spritzer

DC supply for something like this is tricky. The heaters are sitting at -450VDC (or -400VDC if you run it at a lower voltage).

Not compared to the new Orpheus or the HifiMan... But yeah these aren't as cheap as I'd like them to be. The plan is at some point to make a desktop KGSSHV which would be more accessible in price.

A BHSE is north of 5K$. My KGSSHV's are all around 3k$ but I will probably be throwing a moving sale soon for some of them. Just to try and thin the heard a bit before I have to move the entire lab to the other peninsula here. The KGSSHV Carbon is the latest development of these circuits and for Kevin and I it matches or even surpasses the BH. We have a tube version too but I prefer to build solid state amps.

A KGSSHV isn't that expensive...

For me it boils down to the same evils that Quad was fighting back in the day, the 009 sounds like hifi while the 007/Omega sound like music. With the 009 there is the "look at this HF, isn't it lovely!! Look at it!!! All that detail!!" With the 007 and SR-Omega they have even more detail but never throw it in your face.

They just gather dust as I only use them for testing with amps. For me they are fundamentally broken as a design. Give me the 007 or SR-Omega any day. In fact, that's what I'm using now with two new Carbon's.

Stuff like this is all about the markup so one would have to layer it on thick! I have plans to make a set of headphones one day but who knows if it will ever happen... As for the topic at hand, I can't see anything here that would warrant such a price. I have fond memories of the Jade and there they showed zero clue what makes this stuff tick. When they were gone there was naturally the usual "OMG these were great" bullshit but they are still awful.

I got mine last year in October and they were clearly different.

Let's just look away that 300B's are in no way compatible for electrostatic use. This has audiophool written all over it... Me thinks Mjölnir Audio is up to the task of making a 80k$ amp/headphone combo. I wonder if I can cryo freeze some ice and use it as a part of the chassis....

Fang is supposed to have said it will be similar to the Orpheus II.... If so he has completely lost his marbles. Nothing they make is worth the asking price now based on the sound and the build quality, let alone something like this.

Yeah and you really don't want anything reflective on the back. So open and inert....which this isn't.

That back plate is all kinds of stupid. It's the HE Audio 1.3 all over again.

Stax can't keep up with demand is more likely.

There is no way PJ sent you a set since 2008 as they don't carry any stock.

Full voltage swing with a high enough input signal from most of these amps will burn the diaphragm. An amplitude twice the bias voltage or higher on either stator would be very bad indeed.

Stax serial numbers mean nothing.

Hard to say when the phones will be damaged but let's not play them with the DC rails floating on the stators. Anything short of that and they should be fine. Stax says the amps should be below 20V when warmed up but I think it is far too conservative. Doesn't matter if they are there or not. The amp certainly doesn't care.

Change the tail resistor for the offset pot and it should work.

The nut isn't a problem when attached to a PCB. The issue is is the pressure of the pin as they grip too much. They need to be opened up to the correct pressure

That's just the pins and they are easy to open up. Well a bit tedious when I had to do that to some 500 sockets...

No problem running this at +/-400V but it can go up +/-450V. We could even do something like the T2 CCS and push it even further.

This will form the basis of the new Blue Hawaii I'll build next year. Good thing here is that tube failure is far less catastrophic plus it should sound better.

You need more Flukes...

It may me Christmas but I'm not going to be so nice. That has to be the most stupid shit I've read all month.

I've never seen an LDR that measures at an acceptable level.