Hello Decwarians,

What's today June 2nd?  On May 2nd I was looking through fb and noticed a picture on my thread that said "a year ago today".  It was a shot of my SEWE300B...  What a beauty.  

I don't post very often if ever but it is finally time to offer my sentiment about the Sarah.  I began my Decware journey on the ZKIT1.  That progressed to a TORII IV, then to the SE84UFO25.  Honestly I thought I was done there.  I'd finally began to understand the efficient speaker and low wattage relationship.  I had amassed a Decware CSP3, ZROCK2, and ZP2.  I thought my days were done.

Then came Sarah.  In a moment of inability to resist, it happened.  The keystrokes almost pressed themselves.  The decision made itself up for me.  I was on THE LIST........    No problem, no worries, I had a lot of time.  And I knew that I had never been let down with a purchase decision regarding Decware goods.  

So fast forward to the arrival of my Sarah.  I ordered her with the Decware compliment because I wanted a reference point.  I wanted to see exactly how this amp performed from the Mothership...  I hate to say it but I wasn't swept off my feet.  I wasn't immediately ready to listen to this amplifier solely.  It was not like how I felt when I received the Anniversary Amp.  Essentially that amp respectfully lead my TORII off stage and began singing every song.

What I was not taking into account every time I was switching back and forth between the Anniversary and the Sarah was two factored.  I had collected a wide variety of tubes for the TORII that I applied directly to the SE84UFO25.  I rolled them right out of the gate.  Therefore I also didn’t get an unaltered perspective of how the SE84UFO25 seasoned and matured.  I just began haphazardly changing variables.  Eventually over the course of 7 years even I could stumble across a compliment that really set the amp apart.

No wonder the comparison between a fresh out of the box SEWE300B and a well seasoned and well tube curated SE84UFO25 was not fair.  But things began to change.  My partner adopted the SE84UFO24, CSP3, and ZROCK2 to drive her T6’s.  She could not resist those speakers after hearing them at her first Decfest!  That left me with the SEWE300B and a pair of Li Song Fast 10 drivers.  Good Dan K (IYKYK) from up north, built the Crystal-Menhir cabinets for them.  Finally, I could begin my un-districted relationship with the SEWE330B.

I held out for about 4 months before the tube rolling began, I wish i had more control, but I am not sad.  The amp certainly did improve over the months.  I got to know her as she was, and how she began to mature.  But then the experiments began.  I picked an ECC88 here, an ECC82 there.  Mischief led me down paths of all sorts.  No position was safe!  Rectifiers, regulators, input, drivers, output….  I began to listen to truly wonder aspects in the signal that I had never been able to hear before.  Its hard for me to describe because essentially I only have one properly functioning ear.  I do not get spacial cues.  I do get placement.  Things do not happen behind the speakers for me, not the right or left.  What I can say is that the more clear the signal is, the more coherent the signal is, the more microscopic detail in the signal is available, the better. Then my brain is allowed to make up all that other jazz for itself.  And it does!  

And so I guess what I would like to say is that I am actually quite swept away with the Sarah.  Her aplomb, her almost spooky ability to bring you in.  Still getting goosebumps in passages of music because you feel personally closer to artistic creation.  Realizing that more time had passed in your listening session than you’d thought.  Realizing how very, very amazing this amplifier is.  Yep, I’m grateful to Steve and honored to have the presence of a SEWE300B in my system.  And I sincerely hope that everyone here feels the same way about their experiences.

That’s a great story! I’m curious what your favorite tubes are now?