Icarium

Meh.. 600 ohms? vomit ;p

Hey you won luvdunhill! How much you end up paying?

It is pretty comedy platinum

6sn7/307a i believe

Woo hoo jealous of your beastly rotary fader!

Oh yeah.. so I've slacked on getting them out, but now I have a legitimate excuse. Alex from Audeze is sending me out some pairs of the foam they put in the later shipped ones... so waiting on that before starting things up

Well both NoNoNoNoNoNo and I rushed them.. or at least I did to make sure I had mine before the meet so I could recable. I'm guessing my friend Andy B doesn't have it either since his was a rush job too so he could deliver it at the meet.

damnit.. i need to get them to mail that shit.. is it openable or is it glued?

Huh pickup probably would be good.. but all money must go to more tubez!

Mm polystyrene and foil caps mmm prototype pcbs! Some used 6SN7 Tungsol Roundplates.. since I got my message in first the guy is going to try and hook me up with the best testing pairs woohoo. Thanks again Tom Hankins and the Forsale Elsewhere krew. Grats on the haul Nate I hope they all work. I have the line on some Telefunken AD1s, but he's playing the make an offer before I even show you pics game.. which I'm not in love with ;p

Well I didn't hate it but nor did I leave it in for more than an hr before swapping in the PMD100 since I was planning on doing that no matter what. I don't know that it can be referred to as a "

Happy Birthday man! Best wishes!

Oh yeah... I was freaking out pretty hard when Craig told me about it, but now having the thing in my possession I really don't mind thing doesn't feel loose to me at all. And I can't even be bothered to switch out the input tube ;p I'm not a compulsive tube roller by nature so I think I'm in good shape.

The truly hardcore would have 2 Transporters: One Transporter for actually transporting the digital signal then feeding into another Transporter doing dac duties.

I dunno wireless is supposed to be amongst the best, but I have no real idea. I'd guess that it's underneath async USB/word clock and any other transport clock slaving set up.. but... Well maybe j4cbo or grahame or some other hardcore slim devices dude can comment.

Damn those Mackeys look nice. I've been seriously considering going from my LX4 2.1 M-Audio set up to something nicer. I've been looking at active Quad 11Ls and 12Ls.. I want to stick with active to keep my computer rig basic and simple. Anyone able to give a break down between the pros/cons of the 11L/12L/Mackeys?

Rant a bit about EML AD1 tubes and AD1s in general. So some of this should come as to no shock to those familiar with EML as some of this is apparently common knowledge for EML vets. So.. as you can see on the amp there is literally no base showing on the amp. This is not Craig's fault as due to how the AD1 tube is set up and how the socketing works there really is not much base available to grab. What little there is (Craig estimated 1/8" if I'm not misremembering is obscured by the top plate of the BA). So when Craig was disassembling it... the glass part came loose a bit from the base. This is a production issue with the EML tubes.. upon communication with Jac Craig discovered that they apparently used to use a resin to glue the tube/base together and have now switched to a rubber cement... though they claim that its never been an issue before. However, Craig notices signs that at least one glue repair has been done to one of the tubes... Now, EML is willing to repair/exchange these tubes so I have that avenue, but then I'd have no tubes to use with the BA while that happens Craig and EML suggest using super glue and non ceramic epoxy to fix the tube. So I may do that.. but I was thinking heavily about picking up a NOS pair to use while waiting on the RMA. I've heard that EML have been know to die early (Under a year and sometimes several months when the owner is unlucky) compared to the more reliable NOS tubes. However, the EMLs come extremely well matched and have various tweaks (Mesh plates and other things.. it's talked about more on the website) that should make them sound better. However.. in the course of figuring out this tube thing... Craig uncovered some more unexpected news and I quote: If you read Jac's latest reply there is a new wrinkle in the AD1 dilemma. The original AD1 had a 4V 0.9A heater. The Emisssion Labs tubes can be 1.6A, and in a separate email can vary as much as 0.3A between tubes. He also indicates the the heater voltage has to be close to 4V for optimum operation. I mean how can this be anything like an AD1 if the parameters are that far off. Anyway the point being if you swap out what is in there for NOS AD1's the heater voltage will jump up because the oscillator is not regulated. The heater supply has an adjustment, and can be changed by the user, but you need a high frequency meter to accurately measure the voltage. The standard digital meter will not work. Jac's reply: I leave it up to you to design the oscillator, but note that Historical AD1 uses only 0.9Amps. Ours is around 1.5 or so. But this number can very a lot with other charges. So I would say it must work within 5% good from 0.9 to 1.6 Amps, with the nornal mains variation of 5% included. So you need also good line regualtion. So ar 115V +5% and 0,9Amps you need max 4V+ 5%. The other is at 115V -5% and 1.6Amps you need mininum 4V -5%. When like this, you're ok. Anyway the takeaway here is that NOS tubes are NOT going to be like the AD1 and will not work without some adjustments for the BA. In fact they are almost like different tube that is similar to the AD1. This can be done by the end user, but it is a hassle. Craig will either figure out how to deal with this in the next batch or will not offer the AD1 tube as an option. Also there is no guarantee the NOS will really be all that more durable when pulled by the glass than the EML. Shrug. Lastly.. the sockets. So.. Craig bought some of the NOS original sockets from EML. These are hard to come by as they got them off NOS tubes. He also sourced some cheaper Chinese ones off ebay. They are indistinguishable from the supposedly NOS ones. Craig is fairly certain they are the same... Now while Craig was trying to figure out a full proof way to pull out the tubes.. one of the sockets cracked in half. This is pretty unexpected since the things are supposed to be like best sockets ever: Quote from Jac: Actually the pull out force with those is as gentle as can be, they're the finest sockets ever designed. If they pull out heavily, there is something wrong. Anyway.. Craig's theory is that it's possibly Jac's people might have messed up and sent the Chinese sockets (Which they also have) instead of the good sockets. Ahwell.. Yamamoto makes some outstanding sockets for the AD1 and I'm going to buy those and I feel as good as the NOS sockets are.. if the Yamamoto sockets do not have an overstrong grip they will be ideal. They aren't cheap though at about 26 euros a pop at one of the places I found that stocks them (Btw anyone know a cheaper place to buy them in the US?)... so if you end up still going with the AD1 then I suggest sourcing those for your amp. Lastly... the story is not all grim. The BA with the AD1 sounds the best Craig says. It's extremely musical without giving up detail... I don't know if its THAT much better than the 307A.. I didn't do side by sides and didn't spend much time with the 307A except while it was in prototype form and it was damned good, but who am I to doubt the creator ;p and Craig has no love for dealing with the damn thing after all this. Anyway.. the AD1 sounds good driven with a Kenrad 6FG8 and rocking Electraprint partial silver output transformers. That's all I know I hope this information is useful to those considering the AD1s. I'd let Craig make the decision for you unless you absolutely am willing to deal with the hassle for the last 0.00001%. If Craig comes up with an appropriate solution though.. life will be good for you guys I hope it trickles down to me. And really shout out to Craig for really going all out to make sure that foo_me and I are taken care of... these issues were discovered in the course of the last 72 hrs and he went into overdrive mode to make sure that bases were covered prior to handing the amps off to foo_me yesterday afternoon. Since then he has worked long hours to get the straight dope from Jack and research how to make this a non-issue for batch 1 and future batches.

Really? Fear the Mcalister stuff though ;p Was it a good design? Or is it unexplainable magic?

Yeah I fully admit my definition of tight bass might be inconsistent with a majority of people ;p Either way I very much like the LCD-1 bass and am unsure if I really think it can be improved on. I feel like there would be some kinda trade off for tightness that I am not sure I"m willing to make. That is compounded by the fact that the LCD-1 bass is unlike my other headphones. Like sure I like the bass on my other headphones, but is it better? Not sure and does it make sense to have like 5 headphones with similar bass or different flavors.. shrug ;p

Yessir. I'm going to do a little thing at my place weekend after labor day weekend if you/jp can make that. inviting a few others as well.. but again if Min is willing (if not I'll bring mine) let me know when's good for you and I'll make the trek up for the epic battle! Fear more wall warts.. thankfully I see some little tubes in through the vents, but maybe they are camou

Hrm I need to think about how to divide up my treasure trove.

Wow the 0404 usb amp? Really? I mean I always have liked the 0404 usb amp for the buck.. but the LCD-1 is pretty brutal to drive compared to other 40 ohm phones. Well I suppose it's has to be less brutal than that amp driving high impedance headphones and I seem to remember it having at least enough juice for them, but that is still surprising to me Well if you get enough volume then I'm sure it's enjoyable Still finding the bass dissatisfying? I'm very curious if you will experience what I did which was vast improvement on that front especially after 48/72 hrs of burn in.

Thanks guys! I hope yours is out soon morphsci! I think he said a week or two for the new boxes since the box dudes messed up on the international usps size limit dimensions... I think it's simply too big to get one box for both parts so now they are doing a 2 box set up. Though Craig mentioned one guy (Though I think he said Michigan) is sticking with the gigantor box.

Yeah its a bit crooked. I adjusted it shortly after taking the pic.