jamesmking

You may be happy with a basic stax system but the problem is that if you are not used to electrostatic sound (I also run Quad 2805 electrostatic speakers) there is a big difference in sound to most moving coils. The electrostatics offer very good transparency and speed but for me bass and overall warmth has been an issue that seems to require throwing money at to solve.... I have a stax srm006T and sr4040 which I found to be rather bright and the bass was rather mushy. As the volume is turned up the bass gets mushier but no louder and the treble just dominates. It sounds fast and detailed this way but I am very sensitive to poor bass.... I managed to buy a pair of sr007a second hand but could not afford to upgrade the srm006T. to an srm007T. The overall ballance was a bit better than the sr4040s and there was a more natural, less bright and hard sound, but the bass was still mushy and it just ran out of steam even quicker - I guess it could not drive the sr007a... I built a alpha centauri (http://www.high-amp.de/html/hybrid-amp_eng.html) earlier this year - The alpha bettered the srm00t in every way It does not run out of steam, macro and micro dynamics are better imaging is better - it was my first serious diy build and I learnt a lot from building it. I was especially grateful that the power supply has full short circuit protection on the +-400V and was extremely robust.... I managed to "measure" the +400V supply with my multimeter in resistance mode ? . Some sparking at the test probes and the 400V went into over current protection... no damage done and months later its still working fine... (the multimeter survived too - a brymen bm869s which can handle 1000V in any imode). The designer of the alpha claims that you can even short the +400 and -400 together and the psu will survive. My only issue with the alpha is that the sound stage is rather flat and has no real depth and mid and upper bass is a bit lacking. . I read reviews of the blue hawaii and the descriptions made me think it would be my kind of amp - but there was no way I was ever going to afford to buy a prebuilt.... So I’m up for building one... To summarise, from my experience the modern stax amps from Stax are not good - and they certainly do not have a good reputation online. I think they are over-priced especially given the build quality - thin bent steel. I don’t think the 6cg7 has enough drive to get the job done. The 6sn7 of the alpha is better and I am hopping the el34 of the blue hawaii will be better still... If you have the time, equipment and skills to build a diy amp I highly recommend it. You can get far better sound for far less than the commercial offerings and learn a lot in the process. regards James

Hi all, Im planning to build a blue hawaiii using the version 6s bipolar amp boards (kgbhver6sbipolar.zip) and the kgsshv dual 2 new power supply, (kgsshvpssicfetdual2new.zip) Gerber files are in https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B_iJFfZStuVhSE5nOHBVdTByR1k Has anyone tried this combination? will the psu provide sufficent current (the voltages are fine +-400V -+15V and 580V) Does anyone know what ratings I need for the transformer Im guessing for the secondaries 2x 6.3 5A (el34s draw about 1.5A each plus I want plenty of headroom) 2x 360V 230mA 18-0-18V 200mA Does the kgsshvpssicfetdual2new offer delayed start for the +-400V? Is it robust and have any form of short circuit protection on its outputs? Sorry to ask so many questions. I could not find circuit diagrams for the kgbhver6sbipolar or the kgsshvpssicfetdual2new.. so I have been reverse engineering from the gerber files... which is not fun and a slow process... regards James