Decware preamp

Thanks for your comments.  I have been lucky; I have been able to acquire and play with lots of different audio gear for many years, some great but most not my long term cup of tea.  But I'm getting tired of the audio gear roller coaster and am thinking of settling down and making a commitment.

I owned an Audio Note OTO SE Phono EL 84 SEP integrated amp for a number of years.  It was not the best amp for any one thing, but it had great synergy and worked well with more speakers than I had any right to expect from 12W.  I am still sorry I sold that one.

I just purchased a custom EL34 SE amp and DHT preamp from Radu Tarta, who makes gear under the "Shiny Eyes" label.  Everyone I have communicated with who owns his gear raves about them.

I am seriously considering some decware gear, including the ZTPRE.  I had an early Zen Triode amp (SE83B?) many years ago but I couldn't wrap my head around 2W.  I am intrigued by the LTA MZ2 + ZOLT10 combo.  I would like to hear one of those, but I haven't located anyone nearby who owns one.

I have serial number 14 with the six tubes in a v-formation. The unit is amazing. I am curt comparing it to going directly from my modified Sonica DAC into my Decware Mystery amp (ZMA) and I think the preamp adds depth and sound stage and makes digital sources less harsh with my Focal speakers. I bought the ZTPre with all options so I have XLR and phono. I use phono for my Chinook phono amp and the XLRs for the DAC and another phono amp. The preamp really shines with phono. The unit is about as close to no preamp as you can get as far as coloration, but with awesome gain. 

What amp are you using?

normd wrote: I have the Decware ZTPRE

Do you have the old model or one of the new ones- the new one with the V6-looking tube engine?  I have been wondering how this unit sounds.  Are you using the balanced XLR outputs or did you add the RCAs?

I have the Decware ZTPRE