spritzer

For 300$ that is indeed a steal!! Japan rocks for good deals but weakening dollar is making it harder to find any... :'(

We can talk about that all DHT amp when I'm done building the next BH... On a side note... the SR-Sigma Pro 404. I've said that this was a good headphone but I hadn't used it with the BH until today and all I can say is wow! Who knew that a Sigma could be this good and output enough treble and bass in the process. There are still some colorations from the box but they can be minimized by using a better glue so now it's down to a small thickening of the lower midrange and light reverb effect to the vocal area. It's certainly a welcome change from the bass bloat of the earlier models and the shut in sound. The Sigma Pro was always a bit of a disappointment for me as it simply traded the musicality of the normal bias model for a thinner sound that was nothing special except a bit more output at both the HF and LF. With the 404 drivers there is a tight and controlled sound stage which lacks the depth of a Sr-007 but puts the Lambdas to shame. The treble is still a bit rolled off when compared to other, less strange designs so cymbals lack the last bit of sparkle and guitars are a bit subdued but compared to the other models it is no contest. The midrange was always the selling point of the Sigma range and it is no exception here. It's a bit larger then life but that's why I like the Sigmas. The bass is tight... real tight with only the hint of a slight boom. It is a bit spotty though with a few irregularities here and there in the response and the housings soaks up too much of the energy for its own good but it is a welcome change.

I also hate the relaxed type of sound. Blasting Megadeth and Iron Maiden is more of my thing They all sound great but we are insane and arguing about small details... I think I need to hook up the old PS1 to a SRA-3S and get back to the basics...

I never said that there were any output caps in the ES1 but two of the three stages are capacitor coupled. I have a sneaking feeling that you paid some extortionate amount for AN silver caps for just that duty. All capacitor coupled amps are colored by the caps no matter how good they are and the ES1 is no exception. The stock BH is far from good enough to work for the SR-007 but it is a brilliant match to the less demanding SR-?. The BHSE should be a good upgrade but so far unknown as to how much. I would try to find an SR-? instead of the SR-007 as the sound would be much more pleasant to you. They are a real upgrade from the HE90 with a tighter, more controlled bass, better defined soundstage and less upper midrange glare though there is still some.

If you are comparing the headphone on an amp like the ES-1 or the GES you will always get a rose tinted view of the world compared to the brutal honesty of a good DC amp. Now whether you like the sound or not is a whole other issue but this something that is often overlooked as most users have no idea how an amp works and what the differences are.

They are (with the Nova Signature) my least favorite Lambda and far outclassed even by the Basic headphones or the Spirit. I usually rank it with the HE90 as a headphone I can't recommend without a long audition as they are so far from being neutral.

They are sort of the black sheep to me. Crappy bass, treble and a recessed midrange so I'd take the SR-Lambda or Signature over them any day.

The Shalco switches are much better made then the Elma units used by DACT and many others but they are huge. Fit some good resistors and you are golden.

Happy birthday and to be cool I'll also post it in Icelandic... Til hamingju me

I'm not really good at compromises so if it is good enough for Kondo it is good enough for me. The irony is that it will probably be disconnected most of the time if my damn APL 3910 ever gets here as it has a brilliant volume control.

It also bothers me a lot and I'll go for a single RK50 4-tier pot in my next amp.

Good to hear that you didn't have to pay anything. Btw. Stax is always FTW!!

That's true because they are called orthodynamics and are planars...

Yup. Back then I didn't really know what expensive really is...

Programming just makes me suicidal... I was always much more into the hardware side and doing crazy stuff to it. I loved the pirates but I usually ripped the kits apart with in a week and built something else. The ships were cool though and some of the forts and stuff.

I'm with you there. I really would have liked the programmable stuff back when I was 8 though...

Yup, you do more then qualify. A triple stacked ESL must have been something else as I was mightily impressed by a double stack. Who needs meets when you have the best...

That is a very nice and expensive amp you've got there. There is at least one published DHT amp design for electrostatics. It was in the second edition of the Morgan Jones "Valve Amplifiers" book and aptly called "The Beast". The whole chapter is a great read as he talks about how scary it was to test it and how none of his equipment was meant for 1kV+... The cost is a major obstacle so I went with a new BH instead as 15k$ for a headphone amp is insane. A properly designed DHT amp will drive the Quad ESL57, KLH Model Nine and Stax F81 directly with ease so it might be justified for a hardcore ESL nut...

That kind of stuff can land you in jail up here but it is easy to do. Not that I have ever done it or anything... This is the reason why I offer buyers from EU the option to declare the package lower if they want to and assume all the risks involved.

He would have to pay VAT of the import price but making him pay it of the original retail price is insane and they have no right to do that. Still it is only the VAT as we have a nice collection of fees up here that add to about 70% on hi-fi and televisions.

This sucks ass!! I take it the system was insured at full value so why do you have to pay more then the VAT of that? If something is bought inside the EU but the buyer is outside (Norway, Iceland, Switzerland etc.) then there is no VAT added as buyer is supposed to pay it in his home country. I does seem odd to me that they are asking for the VAT of the retail price as there is none (EU rules) and you have documentation showing how much money you sent. That should be more then enough. I assume that the same system is used in the rest of Europe where businesses pay the VAT on products and services they buy but it gets deducted from the stuff you sell on the report you file.

That is a very impressive amp and I like the stab at the SP gold plated nonsense... It's expensive but quality iron costs a lot and it was wise to use the 7n7 instead of the 6SN7.

Make sure you are using a good amp to drive the HE60 or they wont stand a chance. Properly amped I do prefer them to the He90 despite all their flaws as the bass is much cleaner, midrange better focused, so is the soundstage and they cost 1/6th of the HE90.

It's tough to recommend just one combo but a SRM-1 Mk2 Pro amp with either a SR-Lambda or SR-Lambda Signature makes for a very good combo.

Cool. Mine was reterminated with a Stax plug so that adds something (150-200$) to the base price.