Christmas present to myself, bought it used from Amazon, first play today.

Cannonball Adderley / Somethin' Else (1958)

Features Miles Davis on trumpet; Cannonball Adderley, alto saxophone; Hank Jones piano; Sam Jones, bass and Art Blakey on drums. Verdict...not my favorite, yet.

Equipment used: Decware Zen Torii MK4 > OPPO 105 > T2's
Cables used: Decware DSG interconnect; Decware DHC-1 silver power cord; Mapleshade Clearview speaker cables.

Thus far I have about 10 hours on the Zen Torii. It's way to early to make a judgment call on how this amp sounds. There are numerous switches (bias, treble control) and a couple of switches that I have no idea what they are for. Didn't come with an owners manual, having to rely on the Internet and a outdated manual from their previous model. May need to email or give them a call. Lots of tweaking to do.

This baby runs hot...if our central heat goes out we'll use the amp for heat.
Wayne I hope you're wrong about saxophones, but you may be right...we'll see.

7 a.m. Saturday morning, another listen.

Cannonball Adderley / Somethin Else

What's changed? I replaced my Mapleshade Clearview speaker cables with my trustworthy RadioShack 12 Guage cables (I know Bro Wayne doesn't want to hear this). Within 10 seconds (I kid you not) I knew I was on to something. I sat in my chair and was amazed how the speakers literally disappeared and how Cannonball's sax and Miles trumpet came to life without sounding overly aggressive. With more tube break-in things will only get better.

Back to listening. ..this is fun!!

Hey Bro Anthem,
Whatever floats yer boat!!!!
The Radio Shack cables probably will roll off the highs some, maybe just what your saxy listening needs.
But the tubes should not need breaking in. You know of course that they need to be turned on around 15-30 mins to warm up before any critical listening.
Enjoy your Christmas presents,
God Bless,
Wayne

A very sonically pleasing afternoon, just finished up a double set.

Sonny Rollins / Saxophone Colossus
Chuck Loeb / Presence

Another 5 hours on the Torii and what I've noticed is you don't need a lot of volume/watts to bring out the magic in this amp. Chuck Loeb's Presence cd is rather dark sounding on my solid state/tube preamp setup, but on the Torii this was not an issue. Passages that use to sound muffled and dark are now brought to the surface with very little volume. And bass...she's got er. I think I'm falling in love.

Now this is hilarious...Bro Wayne is always bad mouthing my State Of The Art RadioShack Speaker wires. For the past year or two I've been visiting different sites to see what others are using and two names keep popping up...Blue Jeans & Monoprice. Both have extremely good reviews so decided to pull the plug and empty out my bank account. Decided on the Monoprice 2747 (12 g) at $15.13 for a 50 ft. spool plus $8.72 shipping & handling, should be here next week. What do ya think of that Mr. Thailand...jealous?

Holy Moly, Good Golly Miss Molly!!!!!
MERCY!!!!!!
Give me a break!!!!!
Ooops, more money than that just fell outta me pants pocket as I sat down to write this.
Those can't be any good, too cheap!!!!!
OK Buddy, one of us is gonna feel really silly when we get to those pearly gates one of these days and ask St. Peter if all cables really sound the same????????
I am willing to bet it is not gonna be me feeling silly.
BUT
I hope you enjoy them, let us know.
Happy Listening.
Does she have a name, or is she to stay Torii?
God Bless,
Wayne

Just finished listening to...

Paul Motian Band/Garden of Eden (2006)

This is an extremely laid back CD and has never really appealed to me, but through the Torii this music sounds amazing. It's strange how you can see into the music at very low volumes, this type of music really shines on the Torii. You absolutely do not need copious amounts of volume to enjoy the music...the Torii is a keeper...my T2's have never sounded so good.

Today I'm using Emotiva X-SS speaker cable.