spritzer

Having been at the center of that mess, how it was handled at HF was highly suspect. When we initially posted about it with just internal pics from owners as evidence it was all removed and all our claims refuted by Mikhail. The pics were good enough to fully redraw the circuit but it was made abundantly clear that without a unit to rip apart nothing could be said about the matter. It took close to a year to source an ES-1 and by that time Nate has posted about the Extreme and shit had hit the fan. How many new amps were sold and how many owners sent in amps for repairs in that time frame is the real question though. An open discussion could have changed some of that. The issue of the cheated owners taking legal action against HF (as well as Mikhail) has been brought up a few times over the years. I've never wanted to be a part of it aside from providing all the data I have from that time (everything was saved for posterity). I've had enough of legal BS to last a lifetime. The monetary amount is certainly sizable as there were enough of 10K+$ amps that never worked. This also applies to this thread and any other detailed discussion about a commercial product. The consumer should be presented with as much info as is possible, not just what the MOT wants them to see.

The prereg voltage probably rose due to the fubar transformer which means the zeners had to burn it off. Normally they just split open when they fail but here they just cooked a bit. In other news we've worked on the HVk PSU a bit more to make it even safer to use. Now there is nothing under the main caps but empty FR4 material so they can sit on the PCB. The CT connections for the HV inputs have been removed plus a bunch of small fixes and alterations. The ground plane clearance has also been increased so this one should be trouble free. Now a question, would somebody like us to do the same to the older style of the PSU boards? This could be useful to have in amps that suffer damage etc. so the old mounting holes could be used but the board would be safer to use.

That sounds about right...

Happy Birthday Marc!!!

I also truly don't get this utter delusion of "discussing the issues" with the manufacturers as a way of getting anything done. This is not how the world works and never has. That said I have tried this with both Cavalli and Woo Audio, neither have listened. This was also the basic stuff that any competent engineer should have avoided in the first place. Seriously, exposed pins on the PSU of the WES carrying +600V with more than enough current to kill you and the Exstata being designed to throw away parts on purpose. Something that springs to mind are the guidelines Hifi News and Record Review used back in the day when reviewing gear. They were the first to test the operational parameters of the gear so what should they do if the gear was way out of the published spec or simply sounded horrible? This was in the 60's so the components quality and build standards were not as consistent/good as they are now. They decided that the manufacturer was offered a chance to supply a new unit that worked to spec as shit happens but failing that, the full review was posted with all the gory details. As is clear to everybody we do our projects out in the open with nothing to hide. If there are issues then we address them but don't try to hide it. Shit happens is a good motto to have but it's hard to accept when one does have a god complex...

No, that just applies to the current sources. The 2SC4686A is the BJT output device, you are thinking of the 2SA1968 which is the PNP BJT used in the CCS.

So it's basically, add enough zero's and it must be awesome? God I hate these clueless blog idiots.

No change would cause such a dramatic difference. Did you manage to balance the output at all?

That is indeed it. There are plenty of halfwits that claim this is all some personal vendetta of mine but I've done the same for Woo Audio products, RSA, King Sound, Stax and even Headamp. Some of these may not like me but at least they haven't sent the paid shills to try and bully me, not that I can be bullied or intimidated. That said, the actions of fanboys in general are not good as people are stuck with barely functioning gear and just supposed to suck it up. Tow the party line which is led by people who haven't got a clue. It's all quite sad... As it stands now we've turned the LL into something useful. The circuit is still exactly the same but improved with better components, proper assembly technique, some basic common sense and an actual analysis of the circuits. We don't try to bend some cheap parts off Mouser to our will, we just use what's best for the job. The sound now is much improved and I'd compare to a modded 727. Doesn't have the sheer presence of a KGSSHV let alone the BHSE but bass and treble anomalies are gone and now the amp is linear. Far less distortion and now the bloody thing is safe to use. Easy to service too as there are only 4 wires soldered in at both ends and they are the outputs. Easy as pie to remove them from the output socket PCB's. Now I would actually feel comfortable to sell the amp on but I'm not going to. Nice to have in all the "post pics of your rig" photo's...

Did you setup the board properly? The new " I " labeled parts around the upper right hand corner of the board are for the IXYS parts but not the CCS.

The pinout is the same but electrically they are very different. We would only endorse changing tube type if it was actually better in any way, though we would probably have used said type in the first place. Also rolling in different tubes without recalculating the operating point and swapping out the resistors as needed is a terrible idea. So basically, just because something fits doesn't mean there is any reason to put it there. Stick with the stock tubes.

That should be just fine.

Nothing was touched up or altered, I'm not even sure how one would do that as my solder joints are quite clearly different from what was on the board. I would need to find what ever solder was used and then desolder it all without any damage. Any experienced tech would know this makes less than no sense. First off we have the issue of the tiny lands around the components. They are miniscule so soldering something like the TO-92 units is very hard to do, let alone any rework needed. Same thing for the 1/4W resistors, almost impossible to do any work on them without lifting the traces. Also to curtail any thought that the crappy soldering is due to the RoHS, see this: Brand new Stax SRM-007t which is RoHS compliant. The soldering is perfect as it is always on the Stax units.

1A... yeah that is utter fucking overkill but not really of the good kind.

The 5W resistors used in the SRA-10/12S are larger than the 12W Mills units. The Mills are nowhere near accurate (more like a 7W unit max) but goes to show how things have changed.

You can try the Wima distributor instead. They sell small lots.

While I was installing the new 2SJ74's I decided to do some further modding... Why use a transistors when a LED does a far better job and looks pretty at the same time. I'm listening to it now and things are improving. Doesn't have the hard hitting nature of the KGSSHV but it is fast approaching neutral.

Some PSU upgrades: Now the output has 20uf instead of 0.44uf. I'm sure the PSU will act up somewhat but it is time to fix it anyway. Also, terminal blocks... you know, if one ever needs to remove a PCB... Reworked the bias supply a bit and added a connector for it as well.

Those are C-core transformers btw... same as Lundahl. The resistors are just 5W units but they used to be huge in the 60's. The diodes need to go if I were ever going to use that bias supply. It has no input limiter though so it won't work off anything but 100VAC.

Mine is the real deal, a gift from Kevin.

Stax really didn't skimp on the transformers back in the day: Might have something to do with this: Given how rare these are it might be one of the first ever made.

I for one would take my soldering over this blessed assembly... Speaking of which, new input section: Pain in the arse to drill though as it is all folded Alu. Milspec silver wiring dating back to 1955...

Most excellent. The lower serial does make me wonder what they are up to as all the sets being replaced have to end up somewhere.

I've been redoing the input section on the LL as who can use an amp without loopouts? So when I was removing those useless GRFA sockets a nice Cavalli feature was revealed, no earth connection on the right RCA socket. The wire was there but nobody bothered to solder it in.... No shared ground either for the two channels so it was floating all the way to the amp PCB. I also got some parts in so some more PSU upgrades soon. Large film caps on the output and some local bypass on the amp board should help this pile of fail. Probably as all the wires would have to be replaced as well. It's not obvious from the pics but all the wires are dirt cheap PVC crap and that combined with the tiny lands on the PCB's means all the heat from the iron enters the wire. This melts the insulation and the wires really need to be swapped out.

He was pushing hard for Rudi back in the day, convinced it was actually good. I think he might even have had the ECC83/EL34 Egmont which I'd love to hear. No way that sounded good or even decent...