Viva Egoista STX

[rod]

http://vivaaudio.com/en/products/egoista-stx/
Came across this amp, anyone know of it or heard it?

 

[mikeymad]

Nope - but they sure are not short on making claims about their $17,000 amp.

"Egoista STX is capable of realizing the full potential of electrostatic headphones that no existing amplifiers can match.
It is the first electrostatic headphone amplifier that can produce deep realistic bass. Effortless, clear sound, lack of distortion, natural tonal balance and ultra-wide dynamic range make Viva Egoista STX the best product in its class available on the market. Its performance will enchant the most demanding music aficionado and convince the most critical audio connoisseurs."

Don't get me wrong - I like the 300B tube sound, it is why I use a 300B as a headphone and preamp. I would like to hear it. 

[spritzer]

So if it is anything like this:

https://6moons.com/audioreviews/viva/4.html

Yeah... this is utterly terrible.  To make things worse, those are Rifa caps, known for one thing only... failing internally and presenting a dead short.  Plus they are PSU caps, why they are used for coupling is beyond me. 

This does stink of SinglePower... 

Some more pics here: 

https://www.audioshark.org/amplifiers-8/amedeo-viva-visits-suncoast-audio-16591.html

Look at this trash, 17k$ and all you get is an Alps RK27 for a volume control that costs less than 10$... 

[rod]

Those RK27 seem to be turning up in a lot of expensive amps .

I am happy with my BHSE so was just curious.

lmao just had a look at that link you put @spritzer, I wonder where they rested their white stick while building that mess.

 

Edited October 15, 2022 by rod

[ivanouk]

It sounds very very well with the x9000, miles away from the T8000. 

[Kung]

here，I found the schematic of VIVA STX without step up transformer part，disassembled by jr audio aka vertek in this forum. 

 

[spritzer]

This is very sad and a lot of Single Power influence here, cheaper parts used in series and parallel. 

I see the A, B and C markings so is there a PSU schematic as well?

Edit:  Never mind, I found the thread and wow... google translate may not be doing some of those people any favors but there was some class A stupidity going on.  Point to point always sounds better than PCB's!!!  The Viva may be crap but it sounds so good with the X9000!!  Yeah... might be because the X9000 is also crap?  Just an idea... 

Anyway some more pics from that thread:

Just look at this mess, hot glue everywhere (where they should have used lacquer paint) and cheap parts everywhere.  Not sure why that woolen stuff and zip tie is on the selector switch but that is the ultra cheap switches I can buy at the local store for 2$. 

Then we have this gem... why is a part of the shrink wrap on the cap missing and just what on earth is that supposed to be?  A bridge rectifier?  This might actually worse than Single Power but remember kids, a nice PCB with length matched traces sounds far worse than this!! 

Now look at this picture of loveliness, a Rifa X2 (as in power supply suppression cap) ,known all over the world for their tendency to fail short (look up Rifa madness) being used in a "high end" amp.  Not even Single Power stooped this low, he might have "tuned" the circuit by placing an Audio Note silver cap in series with an Orange Drop but they are at least good caps.  This is just pure and utter garbage. 

I just love this picture, look at that mess of wires into a bundle of solder.  Extra price for the burn marks on the cap as zero fucks are given here.  They should seriously have this as a promo picture. 

Last picture and would you look at those XLR inputs... yeah that's one way of dealing with a XLR to RCA conversion... just not hook anything up to pin 3 of the XLR sockets.  I'm sure there is some owner of this piece of trash that claims massive improvements when it is run balanced...  Also, look at the soldering on that, I'm sure those RCA's came with nice ground tabs but nope, fuck it, let's just solder directly to the thread and have it leaking down and almost touching the center pin. 

Lastly, I just love we are getting this from my good friend at JR Audio, one of the few builders of electrostatic equipment who is actually worse than this.  I wonder if he's looking for pointers to becoming even worse? 

 

Edited April 2, 2023 by spritzer

[kevin gilmore]

is that supposed to be a choke load for the 300b?

whats with the extra shunt rc filters?

Edited April 2, 2023 by kevin gilmore

[Kung]

31 minutes ago, kevin gilmore said:

is that supposed to be a choke load for the 300b?

whats with the extra shunt rc filters?

have no idea, since no more detailed schematics were provided，the most likely one is that the plate is connected to the transformer, the center tap of the secondary winding is grounded ，then it can output signal with opposite phases to headphones 

[spritzer]

I only see two wires coming into those C-core lumps, red going to a bunch of resistors on each channel and the green going to the 300B's.  Could be outputs on the other side but how else are they making a balanced output signal.  Schematic points to the - output just being grounded but that can't be right. 

[kevin gilmore]

no output transformers on the other side.

Products (vivaaudio.com)

looks to be a phase splitter output similar to the beveridge speaker. balanced from a single ended input.

what a massive piece of crap this is.

[udurbalanced]

I don't get the fuss. It takes exceptional skill to put a circuit components in a box, throw it off a cliff and then solder everything to make a working amp.  They're succeeding where Mikhail failed, if you ask me.

[spritzer]

This thing is 12k$ so with a total of 500$ in parts... how much is the paint job and how glorious is the very high distortion at the output. 

[Pars]

That is evoking shades of Lampizator or Ric Shultz soldering build qualities...

[Jon L]

Makes ME feel good about my soldering skills at least 😁

Shouldn't this Viva STX stuff be posted to Head-Case Viva STX thread so that other people seeking wisdom can find it in google search?

Edited April 2, 2023 by Jon L

[spritzer]

Good point, can any of the mods copy it over? 

[Emooze]

Jesus Christ, how horrifying.

[purk]

On 4/2/2023 at 4:11 AM, spritzer said:

This is very sad and a lot of Single Power influence here, cheaper parts used in series and parallel. 

I see the A, B and C markings so is there a PSU schematic as well?

Edit:  Never mind, I found the thread and wow... google translate may not be doing some of those people any favors but there was some class A stupidity going on.  Point to point always sounds better than PCB's!!!  The Viva may be crap but it sounds so good with the X9000!!  Yeah... might be because the X9000 is also crap?  Just an idea... 

Anyway some more pics from that thread:

Just look at this mess, hot glue everywhere (where they should have used lacquer paint) and cheap parts everywhere.  Not sure why that woolen stuff and zip tie is on the selector switch but that is the ultra cheap switches I can buy at the local store for 2$. 

Then we have this gem... why is a part of the shrink wrap on the cap missing and just what on earth is that supposed to be?  A bridge rectifier?  This might actually worse than Single Power but remember kids, a nice PCB with length matched traces sounds far worse than this!! 

Now look at this picture of loveliness, a Rifa X2 (as in power supply suppression cap) ,known all over the world for their tendency to fail short (look up Rifa madness) being used in a "high end" amp.  Not even Single Power stooped this low, he might have "tuned" the circuit by placing an Audio Note silver cap in series with an Orange Drop but they are at least good caps.  This is just pure and utter garbage. 

I just love this picture, look at that mess of wires into a bundle of solder.  Extra price for the burn marks on the cap as zero fucks are given here.  They should seriously have this as a promo picture. 

Last picture and would you look at those XLR inputs... yeah that's one way of dealing with a XLR to RCA conversion... just not hook anything up to pin 3 of the XLR sockets.  I'm sure there is some owner of this piece of trash that claims massive improvements when it is run balanced...  Also, look at the soldering on that, I'm sure those RCA's came with nice ground tabs but nope, fuck it, let's just solder directly to the thread and have it leaking down and almost touching the center pin. 

Lastly, I just love we are getting this from my good friend at JR Audio, one of the few builders of electrostatic equipment who is actually worse than this.  I wonder if he's looking for pointers to becoming even worse? 

 

This looks like Mikhail’s work. 

Edited April 20, 2023 by purk

[Eskamobob1]

The output is transformer coupled? Am I understanding that right? Quite unexpected given I think basicaly every other non stax enegizer is hybrid (z10e is the only exception I can think of tbh)

[spritzer]

No, there is no transformer on the output

[udurbalanced]

I heard this yesterday at Canjam with a pair of brand new SR-007s, which the Viva rep made a point to tell me since that would apparently explain any deficiencies in the sound. Didn't spend a lot of time with it because I was waiting for the Grand Cayman with the X9K to be available but it was very okay for a $32k amp. 

[Spork]

I don't know much about electronics - but I know a hot mess when I see one.
Please tell me this is a prototype and not representative of something that was sold to some poor unsuspecting person.

[spritzer]

Nope, that's the production stuff. 

[Kung]

Still haven't heard viva stx, however, stx seems to be marketed as an amplifier that perfectly matches the x9000 in china. 

btw~The actual selling price is about $10000 not $32k, those products are always sold well below their list price. 

[justin]

On 4/2/2023 at 12:11 PM, udurbalanced said:

I don't get the fuss. It takes exceptional skill to put a circuit components in a box, throw it off a cliff and then solder everything to make a working amp.  They're succeeding where Mikhail failed, if you ask me.

Has anyone heard from mikhail or rudistor lately? Possibly a collaborative effort?