Steve Deckert
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I've done about a half a dozen or so fully modded ZROCK2's with the tube regulation and bypass caps and it passes the 25th Anniversary Zen Triode Amplifier test as a component in the signal path that does not detract from the transparency... the tone of this device is like the best Swiss chocolate you've ever tasted and the textures and depth in the bass are of course what make that magic in the midrange possible.
I've been able to talk to most everyone after getting one now, and everyone seems to agree it is a music fixer of the highest order. You know, not all Decware components can have the FULL anniversary mods, which are 100% tube regulation of all stages and multi-sage bypass caps on every stage. I couldn't be more thrilled to have this tone generator at the heart of a reference system and be controllable to the point where everyone uses it and requires it. To me that says it is fixing the recording and the room while leaving everything in the middle pretty much untouched.
If you listen to a ZROCK2 on a pair of 20 Hz folded Horns featuring 15 inch high efficiency drivers the low bass is insane. For those who attended the DECFEST when we played Randy's bass demo on the Imperial Folded Horns and got the entire blocks undivided attention... remember, that was without a ZROCK2. Had we put that in the mix the low 25Hz bass in that track would have been twice as loud causing serious concern for our safety!
Today I had the pleasure to chat with a gentleman with a pair of high efficiency speakers that are rated to below 30Hz, but always sounded lean. Even with different room placements and different amplifiers this was the common denominator. He purchased a ZROCK2 on good faith and is now hearing and feeling solid low frequency foundational underpinnings that were simply not there before. No subwoofer is needed now. Imagine how difficult it would be to get a subwoofer to have the same phase angle and speed signature having higher mass than the main driver.... not to mention get it to sound like it's not in a different location or lagging behind. Yes, it can be done, but it will end up being probably custom and costing as much as the speakers or the amplifier or both. So life got a lot better for this fellow.
(end of post - quick memory - Before Decware went online we were a commercial audio contractor doing custom systems one of which was a local night club with a bass problem. They had 4-18 inch subs in the corner of the dance floor and 4 - 400W Yamahah amplifiers driving them through RANE crossovers, and had no bass. Typical complaint btw.
We went down there and listened to it for a bit and they were right...there was no bass. In fact the sound was painfully thin and dry. I told the owner, yea, you don't have any bass. I can make a single 15 inch woofer wreck this place with less than 20 watts of real power and of course got the look.
After a little persuasion I challenged him by promising to shake all the ashtrays on the tables in the entire building with a bass note from a single 15 inch woofer driven by a 20 watt amplifier just to illustrate what is possible.
Of course the challenge was accepted. If I succeed, we get the sound contract and your business explodes because unlike what they think, it's not the alcohol that drives the business, it's the sound. We have proved it more than once.
We set a date, the following night. My friend Paul and I loaded up an Imperial Folded Horn that we had been tormenting the neighbors with into the truck and hauled it to the club. It weights 400 lbs, so we had a dolly with us. The Imperial was modified for the job at hand. We took out the 15 inch driver and made a blank plywood panel to cover the 15 inch hole where the driver was. Attached to this panel was a 12 x 12 x 12 inch box with a 12 inch driver in it that wasn't more than 92 dB efficient. The cube was sealed, and the driver faced the rear of the cabinet so the front of the cabinet where you normally see a 15 inch woofer was just a blank piece of plywood.
This particular alignment Paul and I found by trial and error from months of testing things. It creates 22 dB of gain at 22Hz. Yes, the cabinet by itself creates that much gain with a single 12 inch driver...
Don't worry the story is gust getting good... We wheeled this 28 cubic foot cabinet into the club and placed in the same corner as the existing subs on the dance floor. We had no intension of hooking it the the DJ booth, or it's pathetic amplifiers. We brought a tube signal generator with us and the source and on that particular night the only thing we could find in the shop for amplification was an old Hamon Kardon receiver with one channel blown.
We hooked the good channel of the Harmon Kardon receiver up to the Imperial and connected the Frequency generator up to the inputs. The place was fairly busy. There were people eating and hanging out in all the various areas of the club. The bar was active and soon there would be people wanting to dance...
I told the owner, when you are ready to hear what is possible with regards to bass response in this club let me know and we'll begin the demonstration.
Signal received and I put the frequency generator on 100Hz and turned up the volume until there was a nice growl that the entire area could clearly start to feel. This was of course the point where many patrons of the establishment looked up to hear what was going on...
As slow as I possibly could ( just as I had done a hundred times at my shop at home ) I began to drop the frequency. You see, the slower you drop it, the more the phase angle relationship between the space and the woofer begin to twist the room in a very physical way... It's similar to letting an organ pipe blow for several seconds before the low bass wave manifests.
So down the slope we go, 100, 99, 98, ....60Hz. Now I am noticing people are getting fidgety at their tables... Looking around trying to figure out what hell is that??? I suspect the club owner was thinking the same thing as he was no doubt expecting a MUSIC demo and that's definitely not was this was.
As I slowly continued to drop it the frequency, and as we approached 50 Hz, things took on that "serious" category where you could feel it in your body and things around the space were beginning to shake.
The painfully slow analog drop from 50 to 32Hz is a glorious memory because the entire building was at full attention without a clue what was happening!!! : )
Oh it gets better... From 32Hz to 22Hz is where the action is and this is where the entire place began to go into panic mode not sure what the hell was happening but ash trays on all of the tables in the surrounding dining rooms begin to slide around on the tables like air hockey pucks.
22Hz was devastating. Memorable. We let it set there for about 30 seconds. Then we turned off the amp, unhooked everything and wheeled the cabinet right out of the club into the truck and left. The owner didn't know what just happened.
After about a day, we were contracted to fix the sound system, which we did. In fact we put the same cabinet with the same 12 inch driver in it to replace the 4 -18 inch subs original in the place. It was a science experiment to see how long the $45 12 inch woofer from Eli-Whitney would last under the severe stress of deaf morons night after night... Surprisingly it lasted 90 days!!!!! Then the call came. AHHHHHH. we have no BASSSSS!!!!
We went down there and witnessed no doubt one of the most rare things you would ever see in audio, Barr none. Believe it or not, when we removed the cube from the cabinet, the 12 inch driver's cone was shredded into powder. The biggest piece we could find was about 6mm in size. We were all dazed and confused at what could have possibly done this!
It was extreme pressure, a bandpass with a Q of probably about 3!!! Nevertheless, we fitted the cabinet with a more suitable 15 inch driver in the normal configuration and installed some better amplification and that ran for well over 10 years and had a reputation for the place to go if you liked to dance...
I can only imagine how much richer and better it would have been with a ZROCK2 back then!
There is no one who owns a ZROCK2 who leaves it in bypass mode for more than an hour or two. It just enhances the sound so beautifully that Lon is not the only one who has elected to purchase a second unit with the anniversary mods rather than have their existing one updated even though it only takes a couple of weeks.
Think about that, the sound improvement is so great that someone would by another one just to keep from being without one for two weeks. I have to say to that I understand, because it would be like going for two weeks without music!
Steve
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