spritzer

Now they say we have no eruption... I has sad...

Can't argue with that. The 007 pads helped quite a bit but not enough.

Looking good and it is one hell of an amp. In other news we have an eruption here now.

Keeping them in the trunk seems to be a good plan as two hours in my right speaker started to buzz very loudly. I seriously can't think of people listening to this and thinkging "this is good!!", it's just too bland with no presence at all. Next up is putting some 007 pads on them.

I have the King Sound KS-H2 sitting on my head now. They were offering to replace the H1's free of charge so why not... The difference in build quality is quite staggering and the suspended arc is very nice indeed. The simple metal band can be bent so I can increase the very weak clamping force. The capsules are still as cheap as ever but the earpad mounting and the driver assembly is very different from the H1. Earpads are the same though which leads me to my next point... These sure do sound horrid. Shades of the Stax OEM sets (Magnavox, Realistic, Marantz etc.) are abound here as they give just a slight hint at what makes electrostatics great but it's in the guise of a light as a feather ethereal sound. No deep bass to speak of and this is off a KGST which has plenty of power on tap. Top is rolled off and the midrange has a slight honky nature to it while being closed in. There is no soundstage to speak of and what is there is very diffused. The first thing to go has to be the earpads and I saw some big "what the fuck were they thinking" in the drivers that will have to be looked at.

M'key...

Sony TA-A1ES http://store.sony.com/hi-res-integrated-2-channel-amplifier-zid27-TAA1ES/cat-27-catid-All-Res-Audio Class A with variable bias tied into the volume control.

You can lower the HT current a bit down to 140mA. That is already overkill so no need for the extra headroom. The audio supreme transformer is just a bit silly so I wouldn't go for it unless it is some very sensitive piece of kit.

Almost all integrated amps use the same circuit for speakers and headphones, they just put resistors on the headphone output to protect the phones/lower the volume. I like the idea behind this amp but to be honest I'm far more interested in the 2k$ Sony amp.

I meant more in the "not some crazy idea Kevin and I had" sense. There are others too and even the old BH supply (as in found in all the Headamp units) was just updated and modernized with new parts and a regulated bias supply.

Doesn't matter in the slightest. No other amp has a regulated bias supply.

Indeed and this also changes with the actual tubes used. 1k5 with a 1K pot should work for most tubes but at +/-400V you might need to go lower. 1k37 is what I use in my amps. Those jumpers will work just fine and we are far away from an volcanic activity so it will be fine.

I think I want one of those. Variable bias Class A from Sony. Never thought I'd see the day...

The transformer could have a shield tap and that is connected to ground. If you don't connect the low voltage CT then you have just a single 32V winding and that won't work.

Zeners are +/-10% at the best of times so 600V isn't too bad. Most of mine are around 570V which is just about perfect.

They are just DIP jumpers and can be found everywhere. The ones I used I got off ebay some years ago but Mouser should have something like that. It could be years or it could be tomorrow when we see some action there but the aftermath can be pretty bad when the flash flood comes from under the glacier. That particular volcano last went active in 1996 and I visited the result of the flash flood to the south side of the island. Icebergs the size of houses scattered around a huge region with most of the infrastructure washed away. Nobody lives there though and all the roads, bridges and power lines are designed to break away and be replaced quickly.

Do not ground the high voltage CT!!!!!!! That's what you are doing wrong. It's only there for transformers for high voltage windings with CT's where we would use the entire winding for the single supply.

That is the + output side so you shouldn't get - anything there

Happy Birthday Tyll!!!!

They are being driven off the +/-15V rails so anything above 25V works just fine.

He also quotes the fucktard David Mahler as some sort of a source for information on headphones and whether they are any good or not.

Yup and on the KGDT it's used to change the current on the CCS.

I do what I can to lift your spirits...

Waiting on some 1N914 diodes (my stash from 2004 finally ran out) but the KGDT if just about ready for testing: Shown next to the new KGST boards, a smaller version of the group buy boards. The difference is not great but I had to shave off a few millimeters to get them into a chassis I bought.

Just not suitable in any way. If you go higher than ca. 150Vp-p then bad things will happen to the TakeT. The crappy components inside the capsules can't take much more than that.