So a couple of years ago I got a pair of Papa's hand built 6-bulb 40 watt Mono block Zen lights from Joe Sammut. I hooked them up briefly when I first got them but my pre-amp at that time didn't have balanced outputs and not nearly enough ooomp to really drive them. So I have had them sitting around and looking awesome for the most part.
I have been upgrading my system this past year and pickup up a preamp that is fully balanced and can drive the ZL's with ease. I have them hooked up to a pair of Duntech Crown Princes and The ZL's are amazing! and I have to agree with N.P's statement that they sound better then they should! given good gear on either side of the ZL's they will not disappoint!
On Ruby Lane track 6 of Milla Jovovich -The Divine Comedy, the violins have a weight to them I have never heard. you can literally feel the air in the room vibrating from the strings.
Track 9 - Don't fade away is absolutely holographic! with instruments precisely located in space.
Several tracks on Mickey Hart - Planet drum startled me to the point where I thought someone was in my kitchen! I had to stop the track and get up and look twice!
The Zen Lights are definitely staying in the system for a while! I can honestly say I have never had this good of sound from any system I have owned!
My ONLY complaint is that the bulbs on one amp glow slightly brighter then the other amp LOL I think i can live with that hahaha!
Zc
Below: the photo on the left I took the day I got the ZL's.
*this has been corrected!
The photo on the right is from the J-low article on the firstwatt website. On page 5 of the article it says:
Figure 5 is a picture of Dana Kruse standing in front of the right channel loudspeaker. We conducted our listening tests with a 40 watt balanced version of the Zen Lite, which is the box you see with the light bulbs on top.
I have been upgrading my system this past year and pickup up a preamp that is fully balanced and can drive the ZL's with ease. I have them hooked up to a pair of Duntech Crown Princes and The ZL's are amazing! and I have to agree with N.P's statement that they sound better then they should! given good gear on either side of the ZL's they will not disappoint!
On Ruby Lane track 6 of Milla Jovovich -The Divine Comedy, the violins have a weight to them I have never heard. you can literally feel the air in the room vibrating from the strings.
Track 9 - Don't fade away is absolutely holographic! with instruments precisely located in space.
Several tracks on Mickey Hart - Planet drum startled me to the point where I thought someone was in my kitchen! I had to stop the track and get up and look twice!
The Zen Lights are definitely staying in the system for a while! I can honestly say I have never had this good of sound from any system I have owned!
My ONLY complaint is that the bulbs on one amp glow slightly brighter then the other amp LOL I think i can live with that hahaha!
Zc
Below: the photo on the left I took the day I got the ZL's.
*this has been corrected!
The photo on the right is from the J-low article on the firstwatt website. On page 5 of the article it says:
Figure 5 is a picture of Dana Kruse standing in front of the right channel loudspeaker. We conducted our listening tests with a 40 watt balanced version of the Zen Lite, which is the box you see with the light bulbs on top.
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Here's the articles ZC:
http://www.firstwatt.com/pdf/art_jlow.pdf
http://www.firstwatt.com/pdf/art_jlow_***.pdf
The forum software seems to be detecting a bad word in the link above and substituted *
Just replace the three * with the other word for mule!
http://www.firstwatt.com/pdf/art_jlow.pdf
http://www.firstwatt.com/pdf/art_jlow_***.pdf
The forum software seems to be detecting a bad word in the link above and substituted *
Just replace the three * with the other word for mule!
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So tonight I decided to compare the Zen Lights to my Crown Macro Reference. Now to be fair this is not exactly a fair fight. the Macro ref has a Damping factor of 20,000!!!! and 760wpch@8ohms VS the ZL's Damping factor of....8 I think?? and 40wpch!
While the Crown really shined on the low end, I mean the bass control was unreal, the stereo image was not quite as good! With the ZL's the image is really three dimensional! and with the crown, the image was as wide but did not seem to extend as far into the room!! The ZL's are a bit more liquid sounding. Transients with the crown were much better, startling so in fact, but the whole sound just seem....smaller.
The ZL's are going back in!
While the Crown really shined on the low end, I mean the bass control was unreal, the stereo image was not quite as good! With the ZL's the image is really three dimensional! and with the crown, the image was as wide but did not seem to extend as far into the room!! The ZL's are a bit more liquid sounding. Transients with the crown were much better, startling so in fact, but the whole sound just seem....smaller.
The ZL's are going back in!
That seems to be an inadvertent omission. I have cleaning up content on
passdiy site on my to-do list.
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