n_maher

Maybe one of the lawyers here can chime in but I don't think that a limit of liability statement would hold up in court against gross negligence. Glad to hear that you were able to rescue them Alex and I can't wait to see what Head-Fi does when the thread gets posted.

Hmmm, that 10k figure is different that what tj told me at the first National Meet when I was sitting across from him. Maybe he had mods done that pushed the price higher but I was told $8k. I can say that it sounded absolutely outstanding when I listened to it then, my frame of reference has changed since then but I'd still expect it to be nothing short of stellar. And fierce, I will be publishing the schematics for both the power supply and the amp for the menace some time in the next couple of weeks. If you're really interested and can't wait just give me a couple of days to make sure the amp works. I'd expect that this amp will compete with many mentioned in this thread.

Indeed it is good news. I had a high level of confidence in the PS wiring (and certainly the design) but still, flipping that switch for the first time and watching the volts slowly rise was pretty fracken cool and exceptionally nerve wracking all at the same time.

This is Nate, posting to you live from the Top Secret Menace testing facility, errr, my basement. The power supply has just been successfully fired for the first time without issue. Unloaded B+ is right on target with the 5AR4's, now rolling in 5U4G's to see if B+ drops as expected... So far it's all WOOTS! here in NH. And there won't be any testing of the amp tonight, I'm done with the wiring but want to send pictures to Pete for a quick sanity check before unleashing the hounds for the first time.

I'm not picky, any stax will do really.

For a pair of Lambdas I think I can contain that rumor for you.

It's bad, it's nationwide. At the start of last week gas was just barely over $3 here, it's now over $3.40. Personally I think we're about at critical mass when it comes to gas prices so the next 6 months should be, uh, interesting...

Quite possibly, yes, but it does limit you to USB only so if you don't want to feed it USB all the time you're SOL. If USB is your primary source it's the best choice I can think of.

aha, pretty crazy that there's only one man'f for a given tube. And the electrolytics appear to be a mix of Panasonic FC or FM series (hard to tell apart in pictures) and Nichicon UPW (or similar).

How long are you going to leave that JJ tube in there? Glad to hear that it finally arrived and more importantly fully intact.

I think you're on to something. I wasn't you man, if it was we'd be razzing you like there was no tomorrow.

Another option if you'd like something that can take inputs other than USB would be the Headroom Micro Portable. In my book it's still portable enough and might work better on a desktop where some of the smaller amps actually become a liability (at least for me they do).

When?

Slyvania 5U4GBs (quad), Cetron 5998s (matched pair), CBS 5692 brown base (x2) and a few other good quality used tubes to use for testing. The Menace is quickly turning me into a tube whore.

I ain't sayin' nothin'! He appears to do truly top-flight work. I'd really be interested in seeing some of it live at some point and meeting him, seems like a cool guy. I've quoted my prices for another beta: single-ended, two chassis = $3k, balanced, dual PS, two chassis = $5k. It's not worth it to do it for less.

Good news arrived in my inbox this morning in the form of a "you didn't screw anything up" message. Woot! Final wiring to commence at 7pm EST.

I can only speak for me but I built it myself and then stupidly sold it. :| One point of clarification though, I'm not aware of anyone currently accepting orders to build beta22's. MisterX did for a while and I'd certainly ask him if he would again, thrice did for a while but I'm not sure that he's going to continue and I've seen at least one truly awful build by someone on head-fi who did a custom build for someone. So my advice on that front is choose your builder wisely (not necessarily directed at you Constrastique), it's a pretty straightforward build but there are a lot of things that can go wrong.

Yeah, me too. I'm pretty sure that I'm ok but when it comes to matter of high voltage I'm going to defer to the expert and see what he says.

Had to stop tonight for two reasons: 1. I was beat after working on it till 11:30. 2. I think that I screwed up part of the wiring, that if screwed up will mean that I don't have enough parts to finish the amp. \

Not Safe For Work

She linked to this poll over there.

No interest in what's going on here but Mark, feel free to say whatever you want. We're not much for moderation here.

I haven't heard enough to be able to compare but someday I'll own another beta22, preferably of the balanced variety. Commercial gear just isn't my thing.

Would it be too evil of me to just remove a couple options from the poll?

That's cold man, just cold.