Lon Armstrong

I've owned Decware amps for six years now. First was the 27th amp that was sold, even before the first of three major revisions of the basic amplifier, now called the SE84C I believe. Then rather than buy the three revisions the builder talked me into ordering his "Select" version. After living a few years with that amp, I bought the first speakers he developed, "the Radial RL-1" and had those modified to the "Radial RL-2" when those were available. I fell in love with the speakers and eventually ordered the EL34 Monoblock amplifiers that are among the newest of Decware's amps. These are AMAZING amps, all three that I have had, in a bang for the buck way. There is a clarity to the sound that I haven't heard in any other amplifier I've lived with. They have the single-ended technology very well implemented, and yet they don't sound like the single-ended 300B and 845 amps I have heard. They sound more modern, they are very fast and responsive, they give detail and have an amazing ability to image. I have never had one lick of problems with any of the amps. They are very well built and dependable. In fact they have a lifetime warranty to the original owner! I can seriously recommend these amps. They will power your mid and high frequencies very well. You may even find they will be sufficient for the low frequencies as well; very much depends on the speaker and the size of the room and the type of music listened to. I have not needed to use another amp and really I have no desire to because I really feel it would be a detriment for my room, speakers and material! If you would like there is a very nice forum for these amps and products full of helpful folk, accessible here: http://www.decware.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi

Someone is going to be quite happy!

Yes, I bought Steve's 27th amp, and still have it as a reserve unit, this was before even Revision A (now he sells Revision C units as his basic amp), and then a Select, and then the EL34 Monoblocks to better drive the Radial speakers I bought when he first came out with them. Now I have a complete Decware system with the exception of my PS Audio Power Plant. I haven't used a preamp in this system for the entire time, because I haven't needed to, if I did. . . I would want to get one of Steve's. He just introduced a new one by the way! He needs to STOP making new products for a while so I can pay off some of these that I've bought!

The oldest stuff I listen to are the Original Dixieland Jazz Band sides from 1917 and upwards. I actually listen to quite a bit of music from the twenties and thirties, I love that period!

This Decware machine is sounding better every day; good move on my part. I've been listening to the half a dozen SACDs that I have. On THIS machine the redbook cds sound so good that there is LESS of a difference between them and SACDs than I thought there would be. . . .

"Hello Louis! Bobby Hackett Plays the Music of Louis Armstrong!"

"Fine and Dandy" Lou Donaldson with the Red Garland Trio.

George Russell RCA "A Jazz Workshop." Brilliant session. Wonderful Bill Evans among other sonic things.

Another thing I can safely say: Keep the Heavyfoot away from the bicycle tube!

I don't think the wiggling has an effect I enjoy. I find it does matter what you use as a weight for the sound, I like to use wood. . . . Bottom line: every room and system is so different that there is hardly an absolute answer for this type of thing. I've found that the Mapleshade system works best for my system, my room, my tastes--that I can safely say.

I've never used racquet or tennis balls, but my experience with air and spongy isolation is. . . wiggling. . . not the best sound available. After a lot of experimentation I tried the Mapleshade Triplepoint, maple platform and Isoblock set up under my cd player and . . . well. . . it was the best I had ever heard and I did the same thing under my monoblock amps which again increased sonic benefit. . . . And ultimately a year later after saving up I bought the Samson rack from Mapleshade and I'm one happy happy listener!

Thanks Paul.

Good news! If you have any details, I'd be obliged. Thanks.

Whew! I'm glad that Bob Bullock, abrasive Texas politician for a number of decades, didn't come back to life and then die again recently!

I really enjoy those new Dylan SACDs I have grabbed (Bringin' it All, Highway, Planet Waves, John Wesley Harding, Blonde on Blonde, and Blood on the Tracks.) I hope there's another batch, and I hope they include Self Portrait, New Morning, Basement Tapes and Before the Flood in the next batch (I love Dylan and the Band, and recently revisiting the vinyl I've really fallen in love with Self Portrait!)

Hmmm. . .I'm happy with my Decware amps made in that foreign nation of Peoria! I have used Halo dampers. I really do believe they do the job they are reported too. . .I was happy with them until I tried a Mapleshade Tube Anchor. I found the Tube Anchors to do an even BETTER job; bought one for every tube I have glowing!

Well, two things have happened that have derailed me from pursuing these receivers. One: I inherited a Bang and Olufsen receiver, turntable and speakers that sounds wonderful and will be my living room system taking the place for now of an SACD receiver. The other thing was that my Dynaco cd player started being problematic playing cdrs, and I ordered a Decware Dec 685 modified Sony "universal player" (the Sony is modified with a two channel tubed output stage by Decware's Steve Deckert. I've had the Dec 685 up and running in my main (listening room system) since last Friday night and it is changing its sound (for the better) every time I sit down and listen to it. The output stage puts out about 3.5 volts so it really sends a powerful signal to your amp or preamp. . . when you use a 12AU7 tube. I've been using a 12AX7A tube which at this stage of the game I prefer a bit to the 12AU7A that I have (both are Mullards)--seems to give a bit of a smoother and warmer sound. The first night this machine had an electronic sound that was NOT present with my Dynaco CDV 2 tubed player, but that has slowly burned away and there are moments of listening now with real body to the sound, imaging and soundstaging that are as good as I've had, and I feel this is going to be a really good player when it has totally settled in. It is a very versatile machine: will play any two channel or multichannel SACD (the tubed output stage is only two channels however, but the stock outputs of the machine are all active and the sound from them is not bad at all); will play dvds, mp3s and of course cds and cdrs---so far it has played any cdr I have thrown at it which is good as the Dynaco had developed a pickiness that was frustrating me. I've been buying Decware products since 1997 and love their engineering, value per dollar, and customer support. Their products have transformed my listening; my main system now contains their EL34 Monoblocks and Radial RL2 speakers as well as the Dec 685 SACD machine. Strangely, I believe because of the type of power supply components that Steve builds with (way overrated/sized for their tasks), Decware products seem to take considerably long to "break in" and the road to a totally broken in component can be bumpy and hilly! But they are returnable up to thirty days, and listen for thirty days, that usually will cover breakin. I've never sent one back! I've bought three different amps and had two sets of the speakers (bought the original Radials RL1s and then got them upgraded to the RL2 when they became available!) I'm a customer for life. Here's a link to a thread on their forum that discusses "initial impressions of the Dec 685" from about three or four owners: http://www.decware.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=Digital&action=display&num=1087471010&start=0

Well, with my new Decware Dec 685 Universal player I've been really enjoying the Duke Ellington "Blues in Orbit" SACD. Man, this session is a good one. . . swinging and with that sense of humor and warmth that yiu find in fifties Ellington (I mean what else would you expect to find in a tune called "Even Swingers Get the Blues!")

PM, thanks for your email, I made a reply. I've had the Dec 685 up and running since last Friday night and it is changing its sound (for the better) every time I sit down and listen to it. The output stage puts out about 3.5 volts so it really sends a powerful signal to your amp or preamp. . . when you use a 12AU7 tube. I've been using a 12AX7A tube which at this stage of the game I prefer a bit to the 12AU7A that I have (both are Mullards)--seems to give a bit of a smoother and warmer sound. The first night this machine had an electronic sound that was NOT present with my Dynaco CDV 2 tubed player, but that has slowly burned away and there are moments of listening now with real body to the sound, imaging and soundstaging that are as good as I've had, and I feel this is going to be a really good player when it has totally settled in. It is a very versatile machine: will play any two channel or multichannel SACD (the tubed output stage is only two channels however, but the stock outputs of the machine are all active and the sound from them is not bad at all); will play dvds, mp3s and of course cds and cdrs---so far it has played any cdr I have thrown at it which is good as the Dynaco had developed a pickiness that was frustrating me. I've been buying Decware products since 1997 and love their engineering, value per dollar, and customer support. Their products have transformed my listening; my main system now contains their EL34 Monoblocks and Radial RL2 speakers as well as the Dec 685 SACD machine. Strangely, I believe because of the type of power supply components that Steve builds with (way overrated/sized for their tasks), Decware products seem to take considerably long to "break in" and the road to a totally broken in component can be bumpy and hilly! But they are returnable up to thirty days, and listen for thirty days, that usually will cover breakin. I've never sent one back! I've bought three different amps and had two sets of the speakers (bought the original Radials RL1s and then got them upgraded to the RL2 when they became available!) I'm a customer for life. Here's a link to a thread on their forum that discusses "initial impressions of the Dec 685" from about three or four owners: http://www.decware.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=Digital&action=display&num=1087471010&start=0 I haven't heard, nor know anyone who has heard, the Maverick player.

I think I'm going to follow Edwin. . . divest myself of the extra material. Keep a spare cdplayer and let the rest go and line my pockets with a little green. I love both my systems as they are (the all Decware system with the Radial speakers, EL34 Monoblocks and the newly acquired modified Sony SACD player with tubed output is my smoking choice, the B&O I never would or could have bought, but I dig it plenty for the living room system!) and don't need the clutter and the little whispering "what ifs!"

Yes, I thought for a spell it had been deleted! Some heavy moderation going on here!

Well, I have seen a lot in just a few years of playing in bands, and I've seen a lot of alcoholic performers in the business and government world, and I really do think that drugs of this type (and alcohol is definitely of this type as well as heroin) can allow some individuals to work obsessively and achieve astonishing things because of the ability to screen a lot of other things out (such as the need for food and rest and sustaining relationships!) I'm not condoning it, but I think historically it is a big part of the fabric (both symbolic AND literally in terms of work as building blocks) of our human legacy and condition. I can only IMAGINE how awful and well as how wonderful it was to be a part of these bands in those years and be in one town after another in one club after another after one bus ride after another after one sad hotel room after another and how this consumption and focus on alcohol or narcotic could be a temptation and an anchor to allow one to carry on in the life and achieve. . . .But I do think that for some of these individuals there was a connecting line between the addictions and the achievement.

Does anyone else have this problem? Too many potential systems! I've now what may turn in to an all Decware system as a main listening system: Dec-685 (hopefully tonight! I have to leave early to sign for the UPS package at home), EL34 Monoblocks, Radial Speakers (PLUS a PS Audio Power Plant). And in a living room system I have a B&O receiver and turntable and speakers, a Hafler preamp (for phono circuit), an HHB "professional" burner (really nice sounding as a source too) an Harmon Kardon tape deck and a Samsung dvd/vhs combo. As part of the deal to allow domestic tranquility and my audio (both hardware, software AND real musical production) to thrive I've had to agree: no more sound systems anywhere in the house. ANYWHERE. So . . . no bedroom system for example. No kitchen system. (Don't laugh: I spend a lot of time in the kitchen and wouldn't mind a nice little Revision A amp based system for example!) No bathroom system or speakers wired into the bathroom. (Hey, I'm just listing possibilities!) That's it. I'm contractually bound to my TWO systems at home. Should be enough right? AND I have them tweaked out, boy howdy, let me tell you I do! Then how come I keep wondering how the Dynaco tubed cd player with the Proton power amp and the Knight Audio big three way speakers would sound like? Or the Nakamiche cd player and the Knight Audio tubed tuner would sound with the Knight Audio integrated solid state amp. . . how would that sound with the Knight Audio speakers or the Bose 6.2 speakers or the Bose 10.2 speakers? And what about the old beloved EICO sitting unused now for over five years. . . or that Cambridge Audio transport, if I bought a DAC to use with that nice transport and.also set up the JVC portable casette deck that I recently inherited as well and that is really nice sounding, and maybe that AR turntable could be fixed after all and . . . Man, I keep imagining what I can do with all these components that are stacked around whispering to me. . . . It's enough to drive one over the edge into (shuddderrrr) fullblown audio madness! (Over the edge or just deeper into the abyss?) Anyway I finally dawned on one glimmer of hope: I could get ambitious in a career manner for the first time in my life and try to get a step up work environment wise: a private office somewhere. . . . Then I could set up another system and tweak it. I would so much more happily Hi Ho Hi Ho off to work go. Yes. But. . . I just can't imagine it! In the current environment of downsizing agencies and good positions only going to political must hires. . . . I'm just not going to have that private office for some time. So. . . no third system on the horizon! It's deeper into the abyss I go as the equipment whispers to me pleading to be used. . . .

I won't argue against that (that the use of drugs is a waste!) . . . but. . . I think somehow that the use of drugs HELPED them to enter into an underworld that allowed them to be more FREELY individualistic and creative; I am not convinced that they would have accomplished more without them in all cases. In some ways I think Charlie Parker's addictions helped him to become the master that he was, whose work has hardly been matched or superceded since; he accomplished an awful lot through his focusing of so much into two things: feeding his physical needs and flying in the face of the musical sun, too high in fact! He did so at personal peril. . . . But the risks also mirrored in many ways the gains. A safe player with a stable and healthy life and life style seems to be less ingenuous and influential. Just something I can't seem to discount. . . .

Well I looked through quite a few jazz works I have and tried to find a real valid reason for the attraction. The closest I can come is to condense a few and say that the attraction for the musicians was pretty much similar to alcohol's attraction to musicians and anyone else (partly as a "stabilizer"---something constant in a shifting private and working environment as well as a stimulant for the sense and the social scene), only the heroin was "hipper," more a statement of being an cool outsider, among this community, and during that period of time availability was easier than at some points afterwards.