spritzer

I finally picked it up and it doesn't disappoint... Jesus this is bad and one funny thing, the surface coating on the chassis is very different from the CarbonX. Same quality parts, ZWEE output socket and the "legendary" SANNI volume control i.e. crappy Alps clone. Now the chassis is the same one as the CX but much better surface finish. The other one scratches very easily (as in I've already scratched it) but this one seems more resilient. One funny thing though, the hole for the tube doesn't quite line up. I tried to take a picture of it but it might not be as apparent as in real life. The space on the right is quite a bit bigger than on the left... No way this was done by hand so somebody was really sloppy... Now for the rest of the pics. The wall wart is also different, now featuring a built in US plug and 28VDC/1.25A output. The large cap in the PSU was flat down but I raised it up. That last pic is just baffling. Why on earth would anybody put MLCC caps this close to the socket. If they see any force on them, they can crack and short out. Instant fire... Shit engineering as usual...

Burn!!!!

They are both far better... as this is a really shitty amp. I think this one might actually be worse than the original LC if that is even possible. I had to go out tonight so I missed the delivery of the CTH so that will have to wait until tomorrow.

I'll do a thorough testing of the protection circuit.... I'll get the CTH tonight so time for some proper fun.

Hehe, I've barely even listened to it but I'll get around to it.

I very much doubt that AMB would be too happy about that.

I've actually plugged it in now and it appears to work but I'll try it out later on. I'm expecting great things, I mean it has to be at least as spectacularly bad as the Cavalli version. Just read the manual and check out the last page under servicing, apparently this thing has a tube which I must somehow have missed...

I don't have a HD800's now but I can get a set to try out at some point. I do have the HD650's so I'll try them out later when I find some time...

So as a counter point to the Massdrop amps, I also bought one of these Audio-GD units used. The R2R15 seems to have been replaced by the R2R11 which is more SMD based but it looks very similar. So this cost 350$ new, is not balanced but has a discrete R2R dac, discrete headphone amp and can also be used as a single source preamp. The Chinese version of the product page is still active: http://www.audio-gd.com/R2R/R2R15/R2R15CH.htm I must say it does look really fugly in real life (as so many of the Audio-GD product do) but it's amazing that they can do this for 350$.

No, I only got the CTH amp as well which should be here soon. The lack of heat sinking will be a problem here, why they didn't use the nice chassis as some form of sinking is just beyond me. It's a nice sturdy aluminum shell so it could take some watts easily. I will probably blow this one up in the name of science... Notice the pissant 2010 0.47R resistors for the output devices... yeah they won't last long.

Needless to say, I invested in one of these works of art and well... it didn't disappoint. External build quality is way beyond the Cavalli Mk1 unit I had but inside...yeah.... So if anybody thinks this is good for 300$ they need their head checked. Every expense was spared here, just look at the high quality sockets used. I mean, who hasn't heard of the legendary "Hooya" sockets let alone "ZWEE". I mean quality stuff... Circuit looks to be identical to the LC minus the internal switcher. All the same issue as well plus the super cheap volume control...

Nope

It takes a special kind of audiophile to find some crap on Alibaba and rebadge it... inu2it or what ever they are really called. I never sold my HE90's...

Nice of you to take over for a week as here we are at 5°C and 1m/s... so pretty much excellent winter weather.

The STN9260 will do just fine.

Who on earth suggested these mods? This is DIY so you can do what ever you want but this is just a shit idea...

I'm sure this amp will be of similar quality as the WES...i.e. pretty much shit. Has there ever been one Woo amp that is good?

NPN in a PNP spot will not make the amp happy so who knows what else was damaged. I would measure everything and lift parts to check the other side for damage. The 2SA1486 hasn't been made for a long time now so the STN9360 is the modern replacement.

I'm hoping somebody gets a set and wants to unload it on the cheap...

I'll get mine from Justin.

From the specs they are 100% Stax compatible so it should work just fine. Now whether they want you to use other amps...well that is more debatable...

It's my thing... New concept was born today for something pretty small.

BURN THE WITCH!!!! Going by the clusterfuck on HF in the last few days...let's not focus too much on what actually differentiates the Stax units. They do tweaks that we can never see so sure..different stator designs, different diaphragm treatment and the like. Of my amps the closest would be the Octave V2. Similar design ideas just crammed into a much smaller chassis.

Nice to see that WAPO is as accurate as horseshit yet again...

Next up the ultimate 5000$ mod....remove the glass...