Jump to content

The MicroZOTL MZ3 is a one-watt Speaker Amp!


MeloManiac

Recommended Posts

^^^^^

=== this amp has been marketed under many names. I believe it uses a Class D type power supply, i.e. switching. I have heard and used a variation of this amp several years ago - and I hate to use the term “for the money” but for the money this is a nice sounding little amp.

Thete is nothing to laugh at —

https://kenrockwell.com/audio/tubedepot/tubecube-7.htm

It is No 'hybrid'. Does that exclude class D?

They Come with handpicked matching tubes.

It sounds really Nice and powerfil too. Good spatial sepatation.

 

Verstuurd vanaf mijn 5047U met Tapatalk

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

32 minutes ago, LeftEyeShooter said:

https://kenrockwell.com/audio/tubedepot/tubecube-7.htm

It is No 'hybrid'. Does that exclude class D?

They Come with handpicked matching tubes.

It sounds really Nice and powerfil too. Good spatial sepatation.

 

Verstuurd vanaf mijn 5047U met Tapatalk

 

 

 

 

=== it is also marketed under the name AAPJ, same amp, and other names several years ago. Maybe my terminology was unclear but yes, this amp uses a switching power supply. I used Class D as an example of the type of power supply utilized. And yes, the amp sounds good. Years agao I used this same amp, different name, driving Cornwall’s and Belles.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

19 hours ago, Ski Bum said:

 

Ok, having read the patents at the link you provided, it's still a shockingly poor value proposition IMO.  

SkiBum,

Good.  Based on that, here's an idea:  Don't buy one.  I know experienced audiophiles (as opposed to what?  an inexperienced one?) who stay away from ALL horn speakers, based on the presumption that they are all hopelessly colored, inaccurate, and, using your chosen descriptor, "a shockingly poor value proposition."

 

Go figure, right? :)  There's just no accounting for personal taste......

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Erik, if it makes you feel better, I consider pretty much all commercial tube kit to be a rip off.  My sense of value has been forged in the DIY realm, which was at least partially inspired by YOU a decade or so ago.  So really, it's all your fault!😛

  • Like 1
  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ski Bum,

 

LOL!  I appreciate that.  Time has gone by just too fast....

 

I should say that my last project was definitely a more common topology with heavy output iron - or more accurately, heavier OPTS.  My wife bought me a Decware Mini Torii as a gift awhile back, and I adore that amp, and really like Decware stuff in general.  It's just cool that there are still people in this country selling well-built tube amps, even though, as stated above, it does add to the cost.  Hey, these guys and gals have to make a living!  And some of them are insanely priced, for sure, and definitely aimed at wallets more well-stuffed than mine.  Same goes with loudspeakers, but there are some very, very good speakers out there at more down-to-earth admission fees.

 

My Mini Torii:  I was looking at it one day while listening to music, and suddenly got up, shut it off, and started taking it apart.  Into my parts bin went its old output transformers, and in their place I installed much larger OPTs with UL. (ultra-linear) taps for the output stage.  I also got rid of the output stage regulator tubes (which were actually used mainly for additional power supply rejection), and I used those spots for great filter capacitance.  Also removed the feedback loop, and.....wow, this already amazing little amplifier became something much different.  Difference is not always better, but in this case it most definitely was.  It was the 'veil taken off the speakers' sort of thing.  

 

I'm also going to use the 5687 small signal tube, which, ever since I built Dr. Lessard's amazing Parallel-Feed Horus amplifiers, has become a real favorite of mine.

 

And now I'm pondering selling my La Scalas and looking for a pair of first generation pair of RF-7s.  I've read that changes to the mid and high frequency horn has dampened and smoothed out things a bit, and that's something, because of my own listening priorities, I would rather avoid (though I'm sure the RF II and III are both still very good speakers). 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, erik2A3 said:

 

 

And now I'm pondering selling my La Scalas and looking for a pair of first generation pair of RF-7s.  I've read that changes to the mid and high frequency horn has dampened and smoothed out things a bit, and that's something, because of my own listening priorities, I would rather avoid (though I'm sure the RF II and III are both still very good speakers). 

I personally don't like the sound of a 2 way speaker compared to a 3 way like the LaScala. I would strongly suggest NOT selling your LaScalas until you did a comparison.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for your input Kevin.  That's kind of the point though.  Two way speakers may have some advantages over 3-way designs, which I guess is why some convert the LS to 2-way, wider band mid and HF horn on top of the bass bin.  Isn't that what the Jub-Scala is? Really, I'm not sure, but I don't think it uses a tweeter.

 

But!  To heck with what I like!  I'll stick with the LS since you like 3-ways more. ;)  

 

Of course your point about comparing the two is absolutely right on.  I hear RF7s only once right after they were first introduced, but I have absolutely no memory of what they sounded like.  I'm sure there are comparisons between the two here; I should have a look.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

16 hours ago, Ski Bum said:

Erik, if it makes you feel better, I consider pretty much all commercial tube kit to be a rip off.  My sense of value has been forged in the DIY realm, which was at least partially inspired by YOU a decade or so ago.  So really, it's all your fault!😛

 

Anything commercial is a 'ripp off' in that frame of thought...

Even your soda or beer...

Because the conceiver / manufacturer/designer/transporter wants to make a little profit in order to feed his family and to pay his employees.

 

I bet your DIY amp sounds amazing (in your room), but is below par as for design and looks.  ;.)

  • Sad 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Left eye shooter, that's a bit of a false equivalency, but nice try.  Consumer staples are not the same as niche luxury goods. FWIW, half my neighbors brew their own beer (more power to them, it's a messy, smelly hobby) and use soda streams to make their own pop (far cheaper, less waste for the landfills).  And, perhaps ironically, that MicroXOTL thingie is in a black metal box, hardly the pinnacle of artisan creativity.  My latest build is a plain black box too. As for your suggested design inferiority, that comes from Nelson Pass, whose pedigree and design chops are far from inferior. 

 

The impedance matching tech is interesting, but the cost is a still a huge turn off.  Maybe when they sell the boards at the DIY sites like Pass does with his niche kit then I'll find it more compelling.  But as it is, the thing would have to be made of solid gold to justify $8K/pair pricing. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I must confess I know more about beer - I live in Belgium, so what would you expect - than I know about tube amps....

Seriously: I'm so jealous of people who have the skills and knowledge to build their own amp. I'm technically challenged... So it is wise and safer not to touch the innards and high voltages of an amp.





Verstuurd vanaf mijn 5047U met Tapatalk

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

20 hours ago, erik2A3 said:

Thanks for your input Kevin.  That's kind of the point though.  Two way speakers may have some advantages over 3-way designs, which I guess is why some convert the LS to 2-way, wider band mid and HF horn on top of the bass bin.  Isn't that what the Jub-Scala is? Really, I'm not sure, but I don't think it uses a tweeter.

 

But!  To heck with what I like!  I'll stick with the LS since you like 3-ways more. ;)  

 

Of course your point about comparing the two is absolutely right on.  I hear RF7s only once right after they were first introduced, but I have absolutely no memory of what they sounded like.  I'm sure there are comparisons between the two here; I should have a look.

I wasn't trying to tell you what speakers you should buy or keep. I was just trying to be helpful in that if you sold your LaScalas and bought Reference series you might regret it. I've owned RF-5's since around 2005, and I prefer the sound of 3 ways much better. Your mileage may vary.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Lefteyeshooter -

 

18 hours ago, LeftEyeShooter said:

bet your DIY amp sounds amazing (in your room), but is below par as for design and looks.  ;.)

I imagine this observation may in part be due to what you mentioned above about your lack of experience in building such components as amplifiers, preamps, and so forth.  I'm an art teacher by profession, yet the things I have built are, in an aesthetic sense, very simple and basic.  I learned to solder as I child, watching my father build transmitting and receiving radio epuipment -- almost invariably using inexpensive aluminum boxes.  That is in fact my own visual preference as far as amplification equipment for music reproduction which, historically, stemmed from radio electronics, particularly after the 2nd world war.  Many of the circuits used in today's tube amps were derived and influenced from those early circuits.  There are even a few members of this forum, myself included, who built and use a line stage preamplifier (valve) known as the Grounded Grid, by an American company that specializes in designing output-transformer-less tube amps as kits.  I have built and repaired quite a few of them for others, and also own my own.  The company is Transcendent Sound; perhaps you know of it.  EDIT:  I didn't finish my thought.  The Grounded Grid circuit was used in radio long before audio and music reproduction for its very high speed.

 

When my wife asks me why I don't build something that doesn't look like it's used to bring Frankenstein's monster to life.  LOL!  And it's true I suppose.  But here is what I would like to share with you about the visual design aspects of some DIYers:  Because of the fact that they are most often building for themselves (though in some cases have small businesses and sell their products) there is sincere and highly-valued interest in making amplifiers and other components that not only sound good, but can have astonishingly sophisticated design elements that are not only the equal of the big companies, but very often most definitely superior to them.  There are builders who are both technician and artist-sculptor in equal measure, and their workmanship is absolutely worthy of gallery or modern art museum.

 

There was one point in my life, maybe fifteen years or so ago, where I had the idea to start just such a small business.  The idea I had, which I got from taking my college students to scrap metal yards to find materials for sculpture, was to find old, even somewhat rusty and or dented enclosures and containers of different kinds in order to turn them into tube amplifiers.  Once cleaned and machines for hardware, tube sockets, input and output jacks, etc., etc., I was going to finish them with clear automotive lacquer in order to preserve their rustic looks under a glossy protective top coat.  I think my idea was more to prove the point that what the component looks has essentially zero to do with how it sounds.  Cosmetics are important to me in the sense that I am obsessive about good workmanship and quality soldering and wire dressing etc., but have never been impressed with the inclusion of things like soft blue LEDs built into components strictly for visual effect.  The glow of tube filaments is quite satisfactory in that respect.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 minutes ago, kevinmi said:

I wasn't trying to tell you what speakers you should buy or keep.

 

And I didn't take it that way.  I was just playing along......

 

You are right, I'm sure I would regret it.  Other forum members have pm'd the same sentiment.  As has my wife when I started talking about.  One of the reason I got La Scalas in the first place was 1) I love the fact that they are fully horn-loaded and look amazing, and 2) that I wanted was a very high efficiency speaker that had more bass than my back-loaded Lowther horns.  But I just need more bass now than I used to.  Much of the classical music I listen to has very low, low bass, such as organ music and works employed and under-pinned by very deep string bass.  I want a speaker with the astonishing imaging ability of La Scalas and Klipschorns, but with the ability to play all the notes that are in the music, including those way down in the basement that, for some reason, used to matter less to me than they do now.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, erik2A3 said:

 

And I didn't take it that way.  I was just playing along......

 

You are right, I'm sure I would regret it.  Other forum members have pm'd the same sentiment.  As has my wife when I started talking about.  One of the reason I got La Scalas in the first place was 1) I love the fact that they are fully horn-loaded and look amazing, and 2) that I wanted was a very high efficiency speaker that had more bass than my back-loaded Lowther horns.  But I just need more bass now than I used to.  Much of the classical music I listen to has very low, low bass, such as organ music and works employed and under-pinned by very deep string bass.  I want a speaker with the astonishing imaging ability of La Scalas and Klipschorns, but with the ability to play all the notes that are in the music, including those way down in the basement that, for some reason, used to matter less to me than they do now.

I just got done rewiring my K-Horns and added new crossovers from Deang, and I cannot believe the bass I'm getting out of them now! I have 2 Epik Emipre subwoofers, which have dual 15" drivers, and I don't need to run them at all. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, Ski Bum said:

Left eye shooter, that's a bit of a false equivalency, but nice try.  Consumer staples are not the same as niche luxury goods.

Maybe I misunderstood @LeftEyeShooter but I think he was making that point exactly.  To me he seemed to grasp the concept of the difference between a commercial product and a DIY product.

 

For almost any high-end product it is not a matter of figuring cost then add a percentage for overhead.  High end products are priced at whatever the market will bear.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 minutes ago, kevinmi said:

I just got done rewiring my K-Horns and added new crossovers from Deang,

and I cannot believe the bass I'm getting out of them now! I have 2 Epik Emipre subwoofers, which have dual 15" drivers,

and I don't need to run them at all. 

I believe every system can benefit from a subwoofer.  That being said, Khorns don't need a subwoofer!  :lol:

 

At least mine didn't.  The Khorns could rattle the pictures right off the walls as good as any sub.  The Khorn's bass was so much better/more cleaner/accurate than any sub.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...