Welcome to Decware

​This is a cartridge amplifier.  It goes in-between your turntable and phono stage.

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It can be used with either MM or MC type cartridges. 

 

This is a battery operated, class A, all tube, single-ended, point to point wired, triode gain stage.  It uses a single 9 volt and four D-Cell batteries to power a single 6GM8 vacuum tube.  Typical battery life is 48 hours. 

 

The 9 volt battery provides the voltage for the tube circuit and the D-Cells provide the 6 volts for the tube's heater.  While it is possible to detect changes to the sound with different batteries, the most noticable is the 9 volt.  While the unit is shipped with alkaline batteries, you can use carbon, or rechargeable batteries with subtle changes to the signature of your cartridge. 

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THE SOUND

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The reason to have one is the way it unleashes the cartridges full potential.  It really opens things up.  And it's adjustable on the fly while you listen.  Big dynamics, blacker backgrounds and better soundstage are some of the most common things to improve.

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WHY WE MADE ONE

 

Often lower output cartridges have finer detail from less mass.  But you have to turn the system volume up higher to compensate which means that if there is any noise or hum in your vinyl rig, you will be turning it up too.  It's hard to get a jet black background from a tube phono stage if it has much higher than 43dB of gain.  As a result we find that (using Moving Magnet cartridges as an example) higher output cartridges in the 4mV + range are better suited for noiseless playback.  With the Zen Cartridge Amplifier this issue goes away because you can easily add 10dB or more to the output of your cartridge with the twist of a knob.

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Every time we demo this, people's eyes get big.  First we put on record and turn up the volume to a set listening level.  Then we listen for a bit and then we turn up the volume a touch higher to hear everything louder.  Then we return to the original volume and finally we go back to the louder volume but by increasing the output of the cartridge instead of turning up the system volume control.  The difference in sound is not subtle.  It's like having a new cartridge that's twice as good.

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NOTE:

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The unit is not rechargeable on it's own.  You can use rechargeable batteries with it if you like the way they sound, or if you keep forgetting to turn it off when your done listening it will lessen the frustration of repeatedly buying new batteries.

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This is a purist design guaranteed to be fully transparent and improve the sound of even the most expensive cartridges or your money back.

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If you run moving coil cartridges, the Zen Cartridge Amplifier goes between the Step Up Transformer and the phono stage.

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The ZCA is capacitively coupled to fully protect your expensive cartridge even in the hands of complete idiots.

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