Life after DarTZeel

interesting.

Levinson 33H, Boulder 1060 and Bryston 28B preferred to darTZeel.

there are many paths and viewpoints to musical nirvana.....and there is no 'wrong' only different. my comment has no hidden inference.

personally; were i to venture from darTZeel it would be toward SET tubes of some sort.....not toward a more SS sound.....regardless of how much iron grip it provided. that 'grip' is just not essential to my immersion in music compared to other things.

i do own speakers where the darTZeel only needs to drive the speakers down to about 100hz as there are ICE powered woofer/subwoofers below that frequency. these 4 15" powered drivers give me all the 'iron grip' i could ask for.....and they take the signal from the dart so i get the dart magic without any dynamic limitation. even so; my room is large and the dart can energize it from 100hz on up with no problem.

OTOH later this year darTZeel will offer a 500 watt monoblock that will add that ability to easily control any loudspeaker to it's many virtues. for a price one can have their cake and eat it too.

no amp is for everyone. go wherever you find the music touches you.

what would be interesting would be how long does one own a darTZeel compared to how often owners of other amps change them. there is always a pull to try other amps. i've owned darTZeel now for almost 5 years. in the previous 7 years i owned 5 different amps.

maybe it is a matter of one's viewpoint on music.

just like being married (and one's definition of happyness). i still look at pretty women out there (it's biology) but i've been married to my wife for 35 years.

Mtdking, i owned the Levinson 33H's for 2 years (1997-1999). a really fine amplifier.....i replaced them with the big Levinson 33's. the 33H is still one of the more 'listenable' solid state amps out there. i know that it has been somewhat updated since i owned it to good result.

regarding your service concerns on foreign made products. it is and should be a concern. one needs to investigate what happens if there is a problem. regarding darTZeel i think within reality you are in as good a position as you could be. it is Swiss after all. not fly-by-night or casual about anything. immediate response to any question. eager willingness to assist with support and advice. and built like a tank. these days there is no audio business or national economy which 100% certainty of continued business health. but i would wager that a conservative Swiss company would be as likely as any to survive and uphold it promises. there is the shipping to Switzerland. the shipping cartons are well designed and everything is encased in thick foam.

i would bet that darTZeel will more likely be here to service their products in 10 years than Levinson or Boulder.

were i to venture from darTZeel it would be toward SET tubes of some sort

E, my point here was that if i were to venture away from musical neutrality into an amplifier with a sonic signature it would be toward the 'beauty' end of the spectrom. i dream of having a tube amp sitting around for when i'm in the mood. i'm not really serious about this.....it's more a bit of musing.

if i did go 'there' my short list (one's i've heard i thought were special) would be;

Tenor OTL 75w
Lamm ML3 or ML2.1
AN Kegon
any of the Kondo AN's

there are likely others which i've not been exposed to which could be on this list.

all of these wonderful tube amps are entertaining to listen to. but; unlike the darTZeel they always make you aware that they are there to some degree. which is not really a problem but it is a factor.

with the dart it is always the music. i like that.

Mtdking; Jbellow, in the post after you, mentioned Bryston. then in my post, i grouped it in with the Levinson and Boulder as mentioned 'next amps' after darTZeel without attribution.

i'm sure my mention confused who actually referred to what amp.

honest mistake.

in the Stereophile test on the darTZeel NHB-108 stereo amp John Atkinson did measure 160 watts into 8 ohms prior to clipping. so the 100 watt spec is quite conservative.

i had the dart on the VR7SE's in my very large room for 5 months and i agree that it did a commendable job at real world listening levels. the dart will sometimes not be as macro-dynamic as some amps (on certain speakers) but it always is fantastic at the microdynamics....which is where the heart of the music is.