Turcoda

I would love to know as well! I recently found out that there are some electrostats that I love and some that I hate, and that electrostats aren't necessarily the only thing I'm looking for. I'm still looking for top tier end game stuff - whichever category it ends up under. Since black Friday is nearing, Im tempted to order the Hedd and a Raal headphones to contrast against some of the top electrostatic stuff.

To anyone who has heard the CRBN, I'm looking for something dead neutral and incredibly fast, detailed, and maybe airy. I don't really care about bass. I'm curious if the CRBN exemplifies these particular traits. My favorite estat so far has been the Jade II on a KGSSHV amp. I'm either upgrading to an Shangri la jr or a crbn in the next few days. Both of them will have a long lead time and are probably non returnable, so I need to choose carefully.

If my order comes in the next month for my brand spanking new KGSSHV from Mjolnir, I think I'll be buying this unit from you as well. I feel like the drivers are the most significant factor of a headphone, and I don't see any quality issue with that yet. If you stand by the quality of your product overall, I don't see an issue with buying an ES1A from you. I'm looking for insanely fast transient response from my electrostatic drivers and I want sharp, articulate sound. I fear the 007s might not be to my taste, and I feel like your unit would fit my taste as well as the 009s for significantly less. I feel like headband issues, were they to ever arise, could easily be resolved in the future. Driver issues would be another thing entirely.

I face palmed so hard I think I'm gonna have to call my physician tomorrow to have my palm surgically removed from my forehead. I work full time and I attend university now, so I don't know how to find the time to even begin addressing all the logical fallacies from your two posts, but here's the gist of it: You claim to "cover[s] why he's pushing JR gear] by stating that it's "coz he likes headphones and was getting into E-stats, then started to sell them." Great. Very informative post after leading us with your initial promise of providing us with "constructive criticism to better the children for the future". Well, lets start with you presuming to understand a 3rd party's motives and intentions. I don't think you speak on his behalf here, but if you did, then this is the saddest bit of troll food I've ever seen in my life and can't fathom how this could possibly "educate children of the future". The drastically more realistic scenario here is that MyHeadFi is able to sell JR Audio with a significant enough margin because they both operate from the same country and likely struck some very significant business deal selling subpar electronic chinese parts without quality control - NOT because the owner of MyHeadfi "likes headphones". Oh boy. Sure thing, lets take the fact that this owner sent you over 50 emails to mean that he is a well intentioned business dealer selling top quality audio gear. I'm not the least bit sure how number of emails and quality of hardware sold is positively correlated, but I think if we were to follow your logic then basically every local Bestbuy or walmart here would be qualified to sell you some Beats headphones and have it compete with the best. Furthermore, if quality and email count were correlated, I must state that Vance ALSO sent me upwards of 50+ emails to me in less than a few weeks and promised me that no headphone amplifier had ever been sent back to him for repair and that they never once broke down. In the end, after all was said and done, of those emails, the bulk of them ended up being either threats or lies. He did NOT respond to my emails in a prompt manner and when he did respond, he did so in a very round-about fashion. Regardless of all this, Mjolnir Audio also sent me over 50+ emails with far more insightful and helpful bits of information when looking for alternatives. If we're to make purchasing decisions based on email counts, I think we have far better options than Vance here. So here's the other fallacy that I need to point out. You asked: "if he's such a scammer why is his customer service so damn good?... well let me answer why this question is entirely too biased based on your particular experience. He's had you hooked for multiple purchases and its in his best interest to have you see him in a favorable light. So, for one thing, all of your transactions went smooth and your gear functions properly so far - I assume. Honestly, judging by your comments, this is probably because you upgrade faster than your gear deteriorates. The biasness arises because you've never had to experience dealing with him when something went wrong. That's were the problem lies: it's one thing to judge someone's behavior when everything is all rainbows and unicorns, but what happens when the going gets rough and there is a hiccup? What happens when part of your gear starts to fail? THAT is the real judge of character right there. In the dealings I had with Vance, he refused to offer any kind of refund. Here's what he wrote to me (And also what I had to write to my statements with VISA in order to get the charges reversed): I asked Vance multiple times for a refund or an exchange with a new item. The last time I had asked, he finally caved and replied with this: "Yes, you can exchange for something else when it's returned, probably KGSS?" You should note here that the replacement item in question is for a KGSS and I wanted to exchange it for another KGSSHV, NOT his KGSS that is being sold for HALF the cost of a KGSSHV. Woooow total scam. Prior to that he was incredibly reluctant to exchange with anything at all, and when I asked for a refund, he countered by offering to "help me" by repairing the amp and selling it for me on his site's marketplace as a used item. LOL. What a crook. I therefore had to ask him what kind of loss I would take if I did so and he never replied to that email. I have the full email thread as proof, and it reads exactly like you would think communicating with a child reads like. When I told Vance about the blown rectifier and the dead unit he responded with "It should be just the fuse burnt, sometimes there's surge in the mains and the fuse burnt to protect the circuit." Vance is just generally unknowledgeable about amplifier electronics. In the end, Vance only offered to send me replacement parts to repair the item's issues and didn't want to offer service to repair the unit until after I had contacted visa with complaints. In the VISA dispute he argued his case by stating that his return policy excluded faulty items from being returned. See attached image from the dispute. Vance essentially argued that a "myheadfi.com does not accept return of a brand new item with valid warranty", which turns out to basically be the biggest pile of steaming garbage I've ever read in my life. Logically it means that any item with warranty cannot be returned, which would translate that to mean every item he sells. Does that mean that the only way to bypass this beautiful piece of logic is to wait until the warranty period expired and THEN try to return it? Lol I'm sure waiting a year to return something would work even better... Wow. This folks is what you have to look forward to when dealing with crooks. He lost the case. And with good reason.

I just got word that he's cool with me quoting it. He did specify the timeline and it truly was about a year that it took for JR Audio to repair a defective HEV70 from him. Kinda sad and unfortunate that it got to that point. I also recently found out that JR Audio doesn't like to play nice with any of the competition and and doesn't appreciate talks of other diy'ers and other amp builders out on his forums. I think this speaks volume of his character. From ES Labs owner: "I build my own KGSSHV, and speaking of JR audio, I have a problem with him too. Once I shipped a HEV70 amp to him for repair and it took him around a year. When I receive it the amp does not work. Then I send him a message and ask for help, I am told to do the troubleshooting myself since '' You are an amp builder anyway''. Upon investigation there is a loose solder point on the board. So I do not recommend JR audio product and service based on my own experience and many others who bought faulty amp from him." In the end, I honestly don't think anybody respectable in the community would recommend JR Audio products, and this quote just reaffirms that. On an unrelated note, I've been looking far and wide for a new electrostatic headphone and Spritzer mentioned to me that he enjoys the ES1A from ES Labs. This is how I got into contact with him in the first place. Thanks to Spritzer, I think this is going to be my next purchase.

@spritzer @kevin gilmore Since I have your attention here, let me begin by prefacing this with stating that I'm just a lowly software developer currently working in transportation software and mostly autonomous vehicles. I have no electronic engineering background, and as such, you'll have to forgive my total ignorance in the matter. However, sometimes I do like looking into potential side projects for fun. I'm honestly curious about something that crossed my mind a few weeks back and wanted to know your take on it. Something I was genuinely curious about was whether either of you have ever used software to generate any of your amp designs, and if not, whether there would be any value to it. I would be curious to know what an algorithmic approach to developing amps could achieve and whether some kind of evolutionary approach using something akin to genetic algorithms would optimize parameters and specs of a schematic to either reduce cost, maximize efficiency, increase simplicity, or increase performance. I'm sure some kind of fitness function could be derived to determine some of these parameters, but I doubt all of it would be very trivial. Firstly, I'd like to know if there exists anything like this out there. For all I know amp designs are as efficient as they'll ever get... but I am kinda curious about algorithmic takes on the matter.

I recalled just now having spoken to the manufacturer of the ES1A from ES Lab, and how he had also had a previous problem with a Jr Audio product. I would like to share his comment below, but I asked permission just now to quote the email he wrote to me in confidence. If I get permission I'll post it here in a short bit.

So right now I have no amp, no dac, no electrostatic headphones, and therefore basically crap audio. I still want to purchase a KGSSHV amp from Spritzer I'm looking for an epic matching headphone that won't beak the bank, and I feel like the ES1A might be a good fit. I'm currently running ribbon headphones that I got on sale from linsoul, the GL1200s. I like how open and full they sound but I cant stand their slow transients. I don't think ribbon headphones are at all for me. I was curious about buying a pair of tall magnepans recently, but this experience drove me away from that. I just ordered an SMSL VMV D1se dac from shenzenaudio to pair with my future amp, so I'm waiting for that to come in. Hopefully it pairs well with a KGSSHV. I also ordered a THX AAA amp from them as backup for if and when covid ends and I need to take in my lesser quality headphones to the office again.

So, here's the thing. I know he's the only person that wished me ill and had my credit card info, but the fact is that nobody can be certain if the perpetrator of the fraudulent charges was indeed him. All I can be certain of is that he used my credit card without my permission. For all I know he could have posted my credit card information out on a public forum or given it to a friend or family member. Another funny bit of my adventures followed during some of this fiasco. So one morning something funny happened when I was in the process of thanking Spritzer for his help, as well as commenting on how I was planning on using one of his amps to pair with my Hifiman Jade II headphones. Sadly, my Jade II's had developed audible problems in both drivers that resulted in a ticking sound, as well as other nuanced annoying behavior that I wont get into, but suffice it to say the build quality of that headphone is quite questionable. I did not care because the headphones sounded quite a bit nicer than anything that I had previously owned, and I had purchased the pair new from Headamp at around $700ish. Well worth the money in my books, considering the headphone I wanted was the 009 that retailed for more than 5x that price. Anyway, I got in touch with Hifiman support and they were kind enough to offer a replacement pair. So that morning I told Spritzer that I was awaiting my brand new pair of Jades and that I would be able to place an order with him for a KGSSHV. For whatever reason Spritzer and I had just exchanged emails about how much we thought the Jade II amp was a heap of garbage and I was glad that I hadn't bought it as a bundle with my headphone. Anyway, I hear a knock at the door mere seconds before i was about to hit the send button on an email i finished typing to Spritzer that contained my disdain for the Jade II amp - the aesthetics and build quality of it all. I rush in and open the door to greet my Hifiman package waiting for me. I go to lift it up and haul it to the basement with all of my other boxes and thought to myself "wow, this box is quite heavy for just a pair of super light headphones...". At this point in time I'm starting to feel highly suspicious of the contents. I knew right away this box contained something off. I go to tear off the first layer and notice the writing stating "Hifiman Jade". I thought, "Great, this is still it! Weird that its heavy like this...". Now at this point I'm eager to open up more of the contents and as I do I become shocked at what I find. Low and behold it was the one item on the face of the earth that I had just moments ago said I did not want: The Hifiman Jade II amp. They had actually sent me the wrong component - the amplifier instead of the headphones! So at this point I promptly have a good laugh with Spritzer and get in touch with Hifiman to figure out how to proceed. They wanted me to ship back the heavy amp on my dime to exchange for the Jade and I eventually decided against it for fear of the high shipping cost (mind you this ordeal comes days after I had just spent $200+ shipping the Jr Audio amp to Spritzer) and was not looking forward to it. Fast forward maybe 2 weeks later and I ended up selling the amp "as new" on CAM for just a tad bit more than what the headphones cost me, but I hit a snag when the buyer told me the amp was open box and looked slightly used. The box was sealed when I received it so I had no way of knowing. He send me pictures of a totally used amp that showed scratches and very large and obvious coffee mug stains on top of the amp. To this day I cant fathom why somebody rests coffee mugs on expensive amps... Anyway, being the nice guy that I amp I felt bad for screwing this guy over so I refunded him a portion of the money he paid. He seemed pretty happy overall that the amp was in fine working order, so I guess it was a win in the end. I'll just never trust Hifiman replacements ever again.

I'm the owner of the KGSSHV Mini in question. The origin of the unit is the AU store MyHeadFi. It is quite the story for me, so I'll post the events of what happened incrementally if I get the time. I posted the e-receipt of the order that was placed. Long story short, I owned the unit for less than 3 weeks before it died completely on me. The seller absolutely 100% refused to issued a refund (Vance from MyheadFi) and I had no choice but to ask visa to file a dispute for the lost funds in questions. He was unhelpful and demeaning all around (more on that to come). I eventually won the case, but at the cost of considerable time, money, and sanity. Visa's requirement to file a claim was such that a 3rd party must analyze the ordered product and determine whether it was in proper working condition. The second requirement was that this 3rd party had to be a qualified vendor with an online store that sold a similar product. The problem with these 2 requirements was that, as far as I'm aware, Mjolnir Audio is literally the ONLY 3rd party on the face of this planet that was qualified to provide a statement to Visa because he is the only vendor of these amps with an online store and the only vendor of these amps that designed them. Spritzer and Kevin Gilmore worked in conjunction to design these amps, and, as such, every other 3rd party or diy builder either wouldn't have a registered store of their own or wouldn't be qualified to assess a defective unit. Spritzer was kind enough to do me a favor and provide evidence to visa that the amplifier in question was in fact 100% defective and in non working order. I have to pay over 200$ to have the amplifier rushed out to Spritzer and analyzed within the timeframe visa had requested, which is quite the hefty shipping fee. Now lets fast forward to just about 24 hours after I received notification from visa that I had won the dispute with the seller and things start to get even more interesting. I did get all of the funds back from visa after they issued a chargeback for the full amount. However, I started to receive threatening emails from the seller. I also I opened up my visa statement to find some fun surprises. Low and behold, I saw the thing I suspected I would see: Even more fraudulent charges on my account! Why did I suspect this? Well, because the seller still had all of my credit card information and boy was he still pissed at me. So in total he managed to rack up about $2000 to $3000 worth of Sony Entertainment charges, which I can only assume are related to Playstation digital goods, as well as a couple of food delivery charges for a company that doesn't exist where I live. Let me be clear in stating that I do not own a Sony Playstation, but instead own a high end PC with a brand new 3090, so it stands to reason I would never stoop that low ; ) Anyway, as I write this now I am STILL in the process of disputing all of these fresh fraudulent charges on my visa statement. I was assured by visa that all of this will go away soon enough, but it's still a huge pain to deal with. Ironically I also read what happens to online game accounts like PS4 and PS5 accounts that are flag for fraud or initiate chargebacks. Essentially their accounts get blocked until they end up covering the lost funds, so these accounts become unusable. If they spent considerable money on these accounts prior to the fraud, their library of digital goods is basically forfeit and they shoot themselves in the foot. So if you're reading this, have fun with that, I guess? Moral of the story? Don't buy knockoff goods from crooks and scammers. Buy only from legit places or sellers you already know. Steer clear from MyHeadFi. Jr. Audio products are total utter trash. My unit failed in various ways over the course of a few days during light usage. If you want to risk it after reading this, you deserve what happens next. Remember that you get what you pay for.