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Today
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What are you listening to Part the Third
Was: Wes Montgomery, Tequila (because what else would I start with?) Is: Wes Montgomery, Movin' Will be: Wes Montgomery, Bumpin' (I couldn't find those compendiums on Tidal, so just going to listen to a whole bunch of Wes Montgomery instead.)
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uncola started following The Executive headphone amp/preamp
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Stax SRM-3: Guidance on DC Offset Trimpot Placement
Hi everyone, I’m currently restoring and tuning my Stax SRM-3 electrostatic amplifier and could use some advice regarding DC offset adjustment. So far, I’ve built a capacitance multiplier for the high-voltage power supply rails, and the result has been fantastic — the background is now dead quiet! With the noise floor taken care of, my main focus now is getting the DC offsets properly dialed in. Currently, I am measuring the following DC offsets: - Differential Offset (Stator to Stator): ~6.3V on the Left channel, ~11.2V on the Right channel. - Common-Mode Offset (Stator to Ground): Quite high on both channels relative to ground. I have redrawn the complete amplifier circuit in LTspice (attached below). Please note that I haven't populated the specific resistor values on this schematic draft yet, but the component topology and transistor layout strictly mirror the circuit. I would really appreciate some guidance on where best to insert adjustment potentiometers/trimpots into this topology to allow precise nulling of: 1. Differential offset (balancing L+/L- and R+/R-). 2. Common-mode offset (nulling relative to signal ground). (As a side note: my ultimate plan for this unit is to eliminate the volume potentiometer entirely and feed the amplifier directly via a balanced input. I already have a clear plan for that front-end modification, so right now I’m strictly focusing on getting the core offset adjustment sorted out on this topology). Thanks in advance for any insights or schematic markups!
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terminus joined the community
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What TV show are you watching now?
Anyway, this show really turned out to be special. Here’s a little making of video if you’re interested.
Yesterday
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What are you listening to Part the Third
R.I.P. Pete Byrne Naked Eyes by Naked Eyes (1983) https://open.qobuz.com/album/m4rz8tz0qib5b Example: I didn't follow them past their 83 first album, but it was enough. (RIP)
- Articles
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The Headcase Stax thread
These are made identical to the real ones. The leather is lamb skin though. PM me your address and I’ll send them to you.
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Your recent music purchases
Thanks for the suggestions Peter. I had earlier searched for a reasonably priced used Sun Bear set, but not recently, so just checked again, and unfortunately the same (outside Encores). Will keep an eye out. Streaming until found. For Miles holes, great nudge. There’s ever so slight overlap with Ultimate Miles, but not enough to stop me. Also related, there were two recent box sets I forgot to include in the photo and one of those was his The Original Mono Recordings Columbia set. No overlap with the Prestige collection, just a smaller Miles hole. All open for suggestions.
- The Executive headphone amp/preamp
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The Live Music Thread
We saw this guy last night in Grass Valley. I've been listen to him since high school, so it was nice to finally see him live.
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Your recent music purchases
Nice! Just a suggestion: Sun Bear is my favourite Keith Jarrett bar none. Going to listen to those two Wes Montgomery compendiums (I need to discover him more). And this is possibly peak middle period Miles Davis: https://www.discogs.com/master/976004-The-Miles-Davis-Quintet-The-Legendary-Prestige-Quintet-Sessions It's like a superset of the G-droppin' albums: Cookin' Relaxin' Workin' and Steamin' And ... and ... and ... Sorry, I'm just excited for you, vicariously.
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The Headcase Stax thread
Wow, those look great. I'd love a pair as I only have the one real set to play with.
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The Headcase Stax thread
Very nice! I happened to have some ear pads made locally, and they come out to be pretty close to HE90’s. I can send you a pair if you like. 😁
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Your recent music purchases
Thread resurrection and last 60 days of damage. Work bonus and too much time on eBay represented. Will now slow down.
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The Knuckledragger 3rd Memorial Slow Forum Post
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Stati_c joined the community
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What are you listening to Part the Third
Brothers in Black. A twink Johnny Cash tribute band. What's not to like! Seriously though, the middle kid has a so so voice, but I love watching him play the stand up bass, especially that slapping technique. The youngest with the long hair is a pretty good picker, but the oldest and quietest is the most talented among the three IMO.
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Best guitar players
Thanks to Doug's post, I've been listening to all of Muireann Bradle that I can find. Never had heard of her, but now am a little obsessed.
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Best guitar players
There are so many variables. When I say favorite guitar players, I'm asking for your personal favorites, not who's better than whoever. I'm also not asking as some sort of silly debate. I'm asking to discover new music myself.
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The Executive headphone amp/preamp
I'd give them high praise if they used a more relevant leaf for the background of their PCB photos. They also missed an opportunity to use 420(unit) parts in every possible location. A 420pf cap could even be pronounced as "puffs". This makes me sad. I strongly dislike how they/you used the transformer hold-down bolt for your IEC ground. It can create a shorted turn in the wrong conditions. Give it its own screw, or use one of the screws to hold the IEC socket in. What is with the heatsinks in your last photo? Discrete opamp?
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The Headcase Stax thread
Time for an update on the MA-90... or what ever I'm going to call this thing. This is prototype nr.2 and it seemed only fitting to put on the "Orpheus" IQ stand: So what's new, well the headband is now fully DIY with just the arc being borrowed off a Senn HD58x but they are all the same and very close to the HE90 arc in design. Then a custom adapter block in the HE90 style adapts it to the forks... which didn't come out quite right. A bit too long and too thick to bend correctly so I'll have to redesign them but no big issue there. The actual housing is mostly complete at this point but the biggest hurdle were the metal backs, or so I thought: In the end, pretty simple and I can mass produce them by hand in quick order. I've made about 20 of them at this point and they fit snugly in there, no glue needed at all. Inside there is a new baffle, new spacers and new stators but they will need further work. Mostly I have to move the contacts to better fit inside the housing and those are ready to be made. This set is fitted with the cheap Chinese Solitaire earpads and sound pretty good with them. They are 15$ shipped compared to the HE90 pads which are impossible to get at this point.
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The Executive headphone amp/preamp
This is the second revision of Parker's Associate headphone amp, he called it The Executive. Tom from eta headphones helped him organize the PCB order and BOM list for diyers. For more info check out Parker's topic on the eta headphones discord in the System Dump Engineering topic I think his idea was a modern CMOY but taken to the limits of refinement with a single opamp and a nice power supply for a super transparent linear amp, also he made the executive better able to support discrete opamps. My friend Micheal Amster built mine for me since I'm all thumbs and my last couple of diy kits did not go well. I made a few appearance suggestions to Micheal when he built my amp definitely influenced by all the cool diy amp builds I followed over the years on this forum from cool dudes like purk and john mcclean I just received it today so I'm in the honeymoon period but I'd say Parker achieved his goal, it's super detailed and transparent, punchy bass, extended sounding highs and lows. a very "hifi" sound. Finally I feel like my beryllium tweeters are achieving their full potential listening to things like louis armstrong - st james infirmary The only appearance detail I might change, I had him put the power button right next to the volume knob because I wanted maximum space for the laser etched LOGO on the left.. I probably should have put the power button on the far left with the logo in between it and the volume knob. Also the logo is a bit faded out on the silver case, it would look better on a black case. the only deviations from the stock parts in the BOM I asked for were the EIZZ stepped resistor ladder attenuator and changing feedback resistors from vishay dale 10Kohm to vishay bulk foil 1Kohm to change gain from 10db to 1db(better for near field desk use when used as a preamp) and bulk foil is supposedly nicer than vishay dale. Then I replaced the stock opa2132 with a staccato discrete opamp I'm really enjoying it with a Laiv Verse r2r dac as the source and Dunu Mortise full size dynamic driver headphones. This isn't a high power amp so might not be great with difficult to drive planars. I've heard it's low noise enough for iems so might test that soon. It's working great as a preamp to my speaker amp/desk speakers too more info https://etaheadphones.com/products/executive hope it doesn't sound like an advertisement, I JUST got it today lol so I'm fully in the honeymoon phase. I also recently got a eufonika h5 hybrid tube headphone amp with 4W output I also really love for a different sound
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The Official Head-Case Photography Thread.
The new comment editing widget and I do not get a long, which makes sense as I didn't get along with the old one either. What I'm talking about with the EF 50mm F/1.4 and IR 5D:
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The Official Head-Case Photography Thread.
One of my favorite photography YouTubers covered a lens whith which I've had a 20 year love/hate relationship. Comment I posted on it:
Last week
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Post what you're watching
The Russians were doing Top Gun: Maverick in real life 5 years before the movie came out. Start at the 8:00 mark for "WTF was that?"
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What are you listening to Part the Third
Wynton Kelly Trio, Wes Montgomery - Smokin' at The Half Note CD Full
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Amplifier porn
That is using magnets in attraction to apply a force to unipivot suspension string, presumably to resist the tendency to wobble. Attraction between magnets is of course stable.