My first piece of Decware gear was the ZSTAGE. It was originally a toss up between that and the ZBOX. After a 1/2 hour call with Steve, it was decided that ZSTAGE was for me. I decided to go with the beeswax caps after reading posts about the upgrades.
If you plan on buying more Decware gear, I would say that whatever cap option you plan to go with, you will probably want to stay with that in all of the other pieces of your Decware gear.
When Steve came out with the bypass mods, the majority of guys have sent their gear in for the upgrade. Hence...I plan on sending my ZSTAGE in for the upgrade.
Just another thought...the ZBOX and ZSATGE use the same input tube. With the ZSTAGE set 1/2 way up, it essentially has no gain, thus acting in a similar fashion as a ZBOX. I think the ZSTAGE will be more versatile down the road, so if you have not placed a call into Steve, I would talk to him about your long and short term goals. He may sway you into the ZSTAGE. I’m not trying to complicate your question, just trying to give you an option.
The following excerpt is taken directly from the ZSTAGE owners manual...
Quote: BUFFER STAGES
The ZSTAGE differs from a buffer stage. Buffer stages like our ZBOX, do not have any gain. When turned all the way up, a buffer achieves just below unity gain. That means that if the voltage going into the buffer from your CD player is 2 volts, the most you’ll get out of it is around 1.8 volts. Buffers typically relax and balance the sound so it’s typically warmer, smoother or less aggressive. A buffer stage will typically have a lower output impedance than a gain stage making it better suited to driving long cable runs without signal loss.
When I first joined the Decware forum like 5 years ago..I did a ton of reading from seasoned veterans like Lon, Will, the Lonely Raven, Palomino, and others. Definitely take their advice since they have been in the game for a long time now.
Hope this helps.
Dominick