spritzer

Nothing wrong with that.

Looks good and the only thing I would have done differently is to rotate the PSU 180°. That moves the AC wiring to the other side so it's not running with all the DC and output lines.

Just checked the thread on HF and I think Dan might indeed be retarded as he got zapped by a Stax plug? First of all, not on anything we or Stax have built. Any idiot knows we put protective measures in place so the risk of a short is non existent. I just love fear mongering like this which has no basis in reality as he's trying to sell the HF idiots onto his stupid idea. So he's going to include adapters anyway to use with the Stax standard and this is somehow makes it easier to source the plug? Yet he is working with some company on a custom plug but they can't make a Stax plug? I mean how stupid is this shit? Also, Stax don't own the plug even if they have used it for 57 years. It is a common design which was widely used back in the day but has only really survived on microphones. Any claims of payments to Stax for the use of "their" plug are just... well fucking stupid. Lastly, he thinks that people will want to use this in a portable setting? Making a portable amp is not easy and well past the know how of most amplifier manufacturers. Any idiot can make something like the King Sound M-03 as it is just opamps feeding transformers. Sounds like shit too... The reality is that most people want to use their portable phones at home. I've certainly received numerous requests to make a home amp for the Shure KSE1500.

Horrible analog stages is just the beginning.

That's always the best way. Naturally using the line out as we don't need to fancy dac's!!

The gain is indeed the real killer here. You can't have super low noise and high gain. Unless you know... magic!!

It would be even better if impregnated with resin to stabilize it. It could have some really impressive specs

I do predict we will see a normally driven HE1 at some point. I've certainly asked for it.. Ohh and I did request a quote for the HE1 system.

This is exactly the point, how hard is it to make a fully Stax compatible electrostatic.... well it's fucking easy. All the required specs are out there and if it is any good (read not Jade or King Sound) it will sell. On the other hand you have the Floats who nobody cares about any more. Seriously, there is no chatter about them at all. As for the amps, well I know for a fact that cheap electrostatic amps is a non starter. People just don't want them, they only want the really expensive stuff. These are also not the basically line level dynamic amps which can be made quite cheaply. There are no cheap high voltage transistors, even in bulk and opamps are only useful for the input of these.

More like solid milled silver housings and shit like that...

I know I look forward to taking them apart.

Happy birthday Kerry!! Now go and build something!!

Since we are on the topic of Darwin awards, turns out Mr. Speakers is now in the front running as he has decided the Stax plug just won't do and we need something new... Ever since he posted this nugget of stupidity a few hours ago my inbox has been flooded with people wondering if he's actually retarded. So his logic is that the Stax plug is somehow difficult and expensive so something cheaper is needed. Well as it stands this is probably the cheapest safe connector possible for the voltages present and its super low capacitance also helps a lot. They are also cheap and pretty easy to make as well even without going the Stax way of using injection molding. They also last for a long time, my 1961 SR-1's still work just fine with everything original. I've never met the man but everybody who's talked to him about his new phones says he has astonishingly little insight into what actually makes electrostatics tick and this further confirms that.

Good point.... "goes off to draw up plans to build a 39k$ amp and then measure it..."

Yup...

...and that signal to noise ratio. Not possible in the universe and nothing can measure that low but amazing none the less...

I love it!!! I also need a mill...

The B+ fed through a voltage divider will work just fine. Just be warned that it is an epic pain to get the Stax sockets out of the chassis.

Bryston and quality? You surely are joking as Bryston is a special level of crap and bad engineering.

There are no windings there. The transformers are now 100V only.

Blown capacitors, blown transistors and other nice things...

Well they would probably ask him to do it and then fuck up the design afterwards...aka the 717. That would also be very different because they would manufacture it, why would they get some way subpar company to make something to their specs which has no good use in the signal path. Just doesn't make any sense. Much more sensible is that this is either pure and utter BS or they share the same distributor somewhere and it was them who asked for the "match" so sell more crap.

I think all of that is untrue in every possible sense. Why on earth would Stax get somebody else to design a preamp for them? Seriously?

It's not the problem if the tubes are within their operating spec.

I have the HF5's and they are quite nice. Silly level of isolation and perfect for casual music listening. Funny story about them, my regular walks usually take me through the grounds of the presidential residence. This is Iceland so no guards but the presidents chauffeur stopped me a while back for a chat (we know each other enough to say hi). He said "I tried calling for you yesterday but you didn't reply. I thought you were so full of yourself that you didn't want to chat!" I showed him the HF5's and just how much they isolate...