Decware - any substance here?

The Torii by itself is not a romantic sounding amp and probably errs a bit towards the analytical. I found to flesh out emotion and involvement an excellent preamplifier was in order. I used an Audion pre when I had my Torii--a nice pairing.

Note: The Torii is hard to made to a preamp.

Hygienist, I am a vocal junkie. The Torri is incredible with vocals, both male and female. The kind that gives you goosebumps. I do not use a preamp but rather my Anedio D2 dac direct. It makes for incredible transparancy and yet at the same time the most intimate presentation I have heard. I ended up going back to the stock JJ's 6AC7 but rolled with different rectifiers (Svetlana 1957 5c3s/5u4g  Rectifiers - texture kings) and 61NP-EV input tubes (a bit of warmth and seduction). These input tubes and rectifiers contribute to the vocal quality you are after. When tube rolling for male vocals I use the Johnny Cash American albums and anything by Mark Lanegan/Isabel Campbell, Morphine, Tom Waits ballards, and Houndog, for female vocals, Lhasa and Isabel Campbell. I am in heaven. With this combo and my Zu Superfly's the vocals are startling in there immediacy, texture and emotion. Source is critical for the Torii to really shine.

Orangecrush: I had almost the exact same tube compliment and the same fantastic results with Zu Omen Defs w/ HO Drivers paired with the Torii. Do you have the old HO drivers or the new Nano Drivers?

Vocals were amazing, life like and very convincing. In addition the Torii was very fast, quite detailed, and the best amp that I owned in combination with the OmenDefs (and I bought and auditioned many fine and expensive amps). For vocals, it was not quite as good as the Coincident Frankenstein 300's, but in the end I sold the Franks and kept the Torii as it had 99% of the performance in the vocals and was much better with more dynamic and bass heavy music.

However, as we all should know, it's all about synergy! When I sold the Zu's and changed to Pendragons, I could not tame the bass from the Torii And I spent long hours trying to figure it out to no avail. The Torii is very transparent, quite detailed, and definitely will reveal system weaknesses. So if you are in need of more warmth in your system then I would go with a different amp, and if you want to stick with Decware the Mini Torii is on the warmer side of neutral than the Torii.

I can unequivocally say that Zu plus Decware is a fantastic pairing! Now that I have Zu Def Iii's I wish I had the Torii back, though the new Zu drivers are less warm and more detailed than the older drivers, so that may affect the synergy again.

Has anyone heard the new Torii Monos?? Impressions?

They were just announced this week and since Decware has a two month wait, I would guess that no one has heard them outside of Decware. There is a DecWare Festival in a few weeks if you live in th Midwest.