Thursday, November 29, 2018

Detour: Back into Hi-Fi - Part 1

For the last several years, any spare time/hobby attention has been photography.  As with all things crammed into “spare” time outside of work, effort and attention has been characterized by spurts, stops and starts.  At least that’s how it works for me ... and throw in age.  Off-work hours summon one to just kicking back, accomplishing little except raging on Twitter against the current orange moron in the White House.

As retirement approaches, I’ve taken stock of what will be important other than non-attachment.  Oops! Well, there’s duality for you!

I’ve gotten pretty close to my last camera/photo gear kit - the detail is for another post.  So it was on to rebuilding a satisfying system for reproducing music.  HiFi.  In the current market of digital music and a dizzying array of equipment to deliver it to one’s ears, a true, two channel high fidelity system would seem nostalgic at best.  I mean, you’re confined to ONE ROOM, mostly one seating position. And you really need to pay attention.  How can you “multi-task”, pay attention to your iPhone, glance at the 24-hour news channel, respond to text messages?

But for me, it’s not nostalgic.  Not at all.  Digital “music”, no matter how high resolution, played through digital, solid state devices, doesn’t move me very much.  Oh, it will “do”, but sufficiency isn’t what music is about.  Music is about emotion, above moving one’s spiritual needle, not just filling the ear with anything other than nothingness.

Since the late 90s I’ve peripatetically followed a company called DECware.  The first product brought to market was the Zen amp - a single ended triod (SET) class A, tube/valve audio amp that puts out a whopping two watts.  Watt??? Er... what???  Tubes? What’s the appeal?



Before we delve into that, it’s more than twenty years later, and DEC/High Fidelity Enginerring is not only still in existence, but, if you peruse the website, has a vastly expanded product offering.  The range is not just various power amplifiers, but includes preamplifier, a phono stage (preamp for turntable cartridges,) a DAC (digital to analog converter,) speakers, cables and other HiFi paraphernalia.

The Zen Amp has been updated and upgraded through the years.  With a bit of cash available, I placed an order for what was, at the time, the latest edition, the SE84UFO.  A special, 25th anniversary edition (SE84UFO25,) had been released since I made my choice.  But at three times the cost of the SE84UFO, it wasn’t in the picture.  Unless I wanted to resume bachelorhood.

Most DECware products are built to order - there is no stock - and all products are sold direct; there is no distribution or dealer network.  So after about a 10-week wait, the SE84UFO arrived.  It was well packed and after a 25-year wait, unboxing and inspecting for any visually obvious problems (there were none,) I was finally able to connect it to sources and speakers ... and enjoy some sonic and musical love.

That is where the adventure began.  To be continued.