Oldschool Zed Audio vs. New Zed Audio

[baronkatz 10+ year member]

Hello All,

I have an oldschool Zed Made ESX Q60.4. It's super well made and one of the most advanced amps ever made. There are some problems with it and I sent it it to Zed to get the caps/resistors and other things replaced. Basically I am debating whether to go ahead with this restoration since the chassis is quite rusty and he won't be able to sandblast and repaint it himself.

Stephen also offered me the Mikro IV amp and swears that the newer amps beat anything he's made before. However, it's Class D vs. the A/B that the original Zed amps were. Many people swear that the Zed Made amps were some of the highest SQ, and if I get a full rehaul internally, they should be almost like new.

Let me know your guys's thoughts. Obviously the Mikro IV will be lighter, smaller, etc... and I have read good reviews about it, but that vs. the ESX?

I should mention that I will be running this amp with the Scanspeak Discovery series 5 1/4" component set

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[hispls 5,000+ posts]

Consider Stephen has had 15 years more experience engineering since then. Also consider the technology available in semiconductors. The "Burr Brown" op-amp that was the state of the art for audio amplifiers only 5 or 6 years ago was stock in his first generation of full range class D amps and is now already obsolete!

If you're a collector and like to go old school, the ESX is a fine piece and likely superior to anything comparable you'd buy today coming out of Korea or China, but as far as performance the new stuff will sound as good or better, run cool, use less current, and do it in a fraction of the space.

 

[Vertex Audio Pro Seller]

We are an authorized dealer of ZED and see Stephen fairly often. He has lots of experience, clearly and the main reason he made the switch to class D (which he did years ago) was because he saw the potential. He wouldnt make the switch if he didnt think digital amps could be as good or better than class a/b.

 

[baronkatz 10+ year member]

Consider Stephen has had 15 years more experience engineering since then. Also consider the technology available in semiconductors. The "Burr Brown" op-amp that was the state of the art for audio amplifiers only 5 or 6 years ago was stock in his first generation of full range class D amps and is now already obsolete!
If you're a collector and like to go old school, the ESX is a fine piece and likely superior to anything comparable you'd buy today coming out of Korea or China, but as far as performance the new stuff will sound as good or better, run cool, use less current, and do it in a fraction of the space.

Well the Mikro IV is not on the level of the Levianth or Draconia. I am sure that those two could possibly sound much better than the ESX or other amps that Zed has made. However, the Mikro IV doesn't look as well built, and I'm not sure how that specific model would compare to the ESX. Besides the class D, it seems like all the newer circuit boards are printed, where the older ones were hand soldered... Quite a bit more labour and a lot of the higher end amps these days such as Genesis and Sinfoni are still almost completely hand soldered... Plus the Assembled in the USA vs. Made in USA thing. Not sure if the boards are also etched, printed, etc... here as was the case in the oldschool ones, or if the boards are printed and stuffed overseas and just put in the chassis here...

 

[denim 5,000+ posts]

hispl hit it pretty well. He and I, both have a good amount of experience with all generations of ZED. So if you want the old world collectors item that is still worth some money, which you can get the heat sink painted elsewhere, keep that ESX. If not, the new ZED's are performing very well. We have a number of customers who have the premium models and will not change them out for the world. The MIKRO's are super small. I plan to test a MIKRO in my install where the DRACONIA currently is.