Introducing ZenTone 7
A feature rich class-A tube amp
ZenTone 7 is a seven-watt class-A tube amp employing a classic 250V tube circuit design. Connect it to your favorite 4 ohm or 8 ohm speaker cabinet for the ultimate tube tone. As a practice or recording amp, you can get great output tube overdrive at low volume settings or while sending the direct output signal to a mixing board or audio interface device. In addition, it provides the convenience of storing your tube amp settings in one of 64 preset locations effectively creating a 64-channel tube amp. You can select a single stage preamp or a dual stage preamp using one of three preamp gain structures. It also contains a classic British tone stack design for that vintage sound. With the internal speaker load and speaker emulation circuit, the XLR or unbalanced direct output captures the tone of the entire tube amp signal path including the output transformer without the need for an external speaker. Use a standard latching footswitch (not included) to select presets or select presets and other parameters from an external MIDI source. With the free Windows editing software, the amp can be completely controlled using MIDI. For example during recording, you can control the amp tone remotely from the mixing room. Additional features of ZenTone 7 are listed below.
· 7 watt class-A single-ended amp head
· Authentic 250V tube amp signal path based on classic designs
· Two 12AX7 preamp tubes (substitute 12AT7, 12AU7, 12AY7, 12AZ7 for different tones)
· Select between 3 preamp gain structures
· Switch between EL84 or octal output tube with the push of a button
· The octal tube socket can accept 6V6 (included), 6L6, EL34, KT77, KT88 or 6550 output tubes without re-biasing
· Select traditional output tube Pentode mode or output tube Triode mode for a darker tone with more compression
· Gain, bass, mid, treble and master volume controls
· Bright switch
· All the above control values can be stored in 64 preset locations
· Unbalanced and XLR direct outputs with level control
· Direct out contains entire tube signal path from the input to the speaker output
· Built-in classic Greenback reactive speaker load when external speaker is unplugged
· Direct out has speaker emulation frequency curve
· Direct out level control can act like a power attenuator allowing you to overdrive the output tube
· Cycle through presets or different groups of presets using a simple external latching footswitch
· Preset zero is a true bypass from input to unbalanced direct output
· MIDI input for selecting presets or controlling any parameter
· DC tube filaments for reduced noise
· 1% Metal Film resistors for high stability and low noise
· Multi-layer ceramic capacitors with high stability over temperature
· Free Windows software for controlling the amp using MIDI
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To the right you can see some ZenTone amps that are being tested. For the sound demos below, the signal into the sound card comes directly from the ZenTone XLR output with no speaker cabinet, or from a mic placed on the Mesa 2x12 as shown.
The bottom amp is the original prototype. This prototype currently contains an RCA 6V6 and some Westinghouse 12AX7's that were bought at a garage sale. Sweet tone!
The middle and top amps are standard production units with EH and JJ tubes. In the top amp, the standard 6V6 is replaced with a KT88 output tube. This tube runs hotter and provides more volume compared to the 6V6. You can replace the supplied 6V6 with 6L6, EL34, KT77, KT88 or 6550 output tubes for many different tonal options. The sound demos use the standard tube configuration. |
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