HiGHFLYiN9

I just saw the email today, the Bottlehead Stat. Looks like it comes in bright blue, yellow and red powdercoat with black screws. I personally find it very hard on the eyes with all the contrasting screw heads everywhere, but were it polished with some brass screws it might look okay.

Okay, that makes the decision an easy one then. If anyone needs a lightly used Hammond 272BX let me know.

Since there's many people here far more intelligent than I, can't hurt to ask. With the fixes suggested (flip bias polarity, ensure 580v, add 5.1K resistors), would this be any sort of improvement over the SRM-252S? I'm running an SR 407 which is a nice set but nothing fancy. I'm trying to experiment with more mid-range electrostatic gear so when I inevitably get something higher-end later I'll appreciate it more. The total cost of this build is about $300 FWIW.

Hah! I hope this is true 😂

No I know, thanks. DIN is not rated for that voltage at all and the current design is 580v.

Guess it wouldn't be head-case without a classy high level-of-effort shitpost 🤪 Anyway... still gonna build it. Thanks KG for the good info.

Thanks for the feedback gentlemen. I think if any little quirks can be ironed out this could be a low-cost, accessible offering for entry-level electrostat DIY. The bias supply is indeed negative. Forgive my ignorance but what would happen to the diaphragms if negative voltage is used? I was searching Google and digging through old posts but couldn't find a definitive answer. Would the 5.1k series resistors go between the positive outputs (L+, R+) and the headphones?

Thanks Kevin, very helpful. I will pass this along. Glad you had a chance to look.

Nectar Sound, purveyor of the Pollinator and now the Hive headphones, has a DIY amp published on the website. I reached out and picked up a PCB so I can build this low cost energizer and see how it stacks up against my SRM-252S. Attached is the schematic, BOM, image of a completed amp, and hook-up guide. You can also access everything on the Nectar Sound website. Sajeev has updated the board slightly from the images attached to hold a pair of CL-90 inrush limiters to prevent blowing a fuse on start-up. I'm in the process of gathering the parts now, but wanted to post this to archive the build and see if anyone else was building (or has built) one. Nectar1p0_HeadphoneAmp_Rev2_BOM (1).xlsx

Curious if anyone has a pair of unpopulated Square Wave boards for sale. TIA.

Agreed, I mistakenly purchased one and sold it within a couple of days at a nice loss. My iRiver PCDP sounded better.

Thanks for the offer Doug. It's tempting, but I'll hold tight until the final package is available. Thanks for updating btw.

Thread's dead, baby.

Good info, thanks The build is bone stock aside from a few Takman and Kiwame resistors. You won't be the first person who hasn't been crazy about the eXstata. I remember reading some other middling impressions.

That's too bad. Is the eXstata SS or hybrid? I'm currently building one and was planning on combining it with a 307 or 407 down the road. Any impressions with that pairing?

Any updates on the production version?

Great, really looking forward to building this luvdunhill I really dig the venting! I have a local powdercoater here that colors whatever items I've left with him on the side when he has a "real order" to take care of. He usually charges ~$40 an item or around $100 for a small box of stuff. I just had him handle an old Dynaco PAS2 that I'm rebuilding.

Listening through The Knife discography at the moment.

Looks awesome Nate I'm really looking forward to this kit whenever it's finalized. If I handled the fab on this, I'm sure I'd screw up the IEC, then paint the whole thing black so you wouldn't notice

Sure, eBay is a great place to track down tubes. It's usually good to look for a seller who has actually measured the tubes on a Hickok or something similar and has posted numbers and minimums. You can also go to places like Tube Depot if you'd like a company to stand behind what they are selling you, I like the more adventurous ebay buying experience though I just finished up my Crack, you can see it in the gallery here: http://www.bottlehead.com/smf/index.php/topic,977.0.html

Doh.. ah well. I think MS licenses WMA out to other companies, but Apple doesn't, which makes this hard.

Hey Pinky, I sent you a long-ass message right before you got banned, so maybe you'll get to read it

Anyone else catch the new Tim and Eric that was on the 18th. Absolute comedy genius, all 15 minutes of it. I had to watch the new Casey and his Brother about 5 times in a row to get it out of my system, the poop tube skit was also hilarious. What say you Head-Case members? PRO-TIP: You can watch it at AdultSwim.com if you missed it.

As the title states, I need to convert a collection of ALAC files to lossy WMAs and keep the original files (got a cheap brown Zune). dBPowerAmp is the only software I'm aware of that will handle this conversion, should I try my luck with it or does someone here have another recommendation?