ZCD Decware CD Player. Review notes First hour needed break in. Highs were closed in etched and sound to forward. On my system it was very clear that the system preferred the 84C in Triode mode with the ZCD in the mix . It was very clearly heard. The sound was much more balanced and relax in triode mode.(A FOOTNOTE): I talked to Steve per phone conversation and he stated that my amp needed to stay in the lay back mode and not put in the hot mode due to the large variable voltage swings of the pots on the ZCD from 5 volts to 20 volts. Even in the 5th hour of listening I heard some incredible transparency and realism from a Diana Krall Cd Love Scenes . The immediacy of her voice felt like she was in person in the living room. I was hearing at times A REAL PERSON in my acoustic space. The system has gone beyond a sound reproducer to a real event transporter. I had never heard anything close to this before. The ARC CD-8 has some of this transparency, But not anywhere to this level of involvement, and inner detailing of instrumental details. I was enjoying listening to all the wind instruments in an orchestra weaving in and out of cd after cd I was playing. I was happy to be able to hear the bass trombone part throughout one particular piece of music with the Boston Pops playing Glenn Miller tunes. All instrumental lines became so well defined and easily heard without any blurring of parts together. On about the 10th hour of playback when I put on a copy of Harry Belafonte Live at the Carnegie I was transported to the hall. I thought I was really in the hall. I could hear the acoustic space so clearly And could hear the sound bounce off the walls of the hall and could hear depth of field and clear decay of sounds as they occur in real space. I also was able to hear coughing from the audience in various locations So the player could really carve out cues of the width, depth and height of the sound stage. But the cd player can be unforgiving at times. If you have a cd with a tipped up top end you may not like what you hear. The player just does not mask anything on the disk. . So the ZCD is very accurate as a tool for a serious producer of music on a pro level in my opinion. From a standpoint of musical accuracy as recreated live from the symphony hall my system will recreate this from the midbass on up very accurately and can be heard with a upright bass reproduction that is very outstanding. I was able to hear the different timbres of this instrument and its fullness hearing its wood body and string plucking and bowing at the same time along with the speed of the playing as well. The ZCD can really strut its stuff in the bass reproduction area; although I need to clarify my speakers specs are from 40Hz to 40Khz so bass drum whacks or 20 Hz organ notes in that region would need augmentation With a really fast subwoofer. The designer of the ZCD I’m sure knows what the cd player can reproduce in this area since he has the speakers and amps that can reproduce this area effectively. I am on my 20th hour of playback on the ZCD and have been dialing in by ear a perfect setting on the ZCD Pots with reference to my amp. The pots on the cd player are a little pass half way up, and my volume level on my amp is up about ¾. With ¼ left before full output on my 1.8 watt amp. The ZCD is really sounding very magical and special in so many ways. Incredible realism and a transparency I have never heard from any stereo system. I just shake my head every day I listen to the ZCD And wonder how much better can playback get. I may know more when I reach 100 hours of playback or after 1 more month of playing 5 hours a day music on the ZCD CD player. I have also been working hard on diy power cords for my system and fine tuning my speaker cable which may be contributing to this incredible playback as well. But Hay this is a fun hobby and it can be done experimenting without breaking the bank. Of course I pulled the cover off the top of the player to see what was inside and noticed the class A Output stage with the G.E. 5mfd caps and the familiar looking .1 green caps on the small square pc board. Makes me want to Change those out for V Caps. But not in any hurry soon.; Still need to break in this machine. I put in a marathon session today running the cd player for almost 10 hours. The highs has settled in nicely. I was amazed on Diana Krall CD Quiet Nights I was able to hear on the Samba Song A CLEARLY DEFINED BRUSH ROLL on the Snare Drum. I have never heard a clean brush roll on anything recorded, ONLY LIVE. WOW did that absolutely floor me. Talk about inner detail WOW.. I also heard on the previous track a roll on a tom tom drum and I could tell the drummer used a soft cushion mallet from the identifying sounds reproduced.The ZCD Takes inner detail to an entire level I never though was possible. At the 50 hour mark of burn in on the ZCD HERE ARE MY COMMENTS : On Diana Krall Love Scene CD on tracks 4 and 7 I can clearly hear for the first time what the recording engineer is trying to Create. To my ears I hear a tap echo with the pretaps increased in level and then by track 12 they are reduced so Dianas voice can be heard more naturally by then. A FOOTNOTE : I have made several live amateur recordings over the years and know a lot of the tricks Recording engineers use to “enhance” recordings so its nice to hear a cd player this transparent. I don‘t think ANY CD PLAYER that I have auditioned comes anywhere near to be able to identify this. The ZCD is probably the most accurate player made PERIOD. Of course I have not heard every player “out there“, But I have heard one from Minnesota costing 10k not be able to reproduce this at all on this level. Well I am at 60 hours and the sound stage is really starting to open up in a huge way. The walls are doing a disappearing act. On one track Spanish Jazz on Chesky I was able to clearly hear 2 different people snapping their fingers to the beat on the recording from wide stage left and wide stage right. I had never heard this before. Again I am speechless with the resolution of the player. I was playing my Beatles Love CD and I was thinking that this track “GET BACK” sounded better on the 100K system I was hearing a few months back. What should I do? And then the thought occurred to me I had forgotten To do a tweak I had implemented with my dvd player that worked wonders. Well I put my couch pillow underneath the cd player and now I have huge bass slam and tight room shaking midbass . Steve says your room is important and he is very correct in acknowledging this. The sound stage has expanded further from the tweak and the highs are smoother, as well as an increase in dynamic range.. I should be at 100 hours end of the week with constant burn in and then I will submit my findings then. I should expect major improvements after Wednesday when I will be implementing further tweaks on the system as well. Stay Tuned! Back to top IP Logged 76doublebass Verified Member ZCD Decware CD Player. Review notes First hour needed break in. Highs were closed in etched and sound to forward. On my system it was very clear that the system preferred the 84C in Triode mode with the ZCD in the mix . It was very clearly heard. The sound was much more balanced and relax in triode mode.(A FOOTNOTE): I talked to Steve per phone conversation and he stated that my amp needed to stay in the lay back mode and not put in the hot mode due to the large variable voltage swings of the pots on the ZCD from 5 volts to 20 volts. Even in the 5th hour of listening I heard some incredible transparency and realism from a Diana Krall Cd Love Scenes . The immediacy of her voice felt like she was in person in the living room. I was hearing at times A REAL PERSON in my acoustic space. The system has gone beyond a sound reproducer to a real event transporter. I had never heard anything close to this before. The ARC CD-8 has some of this transparency, But not anywhere to this level of involvement, and inner detailing of instrumental details. I was enjoying listening to all the wind instruments in an orchestra weaving in and out of cd after cd I was playing. I was happy to be able to hear the bass trombone part throughout one particular piece of music with the Boston Pops playing Glenn Miller tunes. All instrumental lines became so well defined and easily heard without any blurring of parts together. On about the 10th hour of playback when I put on a copy of Harry Belafonte Live at the Carnegie I was transported to the hall. I thought I was really in the hall. I could hear the acoustic space so clearly And could hear the sound bounce off the walls of the hall and could hear depth of field and clear decay of sounds as they occur in real space. I also was able to hear coughing from the audience in various locations So the player could really carve out cues of the width, depth and height of the sound stage. But the cd player can be unforgiving at times. If you have a cd with a tipped up top end you may not like what you hear. The player just does not mask anything on the disk. . So the ZCD is very accurate as a tool for a serious producer of music on a pro level in my opinion. From a standpoint of musical accuracy as recreated live from the symphony hall my system will recreate this from the midbass on up very accurately and can be heard with a upright bass reproduction that is very outstanding. I was able to hear the different timbres of this instrument and its fullness hearing its wood body and string plucking and bowing at the same time along with the speed of the playing as well. The ZCD can really strut its stuff in the bass reproduction area; although I need to clarify my speakers specs are from 40Hz to 40Khz so bass drum whacks or 20 Hz organ notes in that region would need augmentation With a really fast subwoofer. The designer of the ZCD I’m sure knows what the cd player can reproduce in this area since he has the speakers and amps that can reproduce this area effectively. I am on my 20th hour of playback on the ZCD and have been dialing in by ear a perfect setting on the ZCD Pots with reference to my amp. The pots on the cd player are a little pass half way up, and my volume level on my amp is up about ¾. With ¼ left before full output on my 1.8 watt amp. The ZCD is really sounding very magical and special in so many ways. Incredible realism and a transparency I have never heard from any stereo system. I just shake my head every day I listen to the ZCD And wonder how much better can playback get. I may know more when I reach 100 hours of playback or after 1 more month of playing 5 hours a day music on the ZCD CD player. I have also been working hard on diy power cords for my system and fine tuning my speaker cable which may be contributing to this incredible playback as well. But Hay this is a fun hobby and it can be done experimenting without breaking the bank. Of course I pulled the cover off the top of the player to see what was inside and noticed the class A Output stage with the G.E. 5mfd caps and the familiar looking .1 green caps on the small square pc board. Makes me want to Change those out for V Caps. But not in any hurry soon.; Still need to break in this machine. I put in a marathon session today running the cd player for almost 10 hours. The highs has settled in nicely. I was amazed on Diana Krall CD Quiet Nights I was able to hear on the Samba Song A CLEARLY DEFINED BRUSH ROLL on the Snare Drum. I have never heard a clean brush roll on anything recorded, ONLY LIVE. WOW did that absolutely floor me. Talk about inner detail WOW.. I also heard on the previous track a roll on a tom tom drum and I could tell the drummer used a soft cushion mallet from the identifying sounds reproduced.The ZCD Takes inner detail to an entire level I never though was possible. At the 50 hour mark of burn in on the ZCD HERE ARE MY COMMENTS : On Diana Krall Love Scene CD on tracks 4 and 7 I can clearly hear for the first time what the recording engineer is trying to Create. To my ears I hear a tap echo with the pretaps increased in level and then by track 12 they are reduced so Dianas voice can be heard more naturally by then. A FOOTNOTE : I have made several live amateur recordings over the years and know a lot of the tricks Recording engineers use to “enhance” recordings so its nice to hear a cd player this transparent. I don‘t think ANY CD PLAYER that I have auditioned comes anywhere near to be able to identify this. The ZCD is probably the most accurate player made PERIOD. Of course I have not heard every player “out there“, But I have heard one from Minnesota costing 10k not be able to reproduce this at all on this level. Well I am at 60 hours and the sound stage is really starting to open up in a huge way. The walls are doing a disappearing act. On one track Spanish Jazz on Chesky I was able to clearly hear 2 different people snapping their fingers to the beat on the recording from wide stage left and wide stage right. I had never heard this before. Again I am speechless with the resolution of the player. I was playing my Beatles Love CD and I was thinking that this track “GET BACK” sounded better on the 100K system I was hearing a few months back. What should I do? And then the thought occurred to me I had forgotten To do a tweak I had implemented with my dvd player that worked wonders. Well I put my couch pillow underneath the cd player and now I have huge bass slam and tight room shaking midbass . Steve says your room is important and he is very correct in acknowledging this. The sound stage has expanded further from the tweak and the highs are smoother, as well as an increase in dynamic range.. I should be at 100 hours end of the week with constant burn in and then I will submit my findings then. I should expect major improvements after Wednesday when I will be implementing further tweaks on the system as well. Stay Tuned

wanted to start posting a review on the Zen Amp I had bought as a kit without the pc board. I wanted to challenge myself and try hard to build it as a factory wired 84C Zen Amp. Yes it was almost a bit much for me to assemble,but with the patient help of Steve and the utube 12 part video he had on its construction I was able to finish the completion of the unit.Although I did need help in the end from a tube technician in my area to do another 3 hours of troubleshotting to bring it to life. A little background on myself might give you some perspective from where I'm coming from in my review of the unit. 1. I have been an advid Audiophile for almost 30 years and have been on the merry go round with components in my days. I.E.Audio Research SP-6B,6C,ARC SP-8, ARC VT-60, ARC 110B Solid State Monster, RM-4 Head Amp,Conrad Johnson PV-5,CJ PV-8,Acoustat Special Made 2+2, Martin Logan CLS, Martin Logan Quest Z's. You get the picture. Well I had almost sold everything I had an was giving up on Audiophile rip offs from the merry go round upgrade of the year designator to just not feeling the void of reproducing Real Music in Real Acoustic Spaces. Part 2 of my formula comes from what brought me back into the fold of SET. I think most of this has to do with my exposure to live music. I have been playing the bass trombone for the past 40 years or more and almost 20 of those years with our local symphony The Skagit Symphony. My ears are exposed to live music constantly. I Know What Live Music Sounds Like Very much from the Classical and Jazz perspective as well. I had also been in a semi pro jazz band for 6 years during part of this time as well. With the 84 C for the first time I can hear I would call outer detail as well as inner.Outer meaning I can hear the moisture of a reed being blown very cleanly and clearly fro the first time. I can hear the breath of a singes voice at the end of a long phrase so clearly that u are tricked into thinking shes singing in the room with u making the master tape in your presense. Its really amazing to say the least. The timing of the amp is quick,real fast. I can hear bongos drumming full 8th and 16th note pattern beats that would normally smear as something not heard at all. I have really put this amp through its paces on the 60 hours of use thus far.I have played Willie Nelson Stardust on CD to even The Riverdance Soundtrack which I had the opportunity to watch live in Seattle. It was a great treat to hear the dancers stomp through between my speakers with such accuracy and placement of them. I was able to hear the solo dancers moving to the left of the stage and when all the dancers occupied the floor it was very exciting and reminded me of being back at the hall live again.I was able to clearly hear and feel them a bit as well. I am listening to all of this through my 89DB Efficent Paradigm Atom 2 ways But with a mod done on them to open things up.I was so excited by the sound of this amp that I could not wait for a speaker upgrade at the moment; so I tore into them replacing the tweeter with a 4 ohm Ribbon Tweeter I had with me from 1982 and it worked after all these years. Rated at 40 watts made in London it was my ticket to revive the amp into seeing a 4 ohm load and everything really started to sing and brought back life into the amp literally. So if anyone tries to review the amp with 86 to 89 DB speakers well don't even read the review u would just be waisting your time.. I will be obtaining Parker Audio 95's used next month so I will need to post an update when I receive those. Yes I am back into the land of SET with the Zen and I will be getting Steves CD player the Tascam with all the mods sometime in April so the fun will continue down the road. My system sounds like minnie Electrostat Speakers now I just can't get over this. Even with just a Tosiba basic 5 drawer DVD player I am getting this type of playback. Well I will keep you all posted when I can hear them with Parker 95's Take Care Everyone Don

Well I finally had the chance to hear how my ZEN 84C really sounds with the Parker 95 Signatures. All I can say is the 2 were meant for each other and now I can understand more clearly Steve's enthusiasm. He makes a claim that one needs to spend up to 10K to get this level of performance and I totally agree to that statement NOW That I have listened to both of them together. You see just about 1 week ago I went to a small Audio specialty store that had on display The Wilson Maxx Series 3 Speakers which lets say its very,very expensive 70K for the pair, plus 10k for ARC'S Reference CD7 cd player, 25K for the amps ,10K for the preamp,3.5K for power filtering and maybe 10k in IC's and power cords from Transparent AUDIO. SO THIS SYSTEM I HEARD COST ALMOST 130k. Well I got news for you from the midrange thru the extreme highs I prefered the sound of my sytem to what I listened to 1 week ago on that special set up. I played a cut from the Firebird Suite 1919 a 96K 24 bit special file available from ITRACK web site. The high freq. extension went out to infinity on the Parker 95's with tremendous air and spaciousness and I could clearly hear the actual acoustic space the orchestra was playing in so easily. I really was sucked into the performance with the micro dynamics as well as the huge difference in the ppp passages and the final climax last cords. I was grinning ear to ear when this 25 minute track finished and said WOW and its still going to get better then this once I finally get the moded ZCD Tascam from Steve.My only minor negative I can hear now is the deep bass may need to be augmented with a fast sub, to fill out the deep low end. Although this could be due to the large area I am playing the Parker 95's in. I have them in my 13 foot wide by 27 foot living room with standard 8 foot ceiling heavy insulated from above. I am still experimenting with speaker placement from the first 5 hours of playing. I bought these speakers used so I assume they are already well broken in. I have already played every imaginable type of music from this combo and its holding its own with the best around. I need to speak with Mr. Parker and find out what sub. would mate well with his 95 Signatures. Oh while I 'm remembering I played a cut with light Jazz from Diana Krall and was able to hear light drum stroking with drum brushes all the way thru the entire song.It never was buried underneath a fog or haze but was clearly heard in the background as you were there in person. What a revelation this was to my ears and the high end system never came anywhere close to doing this. KUDOS STEVE AND Dave Parker for a job well done indeed. I extend my gratitude for all your hard work and continuation of making affordable audiophile gear to those with less discretionary income available. Again I as trombone player for the past 40 years and playing bass trombone for the past 20 years in The Skagit Symphony offers me a unique insight into the sound of live music and both of you have achived this in spades.

I thought I should share you my experience I had with a pair of DIY Speaker Cable project
I have been up to for the past month. Being retired I am always on a tight budget and
try to find ways to stretch this Audiophile on a meager means to still enjoy SET
Sound without breaking the bank.
I use to have an electric lawn mower with this long bright 100 foot orange extension cord
trailing behind me as I mowed. Well I gave that up went to all gas and now the thought occurred
To me : Lets see what I can do making this into a speaker cable. So I cut into it and had one run on each side and the midrange reproduction on these was very musical and nice. So I thought lets shotgun a pair together like the days of the old Mit 750 Shotgun and see what happens. I did and the soundstage started to open up along with top end transparency. Well I kept working on the cables until I finally came to the magic
Number of 5 runs per speaker cable which made the cable almost 2 inches in diameter with 126 stands
Of copper wire on the negative terminal and 260 strands of copper wire on the positive terminal. This extension cord is 16 guage 3 wire for one cable. Well I have 5 together. I wonder if that makes it a 4 or 2 guage LOL. I have the black wire all tied together for the negative terminal and the green and white wire twisted together for the positive terminal. When I finally finished the one problem I encountered was the weight on the terminal ends. ITS HEAVY. I BOUGHT some Radio Shack bananna plugs for 12 guage wire and this did help some. I was able to pull my neg. wires through the plug okay, but the positive wire only partially through. So I will need to get some shrink wrap and finish this up that way.
I also covered the bright hugly orange with black duck tape so as to create less of an eye sore and will be trying to hunt down some teflex big enough to go over these monstrous cables.
Well how do they sound? WOWWOWWOW!!!
I can hear way way back into the soundstage and all and every instrument is heard and played in utter transparency. Even small acoustic instruments can be tracked very easily and I was able to hear talking of the artist after a take as well since some recording engineers did not fade the music out all the way at the end of a take. You can hear the acoustic space of every recording so cleanly and clearly along with the air in the space and the decay of each note is conveyed clear as a bell. Even triangle sounds can be heard nicely.
Talk about an upgrade. IMO this cable in my system sounds like a 2 to 3K pair of speaker cables that I only paid about for $25..00 for the 100 foot extension cord and about $32.00 for 2 sets of bananna plugs.
All instruments sound natural and lifelike with plenty of body. I am just in utter amazment at what I accidently discovered with this cable and I wanted to share it with as many people as possible for everyone
To try this out for themselves and reap the benefits I found on my own.
A further update: I have since my last report improved upon them further with 4 guage Vampire Spade Lugs
For termination and the addition of Deflex Paneling lined on the outside of the speaker cable to cut down on noise and resonance. The Deflex panels are held together tightly with Black Gorilla tape.
Now I did not use any special metals, gold, i.e. cryo, or internal lead shot, magnets, or special cottons or silver, or internal water to dampen things out or 20k speaker interface boxes. JUST A 100 FOOT BRIGHT ORANGE EXTENSION CABLE FOR $25.00
Any thoughts or comments would be appreciated
Don C.