ZaphAudio Post Mortem

[Bear]

John Krutke (aka Zaph) has posted his full and final farewell. Maybe another decade away from the hobby will bring him back, but for now, it's a nice valedictory.

http://zaphaudio.com/blog.html

[Dave Bullet]

Yes I read that too. I've been checking in on his site every month or so for an update. Glad to see he's alive and well and busy doing other things. I approve of motorcycles

[JonMarsh]

A very frank and personal piece about what the experience has meant to him and why (for now at least) he is moving on...

And funny, I do have a design with the ZA14 + RAAL ribbon that I've never had the time to get around to finishing, even though LBL front panels and cabinets were built...


I hope he's careful on the bikes; I used to be a member of the MRA (Mountain Racing Association) in Colorado which sponsored road race events on tracks and on city streets in Colorado. It's a heck of a lot of fun at times, and it can also put people in a coma for weeks, and they never really come back fully...

I still have more motorcycles than table saws, and I have more of the latter than I ought to have (3). Have plans for giving one away soon, to a young deserving party...


Obviously I don't have the same sadness about his moving on as I do about event's like Linkwitz's passing or Charlie Hansen's, but then too, we know (or expect) that Zaph has many more interesting adventures and experiences ahead of him, wherever he choses to wander in life.

I hope that is the case for everyone reading this.... sometimes, that is just an act of faith.

:T

[Juhazi]

Hallelujah and all the best for you Zaph/John!

[Zvu]

Does anyone knows which factory made ZA14 for Zaph and now for madisound ?

[oneplustwo]

I learned a ton from that website when I first started this hobby. After many DIY speakers, amps, and DACs, I'm also more of a watcher than doer these days. Coincidentally, I'm spending a lot of my resources on the track these days too in my Whipple supercharged 2018 Camaro SS 1LE. I also have a 1990 BMW K75 in the garage that is undergoing a major resto-mod. Both have significant online communities too. Perhaps not as extensive as this one. Regardless, yay for the interwebs and all of the hobby communities!

[Tony ray]

As an builder and owner of Zaph SB 12.3 speakers I say thanks to John for his contributions to the DIY speaker community.
My SB 12.3s are 7 yrs old and still blasting away, they can take some punishment.

[Evil Twin]

Does anyone knows which factory made ZA14 for Zaph and now for madisound ?

No... OTOH, the basket comes from the same design and factory that Accuton has used extensively in the earlier products.

[MikePM]

I built a pair of Zaph L18's some 15 years ago to get started in this hobby and still enjoy listening to them. I later built a pair of Selah Fedele speakers. I have missed Zaph's regular commentary over the last five or so years and am sorry to hear him bowing out for the future. I would have loved to hear Zaph's thoughts on the brand new review of one of his ZA14 speakers by Amir at audiosciencereview.com: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/f...-review.12086/

I am not convinced Amir's speaker measurements at ASR are properly capturing what he thinks they are. His speaker reviews seem biased towards near field monitors (or his beloved Revel's), and the two DIY reviews he did were a little hard on both Zaph and Selah, the "brands" I built, although not the same models.

[boinger]

I built a pair of Zaph L18's some 15 years ago to get started in this hobby and still enjoy listening to them. I later built a pair of Selah Fedele speakers. I have missed Zaph's regular commentary over the last five or so years and am sorry to hear him bowing out for the future. I would have loved to hear Zaph's thoughts on the brand new review of one of his ZA14 speakers by Amir at audiosciencereview.com: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/f...-review.12086/

I am not convinced Amir's speaker measurements at ASR are properly capturing what he thinks they are. His speaker reviews seem biased towards near field monitors (or his beloved Revel's), and the two DIY reviews he did were a little hard on both Zaph and Selah, the "brands" I built, although not the same models.

I would take his reviews with a grain of salt, he has clear bias's against certain companies and he plays around with chart scales as to misrepresent data and measurements. I noticed this in his DAC reviews.