Sacrilege perhaps, but would this be applicable to non-Decware gear utilizing EL84/ variants & EL34 in either SET or P/P operation?

I'm not ashamed to admit that like many DIYers, I've "borrowed" more than a couple of ideas from a variety of sources, including Decware and Bottlehead designs.  

That Steve so freely describes in lesser or greater details many of his better ideas has certainly enhanced many a hobbyist's experience during the past 10 years.  


If I was a few hours drive from Peoria, I'd likely visit Steve directly; but being located on the Wet Coast of Canada offers some significant logistical issues, delays and expense when shipping products back and forth across the border for service or modification.  

Finally, have I missed a "what's new" announcement regarding the new ZEN-DAC that was apparently a big hit at the recent Fest?

thanks, Lon

After reading Alan Hope's blog post on building of latest ZenKit,  the installation of this mod certainly looks simple enough, and unless someone was to get silly with Deuland or Mundorf caps, the cost would be minimal.

As to the ZENDAC, if the rumored price is correct, it would certainly be out of this cheapskate's budget any time soon.  

FWIW, I've had opportunity to audition  variety of moderate to very good USB DACs, and as an iMac user, based on a small sample group,  would probably lean towards a FireWire based unit.

chrisby,
I think there is a post around here that CCE was done to a Dynaco ST70. EL34 tubes yep.

Yes, well I shamelessly installed the CCE mod on my old ST70 after hearing the incredible effect  it had on my Decware Select.

The only drawback is you have to short the cap mod with clip-leads to set the bias voltage.

The improvement was tremendous, btw, and totally worth the minimal trouble and minor expense. The effect was as if you had used a bucket of boutique transformers, chokes and capacitors.

Karl