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AI language bot, sad new reality of the internet… these things might be convincing one day. Google the user name and see the activity just today…

It’s just an AI language bot in testing - Google the user name and see how many forums it’s joined and posted on today.

There will be plenty of demand for DIY repairs; this is what my second set of Shangri La drivers looked like after just over two years. You will be one busy man. The first set had a rattle in the right driver and was replaced, also. Build dates were 2018, 2019, 2022. The last Hifiman warranty replacement took 6 months to arrive. Traded the new set for what I paid for them - a little more than a moldy bread sandwich. At least the Hifiman sandwich comes with a 5 year warranty.

The sound: it’s spectacular! Compared to a Stax SRM-007tii with 60’s Mazda Brimar 6CG7’s or 50’s RCA long black plates with D getters, the sound is far more relaxed, analog, detailed, expansive, dynamic and musically involving. I can’t wait to get some NOS EL34’s in here. The Berkeley Reference DAC shows off the Megatron’s speed and transparency; the DAC and Megatron are both detail monsters. The Megatron is a far more capable amp when connected to the Berkeley Reference DAC than a current low-noise, low-distortion reference amp, such as the Topping A90, which I also have. The balanced inputs: dead quiet - perfect with the Wireworld Platinum 8 series XLR interconnects. The voltage gain: I can’t imagine needing any more gain than I’m getting with the 1958 Holland D foil getter E180CC’s (thanks to the community for the tip on these) and the 1948 RCA 5751 triple mica black plates. I will say that this amp takes a solid hour to warm up, however. Temperature: just touched 126F on the exterior of the right transformer case after a couple of hours - the internal temperature was typically within a couple of degrees when previously measured, likely due to the machined vents around the tubes. SMALL UPDATE: Kevin suggested some whisper fans to deal with the heat buildup; this is an excellent idea. Hum: there is none whatsoever, there is only dead silence, irrespective of where the pot is positioned - it’s absolutely impossible to tell whether the Megatron is on, when powered from a current-gen PS Audio regenerator set to 120V. Definitely T2 level stuff! I CANNOT THANK KEVIN ENOUGH

Hi Thuan and Acting Company - it took you a while to show up sporting your ramblings! First time poster but you’ve built some others of Kevin’s amps, have you? Still willing to helps others, are you? Makes sense that you’ve still got the Rev 1 boards, could never get those holes to line up with the chassis, eh? Wonder if the IP is VT, Singapore, or if Tran actually bothered to use a VPN?

This seems to be where most of Thuan's fls.audio recent sales are coming from... fls.audio | Super Best Audio Friends Felitsa Audio (fls-audio.blogspot.com) Anyone know Marv of SBAF to give him a heads-up? @rayofsi Any chance you could provide some hi res shots of your fls.audio CFA-3 build? And also possibly of your fls.audio Carbon: "I also have one of his KGSSHV Carbon builds he sold on ebay. It does some crazy inrush that my lights in my room dim a second when it turns on, but works well otherwise."

Megafixed by Kevin Gilmore! I love it! There has to be some way to flip that plaque over and re-etch

@gepardcv Yes, its the same Thuan, under 10 different characters and names, as quoted above; he made the mistake of replying to me under several different accounts over the past 2 years. I didn't fully put the pieces together until I read the complete DIY T2 build thread, in anticipation of receiving GeorgeP's build to replace his horrific amp. Thanks to Kevin fully gutting the Thuan fls.audio nightmare, it looks like I'll have two amps!

@tumpux Thuan is alive, actively selling, and not in a medically-induced coma this time around, either; he just sold a supposed Dynahai under fls.audio, yesterday: REFERENCE DYNAHI Super Symmetry Dual-Mono Fully Differential Headphone Amplifier | eBay I feel awful for all the people ripped off by this guy since circa 2009; why anyone in their right mind would post pictures of themselves, their sales receipts, shipping labels with US and VT addresses to flickr and leave them up for 12 years is simply beyond me... tee8tee4388 | Flickr

I believe this is the chassis used: 4308 rounded corners Full aluminum DAC chassis tubpower amplifier enclosure box | eBay I believe Kevin has also managed to salvage the following parts from the original build: 1. Aluminum knob (1pcs 50x27mm Gold Aluminum audio Knob Volume Control potentiometer | eBay) 2. Strip of unknown wood 3. Power switch 4. IEC inlet 5. 4x feet The total salvageable value of the parts was certainly under $150. The cheap Chinese tubes included were certainly worth under $100. Hence, the total as-delivered value of Thuan's amp was roughly -$8,600 CAD, or about -$6,000 USD at the time, -$5,000 USD for the amp itself, plus the cost of shipping, currency exchange, and a customs nightmare. Pretending that Kevin or anyone else would actually be crazy enough to charge a modest $150 an hour for their time to work through to completion on completely re-designing and re-building something so hellishly nightmarish, the cost of the estimated 50 hour repair and parts would come to: $9000 USD. Adding this to the acquisition cost would bring the total repaired cost to $15,000 USD. I doubt anyone else could actually be both qualified and convinced to work on it in the first place.

Adding to my embarrassment and frustration, these things were priced and even named similarly to Mikhail's Singlepower ES-1 and ES-2 stuff. This "Reference Megatron" (turns out not a Megatron at all) is stamped the "ESHA-2", and shares a chassis with the FLS Audio "ESHA-1", Tran's "845 DHT SET" amp, paraded around in his "custom would transformer" workshop on SBAF : 845 DHT SET electrostatic headphone amp | Super Best Audio Friends The first local head-case member to look at the amp (it was just returned yesterday) measured the "custom transformers"... they indeed are shot and need to be replaced, and it was two years before the amp blew up. Since my "Reference Megatron" fls.audio amp listed for 5.5K USD (and came out closer to 6K USD with the shipping nightmare from Vietnam), how long before all the other non-reference amplifiers sold under fls.audio on ebay blow up? Paramesh's amp lasted 15 minutes....

Tran’s exact Head-fi listing under user kytuphicanh was: FS/FT - Reference OTL PP Stax tube amp (Megatron) Cute. Wonder what else is missing in the build? We’ll know soon.

I apologize in advance if this is news to absolutely no-one, but after reading the entire DIY T2 build thread in anticipation of receiving my build from George, I was surprised to find a name and handle that looked familiar: Tran, and Lil Knight. A search showed that the schematics of the failed DIY T2 board/case buy were posted in 2013 by a fellow going by Lil Knight under blogspot account tee8tee84388… to my eyes, that rather unique Blogspot/Reddit/Flickr handle looks very familiar: Yes, this is the same Tran who later sold the DIY T2 parts kits on head-fi as kytuphicanh, which also happens to be the selfsame Tran that built my ‘Megatron’, stamped FLS Felitsa Audio. That incomplete sale, along with Paramesh’s, outlined earlier, resulted in kytuphicanh being banned (and mostly scrubbed, likely due to dozens of historical classified sales) on head-fi, and a warning placed under his alter ego, tranhieu. Tran is tee8tee4388 on reddit, tranhieu and kytuphicanh on head-fi, and fls.audio on sbaf and ebay… and we now know that you can presently message him as thuytn right here on head-case, since he so generously reached out, asking me to shut up about my dead ‘Megatron’, because it would ‘heavily affect his future sales’. Tran, aka Lil Knight, aka tee8tee4388 on blogspot, takes credit for posting his failed DIY T2 board buy schematics here (Posted by Lil Knight, 12:21am, Wednesday, July 31, 2013): http://tee8tee4388.blogspot.com/2013/07/t2-diy.html Tran aka tee8tee4388 takes credit for my rather ‘unique’ (and dead) Megatron on reddit: Fls.audio aka tee8tee4388 aka Lil Knight aka Tran takes credit for my Megatron build here on SBAF: https://www.superbestaudiofriends.org/index.php?threads/845-dht-set-electrostatic-headphone-amp.8740/ And Thuan Tran aka Lil Knight here shows off his Stax circa 2009, shipping labels and invoices on Flickr under the same tee8tee4388 user name, as he himself references in the below Reddit post: https://www.reddit.com/r/headphones/comments/a2dsoo/was_randomly_skimming_through_an_old_flickr/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/8128018@N06/page2 https://www.flickr.com/photos/8128018@N06/page4 This particular Tran quote on Reddit, as above, caught my eye (regarding Singlepower): “They stole lots of people’s money by not delivering amps. That sucks because their amps sounded very good, much better than the stuffs by Woo now.” Indeed, that ‘sucks’. How long was Singlepower around for? Who has filled the void? Tran’s ‘Megatron’ as sold to me omits all CCS loads, contains no inrush current limiting of any kind, has severely underrated power supply capacitors, a failed transformer/winding, and can hardly be called a ‘Megatron’ in the first place. Fls Audio ‘creations’ still sell today on Ebay. Buyer beware. You now know who you’re buying from.

Well, a couple of nice outcomes have arisen from the ire induced by the self-serving PM of thuytn , so far: First, upon reporting the head-fi PM (word-for-word identical to the one he simultaneously sent here), Head-fi moderators immediately flagged his current account https://www.head-fi.org/members/tranhieu.83205/ "Caution: Incomplete Sales". The account hasn't been wiped like the first account (with the T2 board and transistors), yet, since it doesn't seem he's actually sold anything via the current head-fi account. But there's always fls.audio on Ebay with a couple of auctions about to close, now... and I suspect there is already more than one unfortunate victim like Paramesh out there. Second, Thuan's "Megatron" is ready to go out the door to a member here who is more than capable of providing a comprehensive assessment. With gratitude, my thanks!

I’ve received several helpful replies You are very welcome to have a look without cost or obligation, and bin it, if that’s all it’s really good for. I don’t have high hopes for it, and George’s T2 is already near completion. It would be good to shed light on what this builder is actually doing. I get 80% off on UPS domestically, and it should be at your door next-day, within province. UPDATE: A very reputable member, local to me, has kindly agreed to take a look, and shed some light on this build... Thank you, all!