Massdrop x Eddie Current ZDT Jr. (Official Thread)

More use-able range or less vs the ZD?

 

Oddball pairings data point: ZDT Jr. + Andro (low impedance out) does not suck. Kinda like Zinfandel and pulled pork barbeque.

 

For those of you who received the production version ZDT Jr: was a printed user's manual included in the box when you received yours?

 

Notably less. I max out past midnight on the ZD using the 650s.

No printed manual here. Nothing but the packing slip.

 

Apologies, Gents. The manual took some work and is linked for download on the Drop Page now.

Here is the link: User Manual

 

At long last my unit has arrived. In mint condition. I got so amped up “no pun intended” that when I dug out my 5654W tubes and let it warm up for a hour, I mistakenly grabbed my old HD650’s thinking they were the 600’s. Couldn’t figure out what was going on for about an hour. Took them off. Came back. Was puzzled where the red plug was on the right can, then realized the plug size was wrong. Duh. Just goes to show you, you should never try to set up new gear when sober.

Btw, sounds as good as the loaner. Nice job Massdrop. And worth the wait. IMHO.

 

Really excited for everyone receiving this amp. Congratulations. I am curious to see, which HP port is preferred by the owners with the 300Z Senns. I preferred the High Z port on the loaner unit using my 800S. It sounded more open and the instrument images sounded larger/decompressed, and the bass had stronger slams and went deeper (although a bit loose). Looking forward to reading your impressions.

 

Having a hard time to come to terms with this, ZDT Jr. Certainly price is never reflective of performance. Schiit outperforms many other companies at the bottom. And there were, a few years back, boutique companies willing to take lots of money for pretty casework. Sound was okay, but shut your eyes. When not looking at the “pretty box” the cost was probably double what it should have been for quite a few amplifiers I purchased.

Then there’s Eddie Current, which I think holds a tight relationship between parts cost and audible performance gains. There wasn’t much waste at any price point - BW, ZDS, BA. Each has a noticeable, audible performance gain. But this ZDT Jr. from Massdrop is truly screwing up my perception of price, parts, performance. Call me crazy, but I prefer it to the BW and S7.

Only when factoring in the technicalities do the higher cost amplifiers excel. Though there is a low impedance output on the ZDT Jr., I prefer Utopia and LCD-2 (roughly 80 ohm) through the BW. The bloom of the ZDT Jr. takes away some of the tight accuracy in the bass. The clarity, which I like on the ZDT Jr., is not as present across the entire frequency through these lower impedance headphones. Frequency extension and impact are also where I think the S7 surpasses the little ZDT Jr. On headphones such as the HD800S and HD580 (using high impedance output of the ZDT Jr.), the S7 has more punch across the entire spectrum, and more openness in the highs.

But there’s an easy-going clarity when using these 300 ohm headphones on the ZDT Jr., which I could listen to for many hours. The fact that it does not punch as hard, or push the ends of the frequency spectrum, allows for a painless, effortless listening. I drift somewhere between a NOS listening (Onyx -> Aficionado) and an OS listening (Yggdrasil A2 -> BA -> ZDS) mindset. At the moment, I’m feeding a Qutest into the ZDT Jr., until I can acquire a dedicated source. Point being, I planned to sell ZDT Jr. Instead, I am building a system around the little amp. It doesn’t punch. It is not as extended as the more technically capable amplifiers. But it is bringing back musical memories from places I have not been to since...well, younger days. Technicalities be damned - I love the easy sound of this amplifier.

 

Received my ZDT Jr last Saturday. Running with stock tubes, the amp took about 30 mins to not sound horrid.
Afterwards, it sounds great with non well mastered music like Lady Gaga and Madonna. Taylor Swift sounded excellent....

Rig is: Squeezebox touch (w IPower PSU) -> iDSD Micro -> ZDT Jr -> ZMF Atticus (Padauk)
(Other than the phones- considered as Bang for Buck budget rig) Will listen to ZMF Eikon after I am tired of Atticus.

Bright stock tubes are great for ZMF dynamics (I apologize if this sounded too much like Headfi new toy syndrome talk....,
but this is my 1st tube amp)

ps: I will parrot what others has said- the amp is very resolving - iDSD Micro is the weakest link in my rig

 

Got mine a week ago, unfortunatelly some story here.
Good part - I like the amp.
Not so good - mine is from unlucky bunch with 60Hz humming. Mine hums in the left channel only and practically nothing I can do within normal operations affects it (like volume pot position, switching sources, power, tubes). Humming is more pronounced with more efficient cans of course.
Bad - at this point Massdrop doesn't give you an option to exchange or repair. I don't know what went wrong, did they build too little spare units or there are way too many failures but surrely they didn't spend enough on QA. A refund is very good option for your random Amazon Prime purchases, not so after waiting for 8 months for a pretty specific product. Especially if you already bought tubes and additional DAC for it.
The worst part - I really like the amp. So I'm keeping it.

So here comes a question:
May be somebody here with Laconic ties can shed some light on possible couses and fixes?
Thank you.

 

Hello- we are currently looking into this...might be some DC on line voltage that saturates transformer.
We have a power filtering unit on the way to see if it mitigates or eliminates the issue.
Please hold on and we'll report back after we get the line filter early next week...

 

Sorry, if it is external power related can it be for a single channel only?

 

I have a slight hum in the left channel as well. Only noticable when no music is playing. Noticed it when switching from HD600 to HD800.

 

I also have hum, quite loud, but only when no music is playing

 

Nothing, except using different headphones, affects the hum. Swapping tubes - first thing I did. Disconnecting source - second. The hum is not amplified - it stays the same when you turning volume pot.

 

The same here, for me the hum is in the right channel. Both with the stock tubes and JAN 5654 tubes. No source connected.

The hum is the same regardless of pot position and amp's and tubes' burn in.

I have not tried any power filter/conditioner yet but the hum was the same when connected to two power outlets on different circuits.

I will look for some power filter and test it. Any suggestions for simple (cheap) power filter available in Europe?

 

If it truly is DC offset causing these issues (and sadly the only way to find out is to buy something to get rid of it), something like this would work:

https://avahifi.com/products/humdinger-dc-line-blocker

Conversely, something in the amp isn't work right either.

 

I have a question about DC offset and transformer saturation. Say someone ran a hairdryer on medium setting for a few minutes creating a DC offset that saturates the transformer. How long after the dryer is turned off will the transformer desaturate? Also, is there a situation in which the hum would only be in one channel? Just trying to keep learning as @atomicbob likes to say.


Edit: mods would you please move this to general audio. Thanks.

 

This is getting a bit much.

"While we’re relieved to say that a flight has now been secured, unfortunately, we won’t have the units in stock to meet our mid-August shipping estimate. We now estimate the amps to begin shipping to members in late August."

If the manufacturers had our commitments and deposits since December to build all the units and ship them then why are we waiting for units not in stock?

They should either come out with the truth or give us a lot better explanation than what they just gave us. Or how about we start speculating out loud what the real issues might be.

Speculation #1: They have discovered a serious flaw (that with all this Fkn time they should have sussed out BEFORE they shipped the damn things) as evidenced by the reports already out there on this new stock. So exactly what quality are we going to get if this is how they do things?

Real close to shit-canning this venture....