The Headcase Stax thread

[astrostar59]

 

Quote

 

   7 hours ago,  JimL said: 

Well, except that for tubes this is a measurable phenomenon.  In Glass Audio, Vol 1, No.2, Charles King has an article on extending tube life, and it has a graph from GE that shows the transconductance of a tube declining gradually by about 20% during the first 1500 hours, then stable over the next 3500 hours.  And from an old post from Kevin Gilmore on biasing replacement tubes in a Stax SRM-T1, "... new tubes\drift like crazy."  That means the parameters in a new tube change as it is run in.  Now whether this is audible or not I can't say, but it certainly is measurable.

 

I wonder if NOS tubes that have already been used (albeit many years ago) have already had their drifting? If there is a measurable change then I guess that must translate into a sonic change? Maybe it depends on the circuit in question as to how much that is apparent. The tubes in the BHSE are the final stage, the previous stages are SS. In a full tubed amp like a SET for example, maybe that would show tube drift / burn in more. Only asking, no idea if this is true.

Edited October 6, 2016 by astrostar59

[swt61]

If they have already been used, then they are not NOS, they are just OS.

[johnwmclean]

6 hours ago, astrostar59 said:

If there is a measurable change then I guess that must translate into a sonic change?

Assumption the mother of all evil.

In saying that, I can clearly hear the sonic character of new tubes change and settle over the first initial 48 hours.

[purk]

19 minutes ago, johnwmclean said:

Assumption the mother of all evil.

In saying that, I can clearly hear the sonic character of new tubes change and settle over the first initial 48 hours.

I  had similar experience as well.

[Dusty Chalk]

9 hours ago, astrostar59 said:

If there is a measurable change then I guess that must translate into a sonic change?

Even if there is a sonic change, doesn't mean it's audible.  And just because one person can hear it, doesn't mean another will.  I'm not saying it's subjective, I'm saying it's a function of how accurate one's measuring instruments are, and that includes one's ears.

And sure, a circuit may or may not make a difference as to how audible that change is.  In one example I was told of, the only thing the one tube does is glow.  It is otherwise not even in the circuit.

Yes, that's somewhat of an extreme example.

[Arthrimus]

Looks like Mr. Speakers has come to their senses and will be using a stax compatible plug on their Ether E headphones after all. I guess they couldn't sell their bullshit logic for a proprietary connector once they were called on it.

[EdipisReks1]

On 10/6/2016 at 8:52 AM, swt61 said:

If they have already been used, then they are not NOS, they are just OS.

This is something that gets ignored so often.  Used tubes aren't NOS.  Played records (or polished watches!) aren't mint.  Worn shoes aren't brand new.

Edited October 11, 2016 by EdipisReks1

[HemiSam]

The Mr. Speakers are loud as hell if you're sitting next to someone listening to them.  I've never heard anything nearly that loud before...might as well have a radio in the room.

Hopefully they've improved their efficiency and the sound signature.  I couldn't believe how high I had to crank my KGSSHV Carbon (450v) to get them to make a good bit of sound.  In a way it was damn impressive how inefficient the beta's I listened to were...

HS

[swt61]

Inefficient isn't always a negative. One of my favorite speakers is the Sonus Faber Extrema. But to get them to sing you need to feed them a shit-ton of power (it's kind of like Colin eating a meal). However it is more unusual for a headphone, with the obvious exception of the K1000.

[DefQon]

Well in this case with the new e-stats from Dan sounds more like fail engineering with the drivers not being designed well, leading out to be inefficient as fuck and judging from whats been posted here, sounds like ass.

[purk]

5 hours ago, swt61 said:

Inefficient isn't always a negative. One of my favorite speakers is the Sonus Faber Extrema. But to get them to sing you need to feed them a shit-ton of power (it's kind of like Colin eating a meal). However it is more unusual for a headphone, with the obvious exception of the K1000.

The one that I heard at Canlanta was super inefficient.  I nearly hit 3 o'cock just to get to a good listening level.  Tom Hankins recently heard it at the RMAF and he thinks the world of the Ether Stats.  Maybe Dan has improved it since then.

Edited October 12, 2016 by purk

[Dusty Chalk]

7 hours ago, swt61 said:

Inefficient isn't always a negative. One of my favorite speakers is the Sonus Faber Extrema. But to get them to sing you need to feed them a shit-ton of power (it's kind of like Colin eating a meal). However it is more unusual for a headphone, with the obvious exception of the K1000.

Not that unusual.  The Fostex orthodynamic headphones come to mind as another example of inefficient yet worth the additional current.

[Sechtdamon]

I'm going a bit off topic but,

Guys have you ever seen this?

A diamond from King Sound:

https://www.moon-audio.com/king-sound-m-03-electrostatic-portable-headphone-amplifier.html

Rudi from head-fi posted a photo of it with sr-009. I laughed hard when i saw the photo...

Is it tragic or funny, or both?

[kevin gilmore]

chip amp and transformers. yuuk

 

[spritzer]

Yeah, power transformers as well.  Pretty dire. 

[wink]

Yeah, but.... 13 hours battery life.....   If you connect a truck battery, you get about a years worth of goodness.  

What's not to like.....    

[spritzer]

This is certainly the most energy efficient way of doing this.  No need to deal with the PSU losses from stepping up to 600V or so. 

[Tachikoma]

2 hours ago, kevin gilmore said:

chip amp and transformers. yuuk

 

Basically a very expensive SRD-X merged with a battery pack, then.

[spritzer]

The SRD-X is probably better as the opamps were ok in them. 

[Sechtdamon]

 

12 hours ago, wink said:

Yeah, but.... 13 hours battery life.....   If you connect a truck battery, you get about a years worth of goodness.  

What's not to like.....    

 

11 hours ago, spritzer said:

This is certainly the most energy efficient way of doing this.  No need to deal with the PSU losses from stepping up to 600V or so. 

I love the smell of sarcasm.

[HemiSam]

The Ether stats must have improved A LOT since I last listened to them to be worth the climb.  The good thing is that you and anyone else in the room gets to enjoy your music...at about the same volume you do.

HS

[Jon L]

Just curious...Whatever/whereever happened to the "fixed" Singlepower ES amp?

ES-X amp by drjlo1, on Flickr

[kevin gilmore]

its in my basement. unused, as other stuff beats the crap out of it.

I suppose I could remove the resistor current sources and replace with cascaded active sources, but really with the power supply it is bigger and heaver than a T2

And the mono volume controls are stupid.

Edited October 22, 2016 by kevin gilmore

[morphsci]

Ah memories .... 

[Jon L]

8 minutes ago, morphsci said:

Ah memories .... 

I think I heard electrostats for the first time through the Singlepower ES-1 back in the day, so it has sentimental value ...

If somebody stuffs in some CCS and puts it up for sale..