will
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From Lon: "Overall this does not seem to sound like the only two 300B amps I heard before--it's a Decware amp, no question, has that clarity and speed. It also does have a bass heft and smooth treble and open midrange that I know the 300B tube is contributing to and that allows me to do without the treble cut circuit, though I'm nearly maxed out on ZROCK2 adjustment."
I am glad you are able to tune down treble and up bass as you need it! Sounds like it is a beautiful amp for your needs with the ZRock2 for toning it the ways you need...
Yes a Decware flavored signature seems to have been Steve's objective, and I had no doubt he would find it.
I wonder though... from reading, it seems like there must be other 300B amps designed to be more "modern" these days in comparison to the standards of the past where we might find them too slow, warm, and syrupy??? The 300B amp I got that was probably built over 10 years ago, was sort of in between, but what I would call on the modern side in this concept.
Now with some cap work mainly, coupling and power bypasses, it is a little slower than my seriously modified Torii IV, that work being about musically increasing and balancing natural immediacy and speed throughout, as well as resolution. But so far, with these big 300B power tubes and inputs and drivers, at least in this circuit, I am liking this amp a little bit slower. Even so, after the first work I did, I would say it is faster than the Torii IV after similar early mods, and that it would not be difficult to make it faster... which I will probably do after getting more used to it. It does have nice transformers and input and output jacks, nice internal cables, and uses Coleman boards to regulate the filament voltage on the 300Bs (thought by many a truly great sounding solution)... And I have put in really good coupling and bypass caps by sound. But in this setting, it is balanced, extended, and fast enough to not feel any drag. Sounds like really beautiful music to me.
So I don't know, as I think about these things combined, those are a lot of somewhat special improvements over many stock amps. But the nicer ones, including Steves, have good parts and design that utilize parts used well, to me Steve's conceptually seeming to be a really nice innovative design. So it does not surprise me how much folks are liking it.
Also seems those 300B tubes out now give a fair bit of choice of warm/slow/midrange oriented, versus fast/clear and extended.
With very limited personal experience with "300Bs," I am just wondering if a lot of the older school 300B sound and perception may be tradition and choice as much or more than inherent?
Everything is changing fast, I think thanks to designers like Steve who are music heads first, and makers second (apparently pretty rare), and I am thinking a lot is changing as innovative Eastern European and Chinese designers and makers find new and relatively low cost ways to make really nice stuff. Seems to be an amazing time in audio where a lot of perceived habitual impediments to the beauty are falling away fast...
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