spritzer

It could be one of the newer DVS drives but it definitely is a DVD-ROM. Not surprising since that is standard practice today. The tray is somewhat similar to the old DVS drive I removed from the Meridian G08. I sometimes wonder how good CDP's would be if we still used the older transports with todays dacs and filters... \

It almost always comes down to what is easier to do. Why would Esoteric go to all that trouble creating the best transport in the world and match it with a clock laved DAC when the output stage is some opamp mess straight off the spec sheet. This applies to nearly all manufacturing where discrete parts are better and cheaper in the end in the hands of people that know how to use them. In the end it all depends on how much you payed for said engineering solution. I got very angry when I saw the opamp output of my old Meridian G08 but I'm fine with it in a cheaper player.

Nope just what I've heard from one of the amateur designers up here. He's been obsessed to preach about the evils of excessive feedback and opamp usage (EE teachers can be wacky like that) so he's constructed a number of similar amps and showed us the difference. It mostly showed how bad cheap opamps are but the good ones can come close to a fully discrete circuit but the cost goes up as well. Who cares anyway since this is sand amp crap!! Give me tubes or give me death...

Opamps are fine in a small headphone amps or some home cinema gear but have no place in the high end. This isn't some prejudice but that facts that the components on the chips are beyond horrible. This applies mostly to the caps and resistors. These can never match good discrete components but that doesn't mean that opamps can't have their uses outside of the signal path such as in servo circuits and the like. Some opamps are pretty good like the 627/637 but so expensive that it's doubtful they are worth the extra cost. They are still used as it is easy to design around them.

I find it really sad that the accepted standard now is that it sounds nice... Opamps are ok now in a high end design just al long as the chassis looks cool... and has some blinking lights

My guess is the DVS crap as everybody and their grandmother is using it. It is basically a DVD-ROM but it is quieter.

That is the excelent normal bias SR-Lambda bass you are talking about. The SRD-7 is also helping along in the bass department.

It didn't have GEC tubes and the chassis was pretty crappy. The crazy collector in me has no problem with ripping out everything and installing Nextgen connectors, silver wiring, Riken resistors and silver caps but the gear has to look vintage on the outside... I'll buy a pair one of these days and I've already planned the mods

Mmmmm Quads..... I almost bought a set of Quad II's yesterday on fleebay.

I don't know if it the approved standard but it's better then most and they did express interest in serious headphone test and talked about the theory where headphones differ from speakers in a recent issue so they are better then most. In the last issue they slammed the Rega Saturn and actually said what they didn't like about it. On top of all of this they showed a picture of a Stax SR-404 in the last issue in response to one readers letter so that is a big thumbs up from me.

I'd rather pay more for good information then get the rubbish for free. I just got an email telling me I spent 100UKP's on three Hi-fi books... Add that to all the diy books and equipment so it is really a wonder if this way is cheaper then being an idiot audiophile that plugs his 4000$ cable into a 5cent rca jack.

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.