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On FB there's a "10 year challenge" to post pics current and 10 years back....this one took the cake (pun intended!)

We came to possibly the lamest conclusion, all three are pretty awesome. We had way different rankings I preferred the lcd5 of the three amd Mike the he1kse. The lcd5 to me was the most revealing of the three and had the wettest midrange. When a headphone out details the HE1kse that's impressive and the lcd5 did just that. I love the other two as well and could easily and very happily live with any of these. Hifiman wins for comfort and least picky of sources while holding its own in every audio category we compared them in. I do think the adx5000 is the mofo steal of the century at almost half the price of the HE1kse and less than half the price of the lcd5. Very very fast sounding extremely dynamic but can be slightly thin sounding. Both the adx5000 and lcd5 improve with eq and take eq well the HE1kse doesn't need much.

Thanks @audiostar! Here's a sneak peak preview of the mechanical design. This is the case that I ordered... not at all cheap, but made by a small company in Germany: https://19zoll.com/en/products/aluminum-cases/19-heatsink-enclosure-series-dsk/ And this will be the inside - Neutrik HP jack and RCAs. Volume pot in the middle. Power via a rotary switch a the rear with a long connecting rod to the front. The toroidal transformer is 50VA and has 2x 22V output windings - that should do for the 21V outputs of the GRLVs.

A good summation of the state of headphones over the last five plus years. A gluttony of riches. And endgame for everyone.

In progress Amp design by me, power supply designs and circuit board layout by kerry, support by birgir +/-300 volt power supplies. complementary push pull all bipolar design with cmos style multiplying current mirror.

Waiting for Jp’s arrival. He has a bunch of he has a bunch of headphones to try out with his Matirx Sabre DAC. I have HP1’’s with the J Grado amp (Gene’s gear) as well as my Lola’s and Matirx Mini Pro 3 Streamer.

Made an oatmilk flat white. 22 in, 50 out in 48. 7 bar with a slow roll off. Jaguar from Little Waves. The shot looked perfect and I should have just drunk it, but I had already steamed the milk.

Brewista tornado dripper is awfully pretty.

Sorry for a really slow response. Yes, the umbilicals are identical. Some background – my first electrostatic build was a KGSShv with a PSU with on board heat sinks in its own house. Second build was the DIY T2 and I liked the chassis design. Thereafter I have only built things (almost) with off board heat sinks. With T2 I built an original T2 PSU in a Modushop case. Later I built another T2 PSU with my own designed PCBs. That are the only PSUs I’ve built, along with the first KGSShc supply. But I’ve built a lot of Kevin designed amplifiers, and all have been power by those two T2 PSUs. I found the T2 PSU with its two identical umbilicals quite convenient. With the good quality Amphenol connectors it’s easy to connect/disconnect as wanted when I want to try/test one channel at the time. What about ground loops? I’ve read/heard about it, but so far, I haven’t, or I don’t know I have had ground loops. For me it’s more important I always have a safety ground connected. Therefor I’ll continue to use two identical umbilicals … P.S. I’ve had some issues with mini T2 that was solved by removing one 580V bias wire, so I probably have had a loop. problem. But safety ground wires will stay!

A happy new year to everyone! The positive part of the power supplies is done: The required PCB dimensions were met, however I had to remove the fine-adjust capability. Everything rather tight! Next step is the negative part and then it's time to order PCBs. These are double sided and I do not have the tools to insert vias underneath large components.

In other news, I just got back the analog input board and assembled the amp. The sandwich is 6.2mm thick + bottom components for a total of about 9mm thick. Batteries are about 10mm on top of the input board. Back plate on and plugged into USB-C (charging LED on) Why we did this... Portable music Just analog from my phone at the moment. DAC is up next PS The Weight is 12oz or 340g

Making some good progress on the amp... I’ve got the USB-C PD all soldered on and ready for testing Here’s the face plate with the jack Here’s the amp assembled, but I still need to finish the power supply and amp sections of the main board

Making some progress on the main amp board. It will have a USB-C PD port so it will accept 5, 9, 15 & 20 volts. I think a 20W charger should be enough, but I'll have to test that once the prototype is built. This is getting pretty dense. We'll have to have this partially assembled since the PD stuff is going to be a pain to do. There are 0402 components in addition to some of the larger chips with multiple pads under the chips. This has 4 amp channels, +/-300V supplies, 580V bias and now the PD stuff with boost / buck on the input and includes the battery charging components as well. Looking at using 3S lithium batteries. The board is currently 161mm x 61mm and I think I can fit what's left. There's still more to do, but here's where I'm at...

Godspeed, Michael Lang... Co-founder of Woodstock. HS