Jeff of Arabica
|
I received my ZROCK2 today and was able to get it installed in my system. I put it behind my Zen Switch Box and in front of my Ultra pre-amp and ZMA. By doing it this way I have the opportunity to send all of my sources through the ZROCK2 if I so choose.
I have the stock tube in now, and once I get acclimated, I will roll the Amerex 6085 tube I recently purchased.
I have been listening for a few hours tonight and one thing I must say, it is not as simple as flipping the bypass switch to do an A/B comparison. The ZROCK2 is adding gain, so unless you fill in that gain elsewhere, it is not a fair comparison to simply flip the bypass switch on and off to compare sound. Tonight, I did all of my listening through my PS Audio DirectStream DAC (Tidal and Qobuz Hi-Res) into the ZBIT. So, in my chain, I have three opportunities to increase or decrease gain outside of the ZROCK2. I can adjust the ZBIT, the Ultra or the ZMA. In order to maintain a similar dB listening level with the bypass engaged, I found one step increase on the ZBIT and one step increase on the Ultra brought the listening level up to the point prior to engaging the bypass switch.
It will take some time and lots of source and genre rotation to really get a feel of the ZROCK2 and how universal it is in MY SYSTEM. So far, I am pleased with what I am hearing. I am already convinced that this box will fix issues with lean/anemic tracks. However, my system has weight and my speakers are able to dish out bass in droves, so I am not sure how it will play out with well recorded and beefy music in my system with the numerous gain points I have built in. But, the only way to know is through lots of quality listening which I am very looking forward to!
One observation I noticed immediately is that ZROCK2 did add a smidge of hum in my VERY quiet system. It is subtle and I'm not convinced that it would be audible in my listening position, but my household was active tonight and with the elevated ambient noise it was too difficult to tell. I swapped the stock tube with the Amperex and the very low level hum persisted. I would not consider the level of hum to be of concern at this point, just something that I noticed being very close to the speaker. It is another gain contributor so I am not saying the ZROCK2 is the source. It may just be amplifying further, what was already present, but at a lower level. Again, I don't feel it is a problem, just an observation. If you already have hum at a borderline problematic level, this could, like any gain point, increase the hum level.
I am finding that 3/4, or just shy of 3/4 on the dial is the sweet spot in my system so far. I find this to be a great balance of highs and lows. My Omegas are very bass giving so I did not need to crank the dial beyond this point to get the effect I was intending.
Bottom line, this box works, and works as advertised. Like everything it is system dependent and after some hours under my belt, I will chime in with further observations.
|