Leaderboard

They were propped up by two smashed potatoes, which went uneaten. Currently working on this. Being able to get USDA Prime tri-tip in fucking Safeway is one of my favorite things about California, and that includes the wine.

On my DAC

Vinyl....

I made some modifications to my Megatron. Most of them are under the hood. changed the CCS tubes filament supply transformers from 25VA Antek AN 0206 to 50VA AS 0506 (one for each channel). Now the under-load filament voltage is at 6.15v. changed the transformer supplying the front end filament and current sink to 50VA Antek 0512 to accommodate the higher filament supply when using E80CC in place of the 12AU7 and drill some holes on the PSU chassis to help with cooling. added an LED indicator on the amp chassis which comes on when HV supply is on.

Eggs and leftover tri-tip. Waste not want not!

No crash videos?

I don’t have much to add to hugo’s post, agree on the findings except perhaps sounstage which felt a bit more closed in on the 009S compared to 009. I also used my source (sony dap) HP out to drive the T8000 so it wasn’t ideal + noisy environment but I was pleasantly surprised by 009S. These days I am applying dig. EQ to my 009 to take the edge off the mids and boost the subbass a little so I did not think I’d get into the 009S. But what I listened to today was quite promising, the 009S improves on the 009 across the board and I could not find a drawback. It sounds cleaner, fuller body, more natural mids, looses that tendency of 009 to sound thin / agressive at high volume levels and does not loose any treble extension or resolution. I think this one is going to be popular with the mafia given the number of 007 fans and 009 haters ;-). Design wise, besides the official blurb on housing, stators and grill, the pads felt definitely stiffer than the 009 and I bet part of the chances in voicing come from there (perhaps more so than the gold plating of the stators). The 009 really do sound cleaner than 009 from bass quality to transparency overall, the structural redesign of the grill and such may be more influential than I would have thought. It was good to see Sasaki-san there (apparently the head designer Suzuki-san is joining tomorrow) but the new generation of employees seem to be on top of the game already so I can only wish a bright year ahead for Stax. Besides talk on the 009S, Suzuki-san mentionned all D/A related designed are outsourced to edifier (the new portable dac amp fully is), the upcoming dac board addon for the t8000 also won’t come out of Japan (they stick to analog components design). Apart from that, Edifier still leaves Stax full autonomy today it seems.

I didn't think the Sharks had a chance after the first game and the quick 2-0 lead in game two. Should be entertaining and they clearly want to scrap at any opportunity.

Fish & Chips Fish & Not Chips On the deck @ Sams Anchor Cafe , Tiburon

Ah yes - that is British stoicism! Big time. It is not so surprising that the audience is largely older people though if you know that Chichester is in the middle of a section of the British South Coast where people tend to go after they retire. We regularly go to Chichester (not much more than an hour drive), and have seen some stunning plays there. Most recently to see Ian McKellern playing King Lear in the 300-seat Minerva. Going back a few years the amazing production of Hamlet in the same tiny theatre with Patrick Stewart. After Chichester, that went to the West End, then Broadway, and then made into a film. This is from the film version, and is by far the best "Is this a dagger..." soliloquy I've seen.

But nobody cares about those.

We have a no obligation, $0 down pre-order page up now https://www.headamp.com/order/stax-sr-009s-open-back-electrostatic-headphones/ and for the SRM-D10 portable DAC/Amp https://www.headamp.com/order/stax-srm-d10-portable-electrostatic-headphone-amplifier-dac/

The boards are in the US. I should have them Monday

Breakfast Pizza with added Bacon

Rolled around Seattle Center chasing Xavier and the Ginger Avenger on skateboards, dropped by KEXP to plan a heist. Sent from my ONEPLUS A3000 using Tapatalk

I have compared the 009 and 009S running from the same amp (T8000) today. The room was somewhat quiet, but I had only two source options: my iPhone (connected through Apple's lightning adapter directly to the T8000) or their CD player with their own music. Even though the listening conditions weren't ideal, I could make a rough comparison. The 009S had a more evident bass, a fuller body and overall sounded more natural IMO. The treble on the 009 (at least out of the T8000) is a little bit annoying for me, and the 009S had this fixed (phew!). I thought it was a bit more resolving too. I talked with Mr. Sasaki (former Stax Director and Sales Manager) who also hosted me when I visited their factory last year. He has been working there for decades now, and unfortunately has retired last month. He is a very nice and knowledgeable guy. He said that the 009S started being developed 3-4 years ago. For its voicing, he said they used the 006t and 727A initially, and then the T8000 when it was released. I asked about discontinuing the old 009 and he said that for now they will keep both, but depending on the sales, the 009 may fade out or get discontinued. I also asked if the 009S is meant to be just a different flavor from the 009, or a higher level product. He said that "S" stands for "Special" and that the 009S has been developed to improve on the 009 imperfections. This hobby is weird and some may prefer the older version, but I know which one I'm buying when my T2 arrives. On another note, I told him about the DIY buildings of the T2 and showed some pictures of the ones made by Kerry. He was very happy and proud to know about it, and even happier and "grateful"- his words - to know that it bests every other stat amp out there.

The new A/V rack... The Gray stain on the butcher block is subtle, but Grayer in person.

Well... I dug out the screwdrivers... Sorry for the crappy pictures, I just had the iphone to hand. First off, the true quality Stax plug: So that disk there normally sits flush with the plug as the pins are too long. They had that problem with the Jade so nothing has changed in a decade... Pure class. It is also incredibly crude. Funny how King Sound could make a ribbon cable and a proper plug at 1/8th the price... Speaking off the cable, you can barely make out the loose wires in there when I press it together. Here's the earpads...well one of them. They are pretty comfy but they do stink quite badly. No expense spared here... I did order some new pads to try out. Here is the baffle and the cable entry. The latter seems to not be molded around the cable so I might be able to remove this cable and put in a proper ribbon. Very long screws... They go all the way to the back of the housing which is plastic and has nice metal inserts. Now the baffle is off and it has this nice rubber gasket to maintain baffle seal. Now we can see the cable and the metal frame which provides the bulk of the assembly. Here is the back of the protective mesh. These are not the stators so why Hifiman uses this in the promo's as the stators is beyond me... Another gasket here which is good. Here we have the driver. There is a protective mesh but it is odd. It's not a solid sheet but some sort of a porous membrane. Copper mesh stators and the pitch is very fine. Finally the back of the drivers and the second protective mesh. You can also see the plastic frame which holds it all together. The drivers are glued together so I didn't want to mess with them more at this time. One funny thing, the cables inside the cups are really long. Like 10cm even though they would need only about 2cm or so... Over all, I'm impressed by the build quality. It's not Stax quality but they are getting better. I eagerly wait for the Mk2 version next month...

Sploosh.

Today's project... 50" X 19" Birch butcher block, stained Gray. This will be the top of my new A/V rack, which is your typical wire shelving, but epoxy coated Black.

Heisenberg, Schrodinger, and Ohm are in a car. They get pulled over. Heisenberg is driving and the cop asks him "Do you know how fast you were going?" "No, but I know exactly where I am" Heisenberg replies. The cop says "You were doing 55 in a 35." Heisenberg throws up his hands and shouts "Great! Now I'm lost!" The cop thinks this is suspicious and orders him to pop open the trunk. He checks it out and says "Do you know you have a dead cat back here?" "We do now, asshole!" shouts Schrodinger. The cop moves to arrest them. Ohm resists.

As a bit of a counterpoint, I went to a Whole Foods the other day, which had a "Produce Butcher" and a "Cookie Bar". I couldn't find normal hot dog buns so had to make do with disgusting gluten free ones stored in a freezer... they were so crusty that they practically flaked apart when I tried to put the hot dogs in.