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I've been on HF since the beginning (though I registered an account in 2002) and now there is nothing good there. It's just endless hype, shilling and no substance at all. I used to get depressed when I read through the Stax thread which was always the last bastion of sanity but those days are long gone...

I think mine is already finished but I need to touch up something. My pocket CFA.

So I guess blue is the new black? I broke down and got a 009BK... I know I'm weak but we all knew this would happen. What's funny is that after 6 sets of 009's that have gone through here, these are a bit different. They are still bright and the bass is mehhh but they are not as bright as my other set and the bass is improved. Could be unit to unit variation but that's not the norm with Stax so I'm curios if they have updated the 009's a bit. More listening to come...

https://mjolnir-audio.com/ Invest more now, no need to invest any more later.

Best part of Rolex announcements this year is the suggestion from Rolex that we go to our local AD to try on the new sports models..

Chassis just arrived. Looking good.

Made some multi-coated front panel recently. This is a small project @ang728 and I ran together. This is our first attempt to try multi-coated for the front panels. I don't know if this kind of finishing will start to peel off in longterm. We'll see. We are thinking making more interesting colors, too. Maybe "Hulk" green or something like that... The blue one has tapered feet while the red one has real spiked feet.

We'll catch up to you someday Ric... MOA XI --

It's 100% stock and they are very bass light and diffuse sounding. I still like them though but I do wonder about the new Dekoni earpads for the HD series. Those might help but I haven't picked up a set yet.

That stuff is just too funny. So let's start at the beginning, 1k in series with the output is better than nothing (Cavalli, Woo, Kingsound etc.) but it should be around 5K. How 1K is similar to 5K and offer the same protection is beyond me. Does anybody at Hifiman understand Ohm's law? There are indeed two 2M resistors on that board. When I initially wrote that I had only looked at the amp board and was still trying to untangle the mess of this build. Still that should be 4.7M but 4M is close enough. Also, while the amp is very reminiscent of the SRA-10S... it does have the opamp input. You know what amp is based off the SRA-10S and has an opamp inputstage? The SRM-001... aka the 1995 portable amp. Yup there are some similarities there as well. So the output stage uses FQPF4N90C's as can be seen here: ...and the datasheet is here: http://www.mouser.com/ds/2/149/FQPF4N90C-195517.pdf Go down into Dynamic characteristics and there we have output capacitance, typical 65pf. So the headphones are roughly 130pf or so and you have two of these per driver. Yup, stellar job of keeping the Cob low. For reference, the 2SC4686A used in the KGSS and KGSSHV, 2.2pf. So the output capacitance here is just about 30 times higher. Same goes for what Stax have used for years. Also, notice the black cans on the source pins, those are inductors for some reason. Inductance and capacitive loads don't really mix, just look at the train wreck that is the Woo WES. For any laymen reading this, many know about the 10 times rule when matching sources to amps. The goal there is for the input impedance of the amp to be at least 10 times higher than the output impedance of the source. Same goes for preamps into poweramps etc. Same thing applies here, how do you think the amp likes driving the capacitance of the headphones when it first has to overcome its own output Cob? Bottom line, if anybody like JimL wants to take a look at the Jade2 amp, I'll send it to you for free. The only things I did to it was simplify the input wiring, as it makes no sense to go from the sockets to the amp PCB, then to the volume control, then back again. I also redid the earthing of the amp as it was very lacking for CE safety requirements. One more thing that amuses me endlessly with Hifiman is that familiar Chinese trait... victim hood. I still remember it well at Canjam 2010 when somebody gave Tyll a set of HE-5's (I think) to measure and Fang freaked out. It was his own personal set so he could do what ever he wanted with it but Fang did not approve. That speaks volumes about his character. I'm all for right being right but what about addressing the flat out lies in the specs, that a few parts were not properly soldered to the boards or that I'm sure the same crap applies to the 50K$ Shangri-La. They certainly use the same cable...

Hodinkee did a good job covering things as they hit this year. I really hope they can get some leaks from whatever went on behind closed doors in Zurich. My local Omega AD has not let anything slip if info has filtered to those who didn't attend. I tried this on last Friday.. I liked it quite a bit but not enough. My AD wanted to bet me that my friend would buy it. I walk into the operating room on Monday and I hear some one calling my name from down the hall way. It's my buddy saying "guess what I bought". He shows me a pic because he is very strategically not wearing it because he told his wife he wouldn't buy any more watches for a while.. Oh yeah and side note to watch news and social media. I scored the opening wrist shot on watches tonight With Tim on the watch box studios YouTube channel. IDK how many here watch Tim's stuff but I like him. I had previously gotten a shot on with my 2018 seamaster diver 300m and BHSE (tube glow and lume glow) Edit: just left my local Rolex AD and had them put me on the list for the new Batman. I am also on the list for a sky dweller. They had a gv blo milly and an airking in the case. They just sold a TT sub, so maybe supply is getting better and I have a chance of getting one of those watches before 2025.

Yeah. Lol. Buy a yellow gold Day Date and they’ll let you look at a Pepsi GMT. Maybe.

A distributor would not bad-mouth a manufacturer he sells. Nothing unreasonable there. That said, you should definitely stay away from Hifiman. The HE-500 and HE-6 were pretty good, but that’s it, unfortunately. PS: It’s a good idea to remove names and personally-identifiable information from screenshots.

They're going to have to renumber the car. I think it speaks volumes about how hard it is to achieve those speeds that he hit 240 at the half and only gained another 60mph in the last half mile.

Sounds promising. But the proof in the pudding is the final product when they start flying off the shelves to the customers heads. Anyways I'll be putting down my interest for a unit when they are released. You've nailed quite a few good points about the headphone industry (actually the audio industry in general). Cheers

Another Gilmore CFAE is first powered up. No smoke, no POP, no drama. I used the first GB split PCBs for this build. All part values per the PCB. Powersupply for the moment is a BHSE from an old KGST: B+ = +353.8; B- = -358.1 Left Channel Offset: +7.19/+10.53; Balance: 3.34; Bias(mA): 8.28/8.24/8.23/8.15 Right Channel Offset: +8.42/+8.91; Balance: 0.49, Bias (mA): 8.35/8.23/8.68/8.60 After an hour, heat sinks are barely warm to the touch. Hooked up with an iPhone X direct input as source and STAX 207 it sounds very promising. Will swap in a TKD volume pot soon to see if things improve ditching the distal volume control. Thanks to all, especially Kevin, Congo5, Joachim, Michael, and Jose.

Hi, I am new here, live in Australia, past owner of Audeze Lcd2.2 and am now going electrostatic having always wanted to. After enquiring with my friendly supply outlet about Stax SR-L700,s and SRM006ts was informed that a much better idea that would convince me to go HIFIMAN Jade 2 and amp as it was in all ways superior sound, upon reading your review I responded to my ever friendly supplier that your article pointed out serious issues with build quality. His answer was interesting , he said that the build quality was simplistic but was not relevant to its astounding performance. This coming from a well respected audio supplier specialising in head gear

First time riding the lower trails after the rain melted all the snow. Things have changed drastically this year! Some deep puddles in the first pic, the second is more representative of the current water level.

Here's some pics of the power supply inside a Canon build...

No, no, no! If I won't let a cute twink back there, Trump and the IRS have no chance!

Well that is always an option and one that has been levied against the press for decades. The awards have always somehow correlated with how much they spend on advertising and other ways to grease the wheels...funny how that works. Another way to look at this though is that anybody who claims to be "a reviewer" is a clueless fucktard just looking for recognition. They don't actually have any true insight into this, let alone experience to make meaningful comparisons, they can just wax lyrically about some utter BS that nobody understands. I do wonder how many electrostats those "reviewers" had experience with before awarding this best of 2018. If you don't have any frame of reference, it is easy to be seduced and not scratch the surface of how these actually sound.

Now that all fear of taking apart Lambda drivers is gone I went out and acquired a Lambda Signature with channel imbalance. Drivers came apart just as easily (not incredibly easy) as my LNS driver. Recoated and singing beautifully. Lambda collection intensifies!

I found out a few days ago, but I still have cancer. It isn't going to kill me tomorrow, or anything.

Good record. Little White Dove and Rabbit Hole are the standouts for me. I have tickets to see her in St. Paul this weekend ... sadly, I am not in St. Paul, and I have no prospect of getting there.

RIP Ranking Roger. This is sad news anyway, but he is also literally one month older than me. https://www.google.com/amp/s/variety.com/2019/music/news/ranking-roger-english-beat-general-public-dies-dead-1203173371/amp/

RIP Colleen Sewing, another high school classmate of mine to go. Fought various cancer all over her body, including her brain, for almost two years. Left behind a husband and 2 year old... was only 29. She was the kind of person you may not be connected with anymore but you stay linked on social media because her life was positive energy and you felt good that things were good for her. Shit is fucked up.

☹️ Also the lead "singer" from The Prodigy killed himself at 49.