spritzer

Polystyrene caps.

There is a huge market for tubes and it is growing larger by the year. I really don't see ECC83's and EL34's ever going out of production unless people stop liking guitars. That said, some of the production values are piss poor and for me the worst offenders have always been Shuguang and New Sensor.

The only thing I'd ask for are slightly thicker boards. The bending on the KGSSHV amp boards is a bit too much from the old batch.

You are at the right place and we can only wait until our member Kerry sees this as he might have some PCB's. He did the only modern version of the BH which has both the PSU and the amp section updated to accept 10M90's instead of the 2SA1968.

Some of the modern tubes do rattle a bit but they really shouldn't. Shaving down the materials used is the best way to make money on tubes these days.

They are made by IAG, the Quad parent company. Well they market them at least... That is a stunning build Frank but the 'stat amp you had next to it had some ghetto charm. KGSSHV boards will work but you need to relax the current limiter a bit. Andy used one in his ES-2 and ran into trouble due to the higher current. I used to enjoy P2P but today it's just so much easier to sit down, design a circuit board and have a few of them made. The sub miniature amp took about two hours in total to layout and double check. That's including checking Mouser for the correct part sizes etc. I really should just redo that board with the larger 9 pin sockets and bigger caps/resistors for a simple GES PCB...

The only PSU boards I have are my shrunk version of the BATE PSU, a simplified version of the T2 supply. Might need to tinker with it a bit to get it work at these current levels though. They should use 6SL7 and EL34.

That tells me nothing, what were you measuring to get a result of 500-700? You should get the voltage drop of the diode.

Yeah and even so you may load the voltage divider and/or the doubler so no way to get a good result. An offset/balance drift of less than 5V is nothing to worry about.

The GES is a lovely amp but I would second Ari's recommendation for the ESX. Simply a better circuit and easier to build. Here is my old one: http://i.imgur.com/qzdT4ws.jpg Forgot how colorful it was. Here is my balanced GES: http://i.imgur.com/8ZDDx.jpg http://i.imgur.com/4n24s.jpg It's very cramped as the box is tiny and I wouldn't recommend doing that. Going ever smaller leads to more and more complicated solutions. Then there is the option of combining the two circuits... http://i.imgur.com/oGWCd02.jpg ESX front end with GES style output stage.

Dust is a problem at 700VDC but I bet this is just a tube issue. I would change the caps though...

No problem posting it here but the basics are simple enough. Do a diode test on all the transistors to sort out obvious shorts and then compare the voltages between the channels. It is a very nice headphone, lacking in most areas but it just sounds right despite the shortcomings. I really have to get that really old one I found shipped here as it might be a 150V version... The BH is already set to 230V so it's all good.

A few things to try, are all the LED's in the circuit lit and have you swapped the tubes or replaced them? How is the offset/balance?

For me it's all about research. Not nearly enough data on this stuff so I buy nearly all I can find.

I just bid on it out of obligation as I already have two sets, one identical to that one. Well mine is clean (hell pristine) and charges in less than a second.

Those odd 3675's could be real as I've encountered some odd markings. One didn't look anything like the bulk stuff we bought but tests just the same... I didn't order this particular unit but it's something to consider. While we are discussing transformers, I'm talking to SumR now to see if we can get rid of the buzz issues I and some others have had.

I'd be happy to.bring them along. One driver buzzes enough to annoy me so they need to be fixed at some point... Seems people liked the SR-1 Milos had at the LA meet. We inadvertently got into a bidding war over that one...

Is there no direct ground connection from the sockets to the pot? Conduction in those boxes is shit unless you take special measures to get good contacts all over the place. First thing I'd try... I've used one Toroidy transformer and it worked well enough but who in their right mind puts 10cm leads on transformers?

LNS drivers in a HE90 shell sounds very nice indeed...

Payment sent.

Twisting or braiding AC disrupts the magnetic field so it's a good idea. With DC it's not crucial and could even be a bad idea (capacitance)

Indeed....

I'm with Doug that simply adding series resistance to transformer coupled amps is not a good idea but with directly coupled amps it works just fine. I do think the HD800 first and foremost needs a very stable amp, one that isn't swayed by the odd load. Take something like the SPL Phonitor, arguably wire with gain but really just a crappy opamp circuit and it sounds horrible with the 800. Thin, bright, edgy etc. and adding 32 ohm to it (it's output impedance is 9 ohm) didn't make it right. Better but not as good as the Dynalo or Dynahi with the same 43ohm. OTL amps have their own issues too. In the HDVD800 I think I can make out 22R in series with the SE outputs and 10R in series with each leg of the XLR. I wonder what output chips they used though... Couple of things I like about the L-2, the glow is all but impossible to see and there is no tuberolling.

It is a bit ironic that the most revealing dynamic headphone ever made needs that... I'm with Ari though that wire with gain is not a good thing for the 800's at least not fully stock.

Interested about the transformer too as I'm looking at other options. The Asia suppliers usually fail to be cheap once I impose strict tolerances and specs such as low max heat rise. They usually underspec the cores and use silly small wires to keep the cost down. I did contact Talema as they are so close to me in Ireland but haven't heard back.