Direct Stream DAC.  Given our past history, this is a packed agenda.

Over the weekend, Raven and I could not resist so we jumped in our cars and went to BadWolf's house for a quick session with his new 25th anniversary amp.  He just got it last week.

Of course it was not broken in and BW was having an issue with it biasing too high.  Turns out it was his preferred 4U4GB rectifier.  We used a type 80 that Raven brought along and all was good.

Also Raven brought  a grocery bag of tubes with him (I'm kidding but it was enough to fill a small grocery bag).  We tried BW EL84s and Ravens Svetlana SV83s.  I think we mostly used an OC3 105 for the input regulator.  I can't recall the input tube.

Anyway, we started out listening to BW's bedroom system.  MacBook Air, Gunier Miltibit DAC, Zibit, 25th Amp, El Caminos.  Source was Tidal.  BW has a large bedroom, but has a nearfield setup for intimate listening.  The 25th easily filled the room though.  I wanted to just flop on the bed and crank it up, but I restrained myself.

The amp was extremely smooth and musical.  My biggest takeaway was the lack of that leading edge grain on things like female vocals.  Very liquid.  I have always liked the El Caminos and they did not disappoint, even as a nearfield speaker.

We then took the 25th to his living room setup with a Linux based PC, a Bifrost Multibit, and BW's DIY Tang Band 1808s in open baffles and some separate woofer OB baffles and dual subs.

They have made some changes to their living room which help the sonics.  Heavy curtains on the windows, some diffusion and absorption. A tip for you younger Decware fans - if your significant other builds QRD diffusers for you, they are a keeper.

We had some technical difficulties but after sorting it out, settled in to listening to some familiar tunes.  As the 25th warmed up, the sound got bigger and better.  

Again, this is a new amp with fairly new tubes so its hard to give it a fair review, but it was liquid and engaging.  I was plied with a couple of microbrews with alcohol content above 5%, but I remember getting same feeling as I do with the OTL.  That is my high bar right now.

I cannot wait to hear this amp in my room.  I brought my new baffles/speakers but we spent 3 hours listening to the 25th and didn't bother to do much else other than the shift to the living room.

(Oops, wrong thread)

Well another good session on Sunday.  El Presidente called the meeting to order about 1:15.  Standing room only in my listening room and a full agenda.

We started out with my Racheal and new OBs baffles.  My system sounds the best it ever has with these new ClarityCap CSAs on the AMT and the new baffle shape.  I got some great feedback on speaker wires and also a bypass cap experiment I was running.

Also, I recently transitioned from twin crown amp powered Augies for the low end to passive Alpha 15As.  I think I picked up some speed.  

But with the crown amps free, I switched away form the plate amp powering a single sub to a single crown amp powering two subs.

The guys helped me test for whether I was getting below 30Hz out of the subs.  I was but I didn't have the power to make it that audible.  After they left I put in the second crown and ran them bridged into their respective subs.  That worked and now I have more of that low octave.

Point is that having people over to critique your system really helps you make fast progress on improving your sound.

After laying down a baseline system, we switched to Aaron's 25th.  It sounded great, but I wasn't blown away.  What we discovered (Aaron already knew) that the 25th needs some time to warm up.  All tube amps seem to need time, but especially the 25th.   Once it began warming up, it really began to shine.

The immediate observation is that this amp is very loud for its 2.3 watts.  More than I need in my 16X12 listening room.  The lack of grain was also there from the start.

But as the amp warmed up, things started popping out that I hadn't heard in tracks.

The killer combo of the afternoon was the 25th paired with Eric's direct stream DAC with the latest firmware update.  Great details and liquidity.

That combo gave me the "OTL experience" where I kind of melt into the chair and can listen for hours.

We also tried my DIY Belden ICs compared to my Decware Silvers.  The guys opted for the Silvers.  I will continue to do tests.

We put in Eric's modded ZMA and it sounded great, but wasn't giving us what the 25th did.

I did not hear everything I heard in the 25th at Zenfest.  I think Aaron said he had about 100 hours on it so it could be a seasoning thing.  But more likely, its something in my chain.  I'll be trying to figure that out.

Agreed, J of A! They should consider themselves equally fortunate to live close enough together to have these "listening fests"! I am wanting to share my good fortune in having my 25th Anniversary ZEN and DNA2 speakers and know absolutely no one in near proximity to share with. Sad.