[sheldaze]

Came home tonight and I found a brand new MicroZOTL 2 and LPS on my doorstep!!! Regretting being a late adapter, DrJazz, Blue, et. Al., were right this is an incredible amp!!!! Thanks to Mark and Will for bringing the ZOTL back

 

[defbear]

Mine arrives Monday. But @sheldaze post above says it all!

 

[EdmontonCanuck]

Mine arrives Monday. But @sheldaze post above says it all!

 
Welcome to the club!

 

[defbear]

Welcome to the club!

Thank you. I'm so proud.

 

[yukihasi]

Daydream of today - what if a cost no object zotl technology headphone amp?
The TOTL headphone amp (non electrostatic) market has quite limited choices, SS amps stops around $4000 I believe? Over that price point we've got some tube amps that use expensive and hard to source transformers and volume controllers etc, which is the way people should do to improve sound quality for those designs. Seems to me the conventional designs are approaching their limits.
The microzotl2 give me some faith that there might be some other way to improve the sonical performance. Wish one day I could see the zotl technology brought to it's limit on headphone amp.

 

[jamato8]

Daydream of today - what if a cost no object zotl technology headphone amp?
The TOTL headphone amp (non electrostatic) market has quite limited choices, SS amps stops around $4000 I believe? Over that price point we've got some tube amps that use expensive and hard to source transformers and volume controllers etc, which is the way people should do to improve sound quality for those designs. Seems to me the conventional designs are approaching their limits.
The microzotl2 give me some faith that there might be some other way to improve the sonical performance. Wish one day I could see the zotl technology brought to it's limit on headphone amp.

I am sure there will be a cost no object Zotl. You could go with Goldpoint volume attenuator, Whiplash Twau internal wiring and some other measures. I think though even with some expensive stuff used, like silver in the wiring of the transformers, it would not be as expensive as many TOTL tube amps and sound better at the same time. IMO

 

[willsw]

It is an interesting subject. I think we'd be more active in pursuing it if cost being no object didn't cost so much. We have a growing list of ways of possibly improving the amp through component replacements, which is the only route we can take with making a a TOTL MicroZOTL, as the board and its specifications, like tube type, are all rigid. The dream version would involve us having David Berning design a new headphone amp to our specifications, as the ZOTL10 and ZOTL40 were. To my knowledge it would be the first time David Berning would design an amp with headphones in mind, as the original MicroZOTL was (to exaggerate slightly) just a fleawatt loss leader that Dick Olsher suggested have a headphone output. 
 
These are all my personal thoughts and not what LTA is thinking. In any case, the weather is, or was and will again soon, getting warmer, which means David is out biking all day and not designing amps that use his name and sell for much less than his own brand. 

 

[jamato8]

  It is an interesting subject. I think we'd be more active in pursuing it if cost being no object didn't cost so much. We have a growing list of ways of possibly improving the amp through component replacements, which is the only route we can take with making a a TOTL MicroZOTL, as the board and its specifications, like tube type, are all rigid. The dream version would involve us having David Berning design a new headphone amp to our specifications, as the ZOTL10 and ZOTL40 were. To my knowledge it would be the first time David Berning would design an amp with headphones in mind, as the original MicroZOTL was (to exaggerate slightly) just a fleawatt loss leader that Dick Olsher suggested have a headphone output. 
 
These are all my personal thoughts and not what LTA is thinking. In any case, the weather is, or was and will again soon, getting warmer, which means David is out biking all day and not designing amps that use his name and sell for much less than his own brand. 

It wouldn't require a redesign or the changing of any design. It would be some component upgrades. These don't normally jump out as WOW, what a change but do subtle good changes but as with the PS upgrade (though the PS upgrade to me, is more than subtle), it can be seen there is always room. A volume control upgrade and wire doesn't change the design but since they are directly in the signal path, they obviously are very important and sometimes not looked at hard enough. Of course there are constraints in making something affordable and the micro2 has done this extremely well so to that, cost wise, it can be sideways, but still an improvement on things like a Goldpoint attenuator and Whiplash wire, yes they cost more but that would be for a same design upgraded component, that some may appreciate and some may not care about. 

 

[willsw]

 
It wouldn't require a redesign or the changing of any design. It would be some component upgrades. These don't normally jump out as WOW, what a change but do subtle good changes but as with the PS upgrade (though the PS upgrade to me, is more than subtle), it can be seen there is always room. A volume control upgrade and wire doesn't change the design but since they are directly in the signal path, they obviously are very important and sometimes not looked at hard enough. Of course there are constraints in making something affordable and the micro2 has done this extremely well so to that, cost wise, it can be sideways, but still an improvement on things like a Goldpoint attenuator and Whiplash wire, yes they cost more but that would be for a same design upgraded component, that some may appreciate and some may not care about. 

 
I agree that the MicroZOTL2, with component upgrades, can become the TOTL amp some people desire, while it already is a TOTL amp for many people. I was thinking about an amp that offered what most headphone users would expect if they were paying the prices yukihasi referred to, which I see as primarily two things: balanced and single-ended outputs and inputs, and higher wattage. While the former is debatable, I do think the latter would be required to be considered truly TOTL and not have any footnotes on that label. It would not be a MicroZOTL anymore, but ZOTL nonetheless. 

 

[jamato8]

   
I agree that the MicroZOTL2, with component upgrades, can become the TOTL amp some people desire, while it already is a TOTL amp for many people. I was thinking about an amp that offered what most headphone users would expect if they were paying the prices yukihasi referred to, which I see as primarily two things: balanced and single-ended outputs and inputs, and higher wattage. While the former is debatable, I do think the latter would be required to be considered truly TOTL and not have any footnotes on that label. It would not be a MicroZOTL anymore, but ZOTL nonetheless. 

I would agree that the micro Zotl2 is a TOTL amp and a fraction of the price of most TOTL headphones amps. I am not sure of the need for higher wattage. Finesse is also part of a TOTL amp and that mean presenting the sound in the best way possible and while plenty of headroom is a good thing, some very fine amps are the most powerful. 

 

[TomekZ]

What surprises me is how little comment is made about the microZOTL powering speakers. I've powered Omega speakers of 94.5 db, Epos Elan 15 at 90 db, and some home brew two ways with a simple crossover at 87 db/watt/meter. A single class A push/pull tube watt can go along way. With all of these, I enjoy the microZOTL more than my 6EM7 push/pull tube amp, Red Wine Audio Signature 16 (second best) or a fine gainclone (of which in the early part of this century I had tried perhaps 10 variety of). From the David Berning site this review of the original microZOTL http://davidberning.com/products/microzotl/review_gizmo .  For me off all electronics I've heard in nearly 40 years of being an audiophile, the microZOTL has been the most impressive.

 

[jamato8]

I have some fine Newform Research 645's sitting in the garage I need to set up. Looking forward to this. 

 

[doctorjazz]

I don't have any speakers efficient enough to be driven by the ZOTL (my main rig uses Thiel 3.6 speakers, which are actually really difficult to drive). I did get a decent interconnect to try the ZOTL as a preamp (up until now running balanced into the amp), though, get to it one of these days (on the to do list... ).

 

[zachawry]

I have been almost exclusively headphone-focussed for many years now, but I do have a pair of Dynaudio 1.1s that are still sitting in boxes from my recent move. 
 
This page says they have "

nominal impedance of 4 Ohms, and a nominal sensitivity of 88 dB/1W/1m."
http://www.tnt-audio.com/casse/contour1-1_e.html
 
I don't know enough to say whether that means they could be reasonably powered by the MZ2. Anyone with more knowledge than me? 

 

[yage]

  I have been almost exclusively headphone-focussed for many years now, but I do have a pair of Dynaudio 1.1s that are still sitting in boxes from my recent move. 
 
This page says they have "

nominal impedance of 4 Ohms, and a nominal sensitivity of 88 dB/1W/1m."
http://www.tnt-audio.com/casse/contour1-1_e.html
 
I don't know enough to say whether that means they could be reasonably powered by the MZ2. Anyone with more knowledge than me? 

It's spec'd to output 1W @ 4 ohms, so you'll get ~88 dB SPL / m. Depending on how loud you like to listen to music and how far away you're sitting, it might be just enough or you might send the amp into clipping fairly often. Here's a handy calculator that you can use - http://www.crownaudio.com/en-US/tools/calculators#amp_power_required.