mulveling

and getting paid for it Gotta use up some of that non-rolloverable, non-refundable sick leave. Hope nobody from the office reads these boards

Can we get a postjack-style summary of the long answer?

You are wise beyond your years...unfortunately at this rate, you will also be poor below them

C'mon man, the midrange is where the music lives It's the bass that gets attenuated and mixed to mono for pressing onto vinyl. The RIAA equalization in the phonostage is what brings the FR back to flat (but the low-end is of course still mono). I've not personally noticed any ill-effects from these shenanigans. Eh, the vinyl care hassle is overrated IMO. I've spent far more time buying/selling/swapping out/cleaning/re-configuring gear in the past, than I have on vinyl care. Sure some OC dudes go crazy with the wet-vac - "spin it once with cleaner X, then cleaner Y, then Z...then all over again after 3 plays" - but that's not necessary. I just spin a record once in the wet-vac cleaner and then all it needs is the occasional swipe from a dry brush. Stylus care is cake with an Onzow, and the TT is good to go for quite a while once it's been set up by expert hands (not mine). I find the plastic wrap & security stickers on CDs are FAR MORE INFURIATING. Plus, vinyl is really far more durable and forgiving than the impression I'd had going into this thing.

Agon bluebook says the last Aleph 3 went for $780 (avg $1000, but recent trend is in the 800-ish region) Of course the last one may have had discolored heatsinks or something - but this one doesn't have pics and a feedback score of only 6 isn't exactly confidence inspiring. Anyone need a bluebook lookup, let me know!

2 years ago I bought mine at $520 from TTVJ and sold them for $450 a few months later :'(

Man, it's obvious! * It makes Larry richer * It makes you more popular with asshat extraordinaire & friends. * It pads your postcount because now you can post that headphile pic in at least 10 places between all the post your beyer/post your system/what did you buy/man what a difference/post why you can't get girls/etc. threads * It makes you think twice before you do something like that again

ROTFL!!! I love you guys...

His dad was a professor there. I think it was physics, not chem, but still seems plausible. Wasn't LSD invented at GA Tech, or something?

Haha, same here. Hot-running tube amps, no problem - just crank that AC. So I like it pretty cold - but sophomore year college, I had one roommate in my on-campus apartment (4 bdr, 2 bath) that just seemed crazy. He's always turn the AC up to the point that I was fucking freezing, in the middle of a GA summer. He actually looked kinda like an eskimo, so we thought it was just in the blood...but one day we were in his bedroom and we saw he had all the air vents sealed shut with paper & tape (keep in mind HE was the one who always cranked the AC), so we all like had a major WTF moment right then. Seriously, Willis....WTF?!!!

For $700 MSRP...that is absolutely retarded. I hope Grado takes a big hit in sales and realizes that they can only glide by on brand name and get away with crap quality to a certain extent. They have fallen far, so very far from the hp1000 standards I've been talking audio a lot with the guy that runs the local antique/vinyl shop - he told me he recently tried a Grado wood cart, and that it was crap

From what little I've heard, purk's "SE" version is a sonically step up from mine, especially with the R10. The Zana Deux is competing with my SDS, so I'm guessing that the SDS SE would be a bit better than the ZD as a headphone amp, though perhaps not for all headphones (Qualia?). This is the first time I've had a headphone amp in house, where (after at least a week of listening) I felt it was at the level of the SDS, with multiple headphones - besides Purk's SDS, of course. The noise floor is definitely higher on my SDS than the Zana, not sure about purk's, but the noise doesn't bother me. I'm a vinyl fan, remember? I think most of the noise floor is coming from the chassis fan's vibrations transported through the chassis to the tubes and exciting them micro phonically. Which bring me backs to the chassis - the big steel chassis looks awesome (IMO) and is a conversation starter for sure - but it's a terrible liability as a preamp because it's incapable of managing or dissipating vibrations.

Purk's already owned like a dozen different R10's this past year. Let's get him to buy something different this time... This is my Purk haiku of the week (this is how I get him to buy all his gear): purk, you want vinyl round black pucks so musical buy turntable now

Hmm, good point. That ain't natural.

Yeah, same here. I have a gut feeling that the L3000 must be peaking in value right around now. No way I'm selling mine, though But really, is there anything better than enjoying something so much, that doesn't go down in value?

Arg, edit window is so short For a rig in the $3500-$5000 range, I think the HD650, Zana Deux, and a good TT source would be a tough one to match. Of course a newer Supra would probably be pretty damn good too.

Well people should know by now, I can get a bad case of "new toy" syndrome here and there, lol... However, it's been over a week with the Zana Deux, I've given it several good rigorous listening session workouts that were all as enjoyable as I've ever experienced, and it's been neck-to-neck in head-to-head duels with the SDS w/ HD650, L3000, and Qualia. The SDS has a bit more bass impact, the Zana may be a bit cleaner & more transparent, then there's the slight difference in sonic flavor that could just come down to tube selection. So, I'm becoming fairly confident my highly positive impressions so far will hold over the long run, like they did with the SDS, L3000, SOTA, etc. And if so, I give it my highest "killer value" recommendation in the high-end, for being so excellent as BOTH a preamp and headphone amp, super fit & finish, and under $2K. Yeah, I love this thing. I keep it safe from dust and unplugged when not in use, and I throw it loving glances when I pass by

Now I've tried my TungSol round plate black glass VT229's in the Zana Deux. It still retains the super clarity and overall neutral tone it had with the Sylvania, but now the mids are a tad less "hard". A bit more pleasing, musical. I like A few notes about the operation of the Zana Deux vs. the SDS. I guess it can be said that the SDS, wonderful as it is, reveals its prototype nature in certain ways. First, the noise floor on the Zana Deux is dead quiet; for sure quieter than the SDS. The little bit of noise thats left can probably be attributed to my phono stage. The prototype SDS does have a fan whirring inside the chassis, which while fairly quiet, can excite tubes that are particularly micro phonic. I do notice a slight amount of noise while rotating the Zana's volume knob, but of course this isn't an issue while listening. Second, the issue of preamp - I think I've noticed my woofers vibrating about more vigorously with the SDS as preamp. This would indicated subsonic noise is entering the audio chain. My phono stage has a 10 Hz filter, so the TT is a less likely culprit. It could be possible that the big, steel sheet chassis of the SDS is picking up acoustic vibrations and converting it into low frequency thumps via the tubes. That's my working theory at the moment anyhow. I suppose I could easily test it by tapping on th chassis; but I'd rather have some cheap speakers on hand to test that with The Zana Deux's chassis is clearly better suited to resisting acoustic feedback. The SDS sounded GREAT as a pre, but the Zana Deux sound better, and the discrepancy may well be caused by this subsonic issue. Obviously, I've switched all preamp duties to the Zana...the woofers have been pretty perfectly steady with the Zana driving so far. The final issue I've noticed is that of power on tap. Since I've got a low output 0.3 mV cartridge, I need to crank the volume pretty high on certain records. The SDS, regardless of headphone, seems to "top off" SQ-wise, at around 12:00-1:00 on the volume dial (lucklily this is rarely needed). More than this, I would not recommend - it just runs out of steam. The Zana Deux stays strong at least up to 2:00, perhaps more, fortunately I haven't had to push past this As a headphone amp, both amps are sounding very VERY good to me right now. Listened to more of Alan Parsons Project I Robot and Michael Jackson's Bad during lunch break today

Lol! Maybe, but for sure I would ruin the pretty chassis when it came time to punch holes... I just polished the thing last night. Fantastic kitchen cleaner makes it look, well...fantastic!

Well guys, I'm still very wary of the turnaround time...but I'm more seriously considering doing this after as I sell my Sugden Headmaster for the $$$ (I haven't really needed that amp for ages now). I'm at least halfway confident the Zana Deux can tide me over for a long time without the SDS. The other amps I've had recently sure as hell weren't gonna cut it I'm just too damn tempted by these 400V tubes. Sooo Purk...what's the package I should ask for? 400V mod, and what cap upgrades did you get? Gain control? The SDS Slam's high gain works very well with my TT rig. Doubt I'll be needing preamp outputs now. What else does your "SE" version have?

Ok, I'm trying to keep track of everyone's tube recs \ When I was hanging out with purk listening to his he90, after a few hours he was like "leave now", and I was like "no", so he had to pay me off with some Amperex PQ 7119's to get me to leave Anyways, I just listened to the Michael Jackson "Bad" LP on the HD650 + SDS w/ 7119 outputs and HOLY SHIT that was amazing. Luckily my Zana's 6SL7 tubes should be arriving any day now....this will be one hell of a duel

Oh neat, I wouldn't even have realized you were brand new to head-case until postjack welcomed you. Welcome The K340 text and the AKG logo on the stand are really cool. I wish Larry would use some less imposing heatshrink on his cables, though.

That first sentence of my post wasn't serious; it was a friendly jab at Purk. Sorry I didn't make that more clear, but that's why I started off the very next sentence with "Seriously," Please disregard that first sentence, and regard all the rest of my post however you like. It is true however, that Purk's PC is pretty messed up right now, and has attempted to spread a virus/worm via IM numerous times...

Also, the trademark R10 soundstage, refinement, and detail are still all there in spades on this amp, lording it over my poor 'lil L3000 To recap, the R10 totally suck for rock on like 99.9% of the amps out there...purk's amp is like that 0.01%.

I didn't say they'd have as much bass impact than the L3000 Just that they took a significant leap forward, convincing me they can reproduce adequate impact for the heavier rock & metal. Albeit, this is the only amp I've heard this from. I really didn't like the R10 with heavy music on my SDS w/ slam adaptors, which is no slouch of an amp - so it's not easy to coax out of them. I'm not quite yet saying I'd jump from my SDS + L3000 to purk's amp + R10 for rock...but it's not the vastly huge gap it used to be, it seemed much closer, and it warrants some extra consideration and futher listening Also keep in mind, these impressions were my first (or maybe second) time critically listening to CD/SACD in months. I'm used to vinyl and it's hard to go back for even a visit