Decware and “The List”

@moonwatcher @bluorion 

I too have been through the Tekton / Decware spinning wheel of death. 😂

It took several months of emails and phone calls to get my matching white grills. They mistakenly sent two pairs of black grills before they got it right on the third try. Eric was too busy to return any of my calls. So I got their receptionist who was absolutely clueless. Excuses excuses. 

I'm on the third page of the waitlist now for my Zen 25th anniversary amp. Ordered January of 22. I can understand how more people added to the list means a longer wait for those on the back end, but I was told by Decware my wait was about a year. It's looking more like 18 - 24 months. How does that happen?

I couldn't wait any longer so I bought a pair of Atma Sphere Class D mono blocks. They are GLORIOUS! Absolutely amazing. 

I know Steve makes world class amps, and so does Ralph (AS). AS started building it's fan base and introducing new advancements in tube amp design 15 years before Decware. I'm looking forward to the day I get to compare the two, but I'm going to go out on a limb here and say I expect there's going to be a brand new 25th up for sale sometime next fall. 

@69zoso69 @bluorion well, good luck to both of you getting your amps. We all know supply issues were awful the last two years and are only now getting back to "mostly" normal. At some point though, you have to wonder if Decware has that much of a backlog they ought to consider upping the number of production people to cut wait times to 1 year max. Designing a tube amp is one thing. Building one from instructions, particularly hands on instruction, is another depending on the skill set of the person doing the labor. Glad you were able to finally get grilles for your Tektons. I know they say Eric hates building them, so maybe that product would be ripe for him to farm out to someone else to speed up the process. Patience is key, I guess for specialty items.

I’ve not heard the Atma-Sphere GaN Class D but I looked at a few reviews and wow, some say they could "cure" you of wanting any tube amps, even those by Ralph himself. Interesting.

@hoosierinohio 

I bought a Mini Torii first version, second iteration ( change in the rectifier)

Love it, it stopped my search for great sound.  Its only 4wpc but my room is 12x20 open on the side but I have 92db eff speakers  Ref 3A de Capos and it gets loud but not ear splitting.  Full rich sound well made amp.  Dual mono with 5 tubes on a side so you can tube roll to your hearts content.

@moonwatcher I don't want to highjack this "Decware" thread but I can say I'm not missing my tubes one bit. Believe it or not the thought of "do they sound as good as a tube amp" hasn't crossed my mind, not once. 

Tekton does farm out their grills, I think that's the problem. 

FYI -

The waitlist is currently 2088 people long, with an approximate 20 month build time.