Fellow Decware friends. I am a new entrant into this esteemed group, as a recipient of my first Decware amp; the ufo2.1, through Steve's latest auction. My excitement is beyond words, as this exact amp was that which I listened to when visiting Steve and Decware back in April, just prior to Axpona. Hands down, Steve's listening room was far superior to that of any Axpona room, and since then, I've been counting down the days of slow movement across the pages on the waitlist. I am still a few years out, however I am fortunate to have won the auction for the first tube amp I've ever listened to. Thank you Steve for your priceless contributions to this hobby.

To this community, I have a few simple questions; pardon my ignorance.

1. What are the 4 switches in front of the Input RCAs in my image? Since this is a custom piece, it looks different from the standard UFO2.1. I am pretty sure one set is the input selector but curious about the other. I wish I could share pics but I haven't reached my post count yet.

2. I currently have my Eversolo Dmp-A6 ME connected directly to the amp via RCA. Should I set my volume on the streamer to pass through to control the volume solely with the Amp?

3. How would I hook up a Rel subwoofer that uses a high level connection? Just plug in the spades to the binding posts?

4. The Klipsch 600M2 temporary as I wait for Omegas, however I was curious about the bass response. The bass seems quite distorted when I turn the volume know beyond 66% or so. Is that normal? I imagine this is more a limitation of the speakers, or does it get better with time, or a sub?

5. Any other word of advice you'd have for a first-timer? A ZRock? Other components to think about?

Of course I will remain in line for a Tori or ZMA down the line but I am at absolute peace and bliss with this one. Thank you all.

-AB

Hi Abhishek. Welcome and congrats on your new Decware amp. CAJames gave great advice, but I’ll try to add my 2 cents.

First, I took a look at the photo in the email for the auction and concur. The two in the back are likely the speaker impedance switch’s and should be mirrored. You can adjust while listening to hear which setting you prefer. The front two are likely the source selector and input tube bias switch. This is my speculation. If you still have trouble, I recommend a call to Steve to confirm.

I connect my Eversolo to a Decware preamp, so use the volume pass through and adjust gain/volume between the CSP3 and amp. You can try both ways and play around with the variable output on the streamer to see if you hear a difference adjusting the streamer down and the amp up or vice versa. Turning off the pass though does allow you to control volume remotely.

I have a REL sub connected to my UFO25 using high level connections. I also use Omega speakers (SAM’s). The Omegas go pretty deep in my room, but the sub definitely helps to fill in the bottom down to 30hz and gives some more “atmosphere”. You’ll need to play around with placement and crossover and gain settings on the sub to get it to pair seamlessly. Once you get those magic settings, it truly does enhance the experience greatly. I use banana plugs for the speaker connections and spades to connect the REL to the amp. Red cable to right positive and yellow to left positive. Connect the one black wire to either of the negative posts. The issue you will likely have is loud hum from the sub. The Zen amp outputs are not connected to ground, so to correct the hum issue you will need to use a jumper cable to connect the two negative posts together. This should fix the hum. You may want to revisit the subs crossover/gain settings once you have the Omegas and they have a couple hundred hours of play on them.

I suppose the distortion at 66% volume is clipping. Steve outlines this in the UFO2 manual, indicating that with 2 volts out from the source, which I believe is what the Eversolo outputs using the RCA connections, the amp will clip at 2/3 volume. Earlier than that with more voltage from the source. Checking the meters as James outlined is good advice.

Spend some time to get familiar with your system as it is now and read up on other options for next steps. I agree that a tube preamp would be an excellent next step. I lived without mine for a month in April and realized how much it brings to my own system.
LB

We own a 2003 Hsu Research VTf-3 sub (the original front firing one) and we do use the high level speaker inputs on it. Makes everything a cinch from a tube amp I think. I don't know of we are record holders in the longest living, working powered subwoofer. We purchased it when it was first released in 2003 and it has been used a LOT over the years. Love this thing!  When 'things' were simple. Anyway, as James said- use the speaker level in the same posts on the back of the amp. Works like a champ. Learned this stuff from members right here on this forum. We cannot hear hum until our ears are inches from the subs driver. 1 foot away and nothing. Just awesome!  All the best and have fun! We do!        edit:      ~~by the way, our son made sure to buy his subs with high level speaker ins/outs for hooking up his Zen amp.  Many newer subs these days do not include them. Just makes things simple......also, we use the Oppo 103's remote for volume adjustments and it too works great! We leave the amp at about 3 o'clock. Currently the only source for us is that Oppo player into our Zen.

This recent thread should help re: DACs.

https://www.decware.com/cgi-bin/yabb22/YaBB.pl?num=1723081022

Thanks Lon. I checked out the DAC thread; probably give the Geshelli a whirl. You're right about patience is the name of the game here. My kids have gotten into this hobby (8 and 5 year olds), and they keep me grounded even though i love the gear. Listening to music with them every night before bedtime helps me refocus on the real goal for all of this which is to enjoy the music. BTW, a big shout out to Steve and what he's built here. I was fortunate to visit his home and listening room back in April and it was an ethereal experience. The hospitality and patience Steve and his family showed, answering my idiotic questions and allowing me to be immersed in his sanctuary was truly unforgettable. Thank you Steve!

I have much to learn from all of you; it's fun sharing it with my kids and wife. They have gotten into the hobby as well!

One of a kind beauty, and great photos. My first look the melody of "Autumn Leaves" came to me.

Wow, that is a gorgeous amp!

Thank you all; it was fun to photograph the amp albeit its tough to not get a nice shot. So when I visited Steve in April, this was the amp that was auditioned and I had hoped to win it through the auction. Lon, yes Autumn Leaves was one of the first tracks I played! My younger one loves listening to "Oh Daddy" through it!

Mikeinmontana- The zenith tube you were asking who made it earlier.  It has code 247 above the 1951 date/week code which is Nation Union.  Nice tube! 👍👍

Excellect tube combo…hard to go wrong on any old stock RCA rectifier.  My favorite is ‘58 brown base 5R4GY ST bottle.  I also love those 6N23P russian tubes.  I have ‘74 Reflektor’s in my DAC and rotate in ‘73 Voskhod Rockets in my Torii Jr.  Both factory’s sound great/very similar to me as long as you get the early to mid  ‘70’s with the small round wire getter supports. All fantastic sounding in my experience.  Just picked up a lot of 10 1974 Voskhod’s from Ukraine.  Hopefully I can put together a few  nice matched pairs🤞🤪

Gosh I love this amplifier! Just received delivery of my Omega Super 8 XRS which pairs beautifully albeit they are still breaking in. I had a question about the various black boxes. How should I think about sequencing them? I would like to get deeper/richer low end without a subwoofer; I'm not a bass head. I'm a bit confused as to the signal chain from my streamer-->Dac--><what next>-->UFO2.1?

Also do you recommend isolation feet under the amplifier? If so any recommendations?

Lastly, random question; my brother suggested that since the amplifier is a like a sculpture, to raise the back so it is angled forward and the artistry on the base can be seen from the seating position. Has anyone tried this or is it not advised? If not, what impact could it have on the acoustics? Besides the risk of the amplifier falling over...

Welcome your thoughts and suggestions. Thanks.

Glad to hear you're really enjoying the amp and congrats on the delivery of the Omega's. Should be some great listening sessions ahead.

If after a couple of hundred hours on the new speakers you still find them lacking for your preference, here's an option for a couple of black boxes that you asked about.

You could add a ZBIT and a ZROCK3 in your path. Take advantage of the XLR outs of your Eversolo streamer/DAC and connect it to the ZBIT. Feed the ZROCK3 with RCA's from your ZBIT. The ZBIT would allow you to use as much of the 5.2V output from the DAC as you want to add heft and density and the new ZROCK3 would allow you to then add additional gain or EQ (adding as much bass as you want) or both before sending it to the UFO2.1. Of course, you'll probably find that you'll back off on the volume setting of the UFO to achieve the same loudness since the input signal will be higher to start with, but you'll have a much richer, fuller, deep, and satisfying sound. The downside is that you'll have to add a quality pair of XLR's and RCA's to the equation. The good thing is that those 2 units are on the 'accelerated list' and wouldn't take as long as amplifiers to be delivered. (still probably over a year but.....)

The question about isolation feet is a good one. I think most people would certainly recommend them because vibrations from their own transformers and the air can degrade the sound quality. Isolation for almost all components would be recommended. I have no recommendations on this yet, but it is something I'm looking into as well. My main focus right now is room treatments and once that is done, I plan on dealing with isolation and probably power treatment of some kind. So many options, so many price points! The exploration and journey never ends.

Along the lines of isolation, I'm not sure if tilting the UFO up from the back is a good idea or not. I would think being firmly planted and isolated would be better, but I'd be curious to find out from more experienced members what their thoughts are on this. I would probably want to show off that great looking amp too, so I know where you're coming from.

Hope this helps and happy listening.

Congrats on the amp!

I don’t think tilting the amp will do much harm, way back in consoles and jukeboxes tube amps were mounted vertically. A little tilt should t harm anything.

As for isolation, take a look at these and compare them to the Mapleshade offerings. https://www.supplyhouse.com/DiversiTech-MP-2C-Rubber-Cork-Anti-Vibration-Pad-2-x...  I use both these and the others with blue foam. Effective and cheap.

Let me piggyback on Sean's post; I have purchased 30 or more rubber cork squares over the past two years, placing them under all my components. I wouldn't say I liked the blue color, so I painted black over the outer sides, a visual improvement. They are certainly affordable and meet the wish to attend to an often-mentioned issue. Do they work? Yeah, I think so. I didn't measure anything objectively, but the sound was great afterward - just as it was beforehand. At a psychological level, however, I was pleased with the results.