Prologue

The one overarching thought during the past four nights of listening is that I must be an imposter.

That somehow, I’ve nefariously cheated my way in to the world of high-fidelity audio.

What have I (barely three years in to the hobby) have done to deserve this level of orgasmic fidelity? I have no business being here. I must be living someone else’s life, must be stepping in someone else’s shoes, must be experiencing someone else’s dream.

Yet (in a sick twist of fate), here I am.

What skullduggery is this?

Quote:


You paid attention, cut through the noise and found the pure signal. YAY! or Karma?

I'm looking forward to your exploration of what Sarah brings to your musical bliss.

Thanks CA James and GS.  Your feedback and kind words are much appreciated.

Sgszen: Thx-I will try and PM you this week to address your question.

I'm loving the story so far !  Excited to read more.

The Day She Arrived

Sarah was loaded on to the delivery truck around 9:14 am last Wednesday and it arrived at my place at 2:07 pm.

Even though I wasn’t wearing my Apple Watch, I can guarantee you that I had completed 10,000 steps walking back and forth to my street view window during those five hours.

I came out the door to greet her (in an alternate universe, I’d have hung a sign saying “Welcome Home Sarah” from the front door) and started making a video of the UPS dude bringing the boxes over, hoping he wouldn’t get mad that I was filming him.  He was actually relieved to see me.  Here’s how the conversation went down:

UPS: So glad you’re home, since once of these needs a signature!

Me: I know. I’ve been waiting for this delivery for two years.  

UPS: Two years? UPS guy is now rocking back on his heels, which is not necessarily a good thing with him carrying Sarah and my stock tube set.

Me: Yes—two years,  so this is a historic moment (my voice almost breaking now—so overcome with emotion).  

Somehow, I kept it together and didn’t start bawling in front of the UPS guy.

UPS: Was it backordered?

Me: Yeah, it was.  No sense in trying to burden him the intricacies of the Decware build list and production cycle.

UPS: You could have asked for a speedier delivery today—I could have come to your house sooner!

Now he tells me (I thought) and noted it for future reference.

I thanked him and brought the box inside and asked my son to make a video while I opened the box.  It took me longer than expected.  It was double boxed with thick bubble wrap and brown packing paper inside both layers of boxes.  I got to my prized bubble wrapped bundle of joy and picked it up to carry downstairs to my basement rig.  

Damn, she was heavier than I expected!

Ok, that was quite the workout! Once in the basement, I carefully peeled off the bubble wrap (which also took me longer than expected), but then she was out in all her glory.  I took in her view from all angles and just gaped!

My God—She was immaculate! The African Paduk base, the steel chassis with high quality tube sockets, those sexy as hell binding posts, and the artsy black chicken head volume knobs (kudos to Sarah for recommending that as I was initially thinking of the gold knob to match my ZR2) and the (Holy Shit, how friggin amazing this looks compared to plain black) gorgeous copper transformer.  

Perfection.

So now I lifted it again (damn, did I mention it was heavy?) and set it on top of my center channel and start opening up the tube boxes to start the adorning process.  First the 300bs (btw, what Chinese brand is this—anyone recall?), then the pair of Russian 6H6N drivers, then the Decware branded 5U4G rectifier by Linlai, and then the NOS Sylvania 12AU7 preamp tube.  Absolutely no issues inserting these tubes.  

Pro Tip: Be gentle when inserting the Decware rectifier, because it went in like butter.  You don’t need the typical amount of force to secure it in its respective socket.

Wait, there are still 3 more tiny boxes?  Did Steve send some extra? I looked back at the chassis and then it hit me—the voltage regulator tubes silly! These were marked 75C1 and some quick research indicated that these were identical to OC2’s.  These VR tubes were comparatively harder to slot in to their sockets for two reasons:

1. The preamp tube and rectifier tube make for a very tight space for the middle rectifier tube, so I had to take out the input tube to have more space to insert the middle VR tube.  So the pro-tip here is to hold off on inserting the input tube until all three VR tubes are situated.
2. The connection of the OC2 tubes to their respective sockets seemed (for lack of a better descriptor) loosy goosy to me compared to the rock solid connections of all other tubes.  They just felt loose for some reason.

I swapped in the right and middle OC2’s and even getting them out of their sockets was tricky, and ultimately, the connection wasn’t much better.  However, I didn’t want to force the issue too much because the pins seemed fragile.  They seemed good enough for now, so I let it go and chalked it up to not having enough experience with VR tubes and if they didn’t light up, I would know that I had screwed up.

So all the tubes are in, the speakers cables are in, the single-ended inputs from the autoformer are in, and the PC is in.  The moment of truth.  I press power to on.

Sidebar: The location of the power switch is slightly inconvenient and a bit of hand gymnastics is required to go over and behind the copper transformer and in-between the power cord and SE input cord to find the nook where the power button can be pressed.  I only mention this because I was used to the power switch on the front of the Had amp.  That said, this nitpick is minor in the grand scheme of things.  I guess folks that are used to Decware amps won’t find this navigation to on/off problematic, but I wanted to be transparent about my observations.  

So where were we? Oh yes, power is on. Let’s fire up the streamer app and turn on the radio.

No music….

What the hell?

A minute after perusing the manual, I flip the single ended RCA’s to the alternative jacks and voila!  Important lesson learned about switching jacks and or flipping the toggle switch for the jacks.

Now that we have music flowing, it’s time to play the first track that I had chosen months ago.



Hopeless romantic much?

Guilty as charged.  But really, can there be anything more poetic than to grace the virgin track to Sara singing through Sarah?

Ok, break-in time for a few hours, before coming back to listen proper…

This is great! You have really whet my excitement to hear you go into how it sounds! Keep it coming!

Decware amps change and become more glorious the first few hundred hours of play time. Sometimes you get a brief taste of what is coming then it reverts back to the "new" sound. Eventually it's glorious from the get go.

Quote:


So as soon as I got the tracking number I was obsessively checking the UPS site to watch the progress of my UFO25s. And on the scheduled delivery date they arrive at the local hub, get loaded on the truck but the status never updates to out for delivery. And I'm all WTF WTF. Since I'm getting the amps with no tubes I have all my tubes and socket savers laid out and treated with contact enhancer (like my clothes for the first day of school) but I'm thinking "something went terribly wrong...." Generally our UPS guy comes pretty late in the day so naturally as soon as I start making dinner the doorbell rings and I get my amps.

Agree the Padauk bases are pretty special.

Looking forward to the next installment... with, you know, listening .

Nipsy...I cannot lie, I did the exact same thing!!

Tonight’s post is actually some items that I forgot to cover previously.

1) For some reason, I thought I was also getting the pelican case along with the amp.  I kept looking in the box to gauge if I had missed unpacking it.  Oh well, if I really need it, I can always purchase that later.

2) Originally, I was planning on hanging the Decware one year club t-shirt on a wall in the rig, but my eldest (who is also my audio buddy and knows my Decware journey) said that it was “FIRE” and that he wanted it.  So, I gave it to him with a talk about how he should wear that shirt with pride (he get’s it).  The things you do for kids…

3) For now I’m listening with the voicing switch set to the deeper soundstage and the speaker impedance set to high.  It was brought to my attention by GrroovySauce and from Ghostship’s review, to try the low setting as it may sound better, even with hi impedance speakers.  I definitely intend to explore both settings (for both voicing and impedance)

4) Speaking of speakers, one thing I forgot to add in my second post on the wait time, is the addition of Open Baffle speakers post Decfest 2022.  Basically, I fell in love twice at Decfest 2022. Once with Sarah and secondly with the sound of OB.  So I commissioned Randy to do his magic and ended up getting the Fast 15 drivers to pair with his baffles.  That should also be considered as part of getting the rig ready for Sarah.

5) The other addition to the rig, which is recent and happened during my 2 month hiatus from music (while the renovation was in full swing), was the insertion of two new ground rods made of galvanized steel bonded with a copper wire to the main panel (NJ allows for multiple rods). Our contractor hadn’t found any evidence of existing rods and I was getting a sub panel in the garage for all the new wiring and figured that this was the best time and opportunity to work on bettering the grounding to the house.  

The only exception to the 2 month break was listening to the rig the day after the rods was inserted and I knew I had struck gold.  There was a marked change in resolution, soundstage, blacker background, and decay.

I am about 70 hrs in and targeting 100 by this weekend.  My first sound impressions will follow.  Stay tuned…

Kamran,

Thanks for sharing your journey,

Randy

P.S. Did you get Steve’s gizmo to go with the Fast 15s? If so, how did it affect the sound?

Kam, I do have a black chicken head knob on one of my ZROCK2. . . but the feel of the ebony wood knobs is just something I can't help but prefer.

In today’s episode, let’s share some pics.  But before I do, know that while the pics may look great, they don’t do justice.

In this picture, I’ve just lifted Sarah for a second time after peeling back the bubble wrap and put it in place of the Had amp.  The tubes are still wrapped (on the ground to the right) and the one year club tee is on full display.  



In this pic, you can see the massive difference in size between Sarah and the Had amp (perched on the left sub).

The beautiful copper transformer



All tubed up!

Absolutely beautiful Kamran! You take great images too! Thank you for posting and please keep at it too! All the best~ Mike   in the 'sticks'

Oh. I forgot you asked about what your 300B tubes were, and I can't see from the photo exactly, but they look like Guiguangs... As far as I know they are not making tubes anymore, but I have a pair of these, and they seem to me to be quite nice, clean sounding, while being pleasantly good value 300Bs.

CAJames wrote on 11/17/23 at 03:45:34:

I have to agree. So glad I sprung for them on my SEWE300B.

I was amazed at how orange the paduak appeared initially. It had an almost unnatural, flourescent quality. The color changes fairly rapidly. I had the exact same Sarah configuration: paduak, copper, and black chicken heads. I have 15 other boxes in my racks, and this is the only one that is not black or dark gray, so the copper makes a nice accent.

Brian, I was instantly sold on Paduk the moment Steve shared the first wood base images a while back. It is so eye catching—a true statement piece.  Love the contrast against my maple rack!

LiquidBlue: Thx—stay tuned!

My stock rectifier started chattering at about the 3 month mark, but I was getting ready to replace that tube anyway so it was not much of an annoyance. My WE 300B tubes both make intermittent pinging sounds for about 20 minutes after start up and shut down. I guess this is a known issue with these tubes, but I don't know how common it is. Supposedly it's not something to be concerned about, but it is annoying.

My big Had always makes a tick sound (it seems only once) that comes from a WE300B during the first few minutes of warm up. It sounds like it originates from one of the tubes. The sound doesn’t play through the speakers. Even if the volume is already up with no source playing. Tubes almost appear to be alive. Sometimes I burp or even stutter. I hope my wife doesn’t try to replace me for a quieter model. My Shanling has transformer hum that doesn’t play through the speakers as well but is audible if things are quiet enough. I love mechanical clocks (watches also for that matter) and one is in my living (main listening) room. What’s with this tick-tock B.S. And Mr. CAJames, I think that goes without saying with tube amps.

I dream of a buckle I’ll never put on. Ralph

Yup, my KT77s also made the tinging noise upon startup and shutdown for about 5 min. I too, figured it was part of that particular tubes thermal expansion sonic signature. It was predictable and short lived. Didn’t bother me. This chattering was not predictable and occurring during critical listening, made it annoying.

Looks good too!

nipsy: It’s an isolation platform. This review does a good job of explaining it:

https://positive-feedback.com/reviews/hardware-reviews/butcher-block-acoustics/

I also love the look of Butcher Block-so it’s both form and function.

I’m OCD about reducing vibrations and the maple rack is just the starting point—will just leave it there for the moment.

The claw things are cable lifters from AudioQuest.

I’ve been so focused on Sarah (literally) that I’ve forgotten to take pics of the Caintuck Baffles. I’ll try to remedy that soon. Love Love Love them.

Sir; all about titles? How about Dr. Racekam, a variation of Mr. Camshaft. I personally witnessed your overpowering presence at Decfest. I did a lot of listening at Decfest but I think I only talked to a few. Steve, his wife, Bob Z., Sarah & of course the lovely Veronica. Also several people while listening to music. I was so humbled in your presence to dare to make a peep. Racked by feelings of inadequacy. I now wish I would have at least said hello. You are a whirlwind!
     Rock on my friend, rock on. Ralph

P.S. I was very impressed with the sound in Randy’s SRO shed with a 2.3 & open baffles.

How do You Measure Delight?

In glowing reviews of other products, I’ve sometimes used the help from the movie “The Prestige”, which explains the three acts of magic.

“Every great magic trick consists of three parts or acts. The first part is called “The Pledge”. The magician shows you something ordinary: a deck of cards, a bird or a man. He shows you this object. Perhaps he asks you to inspect it to see if it is indeed real, unaltered, normal. But of course… it probably isn’t. The second act is called “The Turn”. The magician takes the ordinary something and makes it do something extraordinary. Now you’re looking for the secret… but you won’t find it, because of course you’re not really looking. You don’t really want to know. You want to be fooled. But you wouldn’t clap yet. Because making something disappear isn’t enough; you have to bring it back. That’s why every magic trick has a third act, the hardest part, the part we call “The Prestige”.”

Let’s apply these acts to Sarah:

The magician (Steve) shows us a bunch of components, including wires, chassis, a wood base, a transformer, capacitors, sockets, binding posts, tubes etc.  

The magician then meticulously assembles all of these in a beautiful amp.  You oooh and aaah, but you’re not clapping yet…

Finally, the magician starts to amplify music through said amp, and instantly transports you to another dimension, which in our case, is a live performance.  Not a facsimile of a performance, mind you—-an actual honest to God, appropriately scaled, live performance.

Now you CLAP like there’s no tomorrow, because that ladies and gents—was the magician’s third and final act—the ‘Prestige’.

To say that Sarah has exceeded my wildest expectations, is to put it mildly. She has been (and is) a revelation.  Forget about music for a second.  I find myself just staring and marveling at her beauty and gravitas. She has instantly become the center point, the queen of my rig, and every other component just bows down in reverence.

Everything, and I MEAN EVERYTHING has improved and I’m still early in the break-in period.  Where do I even start?  Perhaps with listing the setup:

DAC: Holo Audio Spring 3 KTE
ZBIT: Full Throttle.  That’s the setting I use, when the ZR2 is bypassed.
ZR2: Bypassed
Pre: icOn 4 Passive Pre
Cabling to Sarah: TWL 10 Plus PC, Decware ZWIRE Speaker cables, and TWL Spirit II Single Ended Interconnects
Speakers: Li Audio Fast 15 drivers housed in Caintuck Audio’s beautiful two-tone Walnut and African Sapele baffles
Tubes: Stock complement from Decware
Impedance Switch: Hi
Voicing Switch: Back—for deeper soundstage

Mid-Range:

I used to comment with the Had amp on how the singer/band was in the room.  

I was wrong.  I have been humbled.

That was merely the projection of the singer in the room.  The actual singer has finally decided to drop by—come up close, and be a lot more personal.  I can’t get over this. I can’t. Listening to Tracy Chapman’s “Stand by Me” (Live), I was in tears. The intensity of emotions that the artist intended is coming through in such a truthful manner, that I’ve been just taken aback and have wondered on many a track, “so that’s what they were trying to share”.  It has been a profound realization.

Soundstage:

I’m a sucker for deep soundstages and one of the reasons I switched to OB last year was the additional depth it provides.  But it was just that—an additional, may 2-3 ft back at best, perhaps pushing 5 ft on it’s best day.  But this? Holy shit!  Sarah does 5 ft back while walking and chewing gum, and goes back double that distance with an equal amount of grace.  One of the tracks that really blew me away with the depth of the soundstage was Jazz Variants by o-zone percussion group.  I’ve heard this track multiple times, but not like this—-this was epic, with the percussion hits coming from like 10 ft back but without losing an iota of intensity!

Similarly, the width of the soundstage has gotten wider and the height taller, to delightful levels. But all of this still doesn’t really describe what makes this setting so devilishly compelling.  It’s as if Steve has figured out how to faithfully recreate the scale of a live band/concert. I’m in awe and tired of picking up my jaw from the floor.  Seriously Steve, would it be too much to ask Decware to pack a jaw holder in the shipping box as a must needed accessory?

Imaging, Blacker Blacks, Resolution, and Detail:

Instruments are more prominently etched within their respective spaces, where each instrument is awarded equal opportunity to shine under the spotlight vs. sacrificing one over the other.  With the Had amp, instruments at the outer edges of the soundstage always felt a bit weak or frayed.  Not so with Sarah.  She doesn’t care. She is faithful. She is benevolent. She listens to all her subjects with the same amount of respect.

The background is so god damn black that while listening to Jacintha’s “Moon River”, I thought the track had ended and was waiting for the next track to start, when she stated singing again for a couple of seconds to finish the track and I was just left stunned. I’ve listened to this track multiple times and should not have been fooled.  “What the hell just happened?”

I recall the feeling of excitement and awe when I switched from VHS to DVD, or from SD to HD to 4K on TV.  Well, that feeling is back and I haven’t been able to shake it off for the past week.  Yes, there is more meat on the bones.  But, there is more-a harmonic richness I was getting with the ZR2 engaged, without impacting the speed.

And because all of the above, I am hearing more details—something I thought I had already achieved or addressed. Nope. It’s a deeper listening with details emerging that I didn’t pay attention to before.  On “Dreams (Piano Version)” by Lissie, ironically, I never really heard the Piano until last night—always and only focusing on her vocals.  There was nothing else to pay attention to.  Last night, when I heard the Piano clearly for the first time high up within the soundstage—well, that was another holy shit moment.

But detail is a double-edged sword.  The downside (to some) is that you’re going to hear every imperfection too.  I’m now hearing all these imperfections in recordings that I didn’t know existed. But, that’s what makes it more human to me and I would accept that trade-off every day of the week.

As a result of all of the above, the presentation is without a doubt, more resolutely holographic compared to my Had amp.

My son had the best analogy that sums up this section so aptly.  He was like:

“Dad, it feels like we’re watching a movie in an IMAX theatre!”

Bass and Higher Frequencies:

I think my ZR2’s days are numbered.  

Yup, you heard that right.  While in the signal chain, I’ve continued to bypass it.  The way Sarah is pressurizing the room is insane given my KT77’s on the Had amp are rated for 10 watts per channel.  Sarah (with the three OC2 equivalents) is 7 watts, at best.  Bass hits are deeper, more pronounced, more textured.  The level of slam I’m experiencing with drum hits is mind-boggling.  While this trait was impressive from the get go, it’s got even better after 100 hours.  I can’t get enough of it.

And yes, there is more sparkle and satisfying zing at the top end.  It can occasionally come off as a bit bright, but that will season over time with more hours on the amp and tubes, not to mention, eventually a different compliment of tubes, and Steve’s network for the Fast 15s.  Not concerned.

Decay:

All I have to say here is that the notes have come out to play (no pun intended).

And they are in no hurry to leave…

Dynamics:  

I didn’t have to test this much.  I just had to play ‘Tin Pan Alley’ and was blown away.  Later I played “Private Investigations” and almost jumped out of my listening char.  Other tracks have further cemented this discovery—Sarah (by far) produces the best dynamic range I’ve heard in my audio journey so far.

Volume:

This is where my experience differs from Ghostship—I haven’t experienced any decrease in volume (yet). In fact, it’s the opposite—I had to lower the volume by 4 steps on my Autoformer based passive pre.

Control:

I’ve not previously thought about or talked about this aspect before, but I think it’s worth noting here.  I cannot fathom how a 6 watt SET has such an iron grip compared to a 10 watt Single-Ended Pentode amp.  I’ve played a few bass heavy tracks where the Had amp struggled to keep up.  Sarah, is blowing through the same tracks without breaking a sweat.  She always seems to be teasing me with:

“Is that all you’ve got?”

Conclusion:

I prefer not to overstay my welcome and will just end with this:

Every single second of the almost two year wait has been worth its weight in gold.  I’m truly, madly, deeply, in love.

Steve, what a “Prestige”!

CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP

Thx Gilf, BlackBess, and LiquidBlue.

BlackBess, I am sorry we didn’t get to connect at Decfest.  Next time, let’s do more than say hello!  Let’s’ have a good chat!

LiquidBlue: Resistance might be futile  ;D

James, thanks so much for that wonderful compliment! Now, I’m awaiting your review!

Oh my! Ok, in my defense:

1) I’ve been ummm, a bit distracted with Sarah
2) I did check the Reviews forum to see if you had posted, but didn’t check the UFO 25th forum

Will respond there.

Back on topic, I almost wished I had included last night’s listening session in my review after completing 130 hrs of break-in. I listened to probably 10 instrumental (mostly percussion) tracks from my playlist.  It was another mind-bending level of refinement from what I described in my review.  

Speaking of break-in, I took Steve’s suggestion (from the UFO 25th development thread) to heart and have been utilizing a 5 hr playlist of Tibetan Bowl music to help the caps learn/settle.  I figured why not?

Great looking room Kam! I love how your Sarah is front and center commanding all the attention with her grace and beauty. Question, what is the bass trap you have in the corner? Do you find it to be very effective? Do you have them on the corners behind you as well?

Thx nipsy!

Thx LiquidBlue—all my treatment is from GIK.  The one on the left is the only corner trap (with diffusion) I have.  After consulting with my GIK guru, we decided that this was a good approach since the stairwell on the right was also acting as a diffusor and absorber of sorts….so we balanced things out with putting a corner trap on the left and that made an impact on both the soundstage and taming of bass.  

On the back of the room, I couldn’t get a corner trap because of two reasons:

1) I have a couch that is an exact fit for the width of the room
2) I have my surround speakers (for my HT) mounted halfway up the corners.

But I have the next best thing.  I have dedicated bass traps all across the back half of the room. So, with the combination of the couch and the monster bass traps, I am addressing bass build-up and reflections in the back.  Here’s a pic:



In addition to that I have GIKS bass trap/diffusion combo on the side walls and on the front walls behind the subs.  Oh and yea, the ceiling cloud, which also does double duty as both absorber and diffusor.

Kahuna Jack: Haha…the thought had crossed my mind.  I also love my 8000f’s, which is why I didn’t get rid of them after securing the OBs.  And they are in regular use as part of 5.2.4 HT setup.  They are kick ass even without the two SVS subs doing rumble duty.

Sadly, I’m so distracted with Sarah, that my HT setup is feeling neglected for the past week or two. That might change tonight if I don’t end up falling asleep in the listening chair.

Kam, I tried about a dozen rectifiers in my SEWE300B--including a Cryotone 5AR4 and the best two were the Sophia Electric Aqua 274B and the Aqua 274B II. I think you have some interesting comparisons coming ahead.

They are very very similar in all ways, the advantage with the II is that it is supposedly more robust and will work in the SEWE300B without any downside (one of my originals arced once, and was not tried again; another I used worked without any arcing for a month or more, and then I got a II) and with potentially more longevity than the original.

In my system the Aquas have the best tonal balance and the lowest noise floor.

And. . . the glass is deeper blue and looks really cool!

Well, I don't want to argue with Jeff, I'll just say that I differ in that I don't hear as distinct a difference between the two in use at low volumes, and as in everything audio, especially of the resolution and transparency of these amps and preamps, everything matters in a tube complement. The II is deemed safer for the SEWE300B so that one is in use there. Adjusting gain etc. I've gotten as good a sound with the OG Aqua.

But as you've ordered a II it doesn't matter. I'm using two IIs and two OG Aquas. . . in three systems. And have an OG Aqua to spare for a future ZP3. These are my preferred rectifiers in all the components. I've switched them around and don't hear as distinct a difference as Jeff seems to. But exaggerating sounds and differences is all part of audio talk. I've tried to pare it down in my own impressions when I can.

The other Lon—-first of all, thx for the vote of confidence! You don’t know how timely your response is.  Literally, an hour ago, I was reading one my favorite Hifi reviewers post on CAF,  and I had one of those “I’m never going to be good enough’ moments.  So, this was a great pick me upper!

During the past few days, I’ve hadn’t had a chance to listen much due to family get togethers since Thanksgiving.  That said, I’ve been lucky enough to keep putting hours on Sarah.  I shut off the rig at hour #199 tonight.  The last song I selected was Phill Collins’ “In the Air Tonight’ and Mamma Mia..that drum break at the end.  The scale of it.  I’m at a loss for words. Thunderous, maybe?

Sidebar: I’ve been meaning to share this for the past week, but keep forgetting.  In the Had amp, once you turned the power off, the caps seemed to have enough juice to last a good 8-10 seconds before the music completely died. It start distorting around the 5 second mark, fizzling out in the next few seconds.  With Sarah, it dies out almost immediately.  I’m not saying it’s a bad thing…just an interesting observation.

Yes, that opening note is incredible. Just listened Saturday as well. I've been privileged to have seen them live about a dozen times. I always look forward to hearing this track; along with an obligatory Rage Against the Machine cover.

When you go over the details on your new PC, would you be able to discuss which one(s) you tried and moved on from as well and if you have tried any of the Decware PC's?

I had to go back and listen to the original Pink Floyd version of Echoes. Classic. Thank you.

Kamran, So glad you are experiencing the holographicness that is possible. Sounds like, you have entered the area where things start to get abstract and difficult to explain. For me it is, It becomes hyperreal which is a wild head space to be in. It’s very real for you, yet conveying the sound and experience becomes difficult due to the way we language and describe sound. It’s lacking in description, doesn’t do justice to what is happening.

A wild rabbit hole to go down is to look into the concept of hyperreality. As our audio systems become more resolving our senses become fluid-plastic. This goes way beyond psychoacoustics. This is where we start to hallucinate. Flying into a piano and exploring what the notes are doing inside the piano. It sounds like a drug trip, maybe it is closer to taking a hallucinogen that we realize?

I’ve been meditating for 2 decades. In deep medication there are some phenomenon that mirror listening to music. A sense of lightness. A feeling of spinning or flying through space. An energy inside the head, a warm tingling energy. Vivid visual shapes, can be things like fractals or solid shapes changing—a sphere into a square—getting more complex. Eventually becoming a semi-interactive experience where things can be observed in a way not compliant with what the “rules” of reality are.

After a good evening listening session I won’t get into a car and drive right away. I’m too blown out to safely drive a car. This reminds me of when I was living in Cebu, a classmate and his wife who were working in China visited. His wife was in the sweet spot, after the song she requested was over she remained silent. He touched her shoulder and asked if she had fallen asleep. Her response “No, I’m slowly returning to reality.”

Another time I had a buddy over after a track I know really activates this phenomenon, he went on to describe how he was in a lucid dream like state. He was running through a bamboo forrest and had adventure.

So is a good system a hallucinogen? I suspect it is.

PS. Rod Gab put on a great show live! Their energy is fantastic on stage. I’ve seen them twice and they rocked.

GroovySauce—-you hit the proverbial nail on the head.  Akin to an out of body experience, it’s getting increasingly challenging to describe what I’m hearing. I guess that’s a good problem to have.  

Thx for your kind words Sean.  Absolutely loved learning about Zoey!

I hope you enjoy the 5AR4. I had the OG version of this from Cryotone and it did not suit my system. The Aqua 274B II sure does.

I can’t make GroovySauce wait any longer. Tonight was the 5U4G’s last hurrah.

A Tale of Three Tales

This is a tale of heartbreak.

This is a tale of luck.

This is a tale of jubilation.

All in the same day.

So let’s rewind shall we?

So first thing this am, I finally learned what other tube rollers mean when they talk about how sometimes, rectifiers arc.

The second I plugged in the Cryotone 5AR4 v2 and turned Sarah on— It blew up in the most spectacular ‘fireworks within a tube’ manner that was simultaneously mesmerizing and terrifying.

Maybe cryo’d tubes also die dynamically?

Nothing against Cryotone—I bought it used and I knew the risks.

Anyways, thx to GroovySauce’s quick counsel — I turned Sarah off, removed the rectifier and unplugged the piggy cable from the Swiss Digital fuse box (SDFB). Re-inserted the Decware 5U4G, reconnected the piggy, confirmed the green light was lit on the SDFB, turned Sarah on again and she was making sweet music in no time!

After testing operations for 15 min and calming down, I turned the amp off, waited another 15 min and inserted the Sophia Electric Aqua II rectifier in, said a silent prayer, and hit the power button.

I’m not going to go into what happened next as I only have time to reflect (after all, this is a reflections thread isn’t it) on the tale of heartbreak and luck (or good fortune).

I was really looking forward to trying out the Cryotone rectifier. That will now have to wait. That said, I did write to Don about it to let him know what happened—not really expecting anything in return (considering it was used), but merely as a statistical data point as well as an effort to investigate what went wrong. The tube had a date of Oct 23, so it was not even two months old prior to its unfortunate demise.

It most likely got damaged in shipping, but we may never know for sure. Not every setback needs closure.  It is, what it is.

However, this is also a tale of pure dumb luck!

Had it not been for the Swiss Digital Fuse Box (SDFB) and copper Sluggo, I would have 100% blown the stock fuse. And had I gone the route of Synergistic fuses vs. the SDFB, I would have been out a couple hundred dollars.  All it took, was simple plugging and unplugging of the SDFB and Sarah was back in action—under a minute.

Think about that for a second…

So, on just its fourth day of operation, the SDFB has proven that not only it has the chops to make your amp sing to its fullest potential, free from the shackles of a stock fuse, but also, be the overprotective bodyguard (ampguard?) you never knew you needed and now you can’t live without.

I'm glad I haven't had a SDFB "pop" in normal use. I have tripped them went trying setups. a 3 amp slow blow will "pop" trying to power up a ZMA. My brother also did some testing with loading up a 3amp SDFB and "popped" it a few times.

When I was in Cebu, PH I had a chi-fi amp. The rectifier would arc every few power ons. I ordered a new set of tubes.In PH it could take a 4-8 weeks to get packages sometimes. I don't recommend continuing using a tube that arcs regularly.

I've heard similar stories to Lon's.

I'm also looking forward to your impressions of the new Aqua 274b II.

Now that you have more time on the amp have you tried changing back to 8 ohm taps? Have you been playing with the voicing switch?

Quote:


Funny you mention this, I just had someone PM me asking the same question.

I haven't asked Steve about it. What is the difference between using the SDFB and a fuse by Synergistic Research or Audio Magic? I haven't heard about issues with those.

Years ago when the high dollar fuses came out I recall similar discussions.

The SDFB is a fuse. It works by a different mechanism. I don't see it bypassing the the safety mechanism, the fuse. I see it the same as going from the cheapie five cent fuse to a fancy glass-ceramic-voodoo-pixiedust fuse. As long as the fuse works as intended I don't see an issue.

Of course if you must know, Steve is the person to answer.

The other Lon: My take is exactly the same as GroovySauce.

I'm glad that the Aqua II has worked out so well. The two I have I really like using. The used Cryotone 5AR4 I had didn't arc and blow but didn't sound anywhere near as good.

I did a comparison yesterday between the OG Aqua and the II. I do hear a subtle difference as Jeff and you seem to, or rather I'd say it's subtler than you both describe, but then I just write in a more low key way this decade about audio, that's how I hear and describe now.

What a great discovery the SEWE300B can bring to a system. Many of these details you are describing with the SEWE300B have been part of my listening experience this decade and a bit before, with the blossoming and tuning and tailoring of my SE84UFO3 Monoblocks and ZTPRE--they are already a standard that I have upheld in my system and processed with my listening brain; they are a new level of accuracy and inspire me to describe as clearly and unadorned as I can. These Decware components are such wonderful servants to the music. More and more it's become about the music itself for me, which is often an experience beyond words. The system takes me into the musical worlds each disc can travel to. I just am so grateful for the escape into musical realms, and so grateful to have tens of thousands of discs to travel with. I can never live in the music for long enough!

You have great listening ahead of you as the amp seasons. . . it gets really seasoned around the 500 mark and then slowly incrementally still improves.

Thx Lon. Agreed, I don’t think it’s night and day better, but there is something there that I’ve continued to notice for the past two days.  Let’s just call it more better.  The darker blue—can’t stop staring at it.

I’m at the 250 hr mark as of last night and expect to reach 500 before the end of the month.

GroovySauce: LOL—not in a rush to share a tale of sadness, but with all things audio (and life), it will eventually come.

Today, I figured I’d roll in a Mullard 12AU7 vs. the stock Sylvania.  Let’ see how that pans out.

ArtMan—you mean the Spring 3 KTE—using the stock for now and intend to upgrade to a SDFB in the near future.

Kamran, Yes I meant the Spring. I replaced the stock fuse on my May DAC with an SR Purple and it elevated the sound of the May. I then got all giddy and ordered an SR Master fuse. It took the sound of the May to another level. I assume the SDFB will elevate your Spring to an equal or greater effect. The stock fuses clearly hold back the potential of the DAC.

I’ll be honest—I don’t know if it’s:

1) Sarah just seasoning (we are approx. 270 hrs)
2) SRA PC settling (installed at approx. 150 hrs)
3) SDFB breaking in (5th day)
4) Rolling the Mullard 12AU7 (first day)

But tonight’s session, was epic. And I mean that literally.  I’ve never heard such scale and holography as I did in the past 1.5 hrs.

Today, a playlist by ABXAudiophiles came to my attention. It’s on multiple platforms including Qobuz. I decided to give it a spin.  It has almost 60 tracks and I’m familiar with some of them.  I went through the first 13 tracks.  One after another, there was vivid imagery of instruments emerging from a deep dark black hole, the scale, and the holographic nature of the presentation just shocked me.  On the tail-end of one track, there was an effect of a plane or jet moving from left to right.  I kid you not, I thought my Atmos speakers were on—so realistic was the panning above my head.  As good as my Atmos speakers are, Sarah’s holography just gave them a run for their money.

Oh and that’s not even the grand finale.

The very last track (Pillar I by Andy Akiho), after which I was going to turn the rig off, was so damn epic, so damn vivid, with such surgical precision of instruments, and deep thunderous bass (which seemed to put my dual SVS PB 2000 Pros to shame) that…well I’m still looking for my jaw.

And ppl think OBs don’t have good bass.  My Fast 15’s nailed that track.

Instead of turning it off, I ran up the stairs to my son’s room who was home from college and dragged him down to listen to it one more time and he was equally floored.  And then I explained to him what dad has been up to with all the tweaks including SDFB.  He loves the look of the SRA PC and was feeling the outer jacket to make sure it wasn’t a snake, lol.

That’s it for tonight folks.  Goodnight and God Bless!

Kamran, If you posted your experiences daily I would make sure to check the forums daily!

Quote:


We should tell Jonny to make a special edition with real snake skin!  :D

This picture sums up the psychedelic experience from last night:

Some more pics under different lighting conditions…




lose emojis

The  ABx Audiophile playlist was excellent—took me about 4 days to get through but loved most of the tracks.  

I then switched to Billie Eilish to gauge the low end response and it was better than I’ve ever heard before.  There was this one track (I’m struggling to recall which one) where an uber realistic background vocal suddenly came from the right speaker I had one of those ‘heart in my throat’ moments again.  Still struggling to get used to this level of transparency.  Sarah is either this spooky good or my wife has just gotten better at playing tricks on me.

Then I decided to play around with the voicing switch and brought it forward and I have to say, I’m digging it.  I feared the forward switch would completely kill the depth, but it didn’t.  It was still very satisfying, while the general presentation seemed to get a tad more holographic.  Can’t argue with that.

The last two nights have been mostly Patricia Barber.  Went through two albums “Higher’ and ‘NightClub’. The former didn’t do much for me, but the second one (which has a rep of being bright and I can see why) was fantastic on Sarah—with fantastic vocals and immersive instrumentation with equal amounts of grit and finesse.  No fatigue or excessive brightness experienced in the rig.

Sidebar: I grew up on 70 to 80’s Bollywood music but don’t generally listen to this genre in the rig because as my tastes and standards have evolved, I find it very excessive in the treble region.  That said, I made an exception last night and listened to a comparatively well recorded track that I’ve listened to a thousand times since I was a kid, and it sounded completely different from what I am accustomed to. Not a bad different, but it also didn’t give me the ‘I’m cozy in my pajamas’ feeling.  Thinking more about it, I’m just not used to this level of fidelity with that particular genre, and it sounded (for lack of a better term), alien.  Maybe, I just need to re-wire my brain.

Great shots Kamran!

The blue on the rectifier is so bold. Reminds me of Methylene Blue, which I love the color of.


Quote:


I've experienced this too. Makes me wonder what causes this. Is it that the high frequency information is finally being properly/more accurately rendered so it's not a painful unpleasant experience?

I'm in the same boat as Lon, there is the initial burnin period. Then the slow almost unperceivable increase of wonderfulness.

Interesting. The third one will be for the input tube, not the rectifier.

I'm using Cryotone input and driver tubes, and 300B-WC, but love the sound of the 75C1 in comparison to any 0C2, so not going to try the 0C2 . . . or don't plan to at this time.

In regards to Sarah sessions , have you been playing with speaker position at all??? or they have remained in same spot .

The Giggles

Ok, today was a weird day, but with a happy ending.

I guess putting on 300+ hrs in the first month is not bad.  I started the break-in playlist at 352 hrs. One of my goals this weekend was to listen to the Cowboy Junkies-The Trinity Sessions.  I figured today would be a good day to check it out.  Actually, the term ‘day’ is important.  It’s a ritual of mine to listen to this album in the late morning/early afternoon.  Unfortunately, I missed that window today as I was committed to a boys BBQ at noon, got back later than I expected and then there was no way to go straight to a listening session (unless I had death wish), so I helped around and before I knew it, the sun was setting.  I snuck in to the rig to catch a couple of tracks in the last remaining embers of sunlight.

It sounded like crap.

Three tracks in and I bolted.  The first time in a month, I was a little miffed at Sarah.  I don’t know what it was, but I just wasn’t connecting with the album at all.  It sounded flat and uninviting.  Maybe, I didn’t set the volume just right, or I’m just a slave to listening to this album at a particular time.  I’ll have to revisit it later.

Then I returned a couple of hours later to do my nightly session and started off with some select female artists and was loving the immersion and then suddenly I had this overwhelming urge to do modern pop so I put on Dua Lipa’s ‘Future Nostalgia’—one of my guilty pleasure albums.

That’s when the giggling started.

It sounded so damn good and immersive that I’m surprised my wife and daughter didn’t come come dancing down the steps (they are huge fans) and then after listening to a few tracks, I figured, let’s stick with the pop theme, but switch to another artist.

But who?

The second word of Dua’s album gave me a clue—‘Nostalgia’.

I put on Michael Jackson’s Thriller and listened to Beat It, Smooth Criminal, Wanna be Startin Somethin, and Thriller.

Stupendous….Absolutely Stupendous.

I’ve spent 4 decades listening to these tracks and it was as if I was listening to it for the very first time.  The soundstage, the detail, the tonality, and the immersion was unreal.  That opening guitar riff on Beat it—I’m still thinking about it.

Well, I didn’t want to piss off Sarah too much with this genre, so I decided to call it a night, but boy, it was fun!

I also finally executed my first purchase from Don at Wathen Audiophile—ended up ordering a pair of ECC88-WC’s and a third OC2. Didn’t elect to get their 12AU7, since I have a bunch of 12AU7’s on loan to check out including RCA Clear Top, a Siemens (it will be my first time with a German tube), and a Northern Electric.

The plan was to break in the amp using stock tubes, and switch to tubes of my own choosing by 350’ish hours.  I’m on target.

Thx for your kind words Will. It’s so good to hear from you!

Actually, I’m going to steal a phrase you used in my next post—thx for the inspiration!

Quote:


If you had one day in 30 that didn't sound right... then later it was mind melting you are way ahead of the curve.

Years ago I would have 1 day in 30 that was mind melting.

Wow! That dark shot with the tubes glowing and the blue fluorescence is terrific!

I read on another forum that WE says 500 hours for the tubes to be fully burned in! Enjoy the ride!

Thx GroovySauce for the insight—I do feel extremely grateful that bad sessions (session to be particular) have been kept to a minimum.  And yes, I was taken aback by the nighttime blue fluorescent glow.  Honestly, at first I thought there was something wrong with the tubes and had to look it up!

Lol Paul2.  Thx!

I haven't tried too many 300B tubes. . . Sophia Electric 300B Classic in blue glass, Takatsuki 300B (borrowed from CA James), PsVane HIFI, and Cryotone 300B-WC.

I really like the 300B Classic in blue glass--it may be my favorite sound but one failed on me after 600 or 700 hours. (I do have a replacement coming soon). But reading what Steve wrote about it and others' experiences I decided to spend the big bucks on the Cryotone as how it was described seemed best for my system, and I have to admit it sounds really really good, and I think will be quite reliable in the years ahead. One day I may try the Western Electric WE300B, but my finances likely won't allow it for several years to come.

I'm quite content with the Cryotone, it works really well with the Aqua 274B II rectifier.

Yes, I rolled about a dozen rectifiers to be honest (I have way too many! need to put some up for sale). The OG Aqua 274B was my favorite with the 300B before the Cryotone 300B-WC arrived and by that time I had an Aqua 274B II and it was an improvement. I since bought a II for my Taboo Mk IV with the mods, and have another on order for my CSP3 with the mods. It's just a bit more than a subtle upgrade over the OG Aqua.

A little Exercise and a little Voodoo

So funny story, this.

Today my wife had booked the basement rig to do a Teams presentation.  Preferring not to pause my break-in playlist, I decreased the volume on the autoformer to one -72db, which is one step prior to mute.  For good measure, I de-throttled the ZBIT several clicks, satisfied she wouldn’t be able to hear jack.

Well, barely 15 min in to the room, I got a frantic series of texts:

What is this voodoo?
Weird music
Like scary music

I initially missed these texts so she called me and was like she can’t figure out where this sound is coming from

Prior to texting/calling me, she had texted her colleagues to gauge if somebody had music playing on their speakers and or was it part of some glitch in the operator led conference call that everybody was hearing.

Anyways, back to the frantic call. I said I’d take care of it and paused the music on the phone.

And then I thought, how friggin low is the noise-floor that she was able to pick it out?  She does have good hearing.  Probably better than mine.

She emerges after an hour on a 10-min break, and I snuck back down and de-throttled the ZBIT even further, thinking that should do it and unpaused the music and we get the following texts:

Why is there music in the basement
Constantly
It is so freaking bizarre

I paused the music again, completely baffled, and perhaps a little annoyed.  Who knew a low noise-floor was going to come back to haunt me?

So post conf. call we were doing a postmortem of the incident with my son on FaceTime. She was explaining how she was hearing music and at first thought it was on the call, but nobody else was hearing it. Then she mentioned it coming from behind her and I stopped her immediately and asked:

Explain to your son, which speaker was playing?

She was like, the speaker behind me (referring to my surround speaker for my HT)

My son and I looked at each other, grinning, and then giggling.

Figuring out that it was the wrong answer, she was like maybe it was above my head, so perhaps your ceiling speaker.

At this point, my son and I couldn’t contain our laughter and I pointed out loud that this is as good confirmation as any as how holographic Sarah is.

Exasperated, she muttered something about shutting down her for good one of these days.

Context: She is not a fan—refers to her as my mistress given the time I spend downstairs….

Why were you playing music anyways, she asked? Were you exercising your speakers. To be technically correct, I answered, ‘I was exercising my tubes’ and got a hmmph in return.

Anyways, the convo shifted to other topics, but in my internal postmortem, I was excited about securing this unexpected confirmation of what I’ve been experiencing all along.

Ladies and gents—the immersion is unreal with the WE 300Bs.

Oh, in case you were wondering, we never revealed to her where the music was coming from….

This pair of WE is worth it for the glow alone.

Thx James. Sarah and tubes doing the heavy lifting here—all I need to do is click a button.

And yes, agreed in passing a signal is not necessary to break in a tube. I’m just being OCD right now, trying to leave no stone unturned while I explore this new landscape.

I love it when someone not involved in the hobby smashes a description perfectly.