
Thanks to our
new UFO output transformer
design it became possible to
bring Decware's most popular
amplifier (the Zen TORII MK4)
to you in a smaller and more
obtainable package without
sacrificing sound quality or
performance. In fact when
you hear it we're sure you'll
join the already huge number of
TORII JR owner's who say this is
somewhat of an understatement.
This
amplifier is an example of what
happens when you build a tube
amp in the United States with US
parts and labor and put a
lifetime warranty on it.
The JR is using the same proven
if not legendary circuit used in
the TORII MK4 but stripped of
all non-essential features. As
the first in the TORII line to
employ our Ultra Fidelity
Outputs you can expect a
bandwidth to within 1/2 dB from
25Hz ~ 25kHz. The 3dB
frequency response is 10Hz~70kHz
with 6dB out past 100kHz. The
resolution it takes to get this
bandwidth results in the kind of
speed and transparency that make
this amp UN-touchable by
anything other than exotic
boutique products.
It has been my goal since taking
Decware online in 1996 to make
an amplifier that sounds this
good available to the sincere
but broke audiophiles of
the world, and while we offer
several amplifiers the TORII JR
the only one that gives you this
combination of power and sound
for the the price.

Steve Deckert - owner of
Decware & designer of
Decware amplifiers.

- SET TRANSPARENCY / PUSH-PULL DESIGN
- UFO OUTPUT TRANSFORMERS = -6dB @
100kHz
- DUAL MONO TUBE REGULATED POWER SUPPLY
- ULTRA SHORT 3D POINT TO POINT SIGNAL
PATH
- ZERO GLOBAL NEGATIVE FEEDBACK
- MADE IN USA WITH USA PARTS
- NO CIRCUIT BOARDS / LIFETIME WARRANTY
20 WATTS PER CHANNEL
If you're coming from a
larger solid state amplifier of several
hundred watts and considering a tube amp
but worried about things like bass
control, dynamics, weight, headroom, or
just having enough power to make your
speakers sound right, then you'll
probably be pretty surprised when you
first hear a TORII JR because the
performance and speed are actually
superior. You will not be
disappointed.
Remember, 20 watts of
high voltage tubes coupled to your
loudspeaker through a huge transformer
is not the same thing as 20 watts of
solid state transistors directly coupled
to your loudspeaker. Most people would
perceive the power of a TORII JR around
100 watts and that's not far off when
you consider the peak power is over 70
watts into a loudspeaker, and
instantaneous peak power even higher
still. Let's just call it an amazing
amount of headroom.
SET TRANSPARENCY
Decware's Motto for the
past 20 years has been: "If the First
Watt Sucks, Why Continue?" ...and
nothing could be truer today. If an
amplifier doesn't have the incredible
sound of lower power SET's, then it
makes no difference how much power it
has because it won't be used by people
spoiled by SET transparency. The
Zen TORII amplifiers of which there are
now two, employ a direct-coupled phase
inverter design that is high in even
order harmonics very much like a good
SET amplifier. The result is an
SET sound with performance that exceeds
solid state.
UFO OUTPUT TRANSFORMERS = -6dB @ 100kHz
Ultra Fidelity Output
(UFO) are the equivalent of rare hand
made boutique
transformers because that's
exactly what they are. Made in the USA
and introduced in the Summer of 2015,
the TORII JR is the first push pull
amplifier to employ the
technology. As a result, the
resolution and uncanny speed these
transformers enable make the TORII JR
literally untouchable in the world
marketplace for the dollar, and that of
course means in no uncertain terms that
there is nothing in this price range
that sounds better.
DUAL MONO TUBE REGULATED POWER SUPPLY
You have to understand
that tube amplifiers at this price do
not have regulated power supplies.
And the the more expensive amplifiers
that do have regulated power supplies
use solid state transistors to do the
regulation because it's cheap and makes
it possible to use 10 times smaller
capacitors, which also save money... and
very few amplifiers any where near this
price point use tube regulation and
rather than shrink power supply
capacitance, double it like a Decware
Torii amplifier. Consider the benefit of
this approach to yield results similar
to having your amplifier plugged into an
expensive power re-generator.
ULTRA SHORT 3D POINT TO POINT
SIGNAL PATH
Sometimes a picture can
be worth a thousand words and below is
the entire audio circuit of a TORII JR.
There are less parts here than you find
in a single solid state Op Amp, and
being life size instead of miniaturized,
it handles the high voltages and current
that create the real power of
tubes.
Shown
above; Silver/Teflon wire, cryo
treated capacitors and all components
silver soldered in a layout that
minimizes wire and connections. The
channel you see above takes 5 man
hours to build. Mass producing the
same thing with a circuit board
reduces that time to 4 minutes. So if
you want to know whether or not a
company is more interested in profit
or sound, just see if uses circuit
boards.
ZERO GLOBAL NEGATIVE FEEDBACK
This won't mean much to you
unless you're an imaging and sound-stage
enthusiast. Negative feedback is in the
vast majority of tube amplifiers and
almost all solid state equipment. It
smears the time signature of the music and
as a result lowers distortion on paper,
but in our would, smeared time IS a
distortion that remains far worse. In a
good room where you can reproduce a sound
stage behind the speakers that goes back
30 feet it is easy to hear what feedback
does. The same recording with the amazing
depth is destroyed with the addition of
feedback reducing the depth to about 6
feet. Attack is also blunted by
feedback which is why amplifiers like the
TORII JR without feedback sound like they
hit harder than feedback ridden solid
state.
LONG
TUBE LIFE
The tubes in a TORII JR run
at lower voltages than most tube amps and
are biased at about 70% of their rated
current resulting in tubes that last about
twice as long as normal. This also
affects the sound in two ways; 1) the
lower voltages give a more organic
presentation and 2) At any given time the
tubes are in better shape than they would
be in most amps, so consequently hour for
hour the TORII JR will always have better
sounding tubes. Many tube amps besides not
sounding as good as promised, become
tedious to maintain with all too frequent
tube issues. The TORII JR is not one of
those amps.
MADE IN
USA WITH USA PARTS
Many of the best inventions to
benefit mankind came from the
United States which is a unique
melting pot of immigrants from
countries all around the world.
The TORII JR, as do all Decware
amplifiers, takes advantage of
these resources and technologies
to bring you an amplifier that
Af) You'll probably never sell
and B) will probably never break
hence the reason it comes with a
lifetime warranty against
defects in parts or workmanship.
TUBES ARE INCLUDED
This amp is shipped
with hand selected and matched quads
of premium quality EL34 output tubes
by Tungsol.
Any time you change or
refresh your output tubes, the bias
setting on the TORII JR. must be
adjusted for the new quad of
tubes. Simple instructions for
this are in the owner's manual.
OPTIONS
The
TORII JR Comes with many OPTIONS so you
can personalize your amp
You can
also select from the black figured
wood base (shown at the top of this
web page) OR contemporary styled
solid hardwoods like the walnut
shown above. Additional woods like
oak, maple, cherry and even exotics
can be selected from within the
shopping cart. The Black Figured
base is only available in Black.
Available
Knobs: From left to right are
Ebony, Gold, Black, Cream,
Walnut. You can configure your
Torii with the knobs you want from
within the shopping cart.
Your
Amplifier can be
configured in the
shopping cart
Voltage:
We will automatically ship
your amp with the correct
power cord for your country
based on the shipping
address you supply and the
voltage you select.
Wood: Only the "Black
Figured" base is of the
Victorian style, all other
hardwood bases are of a
contemporary styling. Wood
bases are user
interchangeable so if decide
at some point to change the
way your amplifier looks
with a different wood base,
you will not have to ship
the amp back to have it
done, you can do it yourself
with a single screwdriver.
Volume Controls:
Smooth action volume
controls are standard and
are infinitely adjustable
giving you precision control
over channel balance. The
Stepped attenuators are
actually a 20 position
switch that features 1%
metal film resistors. With
those, you can adjust the
volume in 20 steps. There is
no infinitely fine or small
adjustment like the standard
volume control.
Knobs: Gold knobs are
the most popular and
consequently, kind of the
standard knob for a Torii,
however if you selected a
black wood base, the Ebony
knobs match the base, just
as the Dark Walnut knobs
nicely match the wood bases
made of walnut. Chicken head
knobs give the amplifier a
more vintage look and are
available in black or cream
colors.
Shipping Case:
This case is a guarantee
that your amplifier will not
arrive damaged from
shipping. It also has
wheels and a handle making
it easy to transport your
amplifier to and from shows
or audio events.
This Military-grade
waterproof/shockproof case
customized to perfectly form-fit
your amp for transport and or
shipping. The amp fits upside
down into foam.
SKB 3I Series Injection
Molded Mil-Standard Waterproof
Cases are molded of ultra
high-strength polypropylene
co-polymer resin, featuring a
gasketed, water and dust tight,
submersible design (MIL-C-4150J)
that is resistant to corrosion and
impact damage.
Features a continuous molded-in
hinge, patent pending "trigger
release" latch system,
comfortable, snap-down rubber
over-molded cushion grip handle,
automatic ambient pressure
equalization valve (MIL-STD-648C),
resistance to UV, solvents,
corrosion, fungus and impact
damage (MIL-STD-810F).
Case features wheels and a
pull out handle so anyone can easily
move it.
Once you
have configured your amp in
the shopping cart, hit the
UPDATE button to see the
total price of your
configuration. If
you're not sure if you
picked the right options,
place the order with the
options you picked and then
give Steve a call and we can
easily change anything that
needs it. You have on
average at least 2 weeks
after placing your order to
call.
DESIGN
NOTES - TORII JR
by Steve Deckert
It's
no secret the in the world of
exotic tube amplification that
S.E.T. amps rule in transparency
and liquidity. We've all
heard statements like... "female
vocals to die for"
or "insane imaging"
when describing these jewels, but
in the same breath you'll also
hear things like "needs
an easy to drive speaker"
or "while the bass is good,
it lacks the absolute control
and dynamics of the bigger amps."
So right away you're left with a
compromise... performance vs.
musicality and grace.
S.E.T.
amplifiers are what
motivated the design of the
Zen TORII & TORII JR
...because
any time you have between 2 and 10
gloriously transparent watts the only
thing that could be better is more.
Designing a high power S.E.T.
amplifier requires adding another gain
stage (tube) or paralleled output
tubes (or both). Either
one causes a loss of
transparency when compared to a single
output tube per channel.
In the Torii design, even though you
have two tubes per channel, they are
not in parallel but rather transformer
coupled in series so that only one
tube is really in the signal path at
any one time.
Having such a simple signal
path gives the Zen TORII JR
the same transparency as our SET amps
where only 2 resistors and 1 capacitor
are seen by the signal. And to
complete the picture, just like a good
SET amp, the TORII JR employs no
negative feedback for slack-jaw
imaging.
UNFAIR
ADVANTAGE
How
do you get an amplifier to sound like
it does at 2:30 A.M. (when the power
is cleanest) during the day and
virtually every time you listen to
it? Tube voltage regulation
designed to filter instead of
regulate.
First of all, the vast
majority of tube amplifiers for sale
do not even have tube
regulation. Not to
mention the obvious... but just
because an amplifier has tube
regulation doesn't mean it's going to
sound better. Tighter and more
control, yes. Better? ...not
often. The classic shunt
regulation so often seen in tube
amplifiers that do offer it, often
poisons the transparency with injected
noise that must be further
filtered. The TORII doesn't need
tube regulation to improve power
supply performance. It features a dual
mono filter design with oversize power
transformer. It's a brute
force approach that delivers
over 300 ma. of current when barely
half that is actually used by the
circuit.
In this special amplifier
the Voltage Regulation tubes are wired
in series with
the load. In that configuration they
become a filtering device instead of a
regulating device. The VR tubes
place a measurable vacuum
gap between the load and the
power supply. This creates Ultra
Clean Power because all of the the
noise is filtered off. (Noise
from pollution in your local power
grid that includes the harmonics that
ultimately end up at your wall outlet
and in your amplifier.)
This
poisons virtually everyone's power
outlets but it is eliminated in the
TORII JR. Noise and
contamination in the power grid
literally doesn't make the jump across
this vacuum gap between the cathode
and anode of the regulator
tubes. Talk about black
backgrounds, we could call it the
grain eliminator or the liquidity
insurance program, or just an unfair
advantage over tube amps.
This ultra clean power is one of the
reasons why we
know that unless you own and
use a power generator, like the PS
AUDIO power plant as an example, there
is no way your present amplifier will
sound as good as a TORII JR during the
daytime hours.
You won't find tube regulation in the
vast majority of power amplifiers, and
none that use it in this critically
important way. Yet, impressive as it
might sound it is only a small part of
why the TORII JR can achieve the
unique sound quality that is has.
SET
TRANSPARENCY EXPLAINED
The TORII design uses
a unique push-pull circuit that
employs only a single capacitor and
gain stage to drive the output tubes,
just like our popular 2 watt S.E.T.
amps. Add to that the cleverly simple
way it preserves the even order
harmonic content and you have a push
pull amplifier that is truly unique
in the market... It has
the beauty of S.E.T. sound with the
performance of the very best
push-pull. Speed and attack are
taken to a new level here. In
fact, the TORII JR makes most 200 watt
solid state amps sound
lean and flat.
EVEN ORDER HARMONICS
ARE
PART OF WHY SINGLE-ENDED
AMPLIFIERS SOUND SO GOOD.
The Zen TORII has unique harmonics
giving it a sound unlike
virtually all push pull amplifiers,
solid state OR tube.
The harmonics of an amplifier can be
revealed in the distortion
measurements. There are two
types of harmonics; Even
order harmonics and Odd
order harmonics.
Musical instruments naturally create
lots of Even order harmonics. So do
single-ended amplifiers BTW.
However, I can't think of too many
things in nature that create sound
with Odd Order Harmonics, except for
solid state and tube push pull
amplifiers! This is why you
don't get an organic sound from these
types of amplifiers, and why everyone
is so gaga over Single ended designs.
Here
is a distortion graph of a typical
push pull amplifier:
This works by simply playing a single
tone at 1kHz and measuring the
echo! You can see that the first
harmonic (A) is at 3kHz - an ODD
number. The next (B) is at 5kHz
and the third (C) is at 7kHz. This is what an ODD
Order Harmonic signature looks like.
Notice there is no even order content
whatsoever. Also of interest is
the average noise floor seen between
the test signal at 1KHz and 20kHz is
about -110dB. (larger numbers
are better). Considered very good this
noise level is brought to you by a
Balanced XLR solid state push pull
power amplifier.
One of the main reasons why push-pull
amplifiers never sound like good
single-ended triodes is because most
push pull designs naturally cancel the
even-order harmonics as clearly shown
in the graph above! Below is the TORII's
graph, where you will find the missing Even
order harmonics at 2kHz,
4kHz, 6kHz and so on, yet it IS a
push pull design!
Shown below is the superior
sounding distortion graph of a Zen
TORII:

So you can see in
the explanation above why the
TORII's respond like a single-ended
amp and why most push-pull designs
sound far from it. Having the power
and control of push-pull and the
sound of SET, the TORII gives you
the best of both worlds.
THE TORII JR VS TORII MK4
The TORII JR takes our most popular
amplifier, the TORII MK4, and
shrinks the physical size down by
having one large power transformer
instead of two smaller ones. In
addition, an ultra-linear output
transformer is used eliminating much
of the complexity of the MK4. For
example, adjustable damping,
reconstructive feedback, bass and
treble adjustments are no longer
needed and therefor omitted. The
additional tube regulation for the
output tubes is also no longer
needed since the tube screen are now
regulated by the output transformer.
This simplifies the amplifier
resulting in lower cost to produce.
Since the amplifier has less parts
and less wire, some very purist
things were done to facilitate
absolute transparency. We have
located the silver input selector
directly in-between the input jacks
so that all that connects the two is
1 inch of silver/Teflon wire. This
was repeated for each channel and
basically eliminated around 14
inches of internal shielded signal
cable. Additionally, the gain
(VOL) controls were separated, one
for each channel and located 1 inch
away from each input tube.
This again eliminates a 12 inch
shielded signal cable and replaces
it with a 1 inch piece of silver
Teflon wire.
Besides these differences, the
circuit remains the same with the
one major difference of being the
TORII JR is a fixed bias amplifier
using a negative voltage on the
grids of each output tube.
This means that unlike the TORII
MK4, the bias will have to be
adjusted each time output tubes are
changed. In the MK4, different
output tubes can be tried without
re-biasing.
Biasing the JR is very simple and
easy to do, as one small adjustment
does all four output tubes at the
same time, and can be done
externally without having to move
the amp. We put the adjustment
just in front of the volume control
to ensure ease of access.
Please review the owner's
manual for more information.
NOTICE for Spring 2021
The TORII JR has just been redesigned - it
is now the TORII JRv2. All TORII JR
amplifiers on order are being shipped as
TORII JRv2. You can read about the
changes here in our forum:
TORII
JR VERSION 2
The short
version is that it no longer has to be
biased and it works with a bunch of
different output tubes making it a far
friendlier amplifier to own and
enjoy. It also sounds a touch
better and includes anniversary mods.
TORII JR
SPECIFICATIONS
TORII
JR, a tube amp, measures
better than the Hamon Kardon
Citation Solid State
Receiver of the 1970's with a
square wave
response
tilt of < 4% and power
bandwidth out past 70kHz
- INPUT TUBE CHOICES:
6922, 6N23P, 6DJ8, 7DJ8
- OUTPUT TUBE CHOICES:
EL34 6CA7 KT77 KT66 5881 6L6 7027 350B
- INPUTS: 2 RCA TYPE
INPUT JACKS FOR EACH CHANNEL
- INPUT SELECTOR SWITCH:
SILVER
- OUTPUTS: 1 PAIR HEAVY
GOLD 3 WAY BINDING POSTS PER CHANNEL
- OUTPUT STAGE TOPOLOGY:
GND-CATHODE TRANSFORMER RK
- RLOAD PLATE TO PLATE:
6600 OHMS
- ULTRA-LINEAR OUTPUTS
- HI / LO SPEAKER
IMPEDANCE SWITCH
- IDLE CURRENT: 40 MILS
PER OUTPUT TUBE
- INPUT IMPEDANCE: 100 K
OHMS
- INPUT SENSITIVITY:
ADJUSTABLE to 2.0 VOLTS
- POWER INTO 4 or 8 OHMS:
20 WATTS RMS PER CHANNEL
- OPERATION: CLASS A1
- INPUT STAGE REGULATION:
OA3/VR75
- RECTIFICATION: 5U4
- INPUT STAGE: ONE 6N23P
or 6922 PER CHANNEL
- OUTPUT STAGE: MATCHED
QUAD EL34 PER CHANNEL
- SIZE: 17-1/4
" WIDE x 13-3/4 " DEEP x
7-3/4 " HIGH (figured base)
- SIZE: 16-1/2 " WIDE x
13 " DEEP X 7-3/4 " HIGH (contemporary
base)
- NET WEIGHT: 31 lbs.
- WARRANTY: LIFETIME TO
ORIGINAL OWNER / 90 DAYS ON TUBES
- REMOVABLE POWER CORD
- FREQUENCY RESPONSE:
25Hz ~ 25kHz +/- 0.53dB
- FREQUENCY RESPONSE: 10
~ 70kHz +/- 3dB
- TOTAL HARMONIC
DISTORTION: 0.4%
SPECIFICATIONS MEASURED WITH EL34 OUTPUT
TUBES
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