spritzer

Silly people people who don't want to fork out for 300+$ opamps...

The ceramic units are only about 2$ each and the quality isn't that bad.

Glad I looked at those PCB's since I can't understand what I was thinking with the psu caps... That would work. 6CM7's appear to be in plentiful supply too. We could always do a CRC psu...

For a small amp then we could do ECC83 input and 6CM7/6CS7 for the second and third stages. Can be made quite small indeed. I know Kevin doesn't like them much, but the differential amp (aka. Egmont) is bloody tiny, fully balanced too.

So the LL boards are pretty much ready for production and I've ordered boxes for my version of the A-10. How about "Pyrite" for a name... Yup, even my dastardly plan of having my friends take some of this stuff doesn't seem to be working all that well either.... I really should start to sell some of this stuff as the pile just keeps on growing as I build more and more "crap". Looking over my desk I have the chassis for a tiny triode Stax amp, Hiraga Le Monstre amp and PSU boards, heater transformer and PCB's for my ultra simple poor man amp, PSU board for a SRA-12S, two amp boards from a SRA-10S, mini ESX output stage, numerous high voltage PSU's (five in total) and two Exstata V2 channels all waiting for some attention and/or parts. This is also after I cleaned up a bit over the weekend...

Happy Birthday!!!

Yeah, it's "bright flash" at least that's the intended name. As with everything in Icelandic there are numerous other ways of translating it though.

The root cause of this are the origins of the Exstata design. I was there in the "super secret design forum" when somebody linked to the High-amp.de site which features a design shockingly close to the SRM-1 Mk2. Things spun off from there but with that basic blueprint there are only a few ways to go to improve the design. Different ways such as using zeners instead of resistors (not a good call IMO due to the noise) but the end result is the same. There is a problem with this though as some of the finer points of the design become lost in the translation which is why for instance the Exstata sounds a lot worse than the SRM-1 Mk2 and the measurements back this up. Same problem with the ES-1 amps. Mikhail was working from a schematic which didn't feature the heater wiring and I'm sure he never spent a moment wondering why Stax used unequal rail voltages (+250V/-350V)... Now for the LL, why on earth is he using mosfets instead of BJT's? They are far worse but it does take some experience with 'stat amps to know why. I've been having some problems lately sourcing high voltage TO3 BJT's to repair my old Stax amps. I can get some old stock at lofty prices as these haven't been made for at least 20 years since the world moved to to220 but this isn't really an option. Now what I can get in ample supply are mosfets but they all have the problem which makes them unsuitable for this role, high capacitance. Same thing applies to the LL, they may give you a certain sound signature but I for one think amps should be as neutral as possible.

I thought this was given in the same fashion as some Stax models have a midrange resonance while others don't using pretty much identical drivers. Being harder/easier to drive means nothing in this regard.

Knowing Kevin he's not too worried about it being kosher or not...

Yeah that plus people not knowing what they are doing. Vishay is basically an umbrella for everything now but they do own BC (aka Philips) so that opens up a lot of good stuff. These are the ones I use: http://www.mouser.co...XoJNmZF%2flI%3d

Yeah but things add up once you build too many to count...

Why are people using CMF60 resistors for the bias ballast? Doesn't anybody read the bloody spec sheets?

Improved version naturally. Fits well with the Exstata V2... Onboard sinks too. Hey, I quite like those amps given how small they can be made. I'm building one now into a SRD-7 box for the smallest fully balanced amp I can make. That would be marzipan or rather persipan in most (not pure almonds but cut with apricot kernels). Lovely stuff we use to make cakes up here mixed with 50% sugar and a bit of eggwhites.

Happy birthday Fitzy!!!

Looks like fun!

Let's just put it this way, there is a reason for the pile of amps, dacs etc. in a spare room.

Yup, I get regular care packages from Kevin.

Things are indeed getting bad but we can only hope that there will still be some demand for high voltage BJT's. The IXYS part is available at Mouser, you just have to search for the TO220 version (P) and not the SMD (A). Naturally not available outside of the US...

Yeah, Kevin has been working on a KGSSHV setup sourced exclusively from Mouser and that uses fet's instead of the BJT's.

Very nice and now my Mouser is in Swedish. Seems appropriate since I just got off the phone to Sverige....

Not a bad price at given how much people are willing to pay for fubar sets. As if there was ever any doubt but the 007 Mk1 sounds great with the KGSSHV.

No veil in my rev.1 either or reverb or anything like that. This is mostly linked to amplification used as the "ortho amps" over on HF are almost all ehhh... lacking in true power delivery. I do think the LCD-2 is a very nice headphone but it's never great, similar in many ways to the HD600. Does most things well but they always fall a bit short in absolute terms.

Amazing similarities but let's see how Stax did it in 1982: and the 323A:

Even HE-5's? Those are truly awful...