Well, I'm sorry to say my ZROCK2 went kaput last night.

Decware support has been excellent but I think I must have had bad luck with this unit.

When I received it new in December, I noticed the L and R channels were wired in reverse so I had to send it back. A bummer, but no biggie.

When I got it back, I noticed there was an audible buzz that I couldn't diagnose. The buzz was only noticeable when you were within a couple feet from the speaker. Steve couldn't tell if it was anything abnormal or not and suggested I could send it in if I wanted to but I ended up just living with it, as it still brought magic to my system and I didn't want to be without it!

Fast forward a few months to last night and I noticed that my system wasn't sounding great (new turntable, new UFO25) and wondered if a tube was going bad. After some tube swapping (not the issue), things started sounding REALLY bad and I noticed the ZROCK2 chassis was hot to the touch.

A sniff test confirmed a burning smell. Damn.

I've only run the ZROCK with the stock fuse, stock tubes, etc. Nothing weird. I'm wondering/hoping that whatever happened may have been connected to that pesky buzz I couldn't diagnose.

The unit is now packaged up and soon to be on its way back to Decware again. I have no doubt that they'll figure it out and take care of me. As frustrating as it is to have issues like this, it's comforting to be able to rely on the quality of support that Decware offers. One of the reasons I've invested a lot of money into their gear.  :)


I'm wondering if anyone else has ever experienced something similar?

I have not had the failure you described, but I have had to send my Zrock2 back to address an issue I was having. You'll find great customer service and quick turnaround.

I too had an issue with my output RCA's. The sound would drop out on one or both channels if the IC's were handled from the back. I could get the sound to be stable if I got the IC's just right and didn't touch them. I also had a buzz and assumed that might be related to the output RCA issue.

After talking to Steve, I sent the unit in for repair and received it back within a couple of weeks. Very quick in my opinion.

The RCA issue was perfectly resolved but the buzz remained. Obviously wasn't related but I found if I got the gain correct across the chain, the buzz is minimized and can only be heard if close to the speaker or at the listening seat if the gain across the chain is pretty high (chain = 4v out of streamer/DAC - ZBIT- Zrock2 - CSP3 w/25 mods - UFO25)
With the right gain I get great sound with no audible buzz as long as I'm not trying to get very loud.

For me, trying the Zrock2 between the CSP3 and UFO25 didn't work out since there was significant audible buzz no matter how the gain was adjusted between the components. The buzz was there and very audible no matter what. Having the Zrock2 between the ZBIT and CSP3 works great and so there it stays.

I'm hoping to address the power part of the equation (conditioners, etc,etc) in the near future and maybe that will help with the buzz but not sure.

Hopefully it is an easy fix and you'll be back to enjoying music soon.

Good luck!

I personally have not had any problems with my Decware unit, but a few of my friends have had similar issues, although not as severe as yours. You may just have had bad luck with your particular unit.