Began my audition of the DeZorel this evening. Here are the notes I typed up.. quick and dirty. More to follow in a few days.
Mike
DeZorel initial impressions
Arrived 2/28/03, still smelling of smoke.
Opened unit up and removed top, front, rear and side panels. Cleaned everything with Simple Green. No longer smells like an ashtray.
Noticed wire color codes were reversed. Blue wire was connected to line instead of neutral. This was on both the plug and outlet. Corrected. This would not affect operation or safety since it was reversed on both ends.
The ground wire from the outlet to the chassis was loose. Tightened.
System config at time of audition:
Preamp: Transcendent Grounded Grid with DACT attenuator, 4.75uF metalized polypropylene coupling caps, feedback resistors changed from 100K to 182K, .12uF metalized polypro caps bypassing all electrolytics on preamp board, Herbie's Audio Lab tube dampers and Tenderfeet.
Transport: Marantz CD-67 SE with LC Audio LClock II and dedicated clock power supply, DynaMat Extreme inside of case and chassis, bypass caps on electrolytics, Herbie's Audio Lab Tenderfeet.
DAC: ART DI/O with Riken/Holco/Vishay resistors, 17amp PS transformer with common mode filter, LT1362CN op amp, panasonic electrolytics, schottky diodes, ADC circuits removed, damped crystal, other stuff. Very similar to mods Bolder does for MENSA DI/O.
Power Amps: DIY tube mono block based on Transcendent SC150 design. Will deliver an honest 100 watts into 8R @ 1kHz without clipping and clean square wave response.
Speakers: Vandersteen 3A signature with 2 Vandersteen 2WQ subwoofers. Amps are passively high passed at 75Hz.
Cables: DIY interconnect - 30ga silver plated OFC copper, bullet plugs. Speaker: 12Ga flat braid, biwire - very long and could be better but room won't allow.
BPT BP-2 Ultra feeding power amps. BPT BP-4 Ultra feeding DAC, Transport, Preamp and Phono Pre. Each source on it's own balanced transformer. Wall outlet is 20A, silver plated, cyro treated Acme.
Scenario 1. Tried DeZorel feeding SC150 amps vs BPT 2.0 ultra. Both plugged into same wall outlet. Did not try plugging amps directly into wall.
With DeZorel they sounded much brighter and more forward. Slightly less detail than with the BPT on sounds such as brushed snare drums. Soundstage lost depth and speakers were much more noticeable. Normally the speakers in my system will disappear and the sound just appears across the front of the room. This effect was noticeably less with the DeZorel. For the power amps I definitely preferred the BPT.
Scenario 2. Tried preamp on DeZorel, BPT BP-4 and unfiltered power.
This was a lot closer than the power amps were. First I listened to 88 Basie Street on the XRCD of the same name on the BPT. It sounded as I was used to it, as expected. The preamp was then plugged into the wall. What a shock, it has been quite a while since I haven't had clean power that I forgot just how much better the system sounded compared to raw, unfiltered power. Detail was gone, it was harsh and unfocused and just generally nasty in comparison. I had to stop the CD before the track finished.
Up next was the DeZorel. A huge improvement over the raw AC. There was really no comparison IMO. The real comparison was how it fared against the balanced power. I still noticed a more forward and bright sound in comparison to the BPT and again the speakers drew more attention to themselves and the image lost depth. The biggest difference was in the sound of the piano and horns. The piano had more body and wooden resonance with the BPT than with the DeZorel and the horns seemed to be playing more in harmony with the BPT in the system.
With both configurations I found the sound with balanced power more rhythmic and relaxing. The more forward sound of the DeZorel made it seem like the BPT was somehow restricting the dynamics. I soon found out this was not the case...
I put in Royal Crown Revue and cranked the volume up. Things got very interesting. A higher volume the DeZorel sounded less forward and aggressive than it did at a lower level and the BPT was now open and very dynamic. They were much closer at higher listening levels. I found the snare drums to be more dynamic with the BPT than with the DeZorel, this was nearly reversed at lower levels. Soundstage and imaging was still very much the same with the BPT freeing the sound from the speakers and providing greater depth.
To be fair I did try raw power again and either power conditioner offered a huge improvement. Again, I preferred the BPT in the system but it was much closer.
Next up will be the DAC and transport. After that we'll see how it fares in Jason's system and my HT.
