[Nostoi]

Anyone has a chance to compare the VC and DCA Stealth? Given that the Stealth is retailed at a higher price, I'm curious to know how much better it is, comparing with the VC.

Yes, I compared them. If you like a razor flat presentation, go for Stealth. On the other hand, if you actually want to enjoy the music, go with VC.

 

[busseysound]

Congrats. Atoll was my second choice. The astronomical ones always look special; I hope to have one some day. Since Florida is surrounded by water and known for the Everglades, rain, and hurricanes, I wanted a water themed design, so I settled on Mantis. It's supposed to arrive 9/19, but FedEx says it might be delayed. Either way, I'm still impressed ZMF shipped so quickly. I expected four months with everything going on.

Congrats on those! They're one of the best looking of the batch imo

 

[DeniPhantom]

I just received an email that my VC from the 9/3 stabilized release has shipped (much sooner than expected)… I only wish I had selected an expedited shipping option. Hope others will be receiving similar emails soon.

Holy moly, I didn't realize they'd be shipping this soon, I'm still waiting on an email here for mine, anyone else had their stabilized ship yet?

 

[italiandoc1]

Late post but I joined the club last week as well, I was happy to be able to snag this stabilized set before they all sold out!

I was eyeballing these, too...definitely was in my top 3 preferences. Beautiful set and enjoy!

 

[busseysound]

Holy moly, I didn't realize they'd be shipping this soon, I'm still waiting on an email here for mine, anyone else had their stabilized ship yet?

Got mine yesterday. Hopefully yours ships soon!

 

[DeniPhantom]

I was eyeballing these, too...definitely was in my top 3 preferences. Beautiful set and enjoy!

Got mine yesterday. Hopefully yours ships soon!

Thank ya guys!

 

[jgwtriode]

Yes, I compared them. If you like a razor flat presentation, go for Stealth. On the other hand, if you actually want to enjoy the music, go with VC.

Could you elaborate a bit, I am very curious about how they compare technically as well.

The VC's are much more capable than the stock cables allow them to be. Wywires stuff blows up the staging in all dimensions as well as detail and musicality. Even standard silver/gold OCC still limits them. My VC Leopardwoods sound like a cross between what I used to get out my Acoustats for staging and My Khorus for dynamics and musicality. Swapping out my JCAT femto for an XE USB Card improved that effect even more. It's ridiculous how real they sound right now, especially with DSD recordings.

But as much as I love them, you have to wonder what the competition is bringing to the table.

Happy listening,

jgwtriode

 

[chrisnyc75]

Late post but I joined the club last week as well, I was happy to be able to snag this stabilized set before they all sold out!

Congrats on those! Those are definitely the ones I had my eyes on. Just stunning. Please share some pics when you get them.

 

[busseysound]

I'll second that - would love to see pics of them!

 

[DeniPhantom]

I'll second that - would love to see pics of them!

Congrats on those! Those are definitely the ones I had my eyes on. Just stunning. Please share some pics when you get them.

Thank you, I will for sure!

 

[Nostoi]

Could you elaborate a bit, I am very curious about how they compare technically as well.

The VC's are much more capable than the stock cables allow them to be. Wywires stuff blows up the staging in all dimensions as well as detail and musicality. Even standard silver/gold OCC still limits them. My VC Leopardwoods sound like a cross between what I used to get out my Acoustats for staging and My Khorus for dynamics and musicality. Swapping out my JCAT femto for an XE USB Card improved that effect even more. It's ridiculous how real they sound right now, especially with DSD recordings.

But as much as I love them, you have to wonder what the competition is bringing to the table.

Happy listening,

jgwtriode

The Stealth brings refinement to the table. They have very good technical attributes, have a very linear performance, but have none of the visceral musical enjoyment of the VC. In my experience, the Stealth were dry to the point of being boring (I kept turning the volume up hoping to get more dynamics).

The only other "rival" (though I'd rather say partner) to the VC is the Kennerton Rögnir - it arguably has better technical aspects than the VC (thus rivalling if not outdoing the Stealth), a more forward presentation than the VC, though if you're coming from the VC, you'll find it lacks the warm bottom end together with the textured mids, so demoing in advance is advisable. I have both and find them a truly excellent pairing.

 

[jtnt]

You should ask @jtnt this. I'm sure he'd give you a no-BS answer.

I'll do my best... While we unsurprisingly use our preamps exclusively with tube amps, the tube preamp + solid state amp combo is a popular one, as I'm sure you know. Specifically, we have many many customers who use one of our preamps (MZ2, MZ3, MicroZOTL Preamp) with solid state amplifiers and couldn't be happier. The amps that come up most often in my conversations with customers as well as online reviews - amateur and professional alike - are Pass Labs XA and First Watt. That said, given the low output impedance of the MZ preamps, they work well with most power amplifiers out there.

How'd I do?

 

[saidentary]

How is the ZOTL 2's pre-amp capability if paired with a solid state amp?

Sorry I missed this before. But the answer is I have no personal experience doing that; I've never used it as a preamp. So I'll defer to jtnt, above.

 

[jgwtriode]

The Stealth brings refinement to the table. They have very good technical attributes, have a very linear performance, but have none of the visceral musical enjoyment of the VC. In my experience, the Stealth were dry to the point of being boring (I kept turning the volume up hoping to get more dynamics).

The only other "rival" (though I'd rather say partner) to the VC is the Kennerton Rögnir - it arguably has better technical aspects than the VC (thus rivalling if not outdoing the Stealth), a more forward presentation than the VC, though if you're coming from the VC, you'll find it lacks the warm bottom end together with the textured mids, so demoing in advance is advisable. I have both and find them a truly excellent pairing.

The VC is slightly forward to me although it creates enough depth that I am okay with that. Love the ZMF mids, bass is pretty good, dynamics are excellent. highs could be airier but they are well balanced with everything else. Overall staging and detail has become much better with Wyires cabling and replacing my JCAT femto with an XE. That and a lot of isolation and tunning mods to my systemm and a couple directly attached to the headphones, from Mad Scientist have improved both the bass and mids noticeably with a slight improvement to the high frequencies. Am underclocking and under volting my I5 as well which also contributes to that. With all that they are at least 25 to 30 percent larger in their staging presentation they also create a slight rear fill staging effect behind the ears as well now on a majority of the recordings I listen to. I would love to hear the Rognir. But quite a jump in price. Got my Leopardwood VC's B stock so that saved me a bit. So quite happy with price to performance ratio.

Happy listening,

jgwtriode

 

[nicholas1213]

I will be getting myself a pair of Rad-0 this weekend, anyone here also own a pair of Rad-0? From my previous listening session at local shop they sounded fantastic, I hope it compliments VC as an open back planar, being a fairly neutral sounding pairs while maintaining similar musicality level.