Liquid Lightning

[anetode]

Yep. My point was, he didn't start out as a paranoid, batshit crazy dictator. There was once a time in San Francisco when he was considered a thought leader. He did lots of charity work, and was a man of the people.

He started out as a charismatic batshit crazy dictator and slowly descended into paranoia. I judge "thought leaders" on their ability to cultivate and maintain their cults of personality: many people followed Rev. Jones straight to the grave, Dr. Cavalli doesn't seem to be having good luck even getting people to buy into a new design for audio equipment.

[swt61]

He started out as a charismatic batshit crazy dictator and slowly descended into paranoia.

We'll just have to differ on that point. However in no way am I defending that man.

I think he had a mental illness early on, but it wasn't until he had the opportunity to have full control over his followers that the spiral downward into hell really got going. There was a time when he was able to keep himself in check, and appear normal to most. Just the same as Jeffrey Dahmer would not have been able to lure so many men to his apartment had he not had the ability to blend and appear normal.

[Knuckledragger]

Sociopaths are very good at appearing normal.

...Sup, Mikhail?

[spritzer]

But, it's reliability and not sound that would be my main concern about being an early adopter of the LL, as I thought the the LL sounded very good. But so did the WES Mk2 and BHSE.

I'd be nervous about this too even if one looks past the rumors of a serious design error in the LF amps. The BHSE will last for as long as the capacitors hold up (15-20 years) and will be good as new once they are replaced.

I'm going to dig out those Winged-C EL34 I bought from Deepak (at least I think I bought a quad from him) and try those in place of the Shugang 50 year treasure 6CA7. I'm also seriously contemplating the partial upgrade to WES Mk2 that Jack offered to me at a relatively low price. Something about improved inductors that give it better extension and transparency. Regardless, my WES was better than my old GES in direct comparisons, and I'd be happy to keep it now that I have the 009.

I wouldn't bother with the upgrade. People are not happy with the new WES amps and this is indeed one of the reasons.

[Yikes]

YES! Let's have a costs vs prices on consumer electronics discussion for the 9004th time.

Isn't it: 9005 time is the Charm

[Yikes]

I believe I've heard the term "Thought Leader" concerning Newt Gingrich, be very afraid

http://www.facebook.com/notes/dagblog/newt-gingrich-thought-leader-for-hire/10150467857361203

[morphsci]

I believe I've heard the term "Thought Leader" concerning Newt Gingrich, be very afraid

http://www.facebook.com/notes/dagblog/newt-gingrich-thought-leader-for-hire/10150467857361203

Oh, so "thought leader" is a synonym for douchebag.

[n_maher]

This is about all I can think of now.

[justin]

Nothing wrong with liking either the Exstata or the EHHA but those designs are both highly compromised and I'd never consider them high end with those specs. The Exstata was in fact a failure IMO since it wasn't cheap, wasn't easy to build, it didn't outperform similarly priced Stax offerings and it wasn't readily available. These were all core values this "Volksamp" was supposed to fulfill but didn't. I do blame myself for some of this since I got fed up with Cavalli's "secret clan" methods and hiding away in hidden forums so I washed my hands of the whole affair. To some this may seem strange coming from "the Don of the Stax Mafia" but the Mafia is all about free flow of information. Not all of it is out in the open but then again not all of the members are forum members.

Indeed... Justin.Get.Some.SED's!!!

if they are these tubes, then I did have a set and I used them to demo at an LA meet a couple years ago. One of the tubes went bad with ~10 hours on it and I have stuck with the "Mullard" re-issue tubes and I have never seen a failure. it could just be bad luck. I also don't like the idea of spending that extra $$ on what most people will consider a set of throwaway tubes.

Edited December 11, 2011 by justin

[spritzer]

Should have been those but there were some issues a while back when they split into SED and Svetlana. The Mullards are better than the Valve Art stuff I got with the old BH though and the "Made in USSR" stuff in the SRM-T2.

[Voltron]

I was talking about using some better tubes for demo purposes, not what you ship with the amp.

[luvdunhill]

Should have been those but there were some issues a while back when they split into SED and Svetlana. The Mullards are better than the Valve Art stuff I got with the old BH though and the "Made in USSR" stuff in the SRM-T2.

The new Svetlana stuff is trash. Get the early 90s tubes.

[HeadphoneAddict]

I wouldn't bother with the upgrade. People are not happy with the new WES amps and this is indeed one of the reasons.

Can you elaborate? I haven't read anything negative recently about the newer WES (but I haven't been following recent threads as much either).

[spritzer]

Can you elaborate? I haven't read anything negative recently about the newer WES (but I haven't been following recent threads as much either).

You won't find much about it out in the open but basically people are very unhappy with the sound and Jack offers no solutions. It's clear they just don't get why the amp sounds the way it does and why the GES is a much superior product to these ears.

As soon as I get the parts I need and have the psu PCB's made then I'll build my take on the WES and post full schematics. It will never be as good as a properly built ESX though....

[dBel84]

Edited December 13, 2011 by dBel84

[HeadphoneAddict]

You won't find much about it out in the open but basically people are very unhappy with the sound and Jack offers no solutions. It's clear they just don't get why the amp sounds the way it does and why the GES is a much superior product to these ears.

As soon as I get the parts I need and have the psu PCB's made then I'll build my take on the WES and post full schematics. It will never be as good as a properly built ESX though....

Interesting.

I Found my SED winged-C EL-34 so I'll install those tonight for a listen. My WES is not terrible as is, but wonder if there's something about this being unit #1 with RCA loop out onstead of SE input with phase splitters that makes it a little better. I bought the unit Steve Guttenberg reviewed, and he thought it was the best he ever heard with O2 mk2.

[monsieurguzel]

Interesting.

I Found my SED winged-C EL-34 so I'll install those tonight for a listen. My WES is not terrible as is, but wonder if there's something about this being unit #1 with RCA loop out onstead of SE input with phase splitters that makes it a little better. I bought the unit Steve Guttenberg reviewed, and he thought it was the best he ever heard with O2 mk2.

Except that the guy is kind of a joke when it comes to reviewing anything headphone related...

[DaveBSC]

Interesting.

I Found my SED winged-C EL-34 so I'll install those tonight for a listen. My WES is not terrible as is, but wonder if there's something about this being unit #1 with RCA loop out onstead of SE input with phase splitters that makes it a little better. I bought the unit Steve Guttenberg reviewed, and he thought it was the best he ever heard with O2 mk2.

Steve Guttenberg thought the Hifiman HE-5 was one of the best headphones he's ever heard. What's that tell you.

[deepak]

Point taken. I find my SS eXStatA is only a little better than the HEV70 with my Pro bias phones, while my Hybrid was a bit better, but neither one is as good as the WES or KHSS. I pretty much only use it with my SR-Lambda and SR-5NB now, which sound very nice out of it but I could have had a used Stax amp for a lot less.

Aside from that, my hybrid amp had died once in March 2010, then had all the boards replaced with ones Bill stuffed, then the PSU died over the summer, so I had NoNoNoNoNoNo build another PSU and then the right channel died again. I recently bought a new set of stuffed hybrid amp boards (and entire PCB/BOM for a SS amp) but I'm afraid to install the new boards until I have done the PSU setup procedure on the PSU that NoNoNoNoNoNo built, to be sure it doesn't kill the amp again. Not very good luck with that one at all, although the SS amp has been running fine for over a year.

But, it's reliability and not sound that would be my main concern about being an early adopter of the LL, as I thought the the LL sounded very good. But so did the WES Mk2 and BHSE.

I'm going to dig out those Winged-C EL34 I bought from Deepak (at least I think I bought a quad from him) and try those in place of the Shugang 50 year treasure 6CA7. I'm also seriously contemplating the partial upgrade to WES Mk2 that Jack offered to me at a relatively low price. Something about improved inductors that give it better extension and transparency. Regardless, my WES was better than my old GES in direct comparisons, and I'd be happy to keep it now that I have the 009.

Nope I've never owned any form of Winged anything

Just a few other cheap EL34s and XF2

[grawk]

Steve Guttenberg thought the Hifiman HE-5 was one of the best headphones he's ever heard. What's that tell you.

That Steve Guttenberg likes them

[anetode]

Steve Guttenberg thought the Hifiman HE-5 was one of the best headphones he's ever heard. What's that tell you.

Guttenberg, and his ilk, strike me as these developmentally challenged children who get excited by every next shiny thing they find. So having an amp with "Lightning" in the name sounds like a good idea compared to naming one after a girl drink.

[Voltron]

Steve Guttenberg thought the Hifiman HE-5 was one of the best headphones he's ever heard. What's that tell you.

Guttenberg, and his ilk, strike me as these developmentally challenged children who get excited by every next shiny thing they find. So having an amp with "Lightning" in the name sounds like a good idea compared to naming one after a girl drink.

Who the hell are you two to judge Steve Guttenberg? In fact, who the fuck are you in general? Guttenberg has been a supporter of headphone audio and is currently doing great stuff for Tyll's Innerfidelity site. So why don't you shut the fuck up.

Edited December 13, 2011 by Voltron

[livewire]

Liquid Lightning sounds like a bad case of diarrhea.

I'll take the girl drink any day.

[anetode]

Who the hell are you two to judge Steve Guttenberg? In fact, who the fuck are you in general? Guttenberg has been a supporter of headphone audio and is currently doing great stuff for Tyll's Innerfidelity site. So why don't you shut the fuck up.

I'm just an asshole with an opinion, I have no pretensions about that. But I have no qualms about reviewing reviewers whose writing bugs me. I have no problem with him as a person and I do think it's great that established writers are supporting Innerfidelity.

[DaveBSC]

Who the hell are you two to judge Steve Guttenberg? In fact, who the fuck are you in general? Guttenberg has been a supporter of headphone audio and is currently doing great stuff for Tyll's Innerfidelity site. So why don't you shut the fuck up.

When you say "Steve Guttenberg thought the WES/O2MK2 combo was the best he's ever heard them" you have to remember who you're talking about. SG thought the deeply flawed HE-5 was the greatest thing since sliced bread. SG's support of headphone audio is great, and I often enjoy his Cnet articles. He's not God though, and his word is not law. If he says the WES is the greatest amp ever made, that does not make it so.