Related Manuals for Decware ZMA
Summary of Contents for Decware ZMA
- Page 1 OPERATION MANUAL MODEL : ZMA - ZEN MYSTERY AMP REV 1 MAR 2014 ZEN MYSTERY AMP Reference Vacuum Tube Amplifier Model ZMA PAGE OF WWW.DECWARE.COM...
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Page 2: Safety Instructions
OPERATION MANUAL MODEL : ZMA - ZEN MYSTERY AMP REV 1 MAR 2014 lightning flash with arrowhead, within The exclamation point within an an equilateral triangle, is intended to equilateral triangle is intended to alert the user to the presence of unin- alert the user to the presence of stalled “dangerous voltage”... -
Page 3: Table Of Contents
OPERATION MANUAL MODEL : ZMA - ZEN MYSTERY AMP REV 1 MAR 2014 Thank You Table of Contents _______________________________ _______________________________ By purchasing this amplifier you are Safety Instructions helping to preserve the art of finely crafted audio products with absolute Thank You world class reference fidelity. -
Page 4: Unpacking
OPERATION MANUAL MODEL : ZMA - ZEN MYSTERY AMP REV 1 MAR 2014 Unpacking Your Zen Mystery Amp is shipped in a military grade waterproof case. The insides of the case contain a foam impression of the amplifier and the amplifier is stored upside down inside the case and without tubes. -
Page 5: Getting Started
OPERATION MANUAL MODEL : ZMA - ZEN MYSTERY AMP REV 1 MAR 2014 Unpacking Continued: Once you have the amplifier setting right side up in a location where it can be tested, make sure it has come to room temperature before doing anything else. -
Page 6: What's What
OPERATION MANUAL MODEL : ZMA - ZEN MYSTERY AMP REV 1 MAR 2014 What’s what There are only three things on this layout that are common to both channels. The IEC connector for the power cord, the power switch and the master gain control. -
Page 7: Speaker Connections
MODEL : ZMA - ZEN MYSTERY AMP REV 1 MAR 2014 Speaker Connections The ZMA has heavy duty gold plated binding posts that can accept up to 8 AWG bare wire, banana jacks, or the larger spade connectors commonly found on hi-end speaker cables. -
Page 8: Input Connections
MODEL : ZMA - ZEN MYSTERY AMP REV 1 MAR 2014 Input Connections The ZMA comes standard with single-ended RCA input jacks rated at 2 volts for maximum power. Transformer balanced XLR inputs are optional and located directly next to the RCA input jacks on either side. If your amp was built with these you can use either balanced XLR inputs or RCA inputs but not both at the same time. -
Page 9: Components / Amp Parts
OPERATION MANUAL MODEL : ZMA - ZEN MYSTERY AMP REV 1 MAR 2014 Components Please refer to the diagram below to identify the remaining components of a Zen Mystery Amp. Right XLR Input Jack Left XLR Input Jack Right RCA Input Jack... -
Page 10: Installing Tubes
OPERATION MANUAL MODEL : ZMA - ZEN MYSTERY AMP REV 1 MAR 2014 Installing Tubes Refer to the illustration below for tube placements. Right channel is shown, simply do the same for the left channel. 6N23P KT66 KT66 6N23P WARNING:... -
Page 11: Tube Matching
OPERATION MANUAL MODEL : ZMA - ZEN MYSTERY AMP REV 1 MAR 2014 NOTE: The OA3 tubes are different in that they will often flash a few times during start up and during shut down. This is a normal characteristic of the tube. OA3 tubes (also known as VR75’s) do not get hot. -
Page 12: Biasing Your Tubes
OPERATION MANUAL MODEL : ZMA - ZEN MYSTERY AMP REV 1 MAR 2014 Biasing your Mystery Amp Biasing your mystery amp is easier than almost every other tube amp on the market thanks to an extremely well thought out and tested set of controls. - Page 13 OPERATION MANUAL MODEL : ZMA - ZEN MYSTERY AMP REV 1 MAR 2014 STEP 3 Plug in the amplifier and turn on the power switch. As the tubes heat up you will see the bias meters start to rise. After the needles have stopped rising simply use the bias balance control for each pair of meters to make them match.
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Page 14: Bias Windows / Tube Life
OPERATION MANUAL MODEL : ZMA - ZEN MYSTERY AMP REV 1 MAR 2014 WARNING This amplifier is designed to operate with a 50ma bias on each output tube. Running higher bias currents for any length of time will overheat the power supply transformers and could cause pre-mature failure. -
Page 15: Operation
OPERATION MANUAL MODEL : ZMA - ZEN MYSTERY AMP REV 1 MAR 2014 OPERATION Once the amplifier is on, and the bias meters have risen and settled into their proper position, connect your source to the input of the amplifier and slowly raise the volume. -
Page 16: Burn In
HEAT The ZMA is designed to generate heat. The black top plate will become hot to the touch around the output tubes because it is absorbing infrared heat from the output tubes. This is normal. The power transformers (A5 and B5) will also run warm to hot depending on the length of time the amplifier is on and how high the tubes are biased. -
Page 17: Design
VOICING The Zen Mystery Amp, like all Decware products, sounds the way it does because literally 100’s of hours spanning months were put into voicing the amp. Voicing determines resolution, imaging, sound stage depth, timing, phase, timbre, pace and really every other fancy audiophile acronym until the designer, Steve Deckert, is happy with it. -
Page 18: Evaluation
OPERATION MANUAL MODEL : ZMA - ZEN MYSTERY AMP REV 1 MAR 2014 Things that determine voicing are all the internal parts, ie., resistors, capacitors, transformers, wire and solder combined with the circuit itself. To take this reference amplifier to a place very few manufactures are able to go, we developed proprietary signal capacitors for the amp. -
Page 19: About
OPERATION MANUAL MODEL : ZMA - ZEN MYSTERY AMP REV 1 MAR 2014 ABOUT The Zen Mystery Amp is a class A push-pull tube amplifier featuring an ultra linear output stage with zero negative feedback. It is built it a high mass solid steel plate that has been machined and designed to damp out resonances. -
Page 20: Specifications
OPERATION MANUAL MODEL : ZMA - ZEN MYSTERY AMP REV 1 MAR 2014 SPECIFICATIONS OPERATION: CLASS A1 INPUT TUBE CHOICES: 6N23P, 6922, 6N1P,7DJ8 OUTPUT TUBE CHOICES: EL34 6CA7 KT77 KT66 7027 5881 INPUTS: OPTIONAL TRANSFORMER BALANCED XLR INPUTS INPUTS: SINGLE-ENDED RCA INPUT... - Page 21 OPERATION MANUAL MODEL : ZMA - ZEN MYSTERY AMP REV 1 MAR 2014 BALANCED XLR INPUT SPECIFICATION JT-11P-1 LINE INPUT TRANSFORMER 1:1 FOR "BALANCED BRIDGING" INPUTS M Ideal for balancing any high-impedance unbalanced input M Wide bandwidth: ! ! ! ! 3 dB at 0.25 Hz and 95 kHz...