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Posted (edited)

:kitty:

 

You've got to be shitting me? That's a production unit!?

 

The page says it was sent as an evaluation unit, but going from other pictures I'm fairly certain it's a production unit. What's amazing is that most user reviews I've seen take it as a good thing, since it's "point-to-point wiring".  :laugh:

 

Honestly, I'm somewhat amazed that the transformer didn't go bouncing around the case during shipping. That doesn't look like a secure mount for a transformer of that (or any) size.

Edited by Nebby
Posted

If supra_buyer wasn't so active on ebay I'd thought Mikhail had turned his attention to DAC's....  :)

 

The APL is a first class build compared to that crap.   Copious amounts of hot glue and things on tab boards but at least the transformers were mounted properly. 

Posted

Mikhail did star grounds like that!

 

Mikhail did a lot of stuff like that.

 

If supra_buyer wasn't so active on ebay I'd thought Mikhail had turned his attention to DAC's....  :)

 

This can't be Mikhail as there are no wall warts.

Posted

From that same audigon listing above, can't say I've ever seen the tubes sticking out the bottom thing before.

 

R0015680a.jpg

Posted

From that same audigon listing above, can't say I've ever seen the tubes sticking out the bottom thing before.

 

 

The circuit is horrible, the build is horrible, the layout is horrible, etc. But if there is proper ventilation, the upside down tubes does not bother me so much. Guitar amps do this and it has been working fine for 100 years.

Posted (edited)

So let me see if I get this straight: a guy runs a very small audio business centered on headphones and owns an Aventador (couldn't be a Gallardo, could it), a GTR and will buy an F12?

 

Looks like I'm in the wrong country, it seems. Or business, for that matter.

 

Joking aside though, this is just ludicrous. When Birgir spoke about the Lambo I thought the guy probably had a 2nd hand Gallardo or something.  Does he sell more than 50 amps a month? His profit margins must be insane.

 

one could do the math, its not that hard.  say a portable amp is new/"hot" and sells 500 units in the first year (for the entire world!), costs $100 to build and sells for $500.  that is $200,000 profit on just 1 model.  usually, this is where people could come in and say "The R&D cost!" generally these amps are the same basic circuit re-hashed in a new size or input/output feature set.  tooling/prototyping costs may run 5k.  

Edited by justin
Posted

Not to mention the fact that when you buy shit like a Lambo, you are obviously compensating for something. Should we speculate on what that might be?

 

Did I mention I'm in the market for a scooter? :P

  • Like 1
Posted

one could do the math, its not that hard.  say a portable amp is new/"hot" and sells 500 units in the first year (for the entire world!), costs $100 to build and sells for $500.  that is $200,000 profit on just 1 model.  usually, this is where people could come in and say "The R&D cost!" generally these amps are the same basic circuit re-hashed in a new size or input/output feature set.  tooling/prototyping costs may run 5k.  

 

Makes sense ::)

Posted (edited)

Second, we draw our conclusions from full schematic of the amps not a quick glance at a picture. 

 

Is it too much to ask for a schematic of the Lau amp?  The only SS thing that Alex has done, that I'm aware of, is the CK2III, and that was a modification of the Kumisa III amp from Benny.  Is it similar?  I have an idea of what the Liquid Glass may look like, but I'm interested in seeing the buffer arrangement.  Long tailed pair front end with CCS on the tail and a current mirror on the plate, feeding into a buffer, is probably the overall architecture.

 

The markups are insane on those things but he does sell a lot of amps.

 

I didn't realize the market was that large, or had grown that large.  I'd always figured headphone amps were a niche market, but Ray's cars seem to disprove that.  If Ray is only a portion of the market, things must be well for everyone else involved.

 

 

Why do you consider negative feedback a bad thing? Provided it's correctly implemented, of course. I know that Douglas Self, for example, considers feedback (both local and global) to be essential to attain high performance.

 

Nelson Pass is a very good read, if you've got the time, his articles throughout the past are very informative.  https://passlabs.com/articles/audio-distortion-and-feedback

Edited by holland
Posted

I didn't realize the market was that large, or had grown that large.  I'd always figured headphone amps were a niche market, but Ray's cars seem to disprove that.  If Ray is only a portion of the market, things must be well for everyone else involved.

 

The raw size of head-fi is proof that the market has grown by leaps and bounds. :)

Posted (edited)

it is a niche market.  there are also too many headphone amp companies now, because it costs little to start making them and doesn't require too much skill.  it would be very hard to exceed $250k/year revenue per model for a >$500 headphone amp product.  i think STAX revenue is only a few million $ per year?  considering Beats has a 70% marketshare of the >$100 headphones, giving STAX a tiny fraction of a percent is about right

 

this is all fine for a 1 man show to make a bunch of money, but dont expect to see headphone amp companies with corporate HQs with a receptionist and a marketing team and an engineering team anytime soon.  though i would bet on Schiit being the first, their $99/each stack has gone well beyond Head-Fi by now

Edited by justin
Posted

Is it too much to ask for a schematic of the Lau amp?  The only SS thing that Alex has done, that I'm aware of, is the CK2III, and that was a modification of the Kumisa III amp from Benny.  Is it similar?  I have an idea of what the Liquid Glass may look like, but I'm interested in seeing the buffer arrangement.  Long tailed pair front end with CCS on the tail and a current mirror on the plate, feeding into a buffer, is probably the overall architecture.

 

Well he did do the Liquid Lightning. More correctly he ripped off the stax srm323 and used mosfets for the output stage.

But alex will say that all circuits look the same after a while.

 

I doubt the Liquid Glass is that complicated. Alex calls it a mu gain stage. completely open loop. capacitor coupled

to a mosfet output buffer. a single tube with a pair of triodes per channel. no matter how hard you try to match the two tubes

you get channel gain differences.

 

I'm sure the liquid gold schematics will show up eventually. People will be in shock and awe of its greatness.

  • Like 1
Posted

(...)

 

Looks like I'm in the wrong country, it seems. Or business, for that matter.

 

(...)

 

Well, in Brazil a Lamborghini Aventador was worth R$2.800.000 in 2011 (Lamborghini Aventador chega ao Brasil por R$ 2,8 milhões), more and less USD1.550.000 at that time. Most of that price are indirect taxes. You are not going to make such money with a small business because government is your main partner.

 

On the other hand, if your parents found a legal - or illegal - way to make a fortune in Rio de Janeiro, do not worry, you are going to inherit 96%.

 

It is not the same in UK (HM Revenue & Customs) or USA (26 USC § 2001 - Imposition and rate of tax).

 

One should ask the effects of such percentages in donations to charity, health, universities or foundations (Charitable Giving at Death Reported on Estate Tax Returns).

 

Donations to education allow critical mass to debunk bad business (True to your school: US college donations rise dramatically in 2011). 

 

So maybe you are in the wrong country.

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