SOLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Decware Zen Head Portable Amp

SOLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

no trades

This amp was featured as one of the best In Skylab's 37 gazillion portable amp shootout. It recieved Straignt A's ;-)

I am the original owner, and bought direct from decware a few months ago.

Its an exceptional little amp, but as I now own some grossly non portable thunderpants, well the portable amp is not really practical, or a good match for these cans...

Its in perfect condition aside from a few very minor scuffs on its black metal exterior. Frankly, the scuffs are barely noticable.

it is nearly identical dimensions to an ipod touch, and 1 inch thick - dimensions 1"x3"x5"

this amp can run on a single 9 volt battery for nearly 50 hours, or be run by a power supply (included)

it comes with a patch cable, a leather case, and a power supply

this amp works with any headphones between 10 ohms and 600 ohms

it has the following switches inside:

Hi-Z and Lo-Z output, Hi and Lo gain, Hi and Lo dynamics, and Cross-feed On or Off.

FEATURES

• High quality 3.5mm stereo input & output jacks.
• DPDT Gold heavy duty power switch to insure a perfect connection to the 9 VDC
• Expensive high quality miniature toggles (red) for setup instead of inferior sounding dip switches.
• Carefully selected precision resistors for each part of the circuit demonstrate that voicing was taken seriously.
• High grade electrolytic's (light blue) with rated voltages well over twice what was needed.
• Audiophile grade polypropylene film caps are used for both coupling caps in the signal path and power supply bypass caps.
• Polyester Film caps with rated voltages over 100 times greater than required live in the carefully executed crossfeed circuit.
• Select grade Burr Brown OPA2132 Op amps.
• High quality stereo carbon volume pot with excellent feel.  Adjustable range can be achieved with the input impedance switch.
• Setup switches (miniature red toggles) include Cross-feed, Gain, and input impedance allowing you to switch on the fly while you listen for the best combination.  Lame portable sources like the iPod Touch will require the lower 10K input impedance to have any real gain and preserve dynamics, while sources with a bit more drive will prefer the higher input impedance of 32K to keep things from getting too aggressive and or too loud.
• Double sided fully shielded circuit board with faceplate attached is easily removed from the chassis by removing the two front screws and sliding the unit out.
• Hand stuffed and hand Silver soldered throughout.
• Alkaline Battery life is 50 hours.  Compatible with all 9 volt battery types.
• No surface mount components whatsoever, all resistors and board traces are over-sized to prevent the dreaded dry solid state signature so commonly seen in these things.
• No sockets used on Op amps - no chance to degrade the sound over time and because no other Op amps will work as well in this circuit.

here is what Skylab has to say about this amp in his 37 amp review found here

I was asked by Decware, a maker of many high-end tube amps, to review their portable headphone amp, The ZenHead. When I received it, I was surprised about the size – it’s BIG. It’s as big as the Lisa III. It uses a 9V battery, and has no charging facility. Like the Lisa III, it’s really too big for many portable applications. Decware’s Steve Deckert said that he did not really try to keep the size down for the same reason that he didn’t include a batter charging circuit – he was going purely for the best sound he could. Certainly a good goal. However, while in the case of the Lisa III I felt the superior sonics could justify the size, the Zenhead is merely a very good, competitive sounding amp, that is really big.

OK, OK, but how did it sound???? Well, very good. Overall, I felt that Decware’s main business of selling tube amps shows in how the amp is voiced. It sounds like many tube amps I have heard. As such, its sound is a little idiosyncratic. I struggled some with the normal ratings I give, in terms of capturing the essence of the amp. On some tracks it sounded fantastic; on others, merely very good. In it's "LoZ setting" it was more neutral sounding than the "HiZ" setting, so I used this mode.

Build Quality: A: Pretty industrial, plain looking case, but very sturdy, and solidly built. No turn on/off thump. Totally silent also – no noise at ALL. No points for style, but none deducted for cheap plastics – it’s all metal.
Treble: A: Treble is quite clear. Very transparent. Maybe not as extended as the iQube, but still excellent. Better than in version 1.
Midrange: A: Slightly lush, but very transparent, and clear. Highly engaging performance here. Again, better than in version 1 - liquid and smooth but with great nuance.
Bass: A: The bass was excellent. Full, powerful, punchy. Lacked the very last bit of depth that the iQube has, but still truly excellent.
Neutrality: A: The new version is basically neutral in "LoZ" mode - maybe just a very slight warmth in the lower mids and upper bass, but not enough to be problematic.
Soundstaging: A+: The ZenHead has selectable crossfeed. I found that its soundstage was deep and wide, and truly palpable. It excelled here, even better than the 2Move with the Meier crossfeed on. If you are a soundstage freak, this amp is for you.
Transparency: A: Definitely in the class of amps that presents a wide-open window on the music. Very good performance here.

The V2 of the ZenHead offers a quite "tube-like" sound in "Hi-Z" mode, and a more neutral, very transparent sound in "Lo-Z" mode. This makes a very good amp even better. I like the ZenHead a lot - I just wish it were smaller.

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price drop $250 ENGAGE!!

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bump.. still for sale

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bump still for sale...