The Headcase Stax thread

[lunaticbastard]

12 hours ago, Whitigir said:

580V is scary enough.  Has anyone actually got shocked by E-stats yet ?

based on what i heard from electrician, 1 ampere is enough to kill you, although i'm not sure how to translate that in e-stat amplifier. but that's enough to putting me off trying to build something i don't really understand or buying something from unknown incredible sources, especially after watching this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PkAu3CdUM8

Edited March 21, 2018 by lunaticbastard

[The Monkey]

I excited to get new electrostatic headphones from Soviet Union. Than you for your newsletter.

[wink]

 

Я с удовольствием продаю вам некачественные товары для вашей прославленной валюты

[spritzer]

"In Soviet Russia headphones listen to you!" 

[alcofribas]

Achtung!   

Stax just updated their website and the history page in English with all the discontinued products is gone!  I realized that when for no good reason I reloaded that page.  Now it's gone!  It was really extremely useful for those who like to look at classifieds.  If someone here has it right now on their browser print it NOW.  It would be nice to also have all the little pics and users manuals that were linked, but just that particular page was already a treasure trove of useful information.

[sonics]

Thanks to the Wayback Machine the page is stored at https://web.archive.org/web/20171221234807/http://stax.co.jp/Export/History.html

[alcofribas]

Thanks a lot sonics.  Guess my idea of the Wayback Machine was something more like the Waywayback Machine.

[SeaWolf]

https://www.quartet-lab.com/

I think the guy who is doing this was banned from here and is selling KG designs on Chinese sites. 

[Ali-Pacha]

KG Grounded Grid clone, right ? Why is the PSU so massive ?

Ali

[spritzer]

Ahh yes, yet more people taking our work and passing it off as their own.  That is not a clone, it certainly uses our boards. 

This right here is why none of the new amps will be released to the public.  I'm all for DIY but clones of my stuff, with my pictures on Taobao?  Nope, not having any of that shit... 

[JimL]

Has anyone seen the specs? They claim a maximum output of up to 15 watts/channel and a total power consumption of 80 watts. By comparison, the BHSE draws 180 watts, the DIY T2 over 200.

Subtract 40 watts of filament power for four EL34 tubes, and that leaves 40 watts. By comparison, the SRM-T1 draws 45 watts, minus its filament power, it draws 37 watts.

Now, the theoretical maximum efficiency of a class A push-pull amp is 50%, the theoretical maximum efficiency of a class B push-pul amp is 67%. 15 watts per channel times two channels is 30 watts. With a power consumption of 40 watts that works out to 75%. 

 

Ladies and gentlemen, this is not only beyond state of the art. It is beyond state of the possible.

1 hour ago, JimL said:

 

 

Edited April 2, 2018 by JimL

[Laowei]

2 hours ago, spritzer said:

Ahh yes, yet more people taking our work and passing it off as their own.  That is not a clone, it certainly uses our boards. 

This right here is why none of the new amps will be released to the public.  I'm all for DIY but clones of my stuff, with my pictures on Taobao?  Nope, not having any of that shit... 

This continuing ripoff of the generous sharing of past designs has to be disheartening. 

I sincerely hope The Stax Mafia will make future DIY designs and boards available in some form or manner to select DIYers.

[Craig Sawyers]

It is a pity that these plagiarizing assholes can't be sued. Tektronix was in a similar position but was big and ugly enough to sue. The US government did not want to pay Tektronix's prices, so the aided three companies (Hickok, Jetronic and Lavoie) in ripping off the Tek designs and selling them to the US military cheap. That ran from 1959 to 1969, although the case was not settled until 1977 https://www.leagle.com/decision/1977895552f2d3431820 . The government has to pay Tektronix many millions of dollars in direct loss plus interest.

[dsavitsk]

20 minutes ago, Craig Sawyers said:

Tektronix was in a similar position but was big and ugly enough to sue.

That's a patent case.

[SeaWolf]

Based on the name of the site, this is being done by a person who used to go by xianghao here and in what I'm sure will be a great surprise to many. This 'new' amp was first posted by Thinker to head fi.

[justin]

that's a problem

[Laowei]

Just sent them this comment, with the subject Ripoff Scum:

You stole this design from Kevin Gilmore and claim it as your own! 

Cao ni ma, touqie de hundan! 

Edited April 2, 2018 by Laowei

[Whitigir]

I am so sad  these people are what killing off the DIY enthusiasms

[Craig Sawyers]

5 hours ago, dsavitsk said:

That's a patent case.

Yes - indeed it was. But there is implicit copyright in a work of creation, such as an electronic design - the design does not need to be registered to be owned. And that agreement to uphold implicit copyright internationally is called the Berne Convention. One of the signatories to the Berne Convention is China. In fact it is more difficult to find a country who is not a signatory.

So it is entirely possible to pursue the plagiarising assholes though international agreements that have been in place for over a century (China signed up to this is 1992). Initially to send them a Cease and Desist order.

 

Edited April 2, 2018 by Craig Sawyers

[SeaWolf]

Possible yes, but very very large company's have tried it. They failed. Everything is politicised with manufacturing and ip in China and the courts support it. That's why there is no fear and these blatant rip offs are so prevalent.

 

I'd wager that the stax mafia political influence is quite limited in China. Bribes will not hurt. But yea when China was playing well with the West there was little success now that chance has to be pretty much zero.

[Craig Sawyers]

But a Cease and Desist, with reference to the Berne Convention would at least give the bastards pause for thought. And it is not a big company - it is a small outfit that is asking for pre-orders. Nip them in the bud with a legal threat - a couple of hundred dollars to Saul Goodman for a formal letter.

[mypasswordis]

Something tells me they still don't care about any of that stuff

https://www.gizmochina.com/2018/03/06/top-iphone-x-clones-from-china/

 

[Craig Sawyers]

Yes - cloning high ticket, high volume items is big business in China. A guy I know runs a seismic monitoring equipment company - quite a big one - and he was trying to set up a sales office in China. His agent showed him the problems in doing this by taking him to a large nondescript building. In one single room (of many) there were 200 people with racks of gear disassembling program memory, DSP algorithms, FPGA code and so forth in Western products so they could be cloned.

But we're not talking anything remotely on the scale industrial-level cloning activities. This one that has ripped off the Stax amp is likely two or three people in a small facility. And they have not got product ready to ship - they are asking for pre-orders to generate some cash to keep going. Which is why a threat might stand a chance of having an effect.

[DefQon]

Very sad to see IP theft going on here and one which does not even make reference to KG as the original source.

I think its time to make these threads, pictures and content registered user viewable only and only for those that have 100 + posts.

[Laowei]

Deleted.

Edited April 3, 2018 by Laowei