spritzer

Sure does...

I flat out hate the Mk2 is stock form so you are certainly not alone. It's like they didn't even listen to the final product and the distributors all lack the technical knowledge to know what Stax really did so they blame it on burn in... With my mods (that sounded so much like markl that I threw up a bit in my mouth) they sound basically like a Mk1 but with slightly snappier bass and since they are more forward they engage the listener more then the laid back Mk1. I haven't done a driver swap yet but it looks like Stax messed with the drivers but this will be impossible to test or even see. I will have to get a second A/Mk2, mod it and send on a trip of the US meets. That will maybe filter the info back to Stax and force them to stop this nonsense. I would start off by bending the earpieces so the bottom of the two earpieces move further apart. Best bet is to bend at the break just above each ear and start off slow. As the output power goes up, so does the size of the transformers so 20kg for a 15w amp isn't so bad. Add some chokes and all bets are off. The old BH wasn't that heavy at about 12kg's but the BHSE has 3 transformers in the PSU and a lot more robust chassis so the weight will go up.

Have you tried to bend the arcs at all? This was also my longstanding objection to the Mk1 but once I found the perfect fit the bass is much better. You need the extra weight in normal tube amps due to the output transformers, two of them in fact. To avoid core saturation you need a lot of iron and it isn't exactly light weight. An ES amp doesn't use these so it could be lighter but one might get a bit carried away with the PSU transformers instead. I'm testing the filament trafo for my DIY BH and it weighs in a 1.9kg but not nearly everybody is going to need 20A for the filaments...

That would be correct but the SR-Omega isn't that much worse, a bit woolly and uncontrolled at high volume levels but that's it.

More weight is always better when it comes to amps and tube amps in particular. Transformers need to be fairly big to start with...

The tubes used are only a part of the puzzle and the key behind the BH isn't the output tubes but how they are used. I'm certain that we will get detailed internal pics from Woo when the time comes (it's called having nothing to hide ) and then we can see what design they based this amp on.

The 007 Mk2 is more forward sounding then the Mk1 so it apears to be easier to driver but they really aren't. I've never tried the GES so I have no idea how it will fair but on paper it would struggle. The 12BZ7's aren't the output tubes so they won't make any difference here. You could have Woo upgrade the PSU and use something larger as output tubes but it looks like they are already going in that direction... I didn't like either one of the new Stax TOTL amps so I would track down a 717.

You might be onto something here. Maybe we have been lied to all this time and heat isn't thermal radiation... This new discovery will completely alter how I run my bakery from now on.

RK50 FTW!!!

It wasn't really a stab at you but vcoheda on HF but it is easy enough to check when you have more then one identical amp and headphone sets... like I do. One should look at this logically and see where things might actually change their temperature with use and headphones dissipate a minute amount of heat with use. You might get something extra from the transformers in the K340 but it should be minor compared to the changes that occur in the amp. Ever tried to bias a cold tube amp?

I never rule that out...

Headphones?? I do notice a nice warmup effect in my RCA connectors but it is strangely absent in XLR's.

The only SS gear I have right now is the AudioZone dac and it doesn't even have a power switch so it's on 24/7. I do leave one of my T1 amps on all the time over weekends and such when I'm working on some headphones or something like that. Those 6CG7's are cheap as dirt so who cares if they die early...

Being diplomatic is so HF... so fuck that!!! Can't wait to see some pix.

Every piece of kit I've ever owned benefited from warming up and some I've always used 24/7 such as DAC's and the like. The difference on my old BH was quite startling between 10 minutes and three hours... More power can indeed be very bad news, large and nasty power transistors and pentodes come to mind, but that's not nearly always the case. You can have a great sounding SS amp with high power but that takes a lot of heat to be dissipated with all the trouble associated with that. Same goes for tube gear, loaded with 845's but a 6SN7 driving them...

The B22 can be just a bit sterile sounding when cold but let it warm up for a bit (30-60mins) and it's just a very open window into the music. This is with the very transparent Fostex T-50 which will let you know everything that is going on. It may look like overkill on paper but the truth is that you can never have too much power.

Here I was trying to be all diplomatic and shit... Nice to know you aren't in denial but enjoyment should come first, all else be damned. Get a new source though... the SR-007 is worth it. I'm guessing that this is a design issue and not related to a faulty part or something like that. It would be cool to see some internal pics as something could look out of place.

That could most certainly be it. The SR-007 takes no prisoners when it comes to sources and cables so the Dared could be glossing over things which the SRD-7 does even more of. Capacitors in the signal path and transformers stepping down and up again will sound very different to a DC coupled SS amp.

Great comparison and a tube head will always be a tube head... You are how ever in a bit of a pickle though there are a couple more options plus those that you listed, the new amp that Woo will release soon (which I know nothing about) and a better transformer box. Fixing the McAlister would be my first step though so what's wrong with it?

I do it to discharge the diaphragm before putting the phones away for storage. They will attract less dust this way and I'm trying to prevent the dreaded "electret effect". You don't have to do this with electrets as there is nothing to ground, the bias pin isn't connected to anything.

Wuss!!!

Decades would be my guess. Mine have been sitting on a Stax stand for 5 years and they are still pristine with a lot of use. I've owned quite a few Stax headphones and they will last 30 years easily even when treated like crap so when babied they will last 40+ years. They should last longer but the oldest Stax is only 49...

Like I said I've never tried it and it will depend on the amp. You would have to capacitor couple the output and put some load on the tubes to ground but that's it. I would stick with pentodes for now as DHT's are a lot of trouble to get right and need a separate heater supply for each output tube which is rarely done on speaker amps... let alone the cheap crap.

It's impossible to tell how long they will last. Could be a week, could be decades...

It's certainly a lot of amp for the money and it is even well built. Dew eet!!!