Heyheyhey! I got some emails about this so I will post here and then link the emails to this thread. A lot of the updates are already done, as there’s a few noisier Pendants that were from very early runs back in 2017/18 and I know Justin from ampsandsound made some adjustments throughout the production of these that have made them quieter and quieter as we’ve gone on. I don’t build these, nor am I an amp technician expert, so I can only pass on the information that I know. BUT - I do know that save for maybe the first couple units back in 2018 both the high and low impedance outs have been quiet vs just the low impedance out being quiet on those first few units.
Aside from that here’s changes that have been made AND are implemented to my knowledge even on current units:
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Impedance out change on high out to 100 ohms VS 300 ohms. (this happened in early 2020) So it’s 8/100 on the impedance now. The 100 ohm out is quieter than 300 and has the benefit of a more liquid sound that keeps bass tightness vs 8 ohm out.
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Larger Choke was a fix that was done early on to help noise floor.
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Moved components so wiring was more linear and separated, you may notice the ZMF logo has moved spots I believe to accommodate this.
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I know there’s a number of other things that have changed slightly to make a “sum of parts” addition - you’d have to as Justin about all of it.
This has increased the price gradually over production of the amp which has been handed on to us, but we have kept the price linear until now. As starting Jan 1 the amp will ALSO receive these updates:
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Stepped attenuator. We found a stepper attenuator that costs about 6x the cost of the current one - but it has a much more fluid volume ramping so that you can use the entire range of the knob. We had played with a gain switch, but between the new stepped attenuator and the changes from 12ax/12at and 12au tubes it’s simply not needed.
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Jupiter coupling caps. These take longer to burn in, but they have a sound that has a little more of that 3d magic to them and more “space.” It keeps the linearity I love about the pendant as well.
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New wooden volume knob. I know it’s aesthetic but, you’ve gotta have a sweet volume knob.
So as a whole, the amp cost to US from ampsandsound has increased almost 500 USD to ZMF - in a true retail world if we wanted to sell to dealers I’d have to raise the costs of the amp by at least 2.5 - or 1250 USD. I simply want the Pendant to be an amp that is the true “I want to get into tube amps and want an endgame amp” or “I want a tube amp that doesn’t need $1000 worth of tubes to sound good.”
So instead of worrying about dealers we are just going to keep selling the amp direct to customers, and pass on the exact increase of cost to you. We don’t make a big profit on the Pendant, and the only way to make our requests for customization from ampsandsound as an OEM and keep the price down is to do it this way.
As an aside, the Pendant at $1999 the Pendant is a great value and retains much of what you’ll be getting at $2499. The volume knob may be able to be swapped out later on, I am not sure about that, but we won’t be able to update the old amps with coupling caps and a stepped attenuator.
Hope this helps and makes sense! Let me know if you have any questions. I can ping Justin if there’s stuff that I don’t know the answer to.