Decware Torii mk. 2 - my new toy
- Thread starter KOWHeigel
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KOWHeigel
High Gear of Your Soul
This amp is the real deal. I won't go into a long superlative ridden description but suffice it to say that even only having had it for a short period of time this clearly is the best amp I have personally owned up and until this point. I actually really like the primaluna prologue two but this amp is in another league. Holographic like presentation, better instrument separation (I didn't think an amp would effect this as much as it does ?), liquid midrange. (wait I thought I said I wasn't going to use a bunch of superlatives .. dammit!)
A couple of cool features: dual mono design, treble pots that are not in the signal path to help with speaker matching, all tube (EL-34, 6922, OA3 [voltage], 5u4GC [rectifier],point to point wiring, hand made in Illinois, lifetime warranty even if bought second hand [which I did] you can send it back to Decware and for a reasonable fee you can get a new lifetime warranty, can be used with or without a preamp, and damn sexy imho!
Best impression so far is that it makes my digital front-end sound way better. Of course my VPI Classic also sounds sublime but the biggest improvement, to my ears, has been on the digital end. It takes away a little bit of that harshness and gives a fuller more pleasant sound.
A couple of cool features: dual mono design, treble pots that are not in the signal path to help with speaker matching, all tube (EL-34, 6922, OA3 [voltage], 5u4GC [rectifier],point to point wiring, hand made in Illinois, lifetime warranty even if bought second hand [which I did] you can send it back to Decware and for a reasonable fee you can get a new lifetime warranty, can be used with or without a preamp, and damn sexy imho!
Best impression so far is that it makes my digital front-end sound way better. Of course my VPI Classic also sounds sublime but the biggest improvement, to my ears, has been on the digital end. It takes away a little bit of that harshness and gives a fuller more pleasant sound.
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KOWHeigel
High Gear of Your Soul
Woops ... your're right ... those midwestern States are all the same to me .. jk.
slippers-on
Music...let it move you!
Hey watch it with that midwestern states comment!:nono:
And congrats on a fine amp! :yes:
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KOWHeigel
High Gear of Your Soul
Yes, this version has been upgraded with the hazen grid mod. I can't comment on the other type of tube amps as my first forray into tubes was the Primaluna Prologue Two. However, I have read that this amp has SET like characteristics with more power. There is a glowing review of the Mk. 3 version by toneaudio that can be found online.
I do believe that although this amp has the juice to power my dynaudio's the two probably are not a perfect match from a synergy standpoint. At some point I will probably explore different speaker options but not for some time as my audio budget has been sufficiently drained this year already
davidro said:
They are completely difference animals. I currently have the 5350se in my living room system with my ADS L880's but I did, at one time, have it in my listening room with the Dynaudio's. The 5350se is a very nice amp and that excels at an accurate reproduction of sound. However, it is a tad bit too polite for my tastes sometimes. It is really solid at low volume listening levels and is very detailed. I will say that it has better synergy with the Dynaudio's then it does with the ADS however I can't / don't want a tube amp upstairs and I like that the Creek has a remote. There is a good stereophile review of the 5350se that I mostly agree with though he does compare the Creek to an Arcam Alpha 10 which I just happen to also own and I don't agree with his comparisons. I actually think the Creek is way more polite and neutral then the Arcam and I feel the Arcam's base extension is better ... not by leaps and bounds but a little.
Overall I would recommend this amp but I do think careful speaker matching would be important (as it basically always is). If you have a set of speakers that are a little dull then I wouldn't recommend it, however, if the speakers are a little bright or excited in the midrange ... then this could really be the ticket.
KOWHeigel
High Gear of Your Soul
A couple of more brief thoughts. It's amazing to me how my auditory memory tends to have a real exquisite case of amnesia. It is only when comparing two item things in very close time proximity can I truly expect and rely upon an accurate auditory memory. That doesn't mean that hours, days, weeks, and months later my overally impressions are less valuable--however, it does mean that specific nuanced impressions should be taken with the proverbial grain of salt. Ok. Now that that is over.
This Decware is a sweet amp. I keep thinking FULL when I want to describe its sound signature. By this I mean, it doesn't have an apparent weakness in any spectrum. Maybe what I'm hearing is the excellent midrange reproduction of the winged =C= EL34's? However, I don't think that is quite right. It's a part of the puzzle but not the whole thing. The whole amp has a synergy all unto itself. Many times we talk/hear about synergy between different components ... however, in this regard I'm thinking about the synergy of one piece, which of course is made up of mutliple components. As to the Torii, it's the innerplay between the the different tubes and their roles and then the extremely high quality transformers and of course the wiring and finally the layout and design. This line of thinking reminds me of a recent speaker post I was perusing which the poster said something to the effect of "a good speaker designer can make a speaker out of $25.00 in drivers sound better than a poor design made out of XXXXX amount." One logical conclusion that can be inferred from this thought is "what could the good speaker designer do with XXXXX amount?" In the case of a quality tube amp the Torii is an example.
And as a tease, I am borrowing from a friend, with the intent to help her sell, a pair of Vandersteen 3A Signature loudspeakers. I have never had a pair of speakers in this price range in my home so this is pretty cool. These speakers like power so I unpacked my Arcam Alpha 10 (100 watts) which is the most powerful amp I currently own, and man do these speakers sound nice. So completely different than the Decware/Dynaudio setup ... but real nice. If I had a much bigger listening space I think these would just stay with me ... alas I don't, however I will enjoy auditioning them until they move on.
p.s. I apologize for any stupid spelling / grammar mistakes as the computer I am posting from does not have a built in spell checker with the browser and I can't do anything about it.
This Decware is a sweet amp. I keep thinking FULL when I want to describe its sound signature. By this I mean, it doesn't have an apparent weakness in any spectrum. Maybe what I'm hearing is the excellent midrange reproduction of the winged =C= EL34's? However, I don't think that is quite right. It's a part of the puzzle but not the whole thing. The whole amp has a synergy all unto itself. Many times we talk/hear about synergy between different components ... however, in this regard I'm thinking about the synergy of one piece, which of course is made up of mutliple components. As to the Torii, it's the innerplay between the the different tubes and their roles and then the extremely high quality transformers and of course the wiring and finally the layout and design. This line of thinking reminds me of a recent speaker post I was perusing which the poster said something to the effect of "a good speaker designer can make a speaker out of $25.00 in drivers sound better than a poor design made out of XXXXX amount." One logical conclusion that can be inferred from this thought is "what could the good speaker designer do with XXXXX amount?" In the case of a quality tube amp the Torii is an example.
And as a tease, I am borrowing from a friend, with the intent to help her sell, a pair of Vandersteen 3A Signature loudspeakers. I have never had a pair of speakers in this price range in my home so this is pretty cool. These speakers like power so I unpacked my Arcam Alpha 10 (100 watts) which is the most powerful amp I currently own, and man do these speakers sound nice. So completely different than the Decware/Dynaudio setup ... but real nice. If I had a much bigger listening space I think these would just stay with me ... alas I don't, however I will enjoy auditioning them until they move on.
p.s. I apologize for any stupid spelling / grammar mistakes as the computer I am posting from does not have a built in spell checker with the browser and I can't do anything about it.
Same here. Fantastic products from a really good company.
It is really hard to beat the hand built quality and creative passion behind Decware products. Man I sure hope they can keep it that way. Many companies like them in the past have transformed into something more industrial. I love my CSP2 headphone amp!
