The Headcase Stax thread

[GeorgeP]

7 minutes ago, kevin gilmore said:

i thought canada was about to become the 51st state

 

... don't know if we would even be given protectorate status... we'll have to see what Her Majesty the Queen and Prime Minister Poutine can negotiate...

[HemiSam]

51st state...that's going to leave a mark.  Watching our politics these days, run while you can...

The Quixote dip or whatever his handle is over there suggested that the KG amps could be creating the imbalance problem.  And he pointed to a specific builder that's nothing but a gentlemen and kindly builds quality amps for those of us that are less talented on the electrical front.  They removed his posts along with mine pushing back on it being an unfortunate post.  Unfortunately somebody quoted the bonehead.

There was also some drivel about a beautiful build John has for sale.  It hurts reading that thread these days.

HS

[kevin gilmore]

only if you deliberately short out the 5M resistor on the power supply bias board...

[Dave R]

Now I may have asked this before, but if so I can't recall, which is, could 007 drivers be used and work in a 009 ?

[spritzer]

No idea as I haven't opened up a 009 yet. 

[n3rdling]

8 hours ago, DefQon said:

Well its nothing new that astrostar is still spewing shit over on the other fuckfest forum full of cunts before he got a BHSE and after he heard the KGSSHV.

astrotard got a BHSE?  I remember for months he'd post about how his KGSSHV is possibly as good as the BHSE (typical 'great in different ways' cop out) and that the BHSE may not be worth the increase in cost.  Now that he's getting a BHSE, suddenly he wants to tell people their HV won't come close to the BHSE?  How predictable and insecure. 

That thread is a steaming pile of crap and has been since the mods decided to protect the likes of astrotard, eric65, and Musical Alchemist from being shut up.  I don't even know why purk and mulveling bother trying to help people there still.  When the cargo is worthless, you may as well let the ship sink.

[purk]

Not only that he is getting the BHSE, but he is also getting the KGSSHV Carbon as well.  Maybe he has finally come to the conclusion that the BHSE can actually sound a good bit better with NOS tubes and a chance of owning such amp will be no more once it is sold out.  His KGSSHV was pretty highend built though, so it probably was not too far apart sound wise from David's BHSE with stock tubes.  Maybe Geoff (headinclouds) can chime in about his built as well.

I agreed that HF Stax thread is often get out of hand.  Still, I don't mind defending KG's amps from time to time.  My posted got delete by simply saying "the other site".

 

 

[Jon L]

Curiosity got the better of me and I checked out that thread...  I regret doing so. 

[spritzer]

That's how I've felt for a long time.  It's almost two years since my last post on HF and I only go over there to reply to PM's.  It really has turned to shit and one post in the KSE1500 thread summed it up.  One fucktard claimed he was all powerful because he owned the most expensive gear... yup that's HF in a nutshell. 

The true milestone on whether or not HF matters at all IMO is the Carbon.  Given the number of units out there and the other stuff those owners have...there is no discussion at all.  I find that kinda funny, the anti hype... 

[kevin gilmore]

so what will happen when astroboy decides he has to have a BH with the emission labs tubes, or even much more expensive a T2 with emission lab tubes.

There is no reason to defend my amplifiers. For people with a brain, they defend themselves quite well.

 

 

Edited June 8, 2016 by kevin gilmore

[johnwmclean]

Screen Shot 2016-06-09 at 10.00.02 AM

This was posted in the Aussie & NZ Head-Fiers corner.

Although it’s probably what astrostar59 states in pm’s that does most damage.

[purk]

33 minutes ago, johnwmclean said:

Screen Shot 2016-06-09 at 10.00.02 AM

This was posted in the Aussie & NZ Head-Fiers corner.

Although it’s probably what astrostar59 states in pm’s that does most damage.

Oh well, time to replace the transformers on both the T2 & Carbon.  Oh wait...does Justin use the SumR on the BHSE too?  

[spritzer]

Sadly not, he uses the other fucked Canadian transformer factory, Plitron. 

[johnwmclean]

6 minutes ago, spritzer said:

Sadly not, he uses the other fucked Canadian cheap Chinese transformer factory, Plitron. 

FIFY

[luvdunhill]

Heh, the custom stuff is wound in Canada still.

[HemiSam]

1 hour ago, johnwmclean said:

Screen Shot 2016-06-09 at 10.00.02 AM

This was posted in the Aussie & NZ Head-Fiers corner.

Although it’s probably what astrostar59 states in pm’s that does most damage.

 

Douchebaggery of the highest order.  Looks like Quixote and astroglide are made for each other....

 

HS

[nopants]

it's kind of a shame that new people looking at stax get fed so much misinformation, but I guess you could say that about headphones in general these days.

it also seems hard for stax to get any real momentum when their product line isn't being continually updated.

[dripf]

35 minutes ago, nopants said:

it's kind of a shame that new people looking at stax get fed so much misinformation

There's no document that people can refer to. There's a lot of mythbusting needing to be done on memes like Stax needs a few days to fully charge the diaphragm and so on. There's also a lack of information and testing around the amplifiers. I've never been given a straight answer as to why the 007 allegedly needs more current than other models (greater diaphragm area?).

As for HF, well, I once told astrostar at one point that he would be first to swing on the day of the rope and the mod just deleted the death threat and gave me a civility PM. That's the standard they set, deleting every barrier to a headphone sale.

[nopants]

I don't think numerical quantification is necessarily the best approach either, more just weeding out idiocy

[dripf]

Will Yama loan the new series to Tyll for a gander, or will he need to get his hands on someone's personal pair?

[purk]

1 hour ago, nopants said:

it's kind of a shame that new people looking at stax get fed so much misinformation, but I guess you could say that about headphones in general these days.

it also seems hard for stax to get any real momentum when their product line isn't being continually updated.

I think their marketing team is likely to blame here.  Audeze did a darn good job at marketing though.  The Sine is now available in some Apple stores the last I heard.  Hell, they should at least released a decent sounding amp.  Bring back the SRM-717 and they will be competitive with higher end Audeze & Hifiman without having to go the third party route.  

[spritzer]

I agree that quantitative measurements are ineffectual and cause more confusion than not.  People look at almost identical FR graphs and think they should be the same...but they are miles apart.  Draw the same conclusion for amps and you are equally fucked.  Doesn't mean measurements are bad, they are just one part of the equation. 

As for all the inaccurate stuff, well very few people actually know how electrostatics operate down to the core.  Even the people who build them often have no idea, they just cobble something together which kinda works so that's a good'n...  Long charge time for the diaphragm?  No, but sometimes yes.  As for the 007 being so difficult, it's all about the capacitance and how it couples to the acoustic transmission.  I also wouldn't call the 007 difficult to drive in the sense that they require heaps of power like that Hifiman ortho crap.  A much more accurate description would be that they require a supremely stable and linear amplifier, one that isn't fazed by their quirks.  Now this should describe any capable amp but we aren't talking about simple dynamics here so even small issues can have drastic consequences. 

It really doesn't matter what amp Stax make as people will always want more.  I'm kinda glad that Kevin talked me out of designing a baby Carbon as people simply don't want budget amps.  I've been standing on the break the best I could but what they really want is something crazy expensive and unique. 

One last thing, anybody claiming that all Chinese parts are bad are just idiots.  The worst transformers I've ever used were SumR, none have ever shorted to the chassis like they did (two of them) but among the worst were also Chinese.  Now the best transformers I've ever used were also Chinese.  That's only because I'm willing to pay for the best, willing to go through multiple test units and let them know exactly what I wanted.  Now each unit is perfect and just like every other one.  Same goes for PCB's, there are some real dogs out there but once you find a place to work with that actually cares about quality you'll know that it matches anything else in the world. 

[kevin gilmore]

http://www.head-fi.org/t/677809/the-stax-thread-iii/9015#post_12639570

i would say that never again will turn into about a week

edit: looks like 4 hours

 

Edited June 9, 2016 by kevin gilmore

[johnwmclean]

31 minutes ago, spritzer said:

One last thing, anybody claiming that all Chinese parts are bad are just idiots.  The worst transformers I've ever used were SumR, none have ever shorted to the chassis like they did (two of them) but among the worst were also Chinese.  Now the best transformers I've ever used were also Chinese.  That's only because I'm willing to pay for the best, willing to go through multiple test units and let them know exactly what I wanted.  Now each unit is perfect and just like every other one.  Same goes for PCB's, there are some real dogs out there but once you find a place to work with that actually cares about quality you'll know that it matches anything else in the world. 

To be faIr quite some time has passed since you’ve stopped using SUMR, things may have changed.
Richard sent me an email a while ago in acknowledgement of some bad press he’s received both here and diyaudio and he’s endeavouring to improve qc. The recent batches I’ve received are bang on spec and run dead quite, I know Kerry’s using them in his beautiful new T2 it would be interesting to get his input as well. But from my perspective there is a definite improvement.

[Dave R]

Yes it was my BHSE that was used along with both astrostar59's KGSSHV's, and to what I recall his KGSSHV's did give the 009's a stronger bass, but that doesn't mean it was a better bass. I suppose if your a bass-head then you'd probably prefer that from the KGSSHV, but for those that prefers a more realistic bass then I found the BHSE gave/gives that,  only the 009 was used.

The other thing I found between both KGSSHV's and BHSE, was the KGSSHV's gave the 009's a kind of closed sound, something similar to the LCD-XC I once had, whereas with BHSE is a more open airy sound.

At the time though I was using either the stock mullards or SED's, and since using the NOS Mullard xf 4's the SQ from the BHSE has gone to another level.

That listening session was done sometime ago, so what I've mentioned is only from memory, but after hearing those KGSSHV's it's not an amp I would get, I do however still plan on getting a KGSSHV Carbon when I've the spare money.

P.S. Sorry there were two listening sessions, with only one of those KGSSHV's used at the time of each session.

 

 

 

Edited June 9, 2016 by Dave R