Hi all, I am Christine and newish to your world, but not this world. Being later in years, I enjoy the simple pleasures, and for me, one of those is the Blues.

I am a math and physics teacher, nerd, sometime woodworker, and know just enough about circuits and audio to know that I don't know what you all do. However, I appreciate having read the many white papers that are present here and the honesty (that is not wrapped up in marketing) that if I so wanted, I could perhaps build my own Zen-ish amp, apart from your custom coils. Alas, though, I am not so inclined...

Mr. Deckert, I find your amps to be aesthetically beautiful (which is important to me) and their low power also appeals to my ears.

That, all being said, I listen to music in two ways: through a pair of Klipsch Reference 14 bookshelf speakers (they are 90dB - I had to look that up) or a pair of Sony monitor headphones (which Ive had for decades and have no intention of "upgrading" and have no idea on their impedance or sensitivity). Currently my source is a single iPod (actually an old iPhone, I no longer use, except for music). Sorry to the purists among you, I know this is probably sacrilegious. I do have vinyl, but I prefer the cleaner (no-pop) sounds from the iPod.

My "sound room" is my office, and I listen to music quietly in the background when working. I use headphones when I want to tune everything else out and relax. So I guess you could describe my listening room as "near field" as I understand that term. Also I have very limited space for audio equipment, so size is a concern.

So that brings me to my questions: Amp? I like the simplicity of the SE84UFO2 The one with the wood base. But, alas, it has no option for a headphone jack. I know I could plug my headphones directly into my iPod, but I honestly don't like to fiddle with the wires to do that. I would rather just be able to switch a switch between speakers or headphones. And I could also build a switch box with load balancing, but again, that's a kludgy solution, that I am sure degrades the sound of your wonderfully simple circuits, so why not just get a single piece of equipment that can do that from the start?

I like the simplicity of the SE34I.5, and especially it's price point. However I feel that it's footprint is a bit bigger than what I am looking for.

Lastly the Mini Torii (is that pronounced: "Tor II or "Torree"?) seems a bit smaller than the SE34, So I suppose that is an option, but again the cost is significantly more than its simpler cousins.

Yes, the 25th Anniversary amplifier is both extremely beautiful and I applaud Mr. Deckert for the incredible power supply on that unit; however, the price point is a bit out of my range for casual spending, albeit what a conversation piece it would be!

Comments, suggestions, experience are all welcomed...I am here to learn...

thanks for reading and (in advance) for being patient with me,
Christine

Welcome to the forum. The Zen UFO2 that you like will drive your speakers even though they are not particularly efficient. I'm doing it in a second system. The iPhone can be plugged into the amp with the proper connection. Very available on ePrey. Ace is correct for sure. Just contact Steve, he's accessible and will be very helpful. He'll get you set for headphones on the amp.

Welcome Christine,
 Definitely give Steve a call, you'll really have a feel for things after your talk and he will set you in the right direction, no question. Good luck with your new amp, whatever it will end up to be, you'll have made a great choice.
Best,
Scott

Welcome Christine. I listen exclusively with headphones, and as of yesterday am on my second Decware jewel, an SE84UFO; the base model.

I can tell you from experience that 'phones sound the best when connected as speakers; directly to the speaker connections. The headphones need to have a male 4-pin XLR plug, referred to as a balanced plug. Then you need to make a pigtail connection using a female 4-pin XLR with four wires connecting to the binding posts.

Connecting is this way gives a much better sound that using the standard TRS connection.

It is also crucial that you connect a wire wound 8 ohm resistor rated at least 3 watts across the binding posts to give the proper load to the output transformers. If you don't it's adios to them.

Christine, you should be able to use the 1/4" plug and get stereo, calling Steve is a great idea, he'll set you on the right path and can likely make up a "harness" to use.

The left and right grounds will be joined together on the 1/4 in. TRS. so you will have stereo output. The resistors needed will also be added.

What about a Taboo IV?  Or has this been discussed?

Christine,

If you either reach out to Lon or search his posts, he has used the Taboo quite a bit as a speaker amp and seems to love it.

Regarding your comment about $1000 headphones and diminishing returns is spot on.  Also, headphone prices have gone way beyond that price in recent years, so now it's just getting stupid.  It is especially stupid when we consider that it is the headphone amplifier that makes the MAIN difference as to how good a given pair of phones will sound.  That is to say I would have far better sound from a pair of $250 headphones and a Decware headphone amp that I would from a $1000+ set of phones on todays typical solid state equipment.

The other day someone off the street walked into the Decware listening room and commented that those were some great sounding speakers... and since that was where the sound was coming from, the speakers got all the credit.  It's the same mentality that drives the market to buy ultra expensive headphones.  Many should just get a better headphone amp and hear the headphones they have for the first time.

The one rule that never waivers in this hobby is that you never hear the fidelity of your system rise beyond the weakest link in the audio chain. The challenge of the hobby is to try to find out which link in the chain is handicapping everything else and then replace it.





Steve

Hi Christine,

Yes, a common ground set of headphones can be re-wired with a 4 conductor headphone cable terminated into a 4 pin XLR jack.  Having the grounds separated between the channels means that the ground conductor no longer has to carry twice the current as the signal conductor so the sound tends to get better.

The impedance does not change nor anything else.  Everything remains exactly the same except the ground for each channel is separated.  63 ohms btw, would be right in the Taboo's area of strengths.  

Hope that helps!

Steve

Welcome Christine, and thank you for initiating this thread that like so many others, becomes yet another great lesson from the community, and Steve himself. You just don't get this support from very many manufacturers these days (if any)....this stuff is precious. Can't wait to see what you end up with. Cheers.