2. amps-preamps
  3. 1283540711

Decware - any substance here?

With such a nice and extensively detailed website, I've long been curious about Decware. But with little in the way of genuine reviews, and not much in the way of discussion here, I always wonder if they are nothing more than that, a great website. They clearly have a dedicated fanbase, but my problem with the fanbase is this: most of them (not all of course) seem to have limited experience with products besides Decware, as if they stumbled upon Decware and never bothered with other brands. Maybe this is positive, that once experienced they don't have the typical audiophile itch to try other amps. I'm specifically struck by the new Torii MKIII push-pull amp, which in description and looks is just beautiful. So does it interest anyone here? Has anyone actually heard it, or it's previous incarnations? If so how does it rate amongst the other quality tube amps, whether Blue Circle, Cary, Vac, Almarro, Atma-Sphere, etc...?
128x128jtnicolosi
pubul57
3,712 posts
 
OP, only thing left to do is try it.
lacee
811 posts
 
I just replaced the stock fuse with a HiFi tuning Supreme and the results are good.

If you like to tube roll , don't forget to roll the fuse also.

If you are a Re-fusenik,you'll miss the next level of performance the DecWare amps are capable of.
ajy55906
2 posts
 
Question: How much heat does the Zen Tori throw off. I went from a large class A tube rig to Class D to cut down on the heat, but I miss the tube presence.

Alan
pubul57
3,712 posts
 
A lot hotter than a Class D amp, yet cooler than a large Class A tube amp. It is only a 25 watt amp, how many watts was your large Class A tube amp? That should give you some sense of proportion, but all Class A amps will give more heat per watt than a Class A/B or D amp.
maprik's avatar
maprik
18 posts
 
Just want to add my experience for the record.
I have owned Quicksilver Silver 90 monoblocks,
Cary SLI-50, Unison Research Unico and Sr-1, AES Superamp, with VAC classic, Joule Electra LA-100 MkIII, Audible Illusions, Classe, and Bottlehead preamps, solid state amps like Odyssey Stratos, Jeff Rowland, Classe, YBA, Bryston, PS Audio, and some I've forgotten. Speakers? Harbeth, Spendor, Audio Physic, Magnepan, Avalon, Silverline, Shamrock, Gershman Acoustic, Reference 3A, Totem, Coincident Speaker technology, etc. I've been searching for my own personal audio holy Grail for 14 years. I finally found it with the lowly combination of the Decware SE34i.2+ and Klipsch Forte II speakers. Source is a Well Tempered Labs TT, Music Maker cart and EAR 834p phono pre with Amperex Bugle Boys.
The Decware has Svetlana Winged C EL34s and Mullard GZ32 rectifiers. Cables are Cardas NR and speaker cables are Anticables. By an audiophiles definition this is a budget system. And yet it's the most musically satisfying system I have ever owned. It's so good that 2 of my audiophile friends have exactly replicated my system in their own homes (different sources but same amp, speaker cables and speakers. Steve Deckert makes incredible gear at very affordable prices.
More to discover