The listening test
Hi Mad!
I report you about my listening test.
I told you already that it was not realy 100% A-B test, but even more to collecting the listening first impressions.
I don't want (and can't ) to explain which amps how was sounding, just to say shortly the most important impressions.
We tryed each amp with each preamp and loudspeakers and offcourse with different cabels.
The sources:
Yamaha CDX-993
Yamaha DVD S-830 for DVDAudio
Marantz CDP 5000
The cabels:
VDH-Clearwater
Cardas
Monitor-Symetric
Oelbach-Rattlesnake Silver
DIY CAT5
The loudspeakers:
Impulse H6 /90dB
Shahinian Compass clone /89dB
My own design: BR-TML speaker /90dB
The preamps:
2 BOZ (with different pots and parts)
2 BOSOZ (with different pots and parts)
REMUS Tube Line Stage
MF X-10D tube buffer
The amps:
Hiraga Le Monster-with original transistors!
JLH1969-with MJ15003 transistors
ZEN "classic"
ZEN ZV4
ZEN BALANCED 25Watt
Zen Lite
Aleph5
Gaincard with LM 1875
ION Obelisk clone
Quad II. tube amp
and the SEWA V1 with 30VDC/2A= 10Watt
The musics:
Patricia Barber -ModernCool
Patricia Barber-Verse
Renaud Garcia-FonsTrio-Arcoluz
Diana Krall DVD Audios
Massive Attack, BEP
And here comes the result:
First: every amps are very good amps, each are better than any commerse HI-FI (SONY,DENON, ETC.)
The weaklings:
-ION Obelisk clone Class AB amp: nice sound, good for office or kitchen
-Gaincard with LM 1875: nice clear, but a kind of solid state sound
-Quad II. tube amp: nice, but a bit boring and lifeless tube sound
The serious amps:
-Hiraga Le Monster: very nice and strong sound, but nothing special, if not that: You can't believe how can this 8 Watt amp to be so strong!!
-JLH1969: this is realy a very good sounding amp! A refference amp for ever. Very musical sound, one of the best.
-ZEN "classic": nice and very pleasant sound for the ears, but the bass, dynamic, details, soundstage imagineing not so perfect than the ....... see later
-ZEN ZV4: nice and very strong and dynamic sound, but also not perfect like the......
-ZEN BALANCED 25Watt: nice and brutal strong dynamic and bass etc. sound! A bit "dark" or gloomy sound. I am afraid I prefer the 2nd harmonic distorsions more....
-Zen Lite: It is a realy nice sounding amp, almost perfect, but the details and the sound stage imagineing and the bass control are not so fine than the....... see later
-Aleph5: very nice tube like sound with brutal power and dynamic.
-SEWA V1: O.K. here comes the winner! Nice, soft, warm etc. sound, but the most important what makes this amp unambiguous better than the others are the very strong and realy(!) detailed, controled bass, mega-brutal dynamic, incredible fine micro details and excellent 3D sound stage. The music simply alive in the listening room!!!
I have never listened or felt such a good presence feeling!
One more thing: maybe I am a sick perverse, but I like my BOZ very much. It has not so relaxed sound than the BOSOZ but the BOZ's "excited" sound make the details sharper.
Interesting: The ZEN "classic" and the ZEN ZV4 liked very much the MF X-10D tube buffer between the preamp and the amps. The improvement was realy big with the tube buffer, but my SEWA V1 worked excellent even without the buffer and gave the same nice warm sound!!
So, I tryed to explain my feelings and experiences. Sorry for my bad english, but I think, if I could speak even perfect it would also very hard to write down what I heard.
And for last: offcourse the most important: the whole HI-FI is standing on matter of taste!
But, the SEWA V1 is realy better!!!!
Thanks and Greets for Mr. Pass and Mad!!!!
Tyimo
Hi Mad!
I report you about my listening test.
I told you already that it was not realy 100% A-B test, but even more to collecting the listening first impressions.
I don't want (and can't ) to explain which amps how was sounding, just to say shortly the most important impressions.
We tryed each amp with each preamp and loudspeakers and offcourse with different cabels.
The sources:
Yamaha CDX-993
Yamaha DVD S-830 for DVDAudio
Marantz CDP 5000
The cabels:
VDH-Clearwater
Cardas
Monitor-Symetric
Oelbach-Rattlesnake Silver
DIY CAT5
The loudspeakers:
Impulse H6 /90dB
Shahinian Compass clone /89dB
My own design: BR-TML speaker /90dB
The preamps:
2 BOZ (with different pots and parts)
2 BOSOZ (with different pots and parts)
REMUS Tube Line Stage
MF X-10D tube buffer
The amps:
Hiraga Le Monster-with original transistors!
JLH1969-with MJ15003 transistors
ZEN "classic"
ZEN ZV4
ZEN BALANCED 25Watt
Zen Lite
Aleph5
Gaincard with LM 1875
ION Obelisk clone
Quad II. tube amp
and the SEWA V1 with 30VDC/2A= 10Watt
The musics:
Patricia Barber -ModernCool
Patricia Barber-Verse
Renaud Garcia-FonsTrio-Arcoluz
Diana Krall DVD Audios
Massive Attack, BEP
And here comes the result:
First: every amps are very good amps, each are better than any commerse HI-FI (SONY,DENON, ETC.)
The weaklings:
-ION Obelisk clone Class AB amp: nice sound, good for office or kitchen
-Gaincard with LM 1875: nice clear, but a kind of solid state sound
-Quad II. tube amp: nice, but a bit boring and lifeless tube sound
The serious amps:
-Hiraga Le Monster: very nice and strong sound, but nothing special, if not that: You can't believe how can this 8 Watt amp to be so strong!!
-JLH1969: this is realy a very good sounding amp! A refference amp for ever. Very musical sound, one of the best.
-ZEN "classic": nice and very pleasant sound for the ears, but the bass, dynamic, details, soundstage imagineing not so perfect than the ....... see later
-ZEN ZV4: nice and very strong and dynamic sound, but also not perfect like the......
-ZEN BALANCED 25Watt: nice and brutal strong dynamic and bass etc. sound! A bit "dark" or gloomy sound. I am afraid I prefer the 2nd harmonic distorsions more....
-Zen Lite: It is a realy nice sounding amp, almost perfect, but the details and the sound stage imagineing and the bass control are not so fine than the....... see later
-Aleph5: very nice tube like sound with brutal power and dynamic.
-SEWA V1: O.K. here comes the winner! Nice, soft, warm etc. sound, but the most important what makes this amp unambiguous better than the others are the very strong and realy(!) detailed, controled bass, mega-brutal dynamic, incredible fine micro details and excellent 3D sound stage. The music simply alive in the listening room!!!
I have never listened or felt such a good presence feeling!
One more thing: maybe I am a sick perverse, but I like my BOZ very much. It has not so relaxed sound than the BOSOZ but the BOZ's "excited" sound make the details sharper.
Interesting: The ZEN "classic" and the ZEN ZV4 liked very much the MF X-10D tube buffer between the preamp and the amps. The improvement was realy big with the tube buffer, but my SEWA V1 worked excellent even without the buffer and gave the same nice warm sound!!
So, I tryed to explain my feelings and experiences. Sorry for my bad english, but I think, if I could speak even perfect it would also very hard to write down what I heard.
And for last: offcourse the most important: the whole HI-FI is standing on matter of taste!
But, the SEWA V1 is realy better!!!!
Thanks and Greets for Mr. Pass and Mad!!!!
Tyimo
Listening test
WOW! What an interesting comparison! I have much the same impression as you have, so I found your results to be very accurate! Your english is more than good enough Maybe the most interesting finding (to me) was the discovery that BOZ was the best preamp for SEWAr1. I've just tried BZLS (BOSOZ), PASS X2r1 (also DIY) and some opamp designs (OPA2134, OPA627 and OPA2227). From these the X2r1 was the best, but now I'm very curious about the BOZ..
Chris; as soon as this proto-batch is verified, I'll order a new batch of boards Anyone interested should send me a email so I know how many that are needed.
WOW! What an interesting comparison! I have much the same impression as you have, so I found your results to be very accurate! Your english is more than good enough
Maybe the most interesting finding (to me) was the discovery that BOZ was the best preamp for SEWAr1. I've just tried BZLS (BOSOZ), PASS X2r1 (also DIY) and some opamp designs (OPA2134, OPA627 and OPA2227). From these the X2r1 was the best, but now I'm very curious about the BOZ..Chris; as soon as this proto-batch is verified, I'll order a new batch of boards
Anyone interested should send me a email so I know how many that are needed.
Hi Tyimo!
Nice to hear good things about SEWA; I was never really intersted to build this one, but after I read your amplifier comparison test, I am
Since I obtained Jfets, I recently finnished ZEN V8. It sounds much better than my ZEN V3, which is now sitting on a floor, awaiting mutation
I thought it will get transformed into ZEN V9. On the other hand, I'd like t try to convert it to SEWA Rev1 and compare it to ZEN V8.
One question for you Tyimo: You could try to convert your ZEN lite to SEWA with a lightbulb instead of CCS. It should be fairly easy.
I feel a bit perplexed about the phenomena of current sources vs. the subjective sound quality.CCS gives more power and bass, but lamps (or resistors), despite lower power, sound more "musical".....I still can't say which one is "better". It seems to be a matter of taste....
Regards,
Vix
Nice to hear good things about SEWA; I was never really intersted to build this one, but after I read your amplifier comparison test, I am
Since I obtained Jfets, I recently finnished ZEN V8. It sounds much better than my ZEN V3, which is now sitting on a floor, awaiting mutation
I thought it will get transformed into ZEN V9. On the other hand, I'd like t try to convert it to SEWA Rev1 and compare it to ZEN V8.
One question for you Tyimo: You could try to convert your ZEN lite to SEWA with a lightbulb instead of CCS. It should be fairly easy.
I feel a bit perplexed about the phenomena of current sources vs. the subjective sound quality.CCS gives more power and bass, but lamps (or resistors), despite lower power, sound more "musical".....I still can't say which one is "better". It seems to be a matter of taste....
Regards,
Vix
Hi!
First of all: everybody are welcome!!
Mad, I didn't say that the BOZ is the best, I just say that in some way it is better than the BOSOZ: Sharper details, but not so "relaxed". But the difference is not so big and important.
Vix: Yes, I think I will try with bulbs or even more with a 100mH inductor!!!
When I bulit my Zen Lite I felt the same in comparison with the Zen "Classic". But now, I am not realy sure, because the SEWA V1 with the CCS has very musical sound too. Offcourse, I have to try because "the probe of the pudding is the taste"
One is sure:I think I will not go back to any Common Source Mode amps, because I like so much the advantages of the Mosfet Followers (source followers ).
I would like to know how is sounding Andrea Ciuffoli 's Power Follower amp?
Has somebody any info?
Greets:
Tyimo
First of all: everybody are welcome!!
Mad, I didn't say that the BOZ is the best, I just say that in some way it is better than the BOSOZ: Sharper details, but not so "relaxed". But the difference is not so big and important.
Vix: Yes, I think I will try with bulbs or even more with a 100mH inductor!!!
When I bulit my Zen Lite I felt the same in comparison with the Zen "Classic". But now, I am not realy sure, because the SEWA V1 with the CCS has very musical sound too. Offcourse, I have to try because "the probe of the pudding is the taste"
One is sure:I think I will not go back to any Common Source Mode amps, because I like so much the advantages of the Mosfet Followers (source followers ).
I would like to know how is sounding Andrea Ciuffoli 's Power Follower amp?
Has somebody any info?
Greets:
Tyimo
The main difference from SEWA to "Power Follower 99" is in the PSU. If you use only a 3300uF cap and add a zener regulated follwer for PSU you'll be pretty close. Also, he uses a negative rail, which was discussed earlier in this thread (or was it in the OTA thread?) and was abandoned beacause of poor PSRR.
Hi all,
Tyimo, I have power follower 99c by A.Ciuffoli. I have experimented
a lot of variantes on PSU ,now CLC , a little better.
But bass are simply ridicolous ( no offence, perdone me) . No punch,
No slamm, no sense of rythm.... Nada!
The rest is excellent IMHO ( soundstage, voices, harmonics,etc).
My test reference is a Pass x250 and an old Treshold 4000. These
have bass, punch,slamm,etc.
If someone know a power amp with better " bass" please advise me, because I am desperate! 80-100W are sufficient for my woofer.
Cheers,
Inertial
Tyimo, I have power follower 99c by A.Ciuffoli. I have experimented
a lot of variantes on PSU ,now CLC , a little better.
But bass are simply ridicolous ( no offence, perdone me) . No punch,
No slamm, no sense of rythm.... Nada!
The rest is excellent IMHO ( soundstage, voices, harmonics,etc).
My test reference is a Pass x250 and an old Treshold 4000. These
have bass, punch,slamm,etc.
If someone know a power amp with better " bass" please advise me, because I am desperate! 80-100W are sufficient for my woofer.
Cheers,
Inertial
Tyimo said:
Never say never!
If you want to be sure that you'll not go back to Common Source Amps, you will have to compare SEWA to ZEN V9
In fact, I'd like to hear a comparison between ZEN V8 or V9, and SEWA. Anyone done that?
One more (probably stupid) question (excuse my lack of sufficient knowledge about electronics):
Is it possible to build Zen V8 as a Follower (like SEWA)?
In that case, biasing of Jfet would have to be done differently. Moreover, would that amp make any sense (since it may not exploit all the advantages of the Jfet over a Mosfet?)
Regards,
Vix
Hi Vix!
I have 6 Lovoltech JFets and in couple of months I will try it.
But! It is interesting that so many people ordered in the last 2 months these JFets in group buy, but until now I know only 2, who built the ZV9 already! We say in hungary:"The smoke was bigger than the flame"?!?
Godd question
Greets:
Tyimo
I have 6 Lovoltech JFets and in couple of months I will try it.
But! It is interesting that so many people ordered in the last 2 months these JFets in group buy, but until now I know only 2, who built the ZV9 already! We say in hungary:"The smoke was bigger than the flame"?!?
Godd question
Greets:
Tyimo
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