Very interesting in many different ways 
Dude is hard to follow and the vibe is a bit off. Browsing his other pages result in a repeat of the same regurgitation. I remember him now as he has had a few ads up on USAM.
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I read though it, he’s landed on a lot of the same conclusions everone winds up with. I wish he wasn’t as absolutist with the commentary because there are many ways to skin the cat and NO not all SS amps sound thin but I guess he’s also selling his expertise in putting together a system for a listener that he happens to have curated for himself that works perfectly for him.
The concept of open baffle subs also is something that I find very alluring but my room just wouldn’t fit them… but I’d love to hear them! Also how close to a B300 amp is the sound of the Decware you left in my house @NickMimi reading this does make me feel as if it would be a shame for me not to pursue a 300B amp or maybe even talk to this guy as he’s happy with the way it pairs with his Voxativ.
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He is selling a 300b amp, based on a Sun Valley and heavily modified
There is more of the ramble in his ad 
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and what’s with the under 40 lbs mandate?
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God question! Maybe it is the heaviest he can lift? Or he has some wacky theory on weight to component ratio allowing the music to levitate 
Edit: I found the reference, which is mentioned about 5 x on the main page
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He’s older and the 40lb rule he has implemented on himself is for ease of moving equipment around. I get it and understand completely as i move heavy pieces around weekly and limit myself often because of weight, especially up and down stairs.
I’ve read through much of his past experiences over the years and followed along as his views and experiences have grown along with his idiosyncrasies and if you pay attention you can understand his thought process due to the nature of his listening habits.
As i follow you guys along in your growth in the hobby, including going over my own lessons learned and sharpening of preferences i see many parallels. Take the big picture away from his musings and don’t focus on the idiosyncrasies. He is currently fighting prostate cancer and is mentally in a state where he can see his life end coming soon which affects his emotional well being, thats where much of his “attitude” stems from, that and the fact that audiophile’s in general get set in their ways as they solidify their “known” experiences and knowledge. His take on power was very interesting and how he focuses over the years on very fine nuances are well documented in his musings. His concept of “weight” is a fine nuance that i too have experienced and i took away much from it.
I have had multiple similar experiences to him due to my own listening habits and seeing where both @Camus and @dB_Cooper are going w/ their systems i wanted you both to take the time to partake in some of Richard’s musing over the years for informational purposes, don’t just look at it as some guy that sells gear and is very opinionated, simply take in some of his experiences and use them for “food for thought” later on.
Richard will most likely pass on to the afterlife soon, he has taken time and put effort into writing down his opinions and experiences with many concepts and materials that are seen as “snake oil” and having little value in our hobby by many. Take from his writing nothing at all or some small tidbit’s that you may share experiences with, i put it here for informational purposes only. 
Not trying ng to push anyone one way or another or encourage his sales of items. 
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This can be a blessing or a curse unfortunately. The ego self want to be right all the time.The one thing I’ve learned in the hobby and it’s why I say it, there are so many ways to skin the cat. What I appreciate most about the way you’ve gone about it is showing that pretty much all gear you’re going to run across after a certain level, is gear that HAS a place in a chain, maybe not your chain but a chain somewhere.
I’m actually looking forward to CAF this year because I’m going there with more knowledge and a much broader open mind. But not nessesarily an open wallet. 
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Yes, yes. By holding onto things for a long time and using them in a variety of chains/combinations, some that worked and many that did not, i have very slowly learned and gained knowledge about each piece and how to best get something good out of it.
I have also learned to HEAR differences and and sometimes just by knowing a piece well enough when you want to influence the overall sound character you can mix and match till you get what you desire. That’s the MOST fascinating part of this hobby. Ignore all his words of best this and that, that’s all gibberish based on his own preferences and experiences, what’s “best” for me is not “best” for him. His experience with power and cabling and his knowledge of amplifier building throws some excellent perspectives on subjects i have been thinking about lately.
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Appreciate the share, I had to shake off my initial bewilderment and cut through to pick out nuggets. Not many people put this detail and effort out there, so always a treat to read about it.
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The Decware amp is on the sweeter side of Steve’s builds and IMO does not hit the “air” as capably as a very good 300B but you should get a good sensation of enhanced harmonics in the midrange. I feel a well built 300B will offer more controlled “slam” on the bottom end, especially considering they also happen to offer 2x the wattage (300B is usually 6-8wpc, while the 341.5 is 3wpc)
Overall the exact reason i held onto THAT particular amplifier is that yes, it has a sweet sound character more in-line with my preferences and providing tube rolls at half the cost of its 300B brethren. The soundstage was also not as overly exaggerated as my last 300B amp nor is the Decware as sensitive to noise and microphonics.
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Nick, is that decware the same or similar sounding to the Taboo i had? That taboo was exceedingly sweet.
Negative, the 341.5 is not overly sweet although you can roll it to the sweeter side with some rolling of the smaller pre tubes it’s also not as “big and bold” as a 300B with many a tube roll but felt very much in line with one when I’m forced to try and describe its character.
Also el34’s IMO can lean it out substantially for those who prefer the sound of an amplifier that begins to lean a bit more neutral in its character but did not do it like Steve’s smaller UFO amplifier so I don’t as often use the el34’s with it even though it was built to maximize the potential of that tube. Maybe with some good el34’s but i am not much invested in those tubes.
The mark 3 & 4’s I think are Steve’s sweetest amplifiers as far as character goes. The 341.5 in my opinion stands somewhere in the middle ground between his 2 watt UFO and the Taboo and simply has a a large variety of tubes you can substitute till you find your own preferences.
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@dB_Cooper is doing some crazy things and I’m like a devil on his shoulder whispering sweet nothings 
YOLO and away we go…Voxative Zeth gonna get put through its paces the next few months or until db decides some other crazyiness is warranted and we’ll figure stuff out again 
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Remember, no one speaker does it all. 
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What amps are you folks using on your Zeths, and any tips on placement for a more dimensional soundstage (depth, mostly).
I’m about a year in to my Zeths and haven’t been using them as much as I thought I would. Need some inspiration on how to get the best out of ‘em!
Cheers
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Boy have you come to the right place!
…but at the wrong time. My wife spilled water on my keyboard this morning. My fault for leaving a half full glass of water. I’m losing my keyboard every few minutes now. So I’ll give you a good response once I’m good with the KB.
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I came to the conclusion that the Zeth will give you their utmost with a SET amps. Because 1) I trust folks who have stated that. 2) @NickMimi did not disagree. 3) I could never get them to that nth degree with the SS amps I used. The best pairing for them I gave them was my Firstwatt F8. I believe now they would have been a bit better still with a Firstwatt SIT 3.
I had them in a very small room, 12 X 10 and they were good, stage width and depth but that said I was feeding them a VERY good upstream signal and cabling, tubes, everything I attached to the chain went first priority adding body second priority dimentionality. I was always willing to sacrifice their detail because they had so much of it that I could afford the tradeoff and still have detail and texture from them in spaded.
I had them about 7’ apart with about 21” apart from the walls and 32” or so from the rear wall. My listening room had good treatment as that was by far the biggest improvement. Bass traps at all four corners. Diffusers at my sitting position rear. Ceiling absorption and first reflect ion point diffuser. A slight toe in pointing to my shoulders. I was sitting about 6.5’ from the driver.
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Interesting dB_Cooper, thanks for the info.
The guy who sold me the Zeths described a sound that I haven’t been able to recreate in my space. He said that they’re exceptionally holographic with a deep soundstage, pinpoint imaging, and highly detailed.
So far, I agree on the detail, but I’m not getting anything exceptional in the 3D/Soundstage department. Don’t get me wrong, they’re very good in that respect, but I was expecting a bit more from a crossoverless design.
I will try and upload a photo of my space. I’ve two rooms, one opening into the other, and the Zeths have primarily been used in my second system, in the smaller 14’x16’x9’ room.
Both rooms are quite well treated, I use QRD panels and GIK Acoustics panels, along with some homemade bass traps.
I’ve used quite a bit of gear on the Zeths, including:
Power Amps -
Veloce Audio Saetta Hybrid monos (battery powered, 6H30 input tubes Hypex outputs)
Don Sachs Kootenay 120 (KT 88 based tube amp)
Audio Mirror SET45 (6c33c based tube monos)
Ars Sonum Filarmonia Integrated (E34L tubes)
Synthesis A100 Titan integrated (KT66)
Preamps -
Veloce Audio LS1 (Battery pre with 6H30 tubes)
Don Sachs D2
Art Audio VPS DM (tube)
VTL 2.5 (tube)
Backert Labs Rhumba 1.0
Emotive Sira (Tube)
Digital -
dCS Rossini Player/DAC/Streamer with dCS Master Clock
PS Audio DSJ
Ayre Codex
SGC i5 / Sonore UltraRendu
Aurender N10
etc
Subs -
I’ve run them with/without a pair of REL Carbon Specials
So…I’ve thrown quite a bit of gear at them in the year of ownership, but what I haven’t tried is any exotic SET design. I’m wondering if that’s where I should go next. I did note that the designer at Voxativ stipulated that they do need a few watts to open up, and I think I read somewhere that 20+ is best.
So I’m just wandering around looking for ideas on what to try. I did own an Art Audio Carissa several years ago and loved it, but it went before the Zeths arrived. Decware seem popular, but they’re rare and many of their more popular designs are sub 20w.
More on the sound - again, they do stage and image well, but it’s not anything spectacular. They’re a little on the lean side also, for my tastes. I ran (recently sold) ProAC D40R in my main system for a couple years and they’re more to my tastes, with a warmer, fleshier presentation. I own a vintage pair of Spica TC-50 that image tighter than the Zeths and are warmer and fleshier through the mids, but I can’t push them to higher levels due to their rather delicate tweeters.
Anyway, I was cruising around and found this thread (actually a while ago) and thought I’d drop in and say hi.
Rooze
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That’s funny you share that pic, because if I’m not mistaken you’ve tried to sell them on USAM? So you’re at “that” level of meh on them and I get it.
I wouldn’t use the word “holographic” to describe them but words mean different things to different people. Pinpoint accuracy, fantastic texture, dead center imaging and simply accurate I agree with you on the thin side though.
Although they did stage wide given all the tweaks I tried on them and they were deep enough, after moving to the 0/96 I have now, it was instantly apparent what they lacked and what they excelled in comparing the two. I used the same gear so it was a speakers to speakers comparison. By the way one of my observation notes when I was working hard to make them work, was that the frontRow digital cables added quite a bit of that stage depth over the cables I was using previously.
Every time I hear “holographic” I think tubes and @NickMimi will probably sooner or late give us a whole lot of his perspective on them. Nick has different room use cases and I’m sure knowing him he’ll have tried 30 different combinations. lol It’s what he does and loves to do.
I will also add that my Zeth had the wood cone AC-PiFe which may have an impact as well. I recall @M0N having a Pi with the AC-4X driver and him mentioning how much more they brought to the table.
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Yes, I’ve had them up on USAM for a while, along with a few other things. I’ve sold off a fair bit of stuff in the last few months, I’m now about 70% of the way through a ‘hard reset’…
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