spritzer

I though I was meant to bury them in some lave for a week? It says 105

For a great Stax amp on the cheap there is really only the 717 but the Warthog (PoorMan) could have what it takes. Time will only tell...

There is certainly a few ways to go from here though I may end up building that DC coupled DHT amp Kevin designed. Let's get these two BH, the Vulcan, Warthog and ES-1 up and first though. I'm more then ready to be impressed by the cheap pile-o-parts. I've got the PSU working here without the 10uf output caps (which are on the way) but I'm having the same massive AC issues as with the KGSS psu in the Egmont. There really shouldn't be 830VAC riding on the + side of the supply but I can't figure out what the fuck is wrong... I thought it was Marc-E-Marc? Us dissing Ray for selling overpriced crap to people that believe the BS he spews? No...no... you are mistaken sir.

Just get XF2's and the chase is over. It's a very expensive retirement though... The WKZ Black-Gates are unobtainable now except used at very high prices so we have to settle for Mundorf, Jensen etc. I'd love to get some Elna Cerafines but they have been long out of production. The PSU works after some issues (mine is just about ready for testing) but there are some issues with the amp sections. Alex is on it though. You can just get a set of Quad II monoblocks, a pair of KT66 in each. The EL34 and the 6CA7 are the same tube more or less. The 6CA7 is slightly beefed up version but they are identical in every way but not called the same name due to copyright issues at the time. This is not to be confused with the 6AC7 tube...

Given a good nights sleep the change from using tape to permanent glue isn't so bad and mostly the fault of me jacking up the volume too much. Any damping scheme will be dependent of the intended volume setting since it changes the sheer amount of air the drivers are shifting. Now that makes more sense. The thinner diaphragm needs more power to behave as it lacks mass to damp it self. Put those phones on the budget amps and it isn't pretty... You need to damp the back as well to get the bass back but I'm struggling to get back some of the presence in the upper bass/lower midrange. Foam might be the ideal material here but I don't have any of the good open cell stuff. Nobody will ever accuse the L-Sigs of being dull that's for sure. It will be hard to give them more separation since they are diffused by nature and the bass is also hard to fix.

I used polyurethane so not excessively hard like epoxy but very strong. I'm thinking about adding a layer of the paper material to the back to the drivers and see if it makes a positive difference.

I am way too tired but I managed to bring back most of the sound that I had before I stripped the phones down. It turns out that I had mounted the dustcovers for the earpads the wrong way around so they pushed the drivers away from my ears just a bit. I may have only been a couple of millimeters but that was enough to add some etch to the midrange.

Ooohhh CDE and Panasonic, fancy!!! I'll just have to be content with my brown Nichicon's... The heaters are probably driven off a single switcher supply which is grounded into the amp's signal ground (and thus dumping all the noise into the amp) as that's how the B-52 is built. I do hope that Ray's using at least two supplies in this amps or there is going to be trouble... I would buy anything based on Darth Nuts reviews. He's nailed down completely how the SR-007 sounds and how it is different from the SR-Omega. I'd really like to read his take on the Mk2/A's...

Those tubes would be only too cool on a black BHSE.

The Lambda Sigs have never struck me as being shrill so there might be something else at play here. I'm very sensitive to exaggerated HF response and even with my sole use of silver wire they have never presented like that. That's about 10-15 sets in total so have you checked that the set still has the stock drivers? There are plenty of them out there with SR-404 drivers... I've just rebuilt the phones after permanently gluing the drivers to the baffle and it seems that I may have to revisit my damping. \ The bass is much more even but there appears to be more treble energy as well which I'd like to tame. I'm taking this with a grain of salt as I'm way too tired for any coherent thinking. It's 6pm here now and I've been working since 4am so I'm slightly loosing it...

I really like the part about all the different PSU's and that he uses Panasonic caps in the PSU. They are pretty much our standard go-to caps for these PSU's and far from special in any way.

I've heard a few of them but I still vastly prefer electrostatics. That shouldn't be too surprising though...

I can say that I've always liked the cheap Tannoy's and still have a set of Revolution 2's here. Not a great speaker by any means but punches far above it's weight.

Larry's certainly not a shill. That's a position reserved to fucktards such as jamato and others like him. I do agree that percentages or any numerical ratings have no place in reviews short of identifying what class the product should be in, in any given context. That said I don't trust any reviews and my case was just proven on 6moons this week with the new Pass INT review. That's a very good point. Right now I'm playing with one of Moray's new digital IC's and there is no way I'm going to write a public review on it but he will get my honest impressions.

There are plenty of pure silver connectors out there, Goertz, Eichmann, WBT and Bocchino all spring to mind. Stealth Audio also has solid silver connectors, RCA, XLR and even power connectors.

The sound will change given the different properties of the materials but if you are happy with the sound then don't rip off the new pads. Both of my old LNS's still had the old stock pads which were in good condition but the material is very thin and can only have hurt the sound (like the Fostex pads). To bring us back on topic, I'm gluing the drivers permanently to the baffles now and I've also finished making new damping sheets for the earpads and fitted them in place. I'm documenting it with pics (though I keep forgetting to snap at the right moments ) and if all goes well I should post them early on Saturday. The only thing I've yet to make up my mind about is to whether I should fix the felt damping layer to the back of the drivers or mount it inside the housing. There isn't a lot of difference but allowing the drivers access to some "fresh" air can't hurt and that's how I've done all the testing until now.

Sure they do. They will sound rather different given what pads they have and the old LNS pads are horrible, ghastly things.

The LNS would need something totally different to give them a bit more "life" so these mods only apply to the SR-404 (and SR-303 since they are nearly identical). I'll also try them on a set of SR-202's which I will get soon and hopefully the Limited Edition SR-404.

There are other differences but the welded plates are easy to spot. The numbers are also etched into the glass near the bottom of the tube along with the production date (in code). The BH only needs matched pair but the better matching you can get, the better. As Al will tell you, don't plug in any tubes you bought off ebay into the amp until they've at least been tested on a tube checker (measures shorts and basic emissions) or a full blown tester.

Ok, here are some pics. This material is very hard to photograph but these should give you an idea what it is. It is rather similar to the Tork fiber towels I used to damp my Koss SFI ortho. I bought from Europris which is a nordic budget store and it is branded "EFFEKT, CHIFF'ON Kluter". As for installing it on the older type of pads, it is possible to put it on top of the foam but you will likely damage it and there isn't much overlap to hold the paper in place. You will also get some mild reflections if you do not damp the back as well with some felt.

Burn-in aside (nobody ever realizes that components can take days to warm up and it's takes a while to fully grasp how a component sounds) that comparison wouldn't be too out of line. The crap inside the Amphora isn't that far off from what Ray is doing i.e. using cheap n' cheerful circuits with high price tags and audiophool bling so that the noobs think it's good. The stock ES-1 cost around 4.5k for a stock unit so Ray is pricing this head to head with the upgraded BHSE because "if they cost the same they must be as good". Then we have the high quality preamp which would be fine if it cost 200$ and was made in China. Calling this SOTA is just flat out conning the customers or that Ray just doesn't realize that pre-amp design has moved on in the last 50 years. That's not Ray's biggest issue but the fact that the electrostatic users are a very different crowd to dynamic "norms". Now there are some that just want the "best" and buy a HE90 and live happily ever after but most of us own a lot of headphones with many different amps, most of which will be on par or even better the A-10 for a lot less. We also know what all the fancy numbers mean and what the effects of Ac/DC coupled are for instance. The transducer requirements are also very different with power and impedance immunity being huge factors in the final sound and very easy to show off. Justin should really buy a SR-Sigma and a SRM-T1 to show people just how much the extra power of the BHSE matters.

I'd rather call Ray and that says a lot!! It should be possible though to make a very cheap ES-1 with normal production tubes and 6S4A's on the output and modest quality parts (read better then the crap Mikhail used). The XF classes indicate when the tubes were made and what construction technique. As time wore on they made the tubes cheaper and cheaper to make (crimped plates instead of welding etc.) and that's reflected in the sound. Most of the Mullard "clones" copy the XF4 which wasn't a bad tube but not up to the standards of the old ones. Today there are some good alternatives but I've been out of the loop for some years. I always liked the SED tubes and there is some uber version of that out now but very expensive. The amp will come with a set of the new production Mullards so that should be enough for most.

Nice looking plugs. Now all we need are WBT silver XLR's with matching sockets. Wonder what they would cost...

"We need a bigger boat"

The drivers have always been attached by double sided tape (or rather adhesive sheets) but now Stax have gone green and the new stuff just isn't as good as the one they have always used. I've opened up my fair share of Lambdas and Sigmas and I've never seen any of the old models "creep" like this. The other change is also the second layer of double sided adhesive which isn't helping matters. I've not managed to spend nearly enough time with the SR-404 tonight but I did try a few different materials underneath the pads and nothing compares to this "fiber paper" that I'm using. I've also switched to just one layer of felt on the back of the drivers and I'm just going to let them stay like this for a while. That really is the best way for me to evaluate anything as any small issues eat at me as time goes on. Btw. If anybody has a SR-303/404 and wants to try this layer of paper between the front of the drivers and the ears, just PM and I'll send you some. It's always nice to get a second opinion. It's better though that you have the new type of earpads since the is easier to fit the paper that way but the old ones should work as well.