Pale Rider
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Lon is right (and so are you Steve), to each their own.
Steve, if by "polite," you mean "gets the hell out of the way of the music," then I could agree with that assessment (of the Torii). But if you mean "unengaged," not sure I can get there. I would also echo Lon's point: the EL-34 is just one part of the design. And I have no doubt the Hazen Grid has a lot to do with why it sounds so grand to me. You should hear the Verdi Requiem on my rig. Granted, I love this piece, but the goosebumps factor with the Torii and the ERRs is something else. Layer upon layer of detail, and the dynamics and imaging to present them correctly. Listening to some hi-res jazz, and hearing the bite of finger on bass, or the underlying klickety-clack of piano keys, that's sweet in the emotional sense. We could all go on with examples of how great some music sounds on some piece of equipment. So happens, for me, it is the Torii. BTW, I hear much of the same with the Taboo, but not quite all the same, and on large scale works like the Requiem, there is a limit to how much room a Taboo can fill (but on headphones, man oh man). FWIW, the SE84ZS with the Hazen grid on the SV83 tubes, compliments the Torii well running my center channels.
Of course, each of us brings our perspective to bear on this discussion. I haven't had a tube amp in over 30 years until this year. And I have no idea what an EL-34 might sound like in a non-Hazen amp (even assuming we could factor out all the other differences). So, in a sense, I cannot even fathom your point of comparison. I didn't come to Decware looking for a tube or a design. I bought my first, the Taboo, to drive my Audez'e LCD-2 headphones properly. The Taboo delivered in spades. Tha led me to a belief that Steve was on to something that resonated with me.
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