spritzer

Now you need to shoot some arcs at them...

So they are rolling crap that hangs off the cable? These were the people who Mikhail was building the cable amplifier for.

The Cob is also less of an issue with dynamic drivers.

Well here is the super rare SR-2: Stock earpads were probably from PWB and perished all to hell. That baffle looks very much out of place but identical to the link above. Some of the SR-1's were made in that color though. Standard late model SR-1 driver. Notice how much smaller the stators are compared to say the SR-X Mk3 units. That adhesive ring is found on all the very early models and just falls off now. The baffle needs to be resealed somehow though or the lack of bass will become quite overwhelming.

Ray didn't post those internal shots of the Dorkstar, Skylab did. I love the all bold reply in the comments. Nothing wrong with the transistors though I always prefer BJT's. How they are mounted is the real problem. Reminds me of a crappy Shangling amp I once serviced. Nobody had given servicing any thought on that amp either...

Some of them had the Alps RK27 while others used Noble AP25. I guess they just used what was at hand.

I opened them up last night so some pics will be coming when I have time. Identical build to a late SR-1 but I'm sure they did some internal changes to the drivers. Aside from the PWB baffle (same one as found on the yellow model here) the rest is 100% Stax so I might try to change to a SR-3 baffle.

It's nice to see that they are trying to keep people from the truth but the cat is already out of the bag. The more threads that are locked, the worse it gets. As with any OTL amp the output impedance is governed by the tube used. No good way around that except adding more tubes in parallel. What Craig did was mess with the feedback which is dumb thing to do as it completely changes the amp and thus how it sounds. The change was also far from subtle, more akin to a proverbial sledgehammer.

Just picked up my super rare Stax SR-2 (aka the set that doesn't officially exist) and they are even more a conundrum in person. I got these from the UK and what makes them truly odd is the yellow baffle and odd earpads. The baffle is off a PWB headphone so these were modified by the importer or PWB at some point. I haven't cracked therm open yet as I was eager to try them first. The earpads look a bit like the AKG 240 series but were utterly shot so I put on the first earpads I found A-T W3000ANV. To call this headphone rare would be an understatement though as according to Stax it never existed. No mention of it on the official product page and the unofficial Stax site (which is now defunct) didn't list it until one popped up on ebay. I've seen exactly two of these for sale in the last 10 years and this is one of them. I've found one review from 1968 of these and that's it. Stax have never explained why it was so short lived as the SR-3 was released in 1968. I plugged the set into my SRM-007tA and both channels came up to song in an instant. Always a good sign from vintage sets that the drivers are in perfect condition. The sound is typical of vintage Stax, midrange, midrange and a bit more midrange which is heavily damped. There is some top end and there is "enough" bass for most music but nothing like the modern sets. Still a far cry from something like the Koss ESP6 which is from the same time.

They are RN60D which is a military spec so what is usually a 1/2W resistor is rated at 1/4W. Any of the LSK389's will work.

We are often being accused of being the mob, a clubhouse or some such BS but that is much more what HF is and has been for at least the last 10 years. The rules are just for show and some people can get away with anything. It used to be RSA but now that Ray is old news it is Cavalli and ALO. If any other MOT's would have the same army of shills or "reviewers" then they would all be banned. I know the sponsors are not happy about this blatant preferential treatment. There are some good news though as Hifi News talks about stepping into the headphone game more and everything will include measurements. They reviewed the SRS-4170 last month and it didn't fare too well. Hardly surprising as neither the amp nor the headphones are all that good but subjective tests with measurements will just sort the wheat from the chaff. Now something like this would never happen on HF as it is bad for business.

Put me down for one. I mean it!!!

This is also why stuff like the Schiit Mjölnir is over looked though it is superior to the Lau in ever way, it's simply too cheap. Same problem for Ragnarök but it might sell well outside the HF bubble. It did get a mention in the Hifi News coverage of RMAF... What Justin should do is a 10K$ version of the super sym Dynahi. Two BHSE boxes, one on top of the other. Let's see, fully balanced so no need for that idiotic DRV134 circuit to use SE inputs. More power than you'd ever need and with the right PSU it could be a ca.20+20W Class A speaker amp as well. It would actually be built well and no fucking mosfets. To go back on topic a bit, I did a short A-B comparison against the BHSE yesterday and this morning. I've been using the fixed LL exclusively for the last two weeks though work has been hectic so not as much use as I'd like. Still it's never been annoying or made me wish I was listening to something else. As I said in my first impressions, it sounds like the SRM-727 after the feedback mod. A bit flat and uninvolving next to the KGSSHV, lacking bite and presence at the extremes but over all a nice amp. Now place it against the BHSE and the difference is a bit bigger, the amp is clearly holding the transducers back though the effect is subtle. How voices are projected and made into a 3D space is gone on the LL and so is effortless nature of everything played on the BHSE. Still the modded LL shows what Cavalli could do if he actually had any idea what he's doing. Also this was on slow forum yesterday and kinda fits with this... Hmmmmm.....

There are so many great tubes out there with zero audiophile cred. That's why I like the L-2 so much, tube that is disregarded by pretty much everyone and one that can't be rolled. The TV tubes are a treasure trove though for electrostatic use. Take the 6CM7 for instance, I bought a large box of them for pretty much nothing and they work just fine in a HEV90/Aristaeus style amp. The structure is also very similar to the 6CG7 and thus the 6SN7.

A solid ground plane is the best way to go and linking it with vias (and I assume either planes on separate layers or with traces) is never the best of plans. Perhaps they are in an off way talking about the 4 spoke thermal connection we use on PCB's?

The EAR isn't pretty but it's not that bad in person. The plain black box does help the "look at me" front end. Not sure what they are on about with the PCB stuff. The Kelvin wiring is used for high current sensing so how would that apply here? It applies to measuring "out of the signal path" so to speak.

I think the coating on the diaphragms is the most likely culprit. Beyer used a simple voltage doubler to generate the bias voltage in the N1000 with the input limited by a 90V transient suppressor. Same as Stax did but Beyer used 1uf caps for the doubler and they could overload the coating, slowly burning it off. If the diaphragms are in one piece and the cable shows contact then this is pretty much the only thing that can go wrong.

Forgot about that one but this is still fuglier.

Beyer have made one good set of headphones, the ET1000. Find a good one and it compares favorably to the SR-Lambda which is no small praise...

I think we just found the ugliest amp ever made. RSA looks classy and restrained compared to this...

Good point...

Can I have one of those to match my BHSE? Kthxbye....

I'm a big fan of just cutting through all the BS and being forward helps with that. Otherwise things get buried by all the shills, just look at the Liquid Gold thread on HF. People who have nothing to do with "the Gilmore group" want to see what a 6500$ amplifier looks like but all the shills and halfwits step in to try and bury them. "It's difficult to open up"... well it isn't and I don't see why they are delaying matters. As soon as I have some time to spare both a Liquid Gold and a LLmk2 will be sent here for a full tear down. Some of the owners bought this crap thinking it was worth the money and now they want to know the truth.

Wow, that's.... ehhh... quite dramatic.

Yup, the Stax SRS-2170 is quite cheap...