spritzer

One thing to remember is that we measure amps phase to phase, so stator to stator. That is how you measure voltage swing so something like the GES has a B+ of 600V so it can swing 600V+600V aka 1200Vp-p. The gap between the two stators with the diaphragm in the middle is what the amp "sees" so when one stators swings + the other must swing - (phase that is since we are talking about AC) to push-pull the diaphragm. This is a system so you have to think of it as such, one stator pushing or pulling the diaphragm means single ended which means a lot of distortion... I can't get the Java stuff to load but ground is just what you make it. Take the standard BH PSU and many other bipolar PSU's that do not use a center tap for example. It's two identical + supplies essentially that give say +350V each. Now run one PSU normally and the potential between ground and + is +350V. Now take the other psu and attach the + of it to the other PSU's ground... what happens? The potential is still 350V between the poles but since the + is now ground the potential has to be - so -350V. It's similar to when you stack PSU's so the power supply I use in my amps (B10, GES, WES etc.) is just two +300V supplies one referenced to ground, the other to the +300V output from the other supply. The potential is still +300V but since "ground" is +300V as well it yields +600V. This saves on caps since they only need to be rated for 350V in both supplies... I must admit that the second harmonic stuff was just to annoy the shills on HF and to see if they would try to use it against the BHSE. They were naturally stupid enough to do so... What.... I can't be naughty at times...? Kevin does add a tiny amount of flavor into his designs but it's tiny and it's more of a tiny tradeoff to get big rewards elsewhere. I for one will take a controlled compromise over an uncontrolled clusterfuck any day. Krell, Pass, Ayre and others seem to agree with this stance as well... As for the cancelling of distortion, in an ideal world and with fully complementary amps then this would happen but we have neither. No electrostatic amp is truly complementary (well there is one but it has never been built... yet) so most are "balanced" amps with single ended output stages. At these voltages it's the only way to do it. You can do fully balanced with tubes but then you have the wide variance of the tubes to account with which means the two halves will not be able to be identical and thus not cancel each other out There is no ground in electrostatics since they are essentially not referenced against ground in terms of AC. Just like an XLR cable or the power coming out of your wall the two poles are just referenced against each other and you only see the potential difference.

Justin's KGSS used the Graybox and the 19"*400mm version would fit even the original boards.

I think there is some cosmic rule that calls for at least two competing standards in every field...

At least the Bybee does something. Installing a 1R 5% resistor in series doesn't do a lot but it's something... That is indeed the question. Stax does it stator to stator but some manufacturers do it from stator to diaphragm.

It's useless crap aimed for stupid people so yeah, just like the Bybee's.

Priced like one though...

This is pure win!!

I've seen the insides and there is nothing new there. Same bias supply as the PS2 box and they were pretty stupid to combine all the grounds and just switch the hot in an age of bridged amps....

Nothing on my end. The board is fully populated save for the tube sockets which should be here soon. I'll probably finish the BATE before I ever get to the Megatron though...

SumR and the leads were labeled incorrectly. Should have caught it with a simple multimeter testing but didn't...

I think you are just looking for an excuse to build a third one. 5.1 with headphones...

Mine has probably been the most trouble of the lot which is all down to fucked up transformers causing a lot of damage. Haven't heard about any major issues with the other ones. Makes me wonder though how many dared to attack the chassis KG had made and modify it? The amp really needs a power light and a front mounted switch... Moving it is bad enough but I have to ship it to Spain. Took me two weeks to find a box big enough and strong enough to do it...

That's a shame that the RS stock was a glitch. The part I'm looking at is the ST BUL216 which might just work. The spec sheet is quite poor so it has to be tested.

Probably more than 30 now and the only one sold was the first amp Andy built. I just bought some PEEK screws so it is time to strip mind down and fix the small issues I have with it.

It never ceases to amaze me how adamant stupid people can be that they are right...

I have the E-P1 and it sucks at low light but it is a great little camera in most other areas.

I had one board which just didn't work no matter how many parts I swapped out. I'm sure there are a bunch of these sitting in a warehouse somewhere so it is entirely possible for people to have some incoming. I'm also looking into subs but I've found nothing in a fully isolated package that is half as good.

The output capacitance of the IXYS is much higher, the 4686A is almost as good as tubes in this regard. High output capacitance is in some ways similar to high output impedance in dynamic amps and is best avoided. That said, we can only use what parts there are.

Yeah but if we spec 10% or even 5% parts then it should be close enough. Still 560V is still a lot closer than what Stax get with their unregulated PSU's and a simple voltage divider for the bias.

Not a common problem I'm afraid. Should be completely even as the drivers are matched into pairs.

So the PSU is pretty much finished: The old version was 9" by 7.5" exactly. This one is 6.92" by 6.56". I call that a result... Changed a few things, isolated diodes for the HV section, 270V zener on each side to be able to use KSA1156's instead of the 1486's. The NPN is the Fairchild part which was always a sub. LV supply main filter caps are now 15mm in diameter, 7.5mm pitch 3300uf/25V. There is a Panasonic FC which fits this. The LV output caps are 330uf/25V, 10mm in diameter and a 3.5mm pitch.

Very nice build, what case is that? It's next on the list and I'll start shrinking it today. I had done a "mafia version" earlier but I'll see if I can make this one better.

A group buy on transformers sounds like a good idea and the PSU board will be even smaller.

First episode of the Vikings, made me want to smash the screen with anger... Wasn't expecting much but they can't even get basic details right such as the names and how the þing's worked. Also why was everybody speaking Swedish? In the Flesh was a far better view, nice take on the whole zombie aftermath.

Feel free to run a groupbuy. I'll be ordering boards for me this week to do a test run and to try out all the new parts. I'll do both 450V and 500V versions just to make sure. Here is the latest pic of the PSU rework. Edit: Kevin's pics are better. Epic pain to say the least. This shows the board before I shrink the border but the space saving is about 5cm in width and 2.5cm in height. The only sacrifices made were to the LV supply and they were just to remove the heatsinks (which were only there for people who wanted to power something else off it as well as the KGSSHV) and use smaller non snap in filter caps. Needs to be checked about 500 times before production though. It's one complicated beast...