Is all the hype warranted


I've been seeing alot of glowing reviews of Decware amps over the last couple days. Particularly their Zen Torii and ZMA amps.  Andrew Robinson, Steve Gutenburg, Harley Longrove and Jay are all gushing about Decware.  For those tube guys out there, is Decware that good? Is the hype warranted?

sandrodg73

I guess when I saw the Harley Longrove review of the Torii, it really sparked my interest.  I respect his opinions.  I don't get the sense that he's trying to sell stuff other than giving an occasional nod to his own speakers.  But when he said that he hopes (im paraphrasing) that the amp that he is trying to develope is as good as the Decware it got my attention.  

I used the lower powered amps from them and thought they were average at best, not a lot of $$$ so don’t expect world class sound.  I much prefer the traditional SET tubes like 2a3,45 or 300b to theirs.

Depending on room size, preferred listening levels, and how easy it is to drive you 92 db/w speaker, a very low-powered amp may or may not be suitable.  To be on the safe side, you might want to look at something on the 20 watts or more range of power.  That means a pushpull amps, not a single-ended triode amp.  I would look for something running EL84 tubes.  There are many fine sounding EL84 amps that are not that expensive.  I also like lower powered amps running 6L6 and KT66 tubes.  

I was out walking a couple months ago, came across a garage sale and found a Decware SE84UFO and paid $200. I have Klipsch Forte IVs and Volti Audio Razz speakers. The amp worked perfectly doing A/B listening with my First Watt Sit-4, 10 watts of class A…there was no comparison…the Decware sounded ok but I definitely loved the Sit-4 more…made a huge profit on the Decware…try to find a used one try it and they are easy to resell….

Thanks all. Great advise.  Im trying to stay away from chi fi so got excited when I saw something  made in my home state.  I may go down and listen with the wife but problem with that is that it's not my gear, not my room that it'll be paired with.