spritzer

The bottom ones look like every C3675 I've ever use so they are real.

Fake parts piss me off no end... Here is my first HV board ready for testing. I have some issues that need to be sorted but at least nothing blew up. I have the same problem as Kevin, I never follow the BOM...

I've been testing out some theories with my SR-007's recently and it is quite clear that the odd sound of the SZ3 versions is all due to the drivers. I just swapped some late Mk1 drivers into my Mk2 set and the sound is completely different. Gone is the hard, forward edge of the SZ3 and this one sounds just like my Mk1. I decided to make the comparison fair so the port is plugged but only Mk2 parts were used aside from the drivers. I wouldn't recommend the driver swap since I had to modify the drivers a little bit and there are no spares anywhere if one messes up... The shape of the Mk1 drivers is also just a little bit different so they don't rotate as freely as they should. Small issue for me and some might even welcome it.

That certainly appears to be the case, you certainly don't see the whole picture here.

I don't care about this amp one bit but plenty of people do and some of them happen to be Mafia members. As for the PCB design, you clearly don't see my point. This idiot attacks Ti openly and claims to have a superior design (because nobody has ever designed for low distortion before ) but can't even do the basics right . The end result leaves a lot to be desired and the only reason this gets any attention is due to people out to prove a point they don't even understand.

Not sure but I for one wouldn't believe anything he says. Maybe it is just me though...

I've have heard enough rumors to the contrary to take them seriously but only time will tell I guess.

I've had my fill of trying to show people how to properly do things to be honest. On top of that I don't relish the thought of dealing with somebody as disturbed as this. Then we have the whole issue of why I should help somebody who is clearly going to start selling amps commercially.

I know you were... I can't wait to hear this one though since in theory it should be awesome and as "future proof" as they come.

Exactly, I also never understood why he attacked Ti when there is so much crap out there. Goes to show that this idiot hasn't got a clue what he's doing. A measurement to explain a ground plane that doesn't work? Yeah sure, it's not more likely that the designer is incompetent or anything like that...

Well I can always upgrade later on (the dacs just plug into the motherboard) but paying an obscene amount of money for some slightly better resistors is just not a good move in my book. Plus, that money has been allocated elsewhere... for expensive resistors for use in new amp designs.

Look at the ground plane, it is a bad joke.

I'll test it then just to me sure...

While this has been in the works for a while now I just sent the payment today for a MSB Platinum DACIII with volume control, 32bit/384kHz USB input plus all the latest firmware upgrades. Not cheap by any means but hopefully a end stop for me when it comes to sources.

I really don't see why people are so excited about this amp since it offers nothing new in terms of performance and the PCB design and layout is piss poor to say the least. Add to that a "designer" who is far from stable, thinks he knows something others don't and it isn't promising....

Ahh ok, clearly not idiot proof enough for me...

Yup, I just checked and the bridge for the +/-15V supply is indeed reversed. Just flip it over and you will be fine (- where + is marked).

Nice to see you here on the dark side Rūdolfs. Well we could remove them but I doubt Stuart would be happy... He has an RS-1 which is supposed to be better so I'll "ask him" to loan it to me as well.

I vote for throwing a gallon of petrol over the lot and lite it on fire. Slee makes RSA seem well designed by comparison...

The UK service guys have been pretty responsive and helpful in the past so it is well worth it to contact them. I would stay away from pretty much all of the cable guys since they have zero soldering skill. Soldering these cables is no joke as you are soldering directly to a high precision driver and excessive heat, flux castoff etc. will destroy the drivers. There is a reason why I use a soldering station with very high temperature stability...

It's right next to the (ineffective)strain relief on the cups.

Stax have been laying down the law as of late so sourcing parts is getting more and more difficult. If you can get a replacement cable then the swap is easy enough but the common rules about working up close and personal with electrostatic drivers have to followed to the letter.

50Hz sounds plausible to me but I have no equipment to measure this stuff and Stax would never release any info on this. As for the voltages, are you referring to just normal levels (70db is what most people seem to be running at) or something much higher like 100db?

I'll do that later on but these should be all but identical to the 404's. The cable is a much better fit to the gray housing though so I think they look a bit nicer. I'm a bit OCD so these are just a little bit special... There are no nasty double sided adhesives used to attache the drivers to the housing, it is all done with polyurethane. I even used it when I attached the metal grill to the other side of the driver (when moving Lambda drivers over to a Sigma chassis they have to be taken apart and the metal grill moved to the other side). Same deal on the SR-Lambda I made from the leftovers....

The older Stax Lambdas also have woven dust shields on the back (which is what Sennheiser copied) but these were only effective back when there was a damping layer to seal out the dust. The Lambda Sigs were badly affected by this. The LNS (and all later models) feature PVC sheets on both sides of the drivers.