I've always enjoyed music. I'm not into any one specific medium (vinyl, CD, etc.) or even a particular genre. But I do very much enjoy quality recordings played on gear that doesn't hurt my ears after a couple of hours of listening. After a variety of experiementation I've found that the combination of a good SET amp and high efficient, quality speakers is one that sounds best to me. While my gear is not perfect (ok, perhaps the Amp is), I'm very much enjoying tweaking / modifying / exploring various bits and pieces that make up my system.
The heart of my audio gear is my Decware Zen amp. Next to it, a combo phono preamp and input selector (aka My Zen Friend). I'm no longer using the built in phono preamp as I've upgraded to a Decware ZP-2.0, but I find it still useful as an input selector. My primary inputs are a Bix turntable turntable and modified Rotel 971 CD player. If you have any questions about this gear, feel free to ask me.
| Amplifier | Decware Zen SE84C-S Amplifier. (additional pictures) |
| Case | Lacewood frame with ebony splines. Partsexpress brass isolation cones for feet. |
| Isolation | Isolation platform consisist of a lacewood frame with a floating support comprised of 1/8" sorbothane substrate sandwiched in between 2, 3/4" Baltic Birch (ruberized and textured). IsoNode feet. |
| Tubes | My current tube configuration consists of a Sophia Electric 274B Mesh, 2 Svetlana SV83 and an Amperex 6DJ8 (Orange Label made in Holland). |
| Input Selector | A Bugle phono preamp with powersupply wrapped inside a custom selector box - aka The Zen Friend. The phono preamp input is not used much now as I've replaced this with a ZP 2.0. So the 'Friend' is more of a glorified switch box now than anything else. But I still think the idea is sound :). |
| Phono Preamp | Decware ZP 2.0 |
