spritzer

Do not plug the EL61 into a Blue Hawaii, neither party will like it very much... I just did some digging and they don't seem to like anything above 300V but the BHSE is 800V...

Wait for the all black KGST then... Too small to make any sense as it can only take GE tubes and not RCA's as the GE's are just a bit shorter...

Hey!!! I don't have a patent on wood...

Cryo is bullshit with some basis in reality. The crystalline structure of metal is a factor for some uses and for stuff like margarine and chocolate it is critical. How that would matter to tubes, cables, headphones etc. is beyond me though. Especially the tubes which will reach 150°C and undo what ever changes might happen when you cryo treat the metal. Utterly absurd stupidity. Plenty of DIY Stax amps but no commercial units this cheap.

I set it up after the idiots on HF made me an MOT.

Mp3's... really??? Stax requires a top end source (not expensive, just good) so any harshness could easily come from there. That and the mastering on most newer recordings is awful which doesn't help matters. What ever you do, don't buy ECC99's and stick it into the amp as it is now. It will destroy it.

It's more that Mikhail was insane to use caps that big.

I'd class both the 404 and 407 as harsh though the 404 less so. The stock tubes are probably fine but it's the tube type that is unfit for the role. Not much else out there though that can replace it. The ECC99 can be fitted with some mods.

The Kimik mod is a bad joke. Take some NOS tubes (not the good ones), a tube cooler which isn't needed and then it is "properly adjusted". Now the thing about the Stax amps is that their power supplies are completely unregulated so once the line voltage changes (which it will) those adjustments are no longer accurate. The distortion you are hearing when the amp is stressed is due to the amp design simply not being to swing enough voltage. The SRM-323 is better in this regard but it sounds a bit thin. Just the nature of the beast as Stax had to build it to a price. Tubes are high voltage, low current and low output capacitance. Electrostatics are high voltage, low current and low capacitance so the perfect pair.

Two caps wired back to back in an non-polar cap. Non polars aren't all that common with the Nichicon ES being one of the few good ones left.

One of my KGSSHV transformers melted so Richard replaced it. That replacement cost me about 300$ in customs fees as it was declared as if I had just bought them... The replacements seem to work just fine but I've only done brief tests.

I usually go for no more than 35°C above ambient. That's at max load which I'd never run a transformer at.

Well I do have a contact page now... Setting up the site was easy, finding time to add anything to it is trickier. Today I started work on three new amps instead of making so product pages. I'm seriously considering adding a thread in public area here and linking to it. I'm never going to accept orders for anything, just sell what I've already built, so having a thread for it makes sense. Ohh yeah, one of the amps I started on is a KGST...

We really should do that. Please address all requests for advise to [email protected]

Any Sigma can be fixed or fitted with new drivers but not everybody is up for that.

You know you can always come to us for advise.

The specs are just fine as I have SumR units here which worked just fine with that spec. Richard just did something wrong somewhere and we are paying the price. The units I have that actually work were after I got rather cross with him... The BHSE units I was having trouble with got very warm on the Blue Hawaii so we'll see soon how they are on the KGST. The transformers I had made in Hong Kong were designed from the point of keeping max temp rise low so they run cool and very few have any noise at all. Not cheap but as if I care.

No SMD here...

Going to watch some Bottom now. Damn shame...

Just so people know this version of the amp boards has been proved working. Pretty much the same as my sets except I fixed some minor labeling issues. Power supply is a variation of the Blue Hawaii design and a slightly different version to the one I used.

Yup, they often do that. The first 313's had the PCB mounted sideways which was then changed to a normal bottom mounted layout. Ususally goes hand in hand with part changes.

The UK service center will do it no questions asked. They also reply to emails which is always a welcome thing... The port needs to be filled and the spring inside the earpads expanded in size and flattened so that the pads can be used as if on the Mk1. Then you adjust the arcs over the head, bending them into the right position for the most comfortable setting. The right amount of pressure and angle.

Best move is to use an extension. Less tug on the cable that way.

Give it time...

All of them.