spritzer

This is also why the audio press is such garbage now. Stereophile is ok for those few DIY vintage restoration articles or some technical issues but the reviews are a joke. One exception is though hifi-news as they aren't pulling any punches and as the editor know how to measure gear they are very technical. They even have a rig to measure headphones... It takes a long time to digest this all but it is very rewarding in the end.

It's the sad, sad truth. All the gear I lusted after when I started this collective insanity of ours has turned out to be crap design with a fancy faceplate. It's ok to have a less then stellar design or cut some material corners when you are competing in a very tough price bracket but cutting corners on a cost no object design is criminal. Small things like PCB mounted connectors and jumpers are an eyesore when we are talking about reference level.

Thanks for a great reply and answering those doubts I had. I don't think he could have fitted any chokes in that tiny PSU chassis or any decent quality electrolytic caps (Black Gate, Mundorf, Siemens, Jensen, Nichicon etc.) let alone PIO's. Then the PSU is only meant to look impressive to gullible individuals that believe the sales pitch. It's to bad that isn't exactly rare these days. If he's electrolytic's as output caps he should be put on trial as the opamps are bad enough. I'm sure somebody will buy one of these and rave about how great it is... after all it must be since it cost so much...

I can just do that to some extent at least. By looking at a design you can make some observations such as with tube choice, heatsinking, the amps size etc. It is the same with the HEAudio phone as I can see a number of issues just by looking at them and those are confirmed by the feedback I got. I might buy them as a little project but I'm committing all of my audio funds to upgrade my main system and find those damn few remaining Stax headphones I lack for my collection. There is some BS about "...that assisted by some solid state components (in order to control some auxiliary functions)..." so that could be the opamp first stage but that wouldn't provide any gain, right? The gain is quoted at 65dB's but the talk of an all tube amp makes the numbers look a bit "doctored".

That is a fair point but I have seen the amp and drawn my own conclusions from that based on my knowledge of the subject matter. While Kevin will have a better idea what's going on there I have done my fair share of amp building and know enough to see that something is missing like the heatsinks that should be present. I tend to be a little harsh but thats just because I'm saddened by the state of HF today, all new things are great and there are no in depth discussions about anything, any more. If it wasn't for the Stax threads I'd be long gone...

So stating that the amps are badly built is trolling where I know of at least two amps that went up in smoke? Add to that, that the basic circuit is a relic that Rudi doesn't even understand and using 12AX7's to drive EL34's was one of those things that gave tube amps such a bad rap back in the tube vs SS wars. It was posted that this was the ultimate amp just because it costs so much and I posted that it didn't have any ultimate amp potential. It's my experience that Rudi, just as Ray, is one of those "designers" that has something to hide.

The SR-007 is 6-42000Hz if I remember correctly. It's funny that they always neglect to post the dB figures... Edit: My bad Senn did post the figures, the HE90 is 25-75000 @-3 and 7-100000@-10. The HE60 is 12-65000@-10dB

I guess I'm doing that by warning people off overpriced crap...? I do miss the guy sometimes. He took drunk posting to a whole new level...

-12dB most likely. Since this is the Stax thread what about the He90 specs, 10-100,000Hz...

...and HF is???

Double... triple... it's only money... I can't see why the tubed output would be a turnoff as the single ended transformer coupled triode is the holy grail of amplification. The cheaper players have a balanced capacitor coupled output stage though I'm not sure if it is SS or based on the ECC99. I've never heard of that mod but there isn't much you can do with the 007t. They sure are a great little headphone when you get the kinks worked out. Keep us posted Since the output voltage of SE is half that of a comparable balanced output stage you have more range on the volume control but thats all. Since all electrostatic amps are push-pull most can accept XLR input but not all.

Just buy a used APL 3910 for around 4k$. The former owner of my unit compared it, just before he shipped it off to APL for the newest upgrade, to a dCS P8i and a ARC Ref3 preamp and it was no comparison. The APL walked all over them in every way and the new output stage and DAC are supposed to be a huge leap forward. I WANT MINE NOW!!!! A direct drive amp on the cards for me and it can drive my headphones as well. I'll likely start with something similar to the Morgan Jones design based around huge current sources and a 845 outputs. It's a very complex amp and needs specialized tools to test it with voltage well in excess of 1kV but there is nothing better then a direct drive electrostat. A good compromise would be to have a lower ratio transformer built and hooked to the back of a good tube amp. I'd love to see what a BH does to the ESL57...

That sounds great. If you aren't going to do much tuberolling then the pots should be on the PCB. Tuberolling mine is a bit of a pain since I can't remove the top due to the Black Gates... I've been doing some thinking on a small KGSS and using the ebay heatsinks you linked to cut to 10" would make good side panels and allow me to make the amp about 15*20*25cm (H-W-D). Since this is a non crucial amp I'd use the stock BH psu and a small PSU to feed the DAC, both housed externally. Those DAC's look great but space is really an issue. The Opus with USB and SPDIF option would work and sound good enough for this role.

I think the only speakers that could come close to the OII's are the Sound Lab U-1 since they are designed from a similar standpoint i.e. build the strongest frame you can with a single radiating area and no crossover. Still they'll never match the astounding detail since they are most likely to be used with tube amps and that involves two transformers, one stepping down the voltage and then another stepping it back up again. After hearing a set of A-1's it's clear that Sound Lab speakers are my ultimate target but settling down with a single set of speakers is just boring.

I know but it can be compensated for even if it will be a bit of a hassle. You could also use chassis mounted tube sockets with the bias pots on the outside... and use some exotic pentodes I've been brain storming on my computer amp situation as I need a good amp with a USB dac but it has to be small. I could make it really small by stacking the KGSS PCB's and place a USB DAC underneath with side mounted heatsinks. The PSU can be hidden away and no nasty AC heater voltage to deal with. I think I need to do some designing....

I think you need to try out a G-0s or what ever version they are up to now... Finding a speaker rig to surpass these headphones will be very hard indeed. I'm going to start with a modernized Quad ESL57 with completely rebuilt Quad II amps but I can see Sound Lab U-1's or Majestic's in my future. I've never quite got the fuss about dCS. It always sounds like good digital to me but not much more. It's the same with the EMM gear. All this source talk is pretty bad for my spending habits as my APL hasn't shipped yet and the Meridian G08 is long gone so I'm forced to use my old Rotel RCD-971 and sony DAS-R1... Why did I have to return that Wadia 861 so damn soon....?

Are you using them with side mounted heatsinks or like Justin did with the older BH's?

Who doesn't... It's good to get a different perspective from time to time but sinking as low as Grados is simply going too far... Show off... For me you only need one SR-Ω to completely crush the HE90 and then the SR-007 to surpass the SR-Ω. Just don't let the volume differences fool you. Does the master clock make a big difference?

You need to run them with the 4.5v PSU as the batteries just can't power them. I haven't spent much time with the SRM-001 variant but with my SR-003 I can get mad bass with an improper fit and when fitted just right they don't lack bass at all.

2007 was a very good year for my electrostatic rig. I finally stepped up my electrostatic collection and bought a SR-Omega, HE60, 4070, Airbow SR-SC1, SR-404, Lambda Pro, Lambda Nova Signature, SR-Sigma, SR-5NB, SR-3, SR-3N, Gamma, Gamma Pro, Alpha Pro Excellent and SR-X Mk2. Add to that all the other phones, amps, adapters, cables, tubes that I've bought and sold and it is a small fortune... I have the nasty habit of buying every great deal I come across so I often have multiples of something or I'm forced to buy the headphones I want bundled with something I have no use for. This can lead to some interesting collections such as 3 Lambda Signatures, 5 SRD-7 Mk2's and 5 SRM-T1 amps all at the same time... The main rig has remained unchanged for the most part since 2004 but I sold my Meridian G08 in December and I'm waiting for APL to finish updating my player. I did continue to work on my cable designs in 2007 so now my rig is ready for major upgrades in 2008. I'm going to finally invest in a good rack, upgrade my Blue Hawaii (or just build a new one) and rework my power situation by building a new all silver distribution block for the second dedicated line and finish building cases for the two huge transformers I use with all of my 100v and 117v gear. All in all 2008 should be a lot cheaper the 2007 unless I start to collect electrostatic speakers as well.

It's an EL54 so similar to the 34 but not the same. Might work in the ES-1 but the BH would have to be modified.

I doubt it will surpass the original BH but it could. The 6S4 is a good tube and well suited for this role but it hasn't got the power of a triode connected EL34.

They really know how to roll...

When you don't know what the benefits really are it's hard to sell them as improvements. The Valve Art tubes that you shipped with my amp started to discolor early on but my main Mullard XF2 quad doesn't show any signs of wear even after 2 years of much use. The delay helps the new production stuff a lot. It's true that the case isn't too sturdy but it doesn't ring too much. It's still a lot better then the horrible Hifi2000 cases as I used two for my KGSS. They ring like crazy and required a lot of damping to sound good. I still love the silver look of my BH and it will match the silver SR-007A perfectly...

What they don't know, won't hurt them.