n_maher

Thanks man, I'll look into that tube. The good thingi about 6080's is they're pretty cheap (generally speaking). I like the NOS RCA that I've got in there now. In bad news it would appear that the 6528A that I got is unhappy. I put in the amp last night, powered it up and it makes this occasional pinging sound. It's like of like the sound your car's engine might make while cooling off. I let it go for a little while hoping that it was just the tube warming up but it kept going for 20min. at which point I shut it down for fear of damaging the amp. I'm hopeful that I'll be able to return it otherwise I just flushed ~$65. Grrrr.

Well, my Wheatfield tube sampler arrived today from Radio Electronic Supply so I now have all of Pete's recommended output tubes. Included was a Tung Sol 6528A, TS 7236, RCA 6080, TS 5998 and an RCA 6AS7G, wuhoo!

Sure, just paypal me the shipping, $1000 should cover it.

I've heard stories of reviewers holding gear hostage and can't imagine how frustrating that must be for manufacturers. Don't sell product unless you loan gear out for review, send gear out for review and risk never getting it back. Reason number 643 not to become an electronics manufacturer.

I heard churros help more with vibrations but pretzels have more bass impact.

Nice work Stephen, can't wait to see what it looks like when it's all done!

Do you need a warning sign on the steering wheel of your car to let you know that driving fast can kill you? Jebus, let's cover the world in warning labels.

Speaking of the Apogee, I'm currently building an external regulated power supply for a friend on HF. I'll be interested to hear the results of that experiment to see if it at all tracks with the differences on the SB3's analog outputs. They both use a switching power supply although I have no idea how noisy the Apogee's is. The SB3's is awful.

Yeah, years ago they tried to buy the site from the guy and it did not go well. On topic: I really enjoyed my time with the balanced desktop (home modules) and would have no problem living with it.

I'll try to ask Voodoochile if I can get in touch with him but anyone who's built the kit should have a copy of the schematic (I think) and be able to tell you. The Ear+ HD2 schematic (the newer version) can be found in the user's manual here. Please note that this is information directly from Dr. Peppard's site so I assume that it's safe to share.

First things first, my comment was not meant as a personal insult or anything close. The fact is that, from a technical standpoint, Ray's amps don't seem to be the best bang for your buck. In my opinion there is no questioning his chassis design and attention to detail (assuming of course that you like his designs to begin with) and there is certainly some value to that. And FWIW I kinda like the guy, our relationship is not hindered by either the customer or competitor aspect so I've got no beef with him or his company. What is really unfortunate about the current headphone amp market is that his major tube-amp competition is shooting themselves in the foot (Mikhail) with long lead times unless you wan the current FOTM amp (Extreme). So I don't blame you for going with the B-52, it's probably not the best amp for the money but that's not to say it isn't a nice amp. I listened to it a bit in NYC with balanced HD600s and actually thought it sounded pretty damn good. One more thing, it isn't just RSA that gets criticized around here. Any manufacturer who doesn't live up to expectations is likely to be roasted with equal vigor by most of us. So unlike other sites that paint a pretty rosy picture of the landscape you're more likely to get a little less flower and more reality from this site. Like anything else take all of it with a grain of salt and in the end let your own ears be the judge. [/off soap box]

No disputing that Justin, but in some cases I think manufacturers invest too much in case design and end up unnecessarily inflating the cost of a product. That's just my opinion.

Note to the admin staff, don't ever, ever grant high-roller status to this individual. Poor guy's going to have a enough to live with when he realizes he payed $2000 for casework.

I always wonder with products like this that clearly have a large focus on how they look just how much of the budget was left over to make sure they sound decent.

Soundproofing, in my experience, is pretty much impossible to accomplish after something has already been built. And if you're over amplifying the 650s to combat ambient noise then the solution is closed headphones. It doesn't matter how good something sounds if it ultimately ends up destroying your hearing.

Anyone seriously looking for a source might think about having a go at this.

About once every 6 weeks or so a group of anywhere from 5 to 8 of us gets together for a night of COD2 LAN gaming. It is fun to a degree that is not possible to convey through text. I'm seriously bummed that all the new COD releases have been console only.

COD?

Damn you guys and all your gaming system talk. I was already teetering on the brink of picking up a PS-2 and this thread pushed me over the edge. Found a killer deal on craigslist locally that includes not only the game that wanted (GT4) but this:

The hotglue isn't the problem with the RS-1s, it's the epoxy that they use to put the driver into the solid, one piece wooden housing.

If I remember correctly the biggest problem with the RS-1s is that the driver housing is a single piece unlike other Graods with have a driver housing and then the "cup" portion that are simple fastened together with hot glue. In order to recable an RS-1 you have to separate the driver from the wood which is, as your friend so correctly put, a very delicate operation. The glue they use to affix the driver into the housing is not nearly as forgiving as the hot glue they use on the cups. The only person I've ever heard of that successfully did this was doobooloo and in his case it was only because his RS-1s were so old that the drivers were falling out of the enclosures already.

Someone is going to have to explain to me the logic in purchasing his pair at all considering that you can get them NOS for less (assuming this site is real)...

Well the same guy who has the stock pair listed for $250 (he's dropped the price again) also has a modded pair that are sale pending for $400. Jebus, recabled with starquad and a mini plug doesn't add value to a headphone in my book.

Hammond 370HX. Best price I found online was through Angela Instruments, took about a week and a half to get it which isn't bad in my book. You've got email.

While this used to be true it certainly doesn't seem like it lately. I can't believe that there's currently someone asking $280 for a stock pair on Head-Fi, and that's after a couple price drops.