DarTZeel Preamp

JTinn, thanks for the offer. I'm on the E coast, hardly convenient. I didn't realize that the first run of the preamp hadn't even been shipped yet. Will you or anyone from DartZ be demonstrating the preamp at CES in Jan?

MikeLavigne, Hooper or MES, would you care to comment on the preamp alone? Did any of you hear it with an amp OTHER than the DartZ?

I was fortunate enough to be able to hear the DartZ amplifier in my own system. The owner (who I met through doing business on Audiogon) lives very nearby and graciously agreed to bring over his DartZ for a head to head showdown with my CAT JL2. We turned both amps on and went out for a bite to eat so each would be properly warmed up when we got back. Maybe it was just my speakers (EggWorks Savoys) but compared to the CAT the DartZ just sounded like a soft, smooth, dynamically compressed solid state amplifier. We just kind of looked at each other, blinked and stared. I’m sure the DartZ is just as good as everybody says it is but you should be mindful of the load it is asked to drive.

"1. Yes, I own Lamms and you didn't step on my toes - that was the point of my post - I like the Lamms you like the Darts - so why does one of us have to be "wrong" or have his toes stepped on? What I guess I find silly is how people get so offended if someone doesn't like or agree with our opinions of our gear. Who really cares who likes what or even if a reviewer likes our stuff? Is that what we are left to? We now need our purchasing decisions to be validated by other audiophiles or, worse yet, by reviewers?"

Truer words have never been spoken.

Reading through most of these threads don't we always find the hype coming from the people who own them.

I know both Jonathan as well as Mike Lavigne and have utmost respect for both and can call them my friends. I have surely been just as culpable with me hyping my gear.

FWIW, I own X-2's and am driving them with Lamm ML 2.1's at 18 wpc with plenty of head room to spare. Only once have I made these amps clip so, to say that the DarT is not a match for the big bass on the X-2 simply doesn't cut it with me. In "my" system the ML 2.1 is simply the most musical amp that I ever heard. I have talked to Mike Malinowski about the Lamm ML 2.1's. He expressed doubt that when pushed to high volumes they would take a last gasp. MIke has X-2's as do I. I can say in all honesty that I have run these amps at volumes sufficiently high to make my ears bleed.

This whole hobby is nothing more than a "pick your flavor". You like yours and I like mine. Neither is correct. My mantra for the past 33 years in which I have been involved in this hobby is "it all boils down to 'our' ears and 'our' wallets.

I also know Jeff Fritz and he too is my friend and I find the unkind remarks made above by people who I call my friends are less than charitable and very demeaning.

All of you seem to be looking for some validation in your gear. I have been certainly just as guilty. It seems that for some of you who have posted here the holy grail in your systems seems to be forever replaced with the next holy grail with each new component added or changed. It seems at some point there comes to be the Law of Diminishing Returns. My mentor in stereo always had a very important question he would ask of me when I changed or added something and claimed to have replaced the holy grail with the holy grail. He wopuld always ask me "Did I hear something better or did I hear something different?" This is the $64K question because IMO switching out gear only often only changes the flavor, but to our ears might make it sound better.

All of you --myself included--need to sit back and just enjoy the music. To chastise a reviewer for a lousy review IMO is just not right. You pay your money and you take your chances. It doesn't mean that the reviewer is an SOB or disengenuous.

Just my $0.02

As I've said in another thread I've only heard the Dartzeel in few ocasions with Sonus Faber Amati, and my opinion is similar to what bmelehu wrote "soft, smooth, dynamically compressed solid state amplifier". I could had the adjectif coloured.
Was this a case of speaker-amp mismatch? I dont know but the sound did not thrill me.

My my, what a furor a few hastily chosen words can cause. It's completely true that there is no "right" or "wrong" in this hobby. There are many ways up the audio mountain. Each person who has posted to this thread has his own, and each is equally valid, IMO. My comments about Jeff Fritz's review did not paint him as an "SOB" or "disengenous," even though, in my haste, I did call his review "utterly ridiculous." I don't really feel that way, but at the time of the review, I felt that the X-2s were a hard load for the DarTZeels, and that he should have either chosen a different speaker or a different amp. My experience with the Maxx2/Dart combination did nothing to change my mind about that. But since some here are having great luck driving the X-2s with 18W Lamms, maybe I missed something. Maybe the Darts truly weren't broken in, hence the lackluster showing. I trust JTinn when he says that the Dart can drive the X-2 to ear-splitting levels. I just have to hear it for myself. As for the Fritz review, it may not have been for the reasons I cited, but his journalism DID leave a lot to be desired. See Jonathan's and Jack's comments above for a recap.