spritzer

Tell me about it. Then on top of that I can't find any good bakers to work for me...

I'd say no. Even if we look past just how fubar the WES is in terms of design then the 323 simply has more voltage swing and is more immune to the load it sees. The WES has more power but that advantage is largely lost due to those stupid inductors and any DC offset present at the output.

Mine is still about 95% done in terms of assembly with the last parts (RK50 and some transistors) sitting on my desk. Who knows when I'll finally get a day off and can finish this beast...

You can't go wrong with a Stax setup.

APL? What about some of the newer Accuphase units? Their players have had digital inputs since the early 90's.

What are these head-phones you speak of?

To echo what the others have said, the KGSS can kill you so I would have somebody who knows what they are doing work on it. It's easy to blow it up just when measuring something. I would also scrap those Blue Velvet pots, the KGSS deserves so much better and channel matching with two pots is just a pain. The LM7815 doesn't look right though. Appears to have been tampered with but it is obviously working or you wouldn't get any sound at all.

Ehhh what is up with the 7815 regulator? Can you take a close up picture of the 4 small caps on the PSU board as that doesn't look right... To measure the amp connect the black probe to the GND connection on the PSU board and then measure all the PSU outputs on the PSU board except the bias. You can just touch the top of the screw with the probe and the correct values are printed on the board. Everything is DC so set it to the highest DC scale. As for the mica caps on the amp board, yeah the KGSS has compensation caps. For some people this is supposed to be a bad thing but they have clearly never opened up a Stax amp...

It's there without any input present so it doesn't appear to be the case.

Have you checked the DC offset and balance? Hum could be caused by a capacitor approaching end of its life.

I haven't but I do hope that they are alright.

First thing I'd check is the LED on the front panel. Are the leads touching the chassis? After that, check all ground wires and make sure they are secure.

Happy Birthday!!!

Bloody "new content".... Anyway, I'd go with a custom made transformer since those 4A filament windings might cause you a lot of trouble as the load isn't that high. There are also some R-cores out there but they aren't always available. Everybody needs a few 6S4A's around...

The Wavelink is intriguing but only one output is a no go for me. It sucks to be a gear whore sometimes... No, it mostly just sits there. Time is the issue here as I haven't had a day off in months so I don't want to mess with the system too much. I've been using the Rakk Dac I got from Nate a lot lately and I'm too bloody tired to swap all the cables. I'm going to buy a new Dac though but haven't decided which (Accuphase, ML 30.6 etc.)

Price isn't an issue for me. I've put all my regular CD's into storage so this is my main means of listening and with a BHSE and a T2DIY in the same system I can hardly skimp on the source. My computers all run Windows so that isn't an issue.

Yup, 50C10's are in current production in China (or at least recent production). Those amps do look pretty cool but 1150V is just insane. This is 211/845 territory...

Are you going to do it P2P or design a PCB?

The 727 often has the windings cut which can be a pain to fix. Then you need to remove the lacquer on the winding, add some solder to it and then fashion a jumper to the external pin on the trafo. Not all that hard to pull off. I've had two 323's here and both simply lacked the 117V wires from the transformer so once they were installed all you need to do is change the jumper settings. Those are soldered on the main PCB but are easy enough to change.

I found this in a google search. Much more choice then a couple of years ago. As for the V-link, HFN did review it and the measurements looked just fine. I do loath MF gear though, overpriced using the cheapest parts known to man.

I'm still using the Trends UD-10.1 but since it is limited to 16/44.1 I'd like to upgrade to something newer. Has anybody any experience with the newer models out there? Multiple outputs is a plus (I'm catching up to Dinny with the number of DAC's here) and I don't really care about the price or the size. I did a quick search and the M2Tech Evo looks good but what else is out there?

Power and volume have very little to do with one another. Sure if you drive the amp flat out then it will compress quite badly, same goes for the 006t since the 6CG7's are run past their limits. What you are descibing is just gain which can easily be increased or just convert the amp to a balanced input to double the input voltage. I'm all for more power but it is all about control over the diaphragm and load tolerance but not volume. Converting the amps can be difficult but some are very easy. Solder two wires from the transformers to the PCB and change the jumper settings. Minimal skill involved. As for the US warranty, that's a none issue. There is nobody to service the amps should they fail as Yama's doesn't answer the phone.

Voltage swing and the rail voltages don't go hand in hand like that but the SRM-323 doesn't just swing more voltage, it is also more tolerant of the load it "sees". The S is the export code while the Japanese models are named M. The old code was II and A which just confused everybody. I wouldn't personally pay extra for the same amp when the Japanese units can be changed to either 120 or 230V.

More power means the amp is less of a factor in the over all sound. That's the whole point of designing better amps IMO. Feed the transducer properly and you'll get the most from it. I'm also talking about the older versions of these amps, nobody knows what the S thing stands for or even if there are any real changes.