spritzer

Here is one of the many projects I'm working on and it is intended as the last stand for the classic BH design. The back story ties in with the whole T2 project and that Torpedo was invaluable in acquiring the amp for me. Now we started talking about building a Blue Hawaii for him using the pile of boards I have here and to cut a long story his friend Paxti got involved as well which is a is a good thing since he owns a machine shop. We all had the same vision which is to go stark raving mad with this project using the best parts and not to cut any corners. Now the ultimate chassis has to be something milled out of solid aluminum and that's exactly what we decided to do: What we have here is a 16kg lump of special aircraft grade aluminum machined to perfection. Now this is only the prototype for me to do test fits and to iron out issues but it is a beast to say the least. The PSU will be in a similar chassis as well though probably not as big. The "production" version of the amp chassis will also be smaller with quite a few changes but this gives a good idea of just how impressive these amps will be.

It was indeed never a production item as Stax went bust and all R&D not involved with the earspeaker line was dropped. There are small nuggets of info all over the place which hint at what they were trying to do.

If you want something truly insane I'd recommend DIY'ing the ESL horn system Stax were working on in the early 90's.

It took me 3 days to get LSK's from Trendsetter and they had plenty in stock. I'm glad I got the bright idea not to start drinking coffee even though I go to work in the middle of the night. Now my Pepsi Max habit is probably worse though...

I'm pretty sure they are better then a standard Lambda but I don't think they took the design far enough. What makes the SR-007 so good is the utter overkill in terms of chassis design and how the earpieces are coupled to the head. Put the same drivers in an SR-Omega chassis and the superiority of the SR-007 frame becomes quite clear. With the SR-507 the big question is really how different is the new driver design and how are the drivers attached to the baffle. The Lambda/Sigma drivers have always been mounted with double sided tape to the baffle which is far from optimal imho. Some form of clamping mechanism would be far superior and provide the mechanical coupling the drivers need to get rid of any resonance. My ideal Lambda would really be an open version of the 4070, same arc assembly but the drivers mounted in an aluminum/resin sandwich.

Congratulations Dad!!!

Not only that but a lot of very expensive DHT's... . I'll build one sooner or later though

Reading between the vague marketing speak, the drivers are the same size but now everything inside them is smaller to accommodate the external frame. Less panel area which wouldn't be a bad thing but I can't wait to get my grubby hands on one of these...

When I had the SRM-T2 project I looked up how much heat it would take to cook an egg. Turns out to be 60

Hehe, I had all but forgot about that little bugger... I'm listening to it now off my APL and it has no right to sound this good driving the SR-007.

Happy Birthday little guy...

Well there are always those 2100V transistors...

The original with chassis mounted heatsinks running at full power. Working with side mounted sinks takes a lot of work and skill which most of the people building this amp simply don't have. So now there is a less powerful version with board mounted sinks which anybody can build. This will be the standard DIY version with the PSU also using board mounted sinks.

You need less than a minute to know the KGSS eats the Exstata for breakfast unless you honestly think that's how your headphones should sound. I've gone further then most to test this too and used the exact same PSU, pot, etc. to test both circuits and it isn't close. Still the Stax mafia approved Exstata isn't far off and that should make things more interesting. I really have to get cracking on that PSU though... This is NoNoNoNoNoNo though, we all know he's got some serious mental issues

The present KGSSHV design uses board mounted sinks to make it an easier project for the noobs (lets just look past the whole +/-500V aspect ) but I for one will also build the full, balls to the wall, version.

Must be a stupidity thing...

The Fluke's all have 10M input Z which isn't enough for measuring after the ballast resistor. A VTVM will do the trick though... The diaphragm to stator distance on any of the normal bias Stax models is 0.3mm which means the phones could handle at least 400-500V of bias if the drive voltages stay low enough and the air isn't excessively humid. I've run normal bias phones at Pro bias (580V) and it is fine as long as you don't push the volume to high. Now the Pro's will handle a lot more voltage, the SR-007 doesn't care at all about 900V bias... The thermal spec for any SS component is the junction temp which is impossible to measure properly. I for one wouldn't push any transistor much past 90

The problem I'm having is mostly to do with the horrible Zebra software. Too lazy to make up a new template though

Since the bias is essentially an open circuit then 233v before the ballast resistor is correct. Glad to hear the new caps worked well for you. They certainly are smaller too...

Let's have the mods do it. Can't stop them PM'ing you...

The Lp2844 is a nightmare. We have one in the bakery and the fucking thing is haunted...

I think this is just random or it could somehow factor into some new model scheme they are working on. I have no idea where the 4070 came from... I dunno but I placed a bid anyway...

Could be the baffle (normally aluminum) or some new form of plastic for the frame. Stax did the same with the 1987 Signature but never indicated what the change really was...

Crap, crap, crap!!!! Most certainly a new driver design so I have to buy one... Rumor has it that Stax will indeed release a new portable system but I have no details on it...

The only way is Stax...