spritzer

For 15k I want a quad of 845's with 45's as drivers, all transformer coupled. There is also the Morgan Jones 845 based design to consider aka. "The Beast". No teflon for me if I can get away from it. I'll take the slightly duller sound of oil over the sheen of Teflon any day. It's a shame Jensens are so horribly unreliable or they would be a contender. Very cool... Welcome to the dark side!

It really is the best review ever written. I think I have it in pdf form and I'll try to find it. Edit: Found it... The O1 vs. O2 comparison is right on the money as well. Read it here.

A capacitor with a resistor across the leads maybe? I've never really thought about it... What is the impedance of a 120pf capacitor at 100v? Doesn't everybody have a spare HE90?? I can't see no reason to use them... I ran up the numbers some time ago but I believe the V-caps would be close to 800$ (less if you skip the input caps) and the Mundorf closer to 600$. Add to that Riken resistors, all silver wiring, RK50 pot and a new tube rectified PSU and the Aristaeus can reach new heights in cost...

A headphone driver (dynamic) is simply a coil of wire so it doesn't care if you feed it SE or bridged. What it does like is more power so the should be some benefit.

Those massive heaters in the Zana make for a very toasty amp. I've been looking at equipment stands and the only one I'd want is an extra wide SRA Craz. Silly money for something like this but it is very sturdy and there is nothing better. I really do like the idea of a 2.5 wide rack as we use a lot of abnormally sized equipment so it is easier to cram 3 Stax amps in a row.

I have this sneaking suspicion that you need a second rack...

The Siemens are very balanced tubes so not too warm like the Tele's or sterile/bland like the new stuff. The coupling caps are the weak point of all capacitor coupled amps. The Aristaeus uses Solen caps which are, while not that good, dependable so many manufacturers use them. An upgrade to something like Mundorf silver or gold caps would be a huge step forward. V-caps are also an option but at a price an the A-N silver caps are for those that have left their sanity behind. Start tinkering and it will come. You learn most by doing and second most by seeing others do it. Buy a cheap tube amplifier kit and assemble it for some good experience without the real bore of diy, the case work...

Amen brother!!

JJ ECC83....?? No wonder it sounded bad. I don't like Telefunken, period, since they are way too warm and mushy. Siemens and Mullard are the way to go but Amperex could also be a good option. Btw. When are you going to have Justin upgrade those coupling caps? Some Mundorf Gold caps would be a huge upgrade and much more stable then the stock Solen caps.

Sure do! Not like I didn't warn you...

I don't reveal my sources...!!

I've got quite a few great sub 200$ deals so I'm not so sure.

Do I need to start my regular HE90 bashing??

Try to find a Lambda, any Lambda. I have found a few for well under 200$ but the market has heated up recently.

You should really buy a SR-003 for testing duty. This is no way to treat a 800$ headphone... What tubes were you using before the Siemens? I have a few sets of tubes for the Aristaeus ready here so I really should build one soon.

New tubes drift like crazy so that would be expected. I think we have to bring your status up for a vote...

It does but the angle of the earpieces on my set makes it less of an issue. I also change them out at least once every two years or when the foam has gone soft.

The parallel surfaces are an issue if the backwave manages to bounce back through the driver. This will kill the bass and all sound staging so you have tune the shape for a certain wavelength and port the back. I think this would be possible to pull off today as we have much better adsorbtion materials then in the early 80's. I rarely make any sense at all... The parallel sides are both a reflection issue and structural issue. Dynamics produce so much vibration and sound so designers try to tune it out pretty much the same as ESL designers try to handle the backwave. Peter Walker nearly worked himself to death until he was satisfied that a backwave would be acceptable in a domestic setting though he did put the filter on the tweeter panels. Speaking of ESL design, has anybody seen the new Hi-fi News with a review of the new Siltech Pantheon or what ever it is called. The pair matching is beyond horrible for a 120-130k$ speaker and the ESL tweeters aren't even similar.

I use those for my non Stax phones i.e crap like He90 and ET-1000...

It looked a bit like a Zeppelin with a flat front end and they chose it because while it does resonate it is a very robust shape so cheaper materials could be used. Still the pictures aren't very good as they might be afraid somebody would copy it. Parallel sides are much more of an issue with dynamic drivers then with electrostatics since ESL dispersion is a figure 8. The backwave needs to be either absorbed or reflected in some other direction as it kills the bass output.

Yup, they are/were a devision of Fujitsu. It would be possible to make a spherical or dome ESL driver but the stretching jig would pretty hard to design.

Nothing but Stax stands for me. They do get a bit expensive when you need a lot of them...

Ahh no you must have misunderstood me. The drivers were flat but they were mounted in a spherical case, 60cm long, filled with absorbing material and vented at the back. It's similar to that Fujitsu speaker line.

Quad never made any ESL speakers with a curved panel. If you would read the white papers Peter Walker posted on ESL design in 1955 he strongly opposes all tricks like curved panels and hybrids for the simple reason that they don't sound like music. He even said the same thing about his own older corner ribbon speaker. Something like it produces bass and treble but it doesn't sound like music. The ESL63 was designed to mimic a point source for a wider dispersion angle and that was simply done by manipulating the waveform.

That's really their function in life i.e. WAF. They could be modified though to be much better but it would damage the looks