Decware. The Best Amp Ever? Andrew Robinson Seems To Think So

You won’t miss the 5 watts.

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I would not know what to do with all that. Weird.

Oh, c’mon Al…you KNOW you need more stuff!:cowboy_hat_face:


The Torii has landed. Sexy lil’ beast🤠

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For anyone interested, or thinking about buying that listing above - there is a bunch of comparison between the Torii and the Jr. in the Jr. manual:

Fantastic! If I can offer one bit of advice, when–way down the road–the time comes to re-tube, trust Steve to supply the tubes. He obsesses over them more than we do.

Yeah - I would certainly trust the guy. Does he offer “upgrade” tubes? These stock ones are mostly EH. Sorta wouldn’t let them near my ARCs. But that could be my ignorance and/or bias working.

I mean - I’m assuming the stock stuff is “good bang for the buck” and that you would be an idiot as a manufacturer to put a tube compliment in that retails for the retail of the whole amp.

I unfortunately returned a used ARC Sig 5 SE amp to TMR, in retrospect because I assumed the tubes were OK. I’m guessing they were just pretty, but very used. Judged the dang amp as a result.

So what’s it sound like? Or is it all looks? Was Mr. R. right?

Sounds great. Very Early Days. Tons of info in the manual I have to cover, breakin, tweaking, etc. And the immediate comparison is to a pair of nCore amps. So - really too many variables to responsibly make judgements.

This is an Experiment on a primary level. And one that has to be parsed from any other aspect. Will this 20W tube amp WORK well with the relatively low-efficiency Metas, or do they just really want some watts? Or conversely, does the Torii really want an efficient speaker? The current Thang is to employ the 2-3W UFO’s - but that Requires Very Efficient Speakers Indeed.

I have some 94dB-ish Dunlavy’s that I will try. Though I dig what they do, I detest the (ancient) drivers. Often you cannot extricate the Drivers from the Design, when the Design manages to Do What It Does.

I’ve determined to my satisfaction that the Metas can be very happy with tubes - at the least a tube front end - and they are really great at telling you what they’re being fed. So much so that I’ve ordered another pair to put in my (currently) Very Small spare bedroom studio - over more costly powered studio monitors.

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Ask him for NOS tubes. He had them for my amp.
But basically, he says: “these sound good”.
And they do.

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I noted when installing them that some were JAN (Joint Army-Navy) surplus Sylvania’s. Though I imagine the number of times the Army and Navy shared a joint could usually be counted on one hand.:cowboy_hat_face:

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Well, maybe back in them 'Nam days . . . .

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Friggin’ metal knobs I got are ouchie hot. Was looking at the Chicken Heads, but went with these. Shiny. Purty.:man_shrugging:t2:

Many of the tubes run Very Hot - 2-300 degrees. So the whole metal top plate of the amp is now very hot, as well as the knobs. But I put the volume controls wide open to start with. Now backed off. Brought source and pre up to nominal levels, so the amp knobs are now about ⅔ open. And I don’t anticipate twisting them a lot under ordinary circs.

Does Decware compete with PS Audio ?

Oh, Phil.:man_shrugging:t2: Yes and no. Apples and Oranges. Related Gear Dependent.

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Sweet, what interconnects and speaker cables are those?

Between the two, you made the better knob choice.

@Phil, IMO no. Decware is more low power SET and DIY community. About as quirky as it gets in the audiophile community. PS Audio is IMO more mainstream. With PS Audio you are getting brute force amplification, and Power Regenerators. With Decware it is 2.3 watt Single Ended up to 40 watts push pull.

I just received my SE84UFO with the anniversary modification and Monday and have yet to report out. The speakers it is powering really are not at all well suited to a low power SET amplifier. New speakers are forthcoming as well.

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Icono SE OFE’s (as it is a SE amp) from the SE VTL Pre, which meant I had to steal them from the source. The SE-to-XLR OFE’s for the nCores I had made wired custom per Bruno’s spec. And they are not usable in this setup. So the source RCA’s are now Transparent Super. Very different. yet another variable.:man_shrugging:t2: