spritzer

I meant it sounds great as there are some updates going on. I'm not a big fan of the "lets make it prettier and charge more" way.

In Icelandic: Eg aeldi a barn Guds Stupid forum software doesn't allow the Icelandic characters I had to dumb it down.

That's only on ebay as they are pushing Paypal.

Who needs a XONO when I have my very own modular Stax phonostage in the SRA-3S...??

Nelson Pass is indeed one of the greats. A skilled designer that is willing to try new things, doesn't hide behind some marketing BS and shares his designs when he's done with them.

I haven't had many transactions there yet but all have been good so far, both buying and selling.

That's not what I meant but comparison in build quality with Pass Labs is a great honor, something Justin fully deserves. Sounds great. I've never been completely happy with the sound of the stock KGSS I built though it has many redeeming qualities. I take it will be built on a single PCB with the everything incorporated such as the Aristaeus and the KGBH SE?

Very nice Justin. Anodize them black, slap on a silver front panel and it could be mistaken for a Pass Labs amp. Are you going to do any work on the KGSS circuit besides altering the layout, new PSU etc.?

Welcome to the Stax mafia. The system looks great but let the upgrade madness commence...

I never got that cool shirt with my set...

Cool! Their worth is hard to fathom since we nothing about them but 2-400$ could be a good guess but it really depends on the sample. There is no way to easily fix them and no source for pads so you are shit out of luck if something breaks.

Absolutely correct. I was looking at the minimum standoff voltage in the spec sheet.

Nope but I want one!! Badly! They are one of Jecklins designs and we know next to nothing about them. Totally incompatible with the Stax standard so you need to use the original step up energizer.

Here is the SRD-7 Mk2 schematic with the bias supplies on the bottom. It's pretty straight forward with a 150k resistor on the input and then the z1100 bidirectional zener but you can use two 81v units instead facing each other. The rest is easy and it doesn't take long to build on a perfboard.

Ouch!!! I'm going to go and hug my SR-Omega now...

Keep me posted because if an upgraded PSU does improve the amp a great deal it will save me huge amounts of money...

What I'd like to know is how an upgrade can take up to two years and why do people put up with this crap? I'd like to see some measurements on the ES-1 such as output impedance, slew rate etc. as those will tell us a whole lot more then the voltage swing alone. I do have an itch to throw together a second BH psu and see how the amp responds to dual mono supplies... \

The truth is that the HE90 doesn't like direct coupled, relatively neutral and clean amps. They need something to mess up the sound, be it the steaming pile of crap that is the HEV90 or some caps in the signal path, to gloss over the biggest faults. This why an Aristaeus is on my to buy/build list but Marc's talk about the souped up KGSS has made me want to take a second look at the BH and see what can be done for the PSU. I think the BH deserves a PSU that is at least 5 times as big as the amp section. Can anybody say giant film caps...

A lot of current into 4ohm is very different from 100v into 2000ohm and more so it will depend on the amp. It should be find at low volume though before the amp runs out of voltage and starts to misbehave.

I'd rather say I'm recommending them... not pimping them... My cables use a specially drawn silver that was made for a friend of mine and I got some of his stash after he was done experimenting. The other limited material is the center tube that the whole cable is built on. I found a stash of it but haven't been able to find a similar material to buy anywhere that shares the same flexibility but is yet so sturdy and non resonant. It's a bit like the Indra but I have enough for all my cable needs in the future. The basic design is thin conductors, spiraled around the center tube and then damped by two separate layers of material. They are a bitch to fabricate with a lot of time going into each meter and are fragile where the connectors meet the cable but I've mostly solved that issue now. If you think the Ridge Street stuff is expensive then this would be in a whole other league.

That is a really good cable and why a recommend the VH DIY silver recipe to anybody that know which end of the soldering iron you are supposed to hold. I'm not pimping them!! I've just pointed out that they are good and you have to spend a great deal more or invest a bundle in DIY to get a better cable. While most of the stuff they are talking about is the usual marketing BS there are hints at how the cables are made. They start out with fresh silver wire drawn soft but still at least 99.99% pure. The silver is polished a number of times and then sheath in natural insulation such as cotton. The wires are then damped and the cable is closed up. My only issue with them are the large conductors as smaller is better with IC's and that they are slightly stiff. My own IC's are so manageable that you can loop it around a finger, not that I would ever do that to the precious wire , and that's how IC's should be.

I did spend most of the time with one of the Nite models but have also heard the Revelation (or something like that) and the Master series but not long enough to fully get to know them. One of the local hi-fi nuts loves the VD stuff which is good since I unloaded all my old VD PC's for a nice profit. These cables aren't Nordost or Transparent bad but so excessively overpriced I could never recommend them.

Why should I hold back... I'm just not that type... I could find no redeeming factor for the VD cables and they have started to market their cables directly on HF. Check out the Omega IC thread.

I've tried a number of their cables and can't stand them both because of their stiffness and that they sound like crap. They are creating a artificial bloom and rolling off the HF to make for pleasant sounding cable but they are far from neutral and a bit diffused. They are overpriced beyond belief and will mess up a well balanced system.

That is a good price for something this good. The USD as only 2/3 of the Euro is bad for everybody...