DefQon

How long usually is shipping from China to Iceland on your end? Sent from my LG-D855 using Tapatalk

There is a trace going from that pin on the tube socket to the bottom on the left most 50k 5watt Riken resistor, so if a blue wire is added there then it could be the previous owner attempted some repair or modification and damaged the solder pad or trace and bypassed it with a blue wire. There are two 100uf 250/350v capacitors for filtering paralleled on the opposite side where you have circled in red. There are additionally two other axial capacitors (22uf 500v on mine) that are separate one on each side, you can't bypass them into a single 100uf capacitor as it's best to have the energy storage separate for the two sections. Judging from the picture the previous owner fitted some very large sized film? based capacitors and fit them onto the outside of the PCB. I would recommend removing them and go with 2 22uf 500v axial electrolytics and fit in them in the original place, make sure they are of appropriate size as the standoffs holding the PCB and the clearance between it and the centre chassis quite limited in measurement. Also every Stax schematic has errors in it, including that SRA-3S schematic.

I tried searching for the relevant results of 6c p power tubes and all I got was multiple references to porn sites. That said I think its supposed to say Matched at the end rather then Marcheo or (Marched). The glass envelope reminds me of the GU50 type tubes.

Dalbani are crooks, bought 100 or so 1968's few years ago when I had John's old KGSSHV offboards and luckily with the Dy294 on hand they all had a break down voltage of 190ish to 320. Then I bought 10 1968's from a supplier in China for around $40, they tested all fine and dandy and are still in use today in a KGSSHV I helped a friend build. Lots of fake 2SC3675, 2SA1967 and 1968's floating about so have to becareful.

Happy Birthday Wachara!

I like the case work.

Well the case with Lambda drivers they are held down by a very strong resin which hardens over time when dried, one of the Stax repair distributors I have been in contact with also told me that older Stax Lambda drivers are replaced if damaged rather then physically repaired. When not in stock and the client allows, they will replace with a different but modern in production driver.

With balanced lemo connectors on the back?

On the technical side, spritzer is right it drastically cuts down the lifespan of the parts inside. Don't forget capacitors have a limited lifespan and heat does take a toll on resistors over time as well. Once parts start to drift outside of there rated specification hell can break loose on the amplifier.

I think a little bit of coffee came out of my nose.

QFT, the Q/K701/702 has always sounded artificial to these ears and the 501 and 601 are vastly superior imo.

I'm going to start putting in KT66 and KT88's in place where EL34's are required in my amps. I'll post pictures of the aftermath if it happens.

Well aside from whatever and whenever Guttenberg says something is the best which I tend to ignore, the Mal Valve ain't that bad, but is on the pricey side and the input and outputs are all on the backside.

Your son is very lucky Larry.

I've actually heard the Mal Valve last Spring at another head-fier's house and to my surprise was well made from eye view and sounded quite good with the 009 and 007's we tried. Think KGSSHV sound but a tad bit sweeter with the 009 and tad bit meatier with the O2 MK1's. It drove the HD800's well too but lacked a bit of upper register clarity with the the orthos I brought over. I would even think Birgir and Kevin would commend a few points the Mal Valve is able to deliver if they had a listen and play with one.

Yeah I was browsing some of the ones with black dial and gold rim but my options was the upper range of the Chronographs or the Grand Seiko Spring Driver's, all of which are well above what I want to spend on (>$800). I'm not getting you grawk.

I'm more of a bottom also because it has the black. What about you grawk?

I'm in shopping for some new Seiko watches and would appreciate if some of you HC'ers help me decide. So far I'm torn between these 2:

Nope, but what transformer adaptors can offer is large volume headroom (depending on the amplifier back end it is driven from) but at the loss of some bit of detail, roll off compared to even a Stax amplifier (so the difference is fairly substantial compared to a KGSS and up). OR... You can be a complete moron and buy eric65's shilled to no end Audiovalve Verto.

Was that Larry in the video as in HeadphoneAddict?

I could imagine clipping if volume is a little above normal listening 89db or so or driving heavier loads.

Any pictures of them? Now I wonder when they come out will they be a success (Stax) or a flop (Kingsound, Hifiman/HEaudio)?

I converted my ECR-400 to full blown stats. Haven't touched the 500 yet except the drivers are removed and just need to be re-assembled.

Actually the SRM-3 has a vertical raiser PSU PCB with the transformer directly soldered. You need to desolder the grey wire from the 100 or 117v position (comes from the switch or fuse) and that goes to the 230v pad and then solder the centre windings from 0 to 120v for dual primary 240v AC input. I wouldn't be surprised if you have a completely different transformer in the amp though.

Sennheiser HD540 II Gold? I recall Padam selling everything off on headfi few years ago.