Quote:LR…I currently have a SuperZen driving MG944’s and will soon be driving them with the ZMA.
Multiple discussions with Steve suggest the 944’s are definitely going to bloom with the ZMA. Steve mentioned multiple times (and maybe he can chime in here) that the 944’s sound like electrostats when driven by the Mono’s/ZMA. He didn’t realize what the speakers were capable of until he drove them with his higher power amps. I am certainly looking forward to assessing the combo and hope you are too.
Not sure how much listening was done with the ZMA/944 combo at Decfest, but it would be nice to get some impressions from folks.
I plan to post my impressions in the coming weeks/months and look forward to what you have to say.
Cheers.
I did give Steve's well broken in MG944 a listen on the ZMA at Decfest - it was only short bursts since so many other people wanted to step in and do their own thing...in fact, someone did without asking me first...but that's a story for another day.
I can't quite describe what I heard, except it was very liquid...and it had harmonic content that the MK IV didn't have. I know Steve mentioned the ZMA is *the* amp for high-def files, but I was listening to my own CD rips, and I definitely heard difference on his MG944. It wasn't night and day, but it was a step up for sure.
Now, all that said, my MG944 are not like anyone else's. Mine have trapezium sides....
and a crossover. Mine were a modified version Bob built for himself that I happened to get because they were there and I had cash in hand. My issues - I'm hearing some distortion at a very specific frequency, and I can't decide if it's the speakers, or my Zen amp...and my speakers aren't disappearing - which could totally be a room issue; I know that better than most. Personally, I feel the crossover, no matter how good, is adding distortion at this specific frequency. Bob assured me it's not the drivers, that they are pretty bulletproof in this setup, and I am running only 2 watts after all.
So, why don't I open up the speakers and tweak or bypass the crossover and see? Yeah, well, Bob installed the crossover, *before* assembling the speakers. So I can not access the crossover at all. I can kinda see one cap if I take the jack plate off and that's it. LOL So yeah, I could bypass the crossover still, but I don't want to go through the hassle (and expense - I'd need new caps and breakin time!) - and I'm giving the speakers the benefit of the doubt. The distortion could still be me driving the Zen amp a little too hard, and I want to give the speakers a couple thousand hours of break in.
Edit to add: I got my Zen amp modified and back the same day I got the MG944 speakers, and my Zen Amp is a one off as well, so the distortion could be a small side effect of the modification I guess. I think Steve would have caught it, but I don't know how much listen time he gave to it. It's a very, very small amount of distortion, at a certain frequency...but others have heard it as well when critical listening.
So, the short version is, I'm waiting on the ZMA to show up. If I still have the distortion, I'll either work something out with Bob or Steve to get different speakers, or I'll try bypassing the crossover by wiring directly to the drivers, and adding a capacitor to each tweeter.