will
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What got me thinking you might like a ZBIT Stone was that I thought I remembered the output of your ZDSD DAC being basically a less adjustable ZBIT transformer output, so already part of your sound?
I get yours and Lon's thoughts on ultimate transparency too though. After all the work I have done on the system, especially lots of cable experiments over lots of years, along with pretty deep modifications, nothing I have from Decware, (25th like modded included), is resolving, fast, and complex enough to fit with my setup without refinements. But everything I have, Decware and not, is treated with similar sonic goals, while holding close to the original signatures. So though too many variables, I roughly imagine how a more stock Decware component effects a more stock setup, to be similar to how the same component highly modified, changes the sound in a similarly modified setup. Too many in betweens and all to be accurate... so may be wrong thinking, but as good as I can come up with for now, especially since system/rooms are so complex. Like one weak link makes it all weak, and solving that shows the rest more clearly for better or worse. Bringing up that old thing... talking about this or that as better or worse can be sort of a shot in the dark with everything effecting everything.
Also, Steve keeps creatively moving, each new version of things going deeper into pulling the beauty, so I don't know how his newest, the Sarah would fit in here, but can imagine it might?
The last "new" thing I worked on was a ZRock2 with 25th modifications... pretty old now, enough so its upgraded version got a new name. I thought the A-mod ZRock2 was nice, but I had to do a lot to get it to fit with notably more benefit than compromise to my sound. And my goal is always to try to take it to a point of not just matching the rest, but enhancing the rest... This one was tricky for me, each change showing so clearly, it took lots and lots of experiments to get all the balances I wanted. By-sound I tuned all areas of the power supply, made internal cables, used more revealing connectors, internal transformer shielding and damping, coupling caps, carefully arrived at "bypass" caps... all modifications musically drawing out more of the micro timing and nuanced sounds that make the music even more real sounding and feeling to me.
My ZBIT fits with all that, made to be as transparent and musical as I could within reason. It has a really good TKD potentiometer; nice silver and silver/gold internal wires; the XLR cables are carefully designed and tuned with high quality silver gold, silver and copper wires, damped and separated with geometry by-sound on cotton rope, and having XLR connectors on the DAC end only, the cables direct wired to the transformers on the ZBIT side; finally, I have been playing slowly with RCA outs on it. It is so simple it shows the sound well, so I figured a good platform for hearing the sounds of RCAs. I have a small pile of them to compare. Changing from KLE's best silver to the current ones seemed nicely resolving, fast and neutral without being overstated anywhere, and not having a lot of self sound to me. They are DHLabs.
Anyway, it has been quite a while since I used my system without any gain adjusters except the amp, having become pretty addicted to gain riding to tune the system, as well as individual recordings. And as I have said before, I love the sound of my system with just the ZBIT and amp, or just my tuned up CSP3 and amp. But so far, I always end up with several pre stages in line, each offering its own flavors to the whole balancing act, when just so, so real, so complete.... and so tunable!
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will, I went and did it (LTA Aero DAC) (Read 1449 times)
