DRCope
Head-Fier
- Joined
- Sep 20, 2001
- Posts
- 61
- Likes
- 10
Mea culpa. Mea maxima culpa. I screwed up. I was driving the ZOTL out of the tape out of my Audio Note M-2, because I didn't want the signal going through two volume pots. This sounded great on the Senn 600s, but seriously anemic on the AKG K-1000s.
This morning I thought, "What if the DAC 1.1x isn't producing enough volts to drive the ZOTL to full output? What if there's an impedance mismatch?" So I ran the second preamp out to the ZOTL and tried it again.
Holy S**t! The Senns still sound just fine - a little richer than before, but similar. The AKG's were transformed. Much more dynamic, richer balance, greater volume capability, much more relaxed sounding.
I think (from memory) that the Paramours did even better, which is reasonable given that they have 3x the ZOTL's wattage. I can push the ZOTL into clipping, but it has to be pretty damn loud to do it.
The tweak is: REPLACE the STOCK POWER CORD on the ZOTL! I swapped in a Blue Circle BC-61 cord, and the last (until I get rid of another one somehow!) smidgen of electronic edge was gone. As Col. Potter on MASH used to say about his favorite scotch, "Not enough o's in smooooooth to do justice to this stuff." NOT through loss of detail. There's fine low-level detail to burn here, just no extraneous crapola. Makes listening too loud a real risk because one's cue to TURN IT DOWN is usually distortion of one sort or another. I think I need to bypass the vol pot on the ZOTL next . . . .
So now I've got a no-replug-anything solution to fantastic speaker AND headphone listening. Just power up the appropriate amp and listen. Color me HAPPY!
There may be a pair of Senn 600's w/Clou Red cable cropping up in the "For Sale" section in the near future.
This morning I thought, "What if the DAC 1.1x isn't producing enough volts to drive the ZOTL to full output? What if there's an impedance mismatch?" So I ran the second preamp out to the ZOTL and tried it again.
Holy S**t! The Senns still sound just fine - a little richer than before, but similar. The AKG's were transformed. Much more dynamic, richer balance, greater volume capability, much more relaxed sounding.
I think (from memory) that the Paramours did even better, which is reasonable given that they have 3x the ZOTL's wattage. I can push the ZOTL into clipping, but it has to be pretty damn loud to do it.
The tweak is: REPLACE the STOCK POWER CORD on the ZOTL! I swapped in a Blue Circle BC-61 cord, and the last (until I get rid of another one somehow!) smidgen of electronic edge was gone. As Col. Potter on MASH used to say about his favorite scotch, "Not enough o's in smooooooth to do justice to this stuff." NOT through loss of detail. There's fine low-level detail to burn here, just no extraneous crapola. Makes listening too loud a real risk because one's cue to TURN IT DOWN is usually distortion of one sort or another. I think I need to bypass the vol pot on the ZOTL next . . . .
So now I've got a no-replug-anything solution to fantastic speaker AND headphone listening. Just power up the appropriate amp and listen. Color me HAPPY!
There may be a pair of Senn 600's w/Clou Red cable cropping up in the "For Sale" section in the near future.
