Monya

Advertised at £5395 in the UK (so far).

Few magazines seem to criticise much these days and just support the industry that feeds them. I’ve tried both the T8000 and Trilogy which seemed to be voiced at opposite ends of the spectrum and neither can hold a candle to a KG design.

I swapped to the 009S a few months ago. It’s not better - just different flavour which happens to suit my tastes better. Maybe slightly fuller sound overall and less toppy with my new amp:

Well it hasn’t worked out for me! First sample had too much hf rolloff. 2nd one returned with noisy transformer fixed by mounting it on rubber. 3rd delivered-with faulty tube. 4th packed up after 3 months with a faulty reed relay. Some love the visceral punchy sound with real weight and substance - so did I at first. But too much high frequency rolloff for my taste, robbing the 009s of the air and space that is their trademark. Got myself a KGSE now and much happier.

Another electrostatic driver. Anyone seen/heard it? https://ifi-audio.com/portfolio-view/pro-iesl/

Have to happily agree and just bought one which sounds excellent with an ARC REF CD-9 which I’m trying on dem. at the moment. No loss of high frequencies from what I’m hearing.

Of course - each to their own likes. I spent a couple of hours last week hoping to buy the Chord Blu/Dave dac combo but try as I did, it just didn’t float my boat despite all the advanced innards.

All fine but I’m guessing that so far I’m the only bloke who has spent some considerable time with it. VFM? TheT8000 is only slightly cheaper but imo not as good. I’m not defending it - each to their own of course but I wouldn’t dismiss it out of hand before listening. It certainly offers a different presentation to the Stax offerings.

I’ve been trying one out for the last 6 weeks fed from a Nagra dac into 009s. I’m coming from a 007tll kimik but also borrowed a t8000 for comparative purposes. The new Stax unit sounds very similar to the old one, but a little more refined - lots of detail, rather bright, bass slightly improved. Not for me. The Trilogy has a lot more body and substance with greater harmonic structure. Bass notes much improved over the Stax. High frequencies slightly rolled off but the detail is still there only less pronounced. This was designed with the 009s in mind which can sound a bit sharp up top. I’m no electronics bod and have no idea if the circuitry is new, old or whatever but experience has taught me that advances don’t necessarily translate into sonic improvements. To me this amp is very musical and makes for long term easy listening which is what I’m after. If I were living in the States I’d have the BHSE but over here in the UK living within 10 miles of the factory should something go tits up I’m more than happy. I don’t want to be shipping hardware across the pond or Iceland! 3 year warranty. Has to be used with remote as no buttons to press.

According to the handbook the valves are 4 of 6C3PI and 2 of 6H6PI with a bias voltage of 560VDC