spritzer

My "guy" in Japan.

I've already put in an order for one so a full dissection is coming as soon as I can have one shipped to Kevin. The 600LE used ECC99's... only the T2 has the 6922's in the input section.

The M3 and the Audeze chinese POS are pretty similar designs so it wouldn't surprise me if they sound really similar.

From what I understand Focal got very angry about this and there has been a sudden shift from "best evah" to "maybe not" in attitude about them. Might also just be the regular FOTM thing.

So Stax claimed that the HV supplies are regulated? I will have to call bullshit on that as the HV supplies have two 220uf/400V caps in them (clearly seen in the Japanese video) so no headroom to regulate a +/-350V supply. Now there is a single heatsink in there so they might be regulating something for the tube front end, who knows but the main rails are not regulated. Could be the DC heater supply for the front end... As for the rest of it, to me it looks like a 727 with a new tube based front end and all the NPN HV resistors swapped out for parallel run SMD devices, probably 2SC6127. Aluminum backed PCB and then three or so used instead of the single TO220 devices. As for the size, looks a bit deeper than than the T1W but same width.

There has been a lot of drama behind this so it will be an interesting read.

The 2SA1968's would most run just fine at 1000V (some even at 1050V) so there is always some margin built into these parts. That said, I wouldn't bet on them all being able to handle it.

Well there is always the option of just running it at 1000V and crossing fingers and toes...

That might work as the mesh is super soft. That said, it isn't all that hard to just swap out the dust cover for some scrap plastic. It's just pvc so the small bags you get at the grocery store should work just fine.

This is great, now we have somebody in charge of documentation!!! Seriously though, excellent work and not nearly enough multimeters.

You can separate the grill from the driver but yeah, odds are that you will destroy the dust cover as well. It is attached to the thin aluminum ring that is between the grill and the front stator mounting plate.

Well it is Cavalli so it being shit is a given.

Definitely the same heatsinks as the 727 too.

It's for a dac but why anybody would buy one now is beyond me. DAC's are moving so quickly these days that nobody can keep up.

Ehhh Stax had a servo in the T2, 717 and 727... Yeah the LV supply is probably for the addon.

It does seem though that Stax have finally decided to make some money on their amps as 600K for that...is a bit extreme. I do like the knob and the new face plate though, very classy yet classic Stax. We don't know when the new Stax phones will come but they have been working on them for a while now.

astroglide is just retarded so why waste energy on him? He takes being clueless to new heights... As for the amp...I bet it is just a 727 with tube input but who knows what they are up to. Looks to be a completely unregulated PSU as usual with just the LV rails and tube heater being regulated. That could work if you manage the backwave. Well they were LNS drivers as they are way better than the 404 crap... They are still attached to the HE90 baffles though as the plan is to make a clone of the HE90 shells one of these days and use them in it. Add some slight angle to the drivers and the end result would be far better than the stock stuff.

It's truly impressive

Nope, never sold that one. Now fitted with real HE90 drivers and never used as they now suck...

Kevin's house is filled with crap already so yeah...this might end badly. He even complained when I was digging through his box of unpopulated PCB's that I was messing up "his filing system"... Seriously though, I spent a week there and I doubt I saw all of it. I think I have more headphones though...

I doubt it. There will be a lot more prototypes to come but I don't see a point in selling them.

These are handy to keep around for testing amps as they indeed don't need a bias supply. Just hook up a channel and you are good to go.

I guess that makes me a squirrel then...

You will always get drift with tubes, just the nature of the beast.

There will be more wood coming soon...