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spritzer

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Posts posted by spritzer

  1. Interesting. So the took a proven design and put it into a pretty box with lots of shiny stuff, and made it worthy of the HE-90's.

    What I don't understand is, if the design did not use $$$ from Senn's R&D department and the headphones are pretty good in the detail department, but there isn't really anything too expensive in the build materials, then why would it be a losing venture at $15K in '95 for the set? :-\

    The amp is far from worthy of the headphones. It does cover up some of the HE90's shortcomings but that's not a good thing in my book but it's clear the Sennheiser should stick with headphone design.

    They did not loose money on the amplifier. Although the R&D to do that stupid

    multi output switcher in a box that size was not trivial either. Fact is the electronic

    parts inside the he90 including the circuit boards were of very low quality.

    The onboard bitstream dac was even worse.

    Justin's amp sounds better, is quieter and better built than the original.

    I own one, i should know.

    They ate it bigtime on the headphones. Special machinery to make the ultra thin

    glass stators. More special machinery to etch the holes in the glass. Even more

    machinery including very large vacuum chambers to put the conductive film on the

    stators. For a world wide total of less than 100 units. 20 to 30 of which never left

    the factory.

    These days for a company like Sharp or Samsung who is making the same kind of stuff

    for lcd panels this would be a slam dunk. On the otherhand Sharp just spent 5 billion

    on a new plant in mexico to make and coat the glass so the setup costs are not cheap.

    The Aristaeus is a large step up but I'm going to find out just how good it can be loaded with caps that aren't French made crap and some tweaks here and there. I just can't bring my self to buy one of the 12 Aristaeus amps I can have and hack it up. It's far to pretty.

    There were about 340 HE90's made in total with who knows how many spare drive units stored away. Still the investment is insane when compared to the thousands of SR-007's sold.

  2. no, not really. check out the very first episode, he had different speakers. i remember finding out what they were a while ago and they seemed pretty high end to me.

    They were Audiostatic long throw electrostatic speakers without the wings. Great speakers that look too cool at least much cooler the the Martin-Logan crap

  3. The SR-Omega is gorgeous. In my top 5 best looking headphones :)

    They are simply stunning in person. Its quite sad that something this beautiful and well built is this fragile... :(

    The SR-Omega + KGSS sounds so good I'm wondering why I have other headphones, or need other amps. This is definitely the best-quality sound I've heard from a headphone, along with the HE90. I would rank the SR-007 a small step below the Omega and HE90 due to its darker sound.

    As good as the HE60, 4070, R10, L3000, PS-1 and K1000+Cary 300SEI are, those are the Big 3 for me.

    Well, the SR-Omega is discontinued and there's always the possibility that it stops working. Maybe I shouldn't listen to it often.

    You should hear it with the Blue Hawaii... there is mad synergy there. It's clear that the KGSS isn't doing the SR-007 justice since you find them darker then the SR-Ω. They do actually sound pretty similar with the SR-007 a million miles better at everything...

    I think not using them is the worst you can do to them. That will cause much more stress on the drivers when they are indeed used. If anybody knows about a broken set please let me know as there ways I'd like to try to fix them permanently...

  4. Have you tried putting omega 2 pads on them? I think the deeper pads well help alleviate some of the comfort problems with the SR-5

    I haven't tried that though I might try some O1 pads as I have some extra ones. The SR-007 pads were pretty bad on the SR-X though...

  5. They really are quite good, especially the Gold versions or N (NB for the black one) as Stax called them. They are more euphonic then the other phones but still manage to convey the essence of each performance. Only if the comfort was up to the Lambda level...

  6. Stax went the same way as Quad because they lost money on some of the production lines while others produced most of the revenue. That is a very stupid way to run a business.

    There is nothing original about the Orpheus setup except the highly diffused earpieces. Every He90 owner needs to swap the L & R inputs from time to time to see how odd these things really are... :o

  7. Those that haven't payed 70-100% in import taxes shouldn't really be commenting on this. Am I going to pay 70% on my new 8k$ CDP? Not a chance in hell but it looks like things are going to change here soon.

    Well, I had payed 1070 Euros including the costs of return shipment for the repair, and Rudi threw some very nice NOS tubes in for free in order to temper my anger after he had realized that threatening me wasn't the best idea.

    Compared to the prices of Stax amps in Germany I wouldn't exactly call it nuts especially when you take into account that I was able to sell it for 1140 Euros about half a year later via ebay.de.

    The sad part is he can price his amps this high because of the crazy Stax prices in Europe but there is no reason why they should be so expensive. The parts quality and build quality in the Rudistor amps is much worse then the penny pinched Stax amps and their only saving grace is a slightly better tube compliment...

    I am wondering if I need to do any kind of service on the SR-5?

    Does it make sense to take them apart and clean them inside?

    And if so, can someone point me to a guide for doing so?

    Thanks

    To open up the SR-5 you remove the pads by pulling them off (they could be held in place by two pieces of adhesive) but should come off easily. There are 3 screws underneath and once they are gone the housing splits in two. I see no reason to open them up as unless you want to clean them properly and then stay far away from the drivers...

  8. C'mon, it's not that bad.

    I once did own a Rudistor amp with a very special self destruction circuit.At first glance it was admittedly horrible, but it's not true that Rudi doesn't understand it.

    He even tried to explain it to me, a layman.The slow blow fuse was extremely slow though if you ask me and therefor the only way to stop the amp emitting dark smoke like mount etna was to pull the plug out of the wall but what do I know.

    Besides of that I do rate the amps better than you here at this forum.Sonically they are certainly not that special as Nik, Markl et al hype them but the amps for dynamic cans I've owned are quite decent for low Z cans and I did like the Egmont better than the Stax amps for the Lambdas.

    I agree though they are too expensive for what they provide (basically decent mid-fi), but what is not? I've always found for instance the Meier amps, the Headroom amps, the Lehmann BCL, the CEC amps, the Vincent amps and last but not least the Stax amps overprized as well, at least in central Europe.

    The Egmont is pretty simple with a floating output stage with no ground reference so it should sound better then a Stax amp but the sound will change a great deal with the tubes as they age and change. Also paying 1400euro for something like that is just nuts.

    I watched the thread about your Egmont adventures with excitement but like so many before, it disappeared. ::)

    The best way nowadays IMO is to underdeclare the value and to ship it via USPS/DHL.The latter means low customs handling fees (UPS for instance is extremely expensive).Underdeclaring means to keep the declared value above the threshold where they might suspect fraud.When I import $1500 headphones I ask the seller to declare it to be worth $150.In the eyes of a customs officer $150 is already expensive and lazy as he is he won't research the real value.

    This way it slips through fast and without hassles.

    That's what I would do as well.... ::).... ;D.... it's also wise to have a record of payment for the declared amount as so two Paypal transactions would be wise...

    What kind of criteria is required for converting a speaker-based tube amp into an electrostat amp? I'd love to try this with a 45 or 2A3 amp.

    You need a push pull amp and you tap into the signal at the primary of the output transformer so you need to bypass it (or turn it off) and then put a capacitor on each phase and even a resistor bridge to create a 0v point between the + and - outputs. It would also be wise to put a resistor in series with each cap to limit ultimate current.

  9. Spritzer - I think that Ray and Rudi should really be in their own group, separate from Peter. They have completely different issues...

    Even though you had good results from dealing with McAlister you are the minority. Badly designed and built amps that are really still in the prototype form and not ready for a public release. He could get better though while the other two are just getting worse...

  10. Yay, brainfart. I was thinking about the 10 MOhm bias and somehow the word bias slipped in instead of voltage swing. Thanks for spotting it.

    The 10mOhm is simply the size of the bleeder resistor for Sennheiser headphones. Not recommended for Stax usage as they work best with 4-5mohms

  11. I've never really understood why Rudistor electrostatic amps are so ill-received. Please educate me! I'll do a search too... ;D

    A link for the initiated: http://www.rudistor.com/coriolan.htm

    Hmmmm let me think... >:D.... insane prices for what you get, really bad build quality, horrible circuits that Rudi barely understands himself but are so simple a child could build them. For 10k? I'd expect something more then a 12ax7 tied to EL34's. Heck I'd just buy a Dynaco 70 and put in a new input stage and have a similar amp... for 500$...

    Ah, the joys of collecting...

    Talk to me again when you reach 30 phones and have to find a way to store them all... ;D

  12. I cant do it. I cant keep up the lie. I want them and I cant have them. I didnt really buy them.

    Im so weak.

    You'll buy them some day, thats all that matters. It's so nice to know what speaker you are going to buy and keep for the next 30 years, not like those dynamic idiots that drift from one coffin to the next. :D

  13. Oh, so I wasn't crazy when I noticed that the SRM-T1 sounds quite after a few days of being on (versus on the first day after the supposed initial warm-up period).

    It is mostly SS so no wonder it needs to warm up. The Blue Hawaii is pretty crummy for the first 3 hours but then begins to shine.

    Nice. It's nice to know that I don't have to worry too much about how much power my amp needs to provide for the SRD-7.

    It's all about the voltage so it's really the gain that is important. The transformers are so horribly undersized that they don't need all that much current.

  14. Is the T1 still the better amp? I'm thinking of getting a T1 or 007t (maybe the former because it's much cheaper).

    I would stick with the 006t and upgrade further to something like a KGSS, KGST or WOO GES. I do prefer the T1 and it's really good when it's been powered on for about 3 days and more.

    Oh wow. Very nice. Only 3wpc needed? I knew there wasn't a lot of power needed but it surprises me 3 watts is enough. Might have to try to obtain a listen from such an amp with my SRD-7 MkII sometime. It's a shame the local dealers never have anything of that calibre in for listening tests. :(

    The SRD-7 need so little current that they will be fine with less than a watt but the amp should have more headroom so 3-5w is sufficient. I'll be getting a Dynahi soon and I'll outfit it with Stax transformers just for kicks... ;D

  15. I just had the option of hearing a preamp with a Alps HQPro and then it was switched out with a standard stepped attenuator using Riken resistors. Yeah, I'd take the HQPro any day...

    random, but I noticed that there's one for sale at diyaudio with pics :)

    http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=112437

    THe RK50 is in a league of its own. It's the standard pot in the Kondo preamps and the upgrade is a huge Shalco switch with hand made silver resistors. Costs something like 3k$...

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