Blue Hawaii Special Edition

[shellylh]

Lordy. If I messed mine up, they're going to stay messed up. I have no idea what you're talking about.

So, I've now spent some good time with this amp, and with both the APL Phillips I got from tkam and the Exemplar Denon. Right now I'm preferring the Phillips with the O2s, with the Exemplar having a ever so slightly softer tone, which makes the headphones seem a bit too polite for much of what I'm listening to right now. I'm pretty excited with what I'm hearing, and I get totally immersed in just listening. The only problem I'm now having is with the O2s. I might have to replace the headband. It really is too loose for my head, and I'm holding the cups to my ears to get the best sound, and that's no fun. I'd mangled the headband into a shape that kinda fit before, but after taking them to CanJam, the big noggin people stretched it out again.

The only time I have appreciated big noggin people is when I loaned my HD650's out. Now they fit me perfectly. They should start selling headphones in different sizes or at least female versions... I am only half kidding.... and no not pink.

[Elephas]

The O2 driver housings are fixed so it is potentially less likely to fit people with "non-average" head sizes and shapes. The location of your ears also matters; for example, my left ear is further back than the right, it is a bit closer to the back of my head. So I guess I'm a non-symmetrical ugly. Supposedly, human standards for physical beauty are for a large part based on symmetry.

The earpads can compress some, but I think that means the clamping force is too tight. I like having enough clamping force such that I can lift the headband off my head and everything still stays put. But not too much clamping force that it's uncomfortable or such that any part of the earpads are compressed. Also, I think that the pressure should be evenly spread over the entire surface area of the earpads that come into contact with your skin. If there's more pressure at the bottom, for example, it probably means that the driver housings aren't fitting over your ears in a parallel way, or maybe the bottom part of the driver is closer to your ear than the top part.

Smaller heads might experience this. The solution is to the bend the headbands to a more oval shape, so that the driver housings (and drivers) are parallel to each other at your head width.

There's also the bend close to where the headbands attach to the housings. You can experiment a bit adjusting the angle of the bend, just a little bit a time.

The earpads are asymmetrical and are thicker along the long straight of the D-shape and thinner at the outermost curve. Although the earpads spin around 360 degrees, I think it's best to keep the thick part behind the ears, where the shape of the head curves away.

[recstar24]

Supposedly, human standards for physical beauty are for a large part based on symmetry.

Some friends of my wife and I were just talking about that this weekend when visiting. He used to work as a professionl photographer and did some work fro Vogue in New York. He said the exact same thing, and even said that with digital photo editing, they just take one half of a model's face, and flip it over exactly, so that the face appears perfectly symetrical, and conveys "beauty". Sorry for the OT.

[Elephas]

The BHSE would look more symmetrical if the power supply box was the same size as the amp section.

Anyway, the SR-Omega with the Philips EL34 xf4 DD-getter brown base is now officially the first "Class A Super Cool Baby Elephant Recommended" headphone and tube type combination.

Rest assured that the proper tube biasing procedure has been meticulously performed, and all impediments have been overcome, whether poor coordination, poor eyesight, clumsiness, heat-sensitive digits and outer limbs, a sore back due to excessive bending over the amp, or the poor interface between the low quality plastic pot trimmer tool and the infinitesimal bias adjustment screws.

You may prefer other headphones, OK fine. You may not even like electrostatics, and prefer modded Denons or Ultrasone (yuck, can't argue with bad taste). You might primarily be a dinky JH13 IEM user. But I'm fairly confident that even you will concede the superior qualities of the SR-Omega + BHSE and EL34 DD-getter combination.

[Fing]

I'm scared that one day I might want to buy a pair of Sr-Omegas.

You're not helping!!

[spritzer]

SR-Omega FTW!!!

[Elephas]

I'm scared that one day I might want to buy a pair of Sr-Omegas.

You're not helping!!

It's not just the headphone, you *need* the amp too.

Hehe, I own an R10 too. Actually I had two, as I believe you do, and I sold off the one with less bass. I thought it had a superb midrange but the lack of body and bass impact was not good. I also have a few other dynamics, which I use with a Zana Deux. To give you a sense of how good the BHSE is, I no longer feel like listening to any of the dynamics + Zana Deux. I still thought I did with the Aristaeus or ES-1.

The ZD isn't the best dynamic amp, sure, but it probably shouldn't be too embarrassed in a battle with most other single-ended amps.

If you have the budget for an R10, you should be able to do an SR-Omega easily. The SR-007, either Mk1 or Mk2, are more easily doable and should be a given. They are pretty good values at used prices. So is the SR-Omega actually, compared to R10, L3000, PS-1, HP-1, K1000, Qualia, etc. market prices.

Oh, yeah, even when I was using unbiased (heh) Mullard EL34 xf2 00-getter tubes, I already thought they were great with the O2mk1. So the O2mk1 and the xf2 00-getter is the second official "Class A Super Cool Baby Elephant Recommended" headphone and tube type combination.

[Fing]

My concern is less about the cash and more about their reliability.

I have just bought an O2 which I never thought I'd do and I'll be comparing them with the HE90 on the Aristaeus.

BHSE might be on the cards in the future - or a DIY Stax T2 ;p

I'm glad you like your new setup though. I can only imagine how awesome it must sound )

Comparisons to ES-1 + HE90/Sr-Omega/O2 would be most appreciated!

[Elephas]

I have just bought an O2 which I never thought I'd do and I'll be comparing them with the HE90 on the Aristaeus.

Comparisons to ES-1 + HE90/Sr-Omega/O2 would be most appreciated!

Ah, I didn't know you have an Aristaeus. I don't think it's a good match with the O2mk1 or O2mk2. Sylvania 5751 in place of the ECC83 may help, I think they're crisper-sounding than the ECC83 I've tried.

Mullard or TF ECC83 are great with the HE90, but I think their smoothness is too much of a good thing with the O2's. Can there be such a thing as too much smoothness? Well, no, but if it also comes with lack of dynamics, dark sound, lack of treble extension, lack of air, congestion, then it's not a good thing.

Sure, the O2+Aristaeus might not be as horrible as I'm saying. I had a KGSS before I got the Aristaeus, and later I sold the KGSS. So if the O2+KGSS combo is supposed to be OK, then the O2+Aristaeus shouldn't be such a bad one. But after I got an ES1, I liked the O2's more and no longer used them with the Aristaeus.

Now, with the BHSE, the O2's seem to be even better and I'm not sure how the ES1 is going to fare in a comparison. The ES1 has been sitting in a closet since I got the BHSE. I have to find room in order to compare them directly, these amps are big and generate a lot of heat! What ever happened to sensibly-sized amps like a Lehmann Black Cube Linear that you can put anywhere?!

[Fing]

Funnily enough, I've been tuning my Aristaeus to a more 'neutral' or revealing sound with the HE90 - at least to my ears. Euphony is fun - but I can't really enjoy it for long, especially when I stick some classical on. It all seems to start falling apart at that point.

ECC83 Mullards / Siemens were nice with the HE90 (JJ Tesla Frame Grids were better and the NOS Tesla E83CC even better), but I prefered some gold brand Sylvania 5751 as being very revealing but not too dynamic. Raytheon 5751 with windmill getters were way too laid back - good perhaps with 'bright' sources but not a good match with my Wavelength Crimson.

I suspect I'll prefer the black plate triple mica Sylvania 5751 with the O2's - they were too much for the HE90 but may be enough to inject some life into the O2s )

[Asr]

Big thanks to spritzer for the info on checking & adjusting bias of the tubes. I finally had a chance today to check the bias and all is well now. (I picked up a multimeter a while ago, but then I also had to find a really small flat-head screwdriver to adjust the trim pots.) As it turns out, the R+ to R- had the most extreme offset at +0.8V. And now that I have the tubes biased, I'll make sure to always re-position them correctly in the future.

My setup is still at work, where I've been listening almost every day. Still sounds really damn good, but I'm starting to gravitate back towards my dynamic headphones. My Qualia/HP2/AD2000 trio fills more of my sonic preferences than the OII and SR-X MKIII. (I also find the dynamic headphones to have a certain kind of assertiveness that the OII and SR-X lack, for whatever reason.) There is one thing that the OII/BHSE does exceptionally well though, which is delivering the music and every detail in a completely unforced way and allows you to hear every "texture" and tonal shading that might exist on the recording. String, brass, & woodwind instruments really benefit from this in particular, they sound completely authentic - and the OII is amazing for classical music (or film soundtracks as the case might be) for this reason. The orchestra is full without sounding blurry or congested, and any time the percussion comes in (drums or cymbals), the timing is always spot-on.

The OII really is as amazing as I've read it to be, but amped by even the BHSE, it's not my ideal headphone, and if I kept my electrostatic setup (I'm 50/50 on it at the moment) it'd be a secondary headphone at best. I'm contemplating a 4070 but at the same time I'm also considering reverting to a dynamic setup since I already have headphones that I really like there (and I can't imagine ever parting with the AD2K)....

[justin]

+.8V is nothing...not even worth adjusting.

[Asr]

Btw, I read in the BHSE thread at Head-Fi of some confusion with the options that were available for it. These are all the options Justin offered:

- Headphone jack configuration: 1 Stax Pro/1 HE90, 2 Stax Pro, 1 Stax Pro/1 Normal

- Color of: front panel, tube base rings, volume knob, & cone feet (black, silver, or blue/gray)

- DACT 24-stepped pot or Alps RK50 (+$1K)

It'd be interesting to see pics of every customer's BHSE, given this level of customization that Justin allowed.

[spritzer]

There was one more custom factor, genuine Stax sockets but the buyer had to supply them.

[swt61]

Don't forget the fondant coating option for Spritzer.

[Elephas]

genuine Stax sockets

I hate you.

I received some Herbie's Audio Lab tube dampers today. I got a set of four Ultrasonic Rx in size 35, a set of four Ultrasonic in size 40 and a set of four metal rings only in size 30. I think these should cover most EL34 and 6CA7 sizes.

Someone sent me a PM asking about them early last month, before I received the BHSE. I replied:

"I have four Herbie's Audio Lab rings in the 12AX7 size. They do work to reduce microphonics. Supposedly, all tubes are microphonic and in some cases you can hear the effects through the headphones or speakers. I've experienced this with very few preamp tube types (2C51, 12AU7, 12AX7). It's an annoying low-level hum in the background. Putting the Herbie's tube rings over the tubes reduced the microphonics in almost all the (very few) cases.

The results can depend on the amp and the tubes being used. I think that if good, non-microphonic tubes are used, the rings can be dispensed with. I also use larger tubes and haven't bothered to buy tube rings in those sizes.

Other than reducing microphonics, I haven't found the rings to really improve the sound quality significantly. But overall, I think it is worthwhile to buy some and try them."

Well, after getting the BHSE, I thought I had to try them for myself. I've never used any dampers on the Aristaeus (the 12AX7 are mostly blocked anyway), the Zana Deux or the ES1 (except for the first position pair of 2C51). I didn't have any larger sizes so I never tried any with EL34 tubes. Until now.

Anyway, I think they're worth trying on the BHSE. I believe there's a small improvement in the sound, particularly in the bass which seems more solid, clearer and better defined; currently listening to SR-Omega with EL34 DD-getter and Ultrasonic Rx.

[spritzer]

I hate you.

I know Marc's teflon sockets are a lot nicer then all the others...

[Elephas]

WANT genuine Stax socket!

OK, it's all right, I guess it's too late. I can suffer and make do with the inferior stock socket. I'll just have to make up for it elsewhere.

Hmm, there's this umbilical cable thingy thing?

Stefan AudioArt Home

I hate their artsy-fartsy photos, though. I refuse to buy anything from them until they show real photos.

[aardvark baguette]

I hate their artsy-fartsy photos, though. I refuse to buy anything from them until they show real photos.

I hate their entire website.

[Elephas]

I don't like the marketing fluff, but it seems that's the way many companies choose to market their products. I can ignore it, as long as the product seems good. But those blurry photos annoy me. I wonder if SAA has actually tried their umbilical on a BHSE, I think it's doubtful.

--

I'm not afraid of K1000 mega-systems anymore. Or super balanced HD650 systems, balanced R10 systems, etc. The only one I might still be apprehensive about is a balanced HD800. They are still a bit scary. Oh, and anything backed by an R-to-R source is definitely scary.

Currently playing: atb - Don't Stop (X Cabs Remix) with SR-Omega

I don't think the old Stax engineers ever intended the venerable SR-Omega to play trance music like this. But they should have, and also recommended their presumably mostly middle-aged clientele to try it. I feel 15 years younger. Actually younger than when the CD was released. Can anything else do this?

[Hopstretch]

Hmm, there's this umbilical cable thingy thing?

Stefan AudioArt Home

Oh lord.

[swt61]

Can anything else do this?

Younger women?

I know Marc's teflon sockets are a lot nicer then all the others...

He hired good labor.

Edited September 5, 2009 by swt61

[justin]

I don't like the marketing fluff, but it seems that's the way many companies choose to market their products. I can ignore it, as long as the product seems good. But those blurry photos annoy me. I wonder if SAA has actually tried their umbilical on a BHSE, I think it's doubtful.

--

I'm not afraid of K1000 mega-systems anymore. Or super balanced HD650 systems, balanced R10 systems, etc. The only one I might still be apprehensive about is a balanced HD800. They are still a bit scary. Oh, and anything backed by an R-to-R source is definitely scary.

Currently playing: atb - Don't Stop (X Cabs Remix) with SR-Omega

I don't think the old Stax engineers ever intended the venerable SR-Omega to play trance music like this. But they should have, and also recommended their presumably mostly middle-aged clientele to try it. I feel 15 years younger. Actually younger than when the CD was released. Can anything else do this?

wtf...Justin Wilson Blue Hawaii SE?

[Duggeh]

Is he even allowed to use your name without permission?

[Fungi]

Or Craig's, for that matter. wtf is his problem?