spritzer

So besides Beeeleee being an idiot I'd be careful with those WPI Stax sockets as they can fracture with very little force. The Stax units can do that as well so some support for the double Neutrik plugs would be a good idea.

Seems like I forgot to replay this morning but thanks a lot for the writeup Mike. I'm not a fan of the He90 but if Mr. He managed to fix what I didn't like and build on its strengths then the Jade would be a very good headphone and offer an alternative to the SR-007. I must admit that I'd like a bigger soundstage sometimes which is why I use the SR-Omega/SR-007 hybrid so much, all the precision of the SR-007 but with a slightly more forgiving soundstage and woolly bass. Btw. Have you tried any other tubes in the BH besides the Electro Harmonix?

I must admit that I'm most tempted to open it up and see if I can give Mr. He any feedback. As for the sub 1k$ amp, you can't really go wrong with the SRM-717. I didn't really care for it when I had the BH (didn't really give it a chance) but I've grown quite fond of it in the recent months. It has enough power to hint at the SR-007's greatness and yet imposes very little on the sound.

The Jade looks a bit bigger then the 1.2b but do the drivers look the same? I'm a bit tempted to order one and see if I like it...

The heat output of a tube amp has often very little to do with what ever class it is in since the filaments soak up so much power. A small tube consumes a few watts just for the filament and most of that power is converted to heat.

I demand detailed impressions with the BH!!!

I would stay away from DIYFS units unless they take the original design and build on it, with better parts and execution. With this you have no guaranty of getting something even resembling the quality of the Pass stuff and with no after market value to boot.

I have an APL as well (so does tkam) and I can confirm that is doesn't sound like the quintessential tube output stage at all. The ECC99 used is a very linear tube and there are no nasty caps in the signal path.

Here is how my DAC1 looks on the inside: The other one is due to some idiot wanting a balanced DAC for some peculiar reason. To do so you have to double up almost everything inside the small chassis hence the mess. I do like the DAC in my computer setup both because it is small )fits on top of the Stax amp) and it also sounds great. It may not be the last word in detail (the APL is tough to beat but at more then 10x the price) and the bass could be more authoritative and reach deeper but these are small sins of omission that are easy to live with.

Like Kevin said they are 6 pin low bias but many amps made before August 2003 will have a normal bias socket along with the Pro so look for a SRM-1, SRM-313 and all the smaller tube amps.

Happy birthday Vincent!!

The T1S and T1W are identical except for the extra functions on the W model. The S sounds better to my ears but the older T1 is better over all. I've bought a lot of stuff from Japan and is has its pitfalls just like everything else. Some of the equipment I bought was not like it had been described but that's where Craig at KuboTen comes in handy. He's a Stax nut and runs a deputy service so the perfect mix for us lot.

Well Jena wire could be like Shankti stones or what ever they are called.

Even with the new arc assembly (100-140$ depending on who you ask) it is a very good deal.

Tannoy R2 speakers pulling TV duty.

Yup! I just though more people had seen the B-52 listed in A'gon a few weeks ago which had been upgraded with Jena wire, V-Caps and some other crap "making this already SOTA preamp even better"...

I don't doubt that the phones sound better after a trip to Sennheiser but it has nothing to do with the drivers being new or not. They replaced the rubber o-ring along with the drivers which sealed the leaking backwave. Ray being a fucking half-wit... what a shocking surprise!

Mine was very easy to change which goes to show that Nate could build one for you...

Here are some as well. It looks like the predictions were correct that Ray would build on the "SOTA" B-52 preamp and tack on some simple ESP output stage.

Maybe for you weak noobs!! Damn I've been playing too much Fallout... It has the older arc assembly but not the Gamma variant, which only the Lambda Spirit/Pro Classic used, so that narrows it down to 3 units and the brown headpad of the Signatures would show up as a light color on the B&W photo. Simple really...

Congrats on the BH and that thing is indeed huge! How do you like the powahhh?

Very cool pic and looks like it's either a SR-Lambda or Lambda Pro. The Lambdas don't all look alike you know...

They are actually v2's but it will be very cool to read about any comparisons between the NAD and Marc's set which is v1

Now those I would buy. Perfect for planar speakers and to weld speaker cables together...

These headphones have very different needs when it comes to amplification though I wouldn't group the two Senn HE's together as the HE60 simply adores more power while the HE90 doesn't. Both do take the more "romantic" side of the spectrum so are better suited for audiophiles while the BH and SR-007 aren't. When you get to this level of performance you have to decide which you like better, the rose tinted view or the brutal honesty of a clear window.