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Yes, have the final generation Panasonic plasma here in the UK and it's absolutely brilliant. Will be very sad to leave behind, but am bequeathing to a good friend who will appreciate all 110 lbs of it! Moving to a G6 LG OLED in the US house and interested to see how it compares.

NSFW.

People at Canjam NYC heard it already, including myself. I wanted to believe I was wrong that it sucks, but can confirm it is a fail and extremely uncomfortable on top of that. Why spend $5000 on a headphone setup that just sounds average and can't be used with anything else? They keep claiming that the HPEL driver is low cost and easy to match... if so, why are they charging $5000? It is good value when compared with the abomination that is the $50k Shangri La, but so is pretty much everything else on planet earth.

So balanced electrostats have a linear response with respect to the amount of movement of the diaphragm vs voltage. That is because the dual non-linearities of each stator balance out the position of the diaphragm with respect to voltage. single ended electrostatics do not do this. So higher voltage swings result in more distortion than lower voltage swings. pretty much an exponential curve. throwing piles of dsp at the problem likely only fixes some of the problems, and then is subject to temperature and humidity of the room. The only known version of this that was ever successful was the beveridge loudspeaker. And the acoustic lens allowed for very small movements in the diaphragm to generate substantial sound levels. Which is what happens when the diaphragm is 6 feet x 1 foot. this is going to be epic fail.

I thought it got off to a solid start. Certainly haven't dialed back on the weirdness!

After a few weeks burn-in period of this little beast, I found it's very relaxing to listen to. I can hear more juices coming out and the STAX 009 just doesn't have that analytical sounding cliché to my ears. It also enhances the soundstage and life-like of Focal Utopia makes it way more enjoyable to hear. This is a push-pull design tube Headphone Amplifier/Preamplifier attempting to achieve the true high-performance of headphones from Dynamic, Planar Magnetic to Electrostatic models. I've gotten a few PM's asking about the schematics and stuff so I decided to open a thread to discuss more here. a few interesting measurements of the amp at R = 6Ω DT-HWT Headphone Amplifier/Preamplifier schematic: DT-HWT Power Supply schematic: ===================== Inputs – it has two sets of RCA inputs. Output – it has different outputs, provided on a number of different connectors. On the amp front is a TRS ¼” unbalanced jack, and balanced headphone outputs on a single 4-pin XLR and a pro bias 5-pin Stax headphone jack. On the amp rear, there are two sets of 3-pin XLR and RCA preamp outputs. Both sets can be used at the same time if desired – for example, you could feed a power amplifier from the XLR connectors, and a subwoofer amp from the RCA connectors. The bias voltage settings on the separate power supply unit are used only with electrostatic ear speakers (> 100K Ω impedance). You can select whichever bias level sounds better to your STAX/HE90 models from 230-500-580 up to 620 V DC bias. Tube complement for the amp unit is: matched pair of EF86/E80F/6D8 & matched pair of 12AU7/5814A/E80CC/E82CC & matched quad of EL95/6AQ5 Tube complement for the power supply unit is: matched pair of KT66/KT77/KT88/6550/6L6/EL34/350B/350A & one 6080/5998/6AS7/6H13C/2399 Look forward to those next iterations/variants from you guys soon... For the meantime, I keep on rolling 11 tubes to find the best combination that suits best for different music genres

Need something to use with my surface pro 4 (usb or something wireless). I also have a cheap 1 square inch usb dac that I can plug in a 1/8" Jack for headphones and mics. Purpose is to record talks, presentations, lectures etc while I present/write on the surface pro. I currently have a zalman zm1 mic from my gaming days that I am currently using but I have to hold it to my face the whole time which is unprofessional and well, after holding the mic there for ~2 to 3 hours, my arm cramps pretty bad (it doesn't have a clip that I could use to clip it to my shirt/lapel). Google search has led me to mics and receivers and Wi-Fi extenders and god knows what else. Budget is $300. I need something reliable and good. Some lecture/talks might be published so don't want microphonic cables - the zalman Mic is absolutely horrible when it comes to this. @Knuckledragger, Brent said to check with you, but if anyone else has suggestions, please share them. I was recently gifted a blue yeti microphone and it is great for desktop use. It's a fantastic mic overall but not exactly portable. Thoughts/suggestions?

Now that shows solidarity with the injured big time. Particularly since the Queen is now 91 years old. Respect. She did not see, and rightly so, those injured with life changing injuries - massive facial trauma, limb amputations and on life support.

Whatever you may think about Susan Boyle, her rendition of Wild Horses chokes me up every time.

Pfffft, TVs. Once I win the lottery, I'm just going to hire original actors to come re-enact the movies in my home theater.

Got through the first few episodes. I am fucking in, baby! Never change, David Lynch.

Brent Happy Birthday! Hope you had a great day!!!

Art of Noise, In Visible Silence (deluxe edition) -- damn, this remaster sounds excellent ... the noise floor is practically gone.

I have a buddy coming over tonight and we are going to check out the first few episodes of the new "Twin Peaks." I really hope its good, but my expectations are low. The first season of the original "Twin Peaks" is one of the best single seasons I've ever seen on TV.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRENT!!!/... Cheers

Here are some photos of another headband I've done for my 009's, which is very similar to the other one I did sometime ago, but on this new one I sprayed the band matte black, whereas the other I covered with carbon fibre wrapping. Now I've still got that other headband, but I'm keeping it as spare, not that I expect anything to happen to this new headband because it's very strong. P.S. I've also started putting my 009's on this different stand.

Surf & Turf. Traegered a Prime Steak and cooked Butter Garlic Scallops. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Prime rib (last night)

Looking good @JoaMat Here's the new schematic with the updated servo. It would be very much appreciated if some folks could check Kevin's boards against this schematic. Thanks EDIT: Updated schematic to match transistor values.

Round two of my DIY 'stats. Again using SR-X driver shells but now with my own bias rings (laser cut aluminum) and 1.4um film. This is more of a test bed for different glue and coating ideas but I have to say it sounds bloody awesome. I haven't received a large shipment of custom earpads so these are just using what I had sitting here. Alternating between some cheapo Fostex TH900 clones off ebay and A-T leather units. The sound changes a bit with the different earpads but not by a great deal. I did try some old SR-007 pads and I didn't like them at all. The thin, non-angled, A-T pads are excellent with this setup. The sound is very lively, energetic and punchy. I'm also narrowing down on the kind of soundstage I like, small but very precise. Now the small drivers will never beat the larger ones in terms of bass output but the super stretched 1.4um film is pretty impressive here. I don't find them bass anemic at all even though they clearly roll of earlier than the 007's. Next steps are more tests and I'm finishing up some new driver designs. Not the cheapest option but I'm going to try to make as many prototypes as I can so I can test back and forth easily. Guess I'll need some more storage space for the headphones then... In other news, I was looking for some earpads earlier and came across the Mr. Speakers Electrostatic pads.... now what the fuck are they smoking? Huge internal area for an electrostatic? This is the same amateur hour as King Sound.