[daba]

Hi everyone. So as some of you already know my place has become increasingly popular for head-fier's to come compare their amps against the almighty SFT Dynamight! Anyways, I try to be unbiased and truthful as possible, admitting the faults of the Dynamight and the comparison amplifier.

Anyways, granodemostasa stopped by and brought his Zana Deux so we could compare. Here are the two amplifiers we had the luxury of enjoying:

SFT Audio Dynamight


Eddie Current Zana Deux






TESTING GEAR:
Transport: Rega Planet 2000
DAC: Benchmark DAC-1, balanced XLR into Dynamight with River Cables XLR and unbalanced into the Zana Deux with Grover UR8
Headphones (out of the Zana Deux): HD650, no foam, single ended Equinox cable
Headphones (out of the Dynamight): HD650, pantyhose mod, balanced Wyvern Audio pure silver cable

OK so I'm not the one to write out length stuff but I'll just recap and granodemostasa can add on his bit later.

Symphonic Pieces - Zana Deux
The Good: Very nice, "rich" (i.e. "full") sound coming from these, especially from the stringed instruments. You could feel the emotion coming from the violinists. The decay was also an especially nice touch. The trumpets sounded full, very lush and detailed. Sort of reminded me of an Earmax Pro with more power and fullness.

The Bad: Collapsed soundstage. Everything felt like it was on the same plane, a meter away from my head. This was probably my biggest gripe with the Zana Deux with symphonies. Also, mediocre instrument separation (compared to the Dynamight). With the Zana Deux, everything had equal weight in terms of sound, and there was no distance or "air" between the different sections of the symphonies. Every instrument played as if they were each the most important in the group. It felt as if the musicians sat in a semi circle around you instead of layered as they do in a real symphony.

Symphonic Pieces - Dynamight
The Good: Excellent instrument separation and soundstage. You could distinctly tell where everyone sat, and how far they sat from you. The piano felt in your head, and everything was placed as it should be in a symphony. Everything was very accurate, much more so than the Zana Deux, and hyper-detailed. A very "clean" and precise sound. Very layered, as the instruments had different weights to them. Nicely balanced in this respect.

The Bad: Sounded very artificial compared to the Zana Deux. Definitely less engaging. I felt that the violinists were more concerned about being "perfect" rather than pouring their emotions into it. Everything wasn't as euphoric as the Zana Deux. Consider this like the classic "tube vs. ss" case or "Grado vs. Sennheiser" case in terms of replicating stringed instruments.

Jazz/Electronica - Zana Deux
The Good: Lively is one word I have for this amplifier. Very robust sounding trumpets and hard hitting drums. Again, a very rich sound and I wasn't surprised by it.

The Bad: After listening to the Dynamight, the instrument separation was much less detailed. On the verge of being muddy.

Jazz/Electronica - Dynamight
The Good: I was expecting the Dynamight to lose out on this category due to the robustness that the Zana Deux showed during the symphonic pieces, but I was mistaken. Although the trumpets were more "clean," as expected, they were not too lean either. Electronica sounded great on this, as did the electric guitars. Drums had similar impact. Very clean separation between the instruments, no blending at all.

The Bad: Again, a bit less engaging than the Zana Deux, but only slightly. Else there wasn't really much to say.

Voices/Binaural Track - Zana Deux
The Good: We only listened to a test-binaural track for a few minutes with some people talking and walking around the room. With the Zana Deux, the person's voice was much more moist and rich, as if you could hear the saliva in the person's mouth. Ambient sound also was more detailed, as the wind and the cars rushing outside could be heard much more clearly.

The Bad: Smaller soundstage than the Dynamight. It was harder to discern where the person was, and the room itself felt small.

Voices/Binaural Track - Dynamight
The Good: It was a lot clearer where the person was as he walked about the room. The room felt much bigger.

The Bad: Voices not as rich and lush as in the Zana Deux. Couldn't hear as much detail in the wind whirling and cars rushing by. It was less "spooky."

Conclusions
Some caveats: I believe that the silver vs. copper wire made a big difference, as well as the balanced mode of the Dynamight. While using the equinoxed s/e HD650's on the Dynamight the music did become lusher but still no where equal to the Zana Deux. The soundstage was also less but still bigger than the Zana Deux.

OK, so if it were up to me I would take the soundstage and instrument separation of the Dynamight and combine it with the lushness of the Zana Deux. The Zana Deux is definitely more engaging and lively with excellent decay at the cost of flattening the soundstage and deflating the instrument separation and air around the instruments. Also runs the risk of sounding muddy. The Dynamight is more accurate and precise, with excellent soundstage and instrument separation at the cost of sacrificing robustness and decay. Runs the risk of sounding too accurate and dry, maybe even artificial.



In the end, I had an excellent time with David comparing these two monster amplifiers. Thanks for reading!


P.S. granodemostasa left his amp here and I did some more listening. In the Rap/Hip-hop genre the Dynamight is much better than the Zana Deux. The bass is just better, tighter, and hits harder. Voices are also clearer.

 

[ironbut]

Kinda early for a real comparison with the ZD! With all my tube gear, I burn it in for at least 100 hours before listening critically, usually closer to 200. The same for tubes new or NOS. The main changes is in tightness and depth of the bass, loss of high end tizzyness, complete change of the soundstage, imaging, and focus. I've always found the break-in recommendations of the builders to be very optimistic and Craig suggests 40 hours but I know that BAT recommends much more on just the 6c33c-b's. Some tube gear changes less than others but they all change. Thanks for the effort though. Nice pic's too but you guys should get back together in a month or so. That might be a good idea in fact. Do the exact comparison in a month and see how much the Zana changed. If it's the same you can point a finger of your choice and call me a jerk!

 

[daba]

Hey, good idea. We'll spare you the finger-pointing and name calling though

.

 

[jpelg]

Nice review, man. Direct and to-the-point. Great pics too!

I'm sure the "burn-in" crowd will chime in in droves, but thanks for calling it as you hear it.

 

[granodemostasa]

Hi

Listening to the DM, back and forth, one got the sense of immediately going from a smaller venue to a larger stage. This was immediately noticeable on all recordings, whether they be Jazz or Classical. Now, this doesn't mean the ZD's soundstage is not large, it is the largest single ended soundstage I have ever experienced, including the MPX SLAM SE, but it is still not the same as this balanced amplifier's soundstage.

The soundtage, however, is starting to become an interesting thing to consider. the DM's soundstage can be imagined as the view deck of the Sears Tower in Chicago. One isn't close to the surroundings, but not to far away from them either, they are all there. You are protected from them comming at you by the large windows. But you can see everything, clearer than ever before. the Trumpets, the piano, the violins are all in their distinct locations. there is a sense of 3D depth and height to it all.... the brass is further away from you than the strings, and the strings are further away than the soloist. they are located exactly where they sit and in perfect balance and communication with each other.

The Soundstage of the ZD is different. the music is portrayed as if one is actually at the location. but it's a smaller venue, far from the echoes and the sense of concert hall space, all i find here is a stage and I'm in the first row. there are no windows, every note played is right there in front of me. But, there is no making sense to the orchestra. the musicians are all on the same line, yes there is depth and spacing and all that-far more than my previous amplifier, but it's not close to being a reality as it is with the DM. Instead, the ZD may be collasping the soundstage by comparison. But there is something else to consider: we played a binaural recording where a women is describing musical cues, a man is walking around the room causing noise while speaking, and this sounded better on the ZD than the DM. what i mean by this is that, in this recording, everything she describes seemed real. when he spoke 30cm above my head, it felt like a man speaking 30cm above my head, but with the DM it sounded as if he were speaking 1M above my head and that he was speaking through a speaker. But this same reaction is not what i get in an orchestral recording.....the amazing detail, presence and separation is somewhat diminished and lacking in comparison to the DM.

 

[granodemostasa]

My amplifier has been burned in for over 45 hours, i started playing it on Saturday.

 

[Filburt]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jpelg I'm sure the "burn-in" crowd will chime in in droves, but thanks for calling it as you hear it.

Burn-in has rapidly become the default answer to any disparaging remark about a device's performance, it seems.

 

[granodemostasa]

I really don't want the ZD's promoters to become unsatisfied with this comparison. What you got was two first rate amps; one was clearer, punchier, and had a better soundstage, another was more euphoric, engaging, brought out the instrument's voices, and was more authoritative. Overall, i'm satisfied with my amp... all this means is that I want a balanced Zana Deux, not a Dynamight.

What could also be taken from this is that this really was a tube v. solid state... both showing why each is so attractive.

note: i actually thought the treble was more present on the ZD than on the DM, meaning... this thing has no treble roll off, so forget that tube stereotype.

 

[dhp]

what are the prices on each?

 

[granodemostasa]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DieInAFire what are the prices on each?

Eddie Current is going to charge 1990 without tubes, tubes can cost between 100 and 200, depending on quality
SFT Dynamight costs 2600

 

[909]

How long did the ZD get to warm-up? Did you do any comparisons between the ZD and DM singled ended? Also keeping everything constant, but the amps (i.e., not using different headphone cables). I think both amps are incredible and among my favorites. It would be interesting to see with a few hundred hours on the ZD if any of these impressions change. But I do think there is a lot of truth here because I had somewhat similar impressions when I compared my amp against digipete's DM. I liked the Dynahi / Dynamite so much that I am considering having one built. Yet I wouldn't sell my amp. I would want both for different presentations.

 

[909]

Quote:

Originally Posted by granodemostasa Eddie Current is going to charge 1900 without tubes, tubes can cost between 100 and 200, depending on quality SFT Dynamight costs 2600

can you still buy a SFT?

I think the new pricing on the ZD is $1990.

At least that's what Craig told me a week ago.

 

[daba]

Quote:

Originally Posted by 909 can you still buy a SFT? ...

I'm not sure honestly. His website is no longer functional. You might want to try contacting him through a PM, "sft" is his name I believe.

Also, the base price for a Dynamight is $1800 I think, and there is a newer version called the Dynamight Sig with a remote and nice LCD panel I'm sure you've seen.

I think it took sft many hours to build the Dynamight you see up there ... poor guy.

 

[granodemostasa]

we gave the ZD about 10 minutes to warm up.. but really that's all we needed. Even after 3 hours the impressions were still the same. I continued the back and forth and said to him "you know, this is still more of the same, the same differences keep appearing."

we did try the dynamight single ended, but that wasn't close to the other two... the reason is that listening to it single ended is listening to a dyanhi, not a dynamight.

I wish we had the cables, but we would have needed a balenced equinox cable and those are expensive... so are single ended wavyern silver cables.

 

[dhp]

Quote:

Originally Posted by granodemostasa we gave the ZD about 10 minutes to warm up.. but really that's all we needed. Even after 3 hours the impressions were still the same. I continued the back and forth and said to him "you know, this is still more of the same, the same differences keep appearing." we did try the dynamight single ended, but that wasn't close to the other two... the reason is that listening to it single ended is listening to a dyanhi, not a dynamight. I wish we had the cables, but we would have needed a balenced equinox cable and those are expensive... so are single ended wavyern silver cables.

how did the dynahi compare to the zd?