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Decware & Cornwalls


Frozmeister

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Folks,

 

I am looking at pairing a Decware amp with my Cornwalls.  The models between 6 watts and 20 are the ones I am looking at.  Any thoughts good or bad?  The owner of Decware spent almost an hour on the phone with me giving me the pros and cons of his products.  He didn't try to hard sell me and most importantly, he didn't insult my horn speakers!  He was super down to earth and very nice.  Any input is greatly appreciated.  

 

 

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I have a Decware Torii II paired with khorns. This is one of the best amplifiers to ever grace my system, and there have been more than a few. It replaced an SET integrated amp that costs 2x more. I personally like the decware sound. It's very natural and dynamic. You won't mistake it for a Cary amp.

 

Shakey

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Hey,

I have a pair of Decware Zkit1's mated to some Cornwall 1's. I think the combo is wonderful. Amps bridged into mono are 5 watts ea or something. I NEVER turn the volume up past halfway and seldom even have the volume knobs to 9:00. 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Hi Frozmeister,

 

Very good!  We have a Decware Mini-Torii, and can say that the synergy between amp and speakers, which at that time were a pair of Heresies, was really ideal.  Tremendously musical and crystal clear without any harshness to speak of.  The Mini-Torii has a number of not only neat but useful features, among them being a dedicated line output (RCA Jack) taken off the output transformer to power, for example a subwoofer amp.  It's totally and completely dual mono, with separate power supplies and volume control for each channel.  As good as it was, I recently made a significant modification which I'm not going to call better, as much as different.  Modifications are simply NOT always an improvement to a carefully worked out design.  I think your Cornwalls and really any amplifier from Decware would be an incredible match.  Decware is among the few American audio companies that still build in their home country, and although this may add somewhat to the cost, they are not at all unreasonable.  Workmanship on their stuff is top tier; and, as you found out talking with Steve D., customer service is exemplary.  He is a nice guy, whom my wife has also spoken to and liked his manner and helpfulness very much.  There definitely somewhat pushy and self-important sellers out there, but Decware has no interest in that sort of thing.

 

What's also really cool, is that you can choose certain elements of the finished amp according to your own choice.  There is also often an interest in coupling capacitor changes, and they offer that as well -- but choosing a capacitor is a purely subjective thing in terms of what they may or may not do to the sound.  I often use them as a mild form of EQ, as it were, in order to add a little brightness (or to reduce too much).  The power range you are looking at will be perfect for the Cornwalls, or really most Heritage speakers.  I've also used the Mini-Torii with our La Scalas, and their is just nothing negative about that pairing to speak of.  It's a kind of amp where one can forget about listening to caps, resistors, and output transformers and just get into your music.

 

Good luck, have fun!

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Guys,

 

I really appreciate the replies.  Erik2A3, thanks for the heads up on the features of the amp.  It's really nice to have folks that can I can hit up for candid advice.  I decided to go with the Zen Torii MK4.  It's the 25 watt dual mono model.  I am upgrading the caps, adding in KT66 tubes, and looking forward to hearing it in person.  They are running about 16 weeks for delivery, so it will be summer before I can put it through it's paces.  I will let you know how it turns out. 

 

 

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 3/7/2019 at 12:59 PM, Godataloss said:

I have an SEUFO on my Khorns.  It's awesome.  Really transparent.  If all I listened to was jazz, it would be enough, but I listen to quite a bit of electronic as well and 2 watts is 2 watts.

 

 

Great to know! I'm into jazz and electronic myself. I'm looking into adding a 3 channel tube amp if I can find one, for my 3 channel LCR setup. Consisting of the 70th edition KHorns and a 70th Heresy.

 

I've always been curious about Decaware's. Nearly bought one of their headphone amps a few years ago for my planar Audeze and Hifiman can.

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On 4/15/2019 at 1:02 PM, sixspeed said:

Great to know! I'm into jazz and electronic myself. I'm looking into adding a 3 channel tube amp if I can find one, for my 3 channel LCR setup. Consisting of the 70th edition KHorns and a 70th Heresy.

Very nice!  Three channel as you are describing is probably the best sound I've had.  Starting with PWK's little mini-box that I built fro the 3rd derived center channel, I eventually bought a second-foot Lexicon DC-1 DSP that, for me, was incredible and totally transformative!  I still have the Lexicon.  Even as a two-channel preamp, or 2.1, it's a thoroughly transparent line stage.

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11 hours ago, erik2A3 said:

Very nice!  Three channel as you are describing is probably the best sound I've had.  Starting with PWK's little mini-box that I built fro the 3rd derived center channel, I eventually bought a second-foot Lexicon DC-1 DSP that, for me, was incredible and totally transformative!  I still have the Lexicon.  Even as a two-channel preamp, or 2.1, it's a thoroughly transparent line stage.

 

I had the same box made by my friend, it's absolutely amazing! Glad I'm not the only one who feels the same way about 3 channel! 

 

Especially since my system doubles as my TV's speakers for television and movies it makes a huge difference with dialogue but also in music it really anchored the bass and the overall sound, especially on older poorly mixed stereo recordings that have exaggerated stereo mix. The derived center is powered by a Marantz MA500 Monoblock I picked up on eBay that was in mint condition for super cheap about a month or so ago, it sounds so good and blends seamlessly with my Mac Integrated taking care of the KHorns.

 

So the Lexicon had an analog 2CH stereo matrix mode to output a center ch and sub? I always thought the Lexicons just were simply SPDIF Surround decoders to discrete analog. That's cool.

 

I have my REL Sub tapped off the Binding Posts of my MA5200 for the high level input via the wireless adapter, gives amazing bass that way. I really like how I'm able to keep the signal in analog and have a great 3.1 experience. Although I'm sure a very high end DSP/Decoder unit like the Lexicon will likely give even better results!

Edited by sixspeed
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  • 1 year later...
On 3/27/2019 at 6:07 PM, Frozmeister said:

Guys,

 

I really appreciate the replies.  Erik2A3, thanks for the heads up on the features of the amp.  It's really nice to have folks that can I can hit up for candid advice.  I decided to go with the Zen Torii MK4.  It's the 25 watt dual mono model.  I am upgrading the caps, adding in KT66 tubes, and looking forward to hearing it in person.  They are running about 16 weeks for delivery, so it will be summer before I can put it through it's paces.  I will let you know how it turns out. 

 

 

Did you receive your amp? Very interested in your thoughts. Am considering one to go with a set of Cornwall 4s

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