Leaderboard

raising the plate voltage to 150 puts the tube in a more linear transconducance region. use stn9360 or 2sa1486 and there is plenty of clearance. in other news, going to 24V instead of 15V for the jfet input based versions of everything also makes the front end amplifier slightly more linear

So my birthday present is finally here, the SRM-T8000. I just quickly plucked it into my computer rig with the Denafrips Ares as a source: Here I can compare directly against the Carbon CC and the as yet unrealesed new KGSSHV, budget edition. Think of this one as the 727 if Stax had any sense. Anyway, back to the T8000. The packaging is classic Stax and no complaints there. I do have some complaints about the casework though, the front panel looks awesome but who decided what to do with the rest of it? Seriously that sparckly silver paint is just horrible. Reminds me of some super cheap Chinese amps. Yeah... not great. I had a quick peek inside to change the voltage to 240V and the procedure in the other thread is correct. This is the same old Stax color setup with a small change (one connector is reversed) to try and trick people. Some notes about the interior: -The person who designed this needs to find something else to do as not a single fuck was given as to how this thing is put together. Boards on top of boards with no reason to be there. I love the volume control where you have three PCB's (one blank) sitting on top of the pot. WHY!!!??? All of this could have been done on the back panel... Also wires everywhere. Bloody Stax living in the 70's... -The volume control (which they try to hide) is a plain old Alps RK27. It's almost impossible to see but I moved the "shield" a bit and there was the classic Alps sticker. For 6K$ I'd expect more... -The PSU is certainly unregulated and the same as in the 727/007t. Same 220uf/400V Elna caps. -Looks like the tubes are running at DC 6.3V. 4700uf/10V filter caps but I'll measure it later. -The amp is certainly just a 727 with the feedback in place and tube input stage. Ohhh and for the tube rollers, not a chance to roll this amp so better just like the stock EH tubes. Either that or somebody builds a special tester for this amp and sells tubes for it. Now for some impressions. I'm a bit pressed for time now so I just grabbed the first headphones that I saw. These are my own DIY units and I've been using them a lot lately as I've been tuning them. The drivers are old SR-X Mk3 units so similar sound signature, the best highs you can find with glorious midrange and extended but super tight bass. I'll go into the living room and grab some of the others over the weekend. Now what can I say about the amp...well I expected more. The top end is the worst part, it's rather uneven and unrefined. Grating even and slightly shouty in nature. Seems to be the Stax house sound these days but it also makes me dread trying the amp with 009's and L700's. I'm listening as I type this and I cringe from time to time, the upper midrange and treble is so bad. The phones are sure as shit not to blame... Now the midrange is ok minus the glare but it also lacks the expansive nature that the really powerful amps give it. It feels closed in... The bass...well it is nothing to write about really. Nowhere near T2/Carbon levels of power but this really isn't the best set to try for bass performance. I'll dig out the modded 007Mk2's to test that when I have time. Here it is all a bit flat and lifeless. Conclusion time I guess, at least for now. There are things I like about this amp, the front panel is pretty and it comes with properly wired XLR sockets but there is a lot I don't like. I fucking hate the blue power led...Stax should be green or orange. On top of everything above I also think this thing is horribly overpriced as it is just a fixed 727 which isn't a particularly great amp to begin with. To charge 6k$ for this...is just not cool. More listening to come... -

I had a small breakdown yesterday. LP helped me through some teenage drugs problems I had. Fucking hurts like hell even after so many years. I like to believe that I would be different today had he not shared his own pain through their music.

^ oops, forgot to answer. Yes it seems like a good price? Especially for a custom. A new Dynalo mini has been born (probably, I haven't tried with headphones yet). Was measuring 72 C on the regulators and 89 C on the output transistors so I threw heatsinks on everything. Now measuring about 62 on the fins of all three Edit: spoke too soon, it stabilized at 70 C Edit 2: I was planning on using the PS for the ubal to bal boards also but everything is running on the absolute ragged edge already so that won't work. I need to move the heatsink for the regulators out away from the switchers anyway.

Still testing.. Wynton And Herbie

Saw Cheap Trick and Foreigner last night at Jones Beach theater in one of the VIP suites... As a very special treat Lou Gramm came out and sang three songs in the encore. Very enjoyable night

Did a bit of a harvest on the garden before hitting the road. Soon will be eating Cucumbers and Tomatoes. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Old Fire, Songs from the Haunted South on Tidal -- love this, funearally slow, sparse, heavy, momentous, post-rock-y, gorgeous, loads of atmosphere. Imagine 4AD meets late period Talk Talk meets ...the variety of vocalists puts me in mind of one of Stephen Merritt's projects. Superb. Recommended auditioning.

RIP, Mr. Bennington. Hope you're in a better place... HS

Colin will want to know how long that takes to turn into meat.

This is not something you see everyday. Saint DH MTB flats on an Ultegra crank arm. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

RIP Daliah Lavi - actress, singer, passed away at 74 years of age on May 4, 2017. This clip from the original 1967 Casino Royale was just about the sexiest thing I'd ever seen during my young, formative years: I have no idea if she was particularly talented otherwise. But the fact that I came across this news on a somewhat random web-search, & seeing that she had passed away recently with little, if any (that I saw) fanfare made me a little melancholy.

TAS ftw! Bastards look amazeballs. Missing Mikey's bread.

New Shape - new Method. Testing out Batards (oval) - and baking with steam (Using cast iron and lava rocks to create a lot of steam - like a sauna) Results are coming along... This is an Oat flour/Spelt Flour mix - at 72% hydration - steamed for first 20 minutes of bake (total 55 minutes) on baking stone. Second loaf Super crispy.... So that is all nice and such..... But even the great mikeymad baker makes mistakes as well (learning opportunities) During my first steam last week - I used a new grain and way too high of hydration (water in loaf). So it spread out fast, as soon as it hit the stone. -- ran off the sides and back of the stone as it 'baked' I baked them all the way ... And ended up with tasty alien spaceships!!

The worrying part is its brains are somewhere between China and Siberia.

^ Been there to many times...

What wasn't nice was the first negative regulator working perfectly, then my ham-fistedness shorting it to ground with my probe when measuring voltages and then having to order and put in a new one

Like x 1,000,000. Looks awesome. I am just having a boring burger. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Ate at one of Stephanie Izard's restaurants tonight with Debbie, two of her sisters and her brother-in-law. Restaurant is Girl and the Goat. Chef Izard is a James Beard award winner and Iron Chef. All of the following were shared plates and we ate too fast to get pics of the onion focaccia with house made giardinera and house made Caesar dressing. Roasted beet salad Wood fired oysters Squash blossom crab Rangoon (best we'd ever had) Goat chorizo flatbread Roasted shishito peppers Beef tongue with masa chips ( dedicated to my Dad who loved beef tongue. Tonight's was tender and delicious) Tempura soft shell crab with corn Escargot ravioli. So bloody delicious. Pig Face! (It's under the egg. And fucking awesome!) Blueberry bourbon baba Caramel corn and malt balls. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Blinds are on order. The kids already worked out how to find YouTube on it, so I'll probably never get to use anyway.

Fired up and Ethernet connected. Looks pretty good right out of the box. [emoji91]

After spending the last 3 years with a Traveler V2, I decided I needed a bit more. This arrived today and I just can't seem to wipe the smile off my face. Standard Avenger with periphery ring and upgraded reference 3D arm.

Avid Volvere (black) with Airtight PC-1 Supreme and Avid Sequel SP (silver) with Airtight PC-1 Supreme and back-up Benz LPS. SME V arm and Kubala-Sosna Emotion phono cable on both tables. Going to unload the Sequel SP and move to a better table for stereo and then use the Volvere for mono listening.

Indeed but the mastering was all done in PCM...