spritzer

I'd say the "moar watts" argument isn't as straight forward, at least if we look at the amps out there. The LCD's are sensitive enough so voltage isn't the issue but how many headphone amps can supply any real amount of current into 50ohm? Same problem as we have with the electrostatics, a Koss E.90 can swing a crazy amount of voltage but there is no current to back that up. The ouput stage is biased at 1ma but no hope in hell for the PSU to keep up with that. That's why a Dynalo can drive the LCD's but something like the Single Power Extreme will fail horribly.

There is no way the LCD's don't have back emf since it's all down to how the diaphrams interact with the air around them, the effect of the diaphragms mass (which is small but still substantial in this context) and how the various structural modes interact with the drivers.

Ahh the things I'm responsible for... As Kevin said, going past +/-600V would be a very bad idea since the amp would have no problem burning up drivers. On the plus side this one has no problem driving Jecklin Floats...

As with everything in life, nothing is free so while we get ruler flat impedance from the planar drivers then we have to deal with the back emf instead. This has proved to be substantial enough to upset amps so it should certainly be taken into account. The ringing people are reporting with certain amps (OTL tube amps etc.) is caused by this to some extent. When Kevin got my LCD-2's he reported back that they needed current and not voltage (4V rms being way too loud) and I concurr, you need an amp which can deliver the ever so elusive current. Low output impedance is also a must which rules out most tube amps. High bias Class A solid state amps being the natural parter then. I'm getting good results with the Dynalo but a Dynahi should be even better, the new version even more so. Some good speaker amps wouldn't go amiss. Know anybody who owns a Pass XA-30.5?

Rather simple. The 2A input current is a bit odd but something like a LM338 based psu would work for this.

...but is it any better than the >100$ amps you can buy with the same circuitry let alone something that is not a dirt cheap chip amp? That is the bigger question...

The energizers work from pretty much anything. I regularly use a 10W Class T amp (very optimistic 10W at that) when I can't be bothered to connect some of the "proper" amps and it sounds just fine. I must say though that I wasn't very impressed by the WEE. I just don't feel that it is a upgrade over the SRD-7's and I have a large question mark over the quality of the transformers used.

You know what they say about assumptions... When selling audio gear people very rarely give compatability even one second so high output impedance sources are paired with low input impedance amps all in the name of using the hottest products out there. Same deal with the LCD-3, it was the headphone to have so naturally everybody wanted a set to demonstrate. Whether it was compatable or even sounded any good isn't really a concern. Just take the RWA amp "designed" for the LCD's. That's just marketing BS and couldn't be further from the truth.

It's probably off due to small differences in manufacture and different line voltages. I believe those SumR numbers are calculated and not measured though...

High-ish output impedance and these circuits don't like the back emf given off by the LCD's. We must not forget that ortho's have specific amplifier demands and a quad of OPA541's with a moar loud switch doesn't meet those...

I'm guessing you can't spot what's wrong with this list? None of these amps would be considdered a good match to the LCD's particular requirements. The EC and Pinnacle are both good amps but I'd never use them with the LCD's, they simply aren't a good match. The rest, well there is a reason why we make endless jokes about those manufacturers...

Quality sound and RSA in the same sentence? Yeah... not happening...

The SumR spec sheet should even state the unloaded voltage.

What about zebra wood to drive the LCD-3 fanboys nuts...?

Well Fremer is borderline retarded so this doesn't surprise me.

I do have some ginger bread dough left over from Christmas that I was just going to store until next year...

Bread will always have mold issues in the end but there are ways of slowing it down significantly. I have thought about baking a case for an amp but it would be a lot of work since there is no way to do it without something to manipulate the dough into the correct form. I'm not sure if a braided bread would work since it is far too thick. I once did a 4 piece litz braided loaf though....

Same deal here, dac with a full volume control (remote even) yet I put a volume control on everything. Wait until you see my pathetic attempt at a wooden case until you call your stuff ghetto...

That does look brilliant. I've also been thinking about bulding a second F5 to drive the LCD-2's. I'd probably add a buffer on the the input with some gain and a volume control to make it fully self contained. I could also retrofit it to my current F5 but what would be the fun in that...

Ahh but the Euro hasn't been weaker for years...

The USB input finally started working. I thought it was possessed at one point but it's just super picky about the cables used.

I approve of this message!!! I'm just marveling at how good the LCD-2 is though that is mostly due to the MSB dac finally running at full tilt...

All the Mk2.5 sets have a serial number that starts with SZ3-xxxx, the older Mk2's start with SZ2. To these ears the Mk2.5 sounds more forward but also a bit strained in the midrange even though it is quite subtle. If you are interested in a set then I'm going to sell my Mk2.5 soon. Currently with the port plugged but it would be easy enough to remove the plug. I've spent the last couple of days refurbishing a very beat up set of SR-007 drivers with 3 of 4 dust covers missing and the drivers full of dust and debris. I'm guessing somebody tried to vaccum the drivers or some such stupidity. One just has to admire the build quality of these drivers even though this was Stax doing it on the cheap. They still crackle and pop even after a good cleaning so I'll have to take drastic measures to try and save them.

Gotta love the Rudistor BS. Chassis made 100% out of aluminum except the steel bars that hold it all together...

Perhaps he'll now make the electrostatic headphones named in my honor?