spritzer

Thanks guys. It's a nice part of town, right next to the presidents residency. The LNS doesn't care other than the amp is more powerful but it's been a while since I've had a HE60 here and they can be tricky. Perhaps the KGST or KGDT to soften the top end a bit and flesh out the bottom end. I'm just guessing here as I haven't tried the combo.

Voltage and current are inherently linked and I already covered why we use higher voltage. Headroom Other than the new portable amp which is finally something from this century there is little to be excited about from Stax. While on this topic, I checked out the HF Stax thread yesterday and holy shit the retardation is strong over there. I mean seriously, the level of stupid ignorant crap is just astounding. My favorite bit of utter stupidity was Tyll's amp turning the 009 into the 007Mk1 so it's use should be discontinued immediately. It's not like the amp wasn't measured directly against a BHSE using a 009 when Tyll got it with nearly identical graphs (well within the margin or error)...

The Octave is the warmest of the bunch. Traditional tube amp in every sense of the word but with some clever stuff thrown in the mix. The KGDT and KGST are similar as they are based on the same design. The DT is a bit warmer due to lower voltage rails and the tubes used. The ST has this slight warmth to it which suits the 009's to a T. Helps with some of the upper midrange nastiness they are prone to bring.

I'm going to build at least one and see how I like it. It isn't that much of a stretch for me to move from something like the Carbon to a Dynahi as most of the thermal issues have been solved already. Now if somebody would make P-channel SiCfet's for us then we could have some fun.

I like that one a lot and I can confirm that the ebay PCB's are very nice.

The dynamic amps are coming. First off I'll blow out the stuff I had in stock but never got around to finishing so a bunch of Squarewave amps, Dynalo Mk2's and even some Dynahi's for fun. After that I'll probably make one chassis where I can drop in the various designs we've been working on.

Thanks guys. It will be nice to have a proper lab to work in.

Due to my impending move at the end of the month to a new and bigger house it is time to have a moving sale. All the amps I have in stock (so not the KGSSHV Carbon as I can't make enough of them) are included plus all the special items I have as well. They are all discounted by 15% and free shipping worldwide is included. See the News section of my site for a complete list of everything included or just click here. The sale will run from noon today (UTC) to midnight on Sunday the 17th. Everything is in stock and ready to go so shipping is expected a week from final payment. Could be less, just depends on how busy I am. Now I'll get back to packing...

Yes.

There is this thing called headroom. Do you think it is a wise idea to design a car that can only reach 100km/hr? I mean that is the maximum speed in most places so why go any faster than that. Have it running on the redline the entire time.... There is also the issue that this is only at 1kHz, not 20kHz. Yup sounds like a plan and explain to your friend that he's a bit thick.

Maximum DC voltage 315V, no way we could use it.

Either that or the QualityWood(TM) found in the Jade. Not a chance we have something like the HE90 or even the Audeze.

You can find unmatched 6S4A's for around 10$ each, maybe less. Having bought a few hundred of these over the years I've had to throw out 20% (and they were sold to me as tested) and it's not easy to properly match a quad...let alone an octet. As for the EL34's, the JJ's are excellent for the price and the new production Mullard's aren't bad at all.

That's proof you didn't do it correctly. The mod cuts the bass, that's the whole point of it.

It can be done but I don't see the point. Seriously, go look up the EL34 curves when it is triode strapped.

The 20B-x4 is indeed the only tube suitable for this role. All other DHT's would require changes to the circuit to work.

Ehhh do you have some reading comprehension issues? Seriously, what did I just write yesterday a few posts up?

DC supply for something like this is tricky. The heaters are sitting at -450VDC (or -400VDC if you run it at a lower voltage).

Not compared to the new Orpheus or the HifiMan... But yeah these aren't as cheap as I'd like them to be. The plan is at some point to make a desktop KGSSHV which would be more accessible in price.

A BHSE is north of 5K$. My KGSSHV's are all around 3k$ but I will probably be throwing a moving sale soon for some of them. Just to try and thin the heard a bit before I have to move the entire lab to the other peninsula here. The KGSSHV Carbon is the latest development of these circuits and for Kevin and I it matches or even surpasses the BH. We have a tube version too but I prefer to build solid state amps.

A KGSSHV isn't that expensive...

For me it boils down to the same evils that Quad was fighting back in the day, the 009 sounds like hifi while the 007/Omega sound like music. With the 009 there is the "look at this HF, isn't it lovely!! Look at it!!! All that detail!!" With the 007 and SR-Omega they have even more detail but never throw it in your face.

They just gather dust as I only use them for testing with amps. For me they are fundamentally broken as a design. Give me the 007 or SR-Omega any day. In fact, that's what I'm using now with two new Carbon's.

Stuff like this is all about the markup so one would have to layer it on thick! I have plans to make a set of headphones one day but who knows if it will ever happen... As for the topic at hand, I can't see anything here that would warrant such a price. I have fond memories of the Jade and there they showed zero clue what makes this stuff tick. When they were gone there was naturally the usual "OMG these were great" bullshit but they are still awful.

I got mine last year in October and they were clearly different.