In the main unit, I had NOS Sylvania 12AT7 and black-base RCA joint army/navy 12SX7-GT.

Small jumpers were set to 12 volts for the installed output tubes. Rejigged for 6V, one can use 6SN7.

A few screws later, the covers were back on and the show ascended up the stairs.

Here it slipped into a system which begins with a Soundaware D100Pro SD card transport next to the listening chair's headfi setup. It provides binary data to a 7-year old Auralic Vega into a Schiit Jotunheim R for our Raal Requisite SR1a earspeakers. Its AES/EBU output then forwards bits to the speaker system.

Just then, that was a JAVS X7-DAC MQA kitted out with its optional Clean Power battery/super-cap supply. The MZ3 fit just so between the foot stool's legs atop the two Koreans. LTA's power supply sat next to them on the floor. A Nagra Classic Pre topped by a Bakoon AMP-13 lived above deck. Speakers were our Dutch Acelec all-aluminium Model One with Mundorf ATM and ScanSpeak mid/woofer on stacked 1st-order filters. Franck Tchang omnipolar magnesium super tweeters came in on a 15kHz/1st-order high pass, the Zu Submisison sub on a 20Hz 4th-order low pass with a 6dB/20Hz lift for subtle infrasonic augmentation. LessLoss' mechanical low-pass filters called Firewall for Loudspeakers siphoned out ultrasonic digital noise right at the speaker inputs.

I had instant proof of life for the MZ3. Now I set the SD card folder on endless repeat to clock some playing hours. 20-ish on LTA's dial netted customary SPL with the Bakoon's attenuator in bypass.