johnwmclean

Cant’t recommend high enough...

This is my latest to add to the growing collection, I think a may have a problem... oh well. This is a Simon Marty guitar, it features his innovative radial bracing, the back and sides are ancient Huon pine, salvaged before a dam flooded a valley, estimated between 1000 -1500 years old, the neck is Australian rosewood and the top is spruce.

Kazuhito Yamashita 25 March 1961 – 24 January 2026

priority SINAD, nothing else matters

Here in Australia it was a very similar situation, lots of bashings and murders of gay men throughout the seventies and eighties, I can’t imagine how awful that would have been for a gay man growing up with all that going on. Steve I truly admire your bravery, you must have very big balls. Btw I’m the happy father of a gay son, I’m more proud than I could ever have imagined to be.

Happy Birthday!

The ESS has a noise floor of -135db, I don’t know if any analog volume controls can compete.

This is a my new classical guitar made by local luthier Trevor Gore. The guitar has a most of Trevors innovations incorporated, this weekend I’ll get to meet Trevor and collect my new baby. https://goreguitars.com.au/innovation/

If this product was launched 20 years ago I’m going to guess it would have failed, but 2023 has stupidity is on mass.

I do prefer them. Stats do that ethereal hyper detailed thing, it’s an impressive and addictive listen, whilst the DCA Expanse is understated in presentation, neutral to a fault. I prefer the realism from the DCA, its faithfulness to the recording without imposing. Another aspect is how well they match with my Chord Mojo 2 / Chord Poly, having portably this good is just incredible. For me the penultimate Stat proposition no longer makes much sense.

FWIW with 2 X 100VA the GRLVs are not going to run hot, you can mount them to the base plate.

having the amps boards stacked like that you won't be able to bias the lower board if needed. Just ensure there’s adequate space, maybe longer standoffs.

As a rule of thumb try and keep the transformer as far away from the amp boards as possible. Board placement depends a great deal on whether you’re building a two box or one box chassis. Implementing a two box with an an external psu you do have the luxury of having the amp boards at the back close to the inputs and like Pars mentioned you can then use a long shaft for the volume pot. Btw I’ve not had any had hum issues when using fully encapsulated transformers.

Late to the party. Happy Birthday Steve!

I use the Hakko FRF-301 as well, I need a few more tips to compliment for different scenarios, but very happy with mine aside from being a little pricey.

Had the Expanse for a few days, I like them a real lot, the best headphones I’ve heard to date. This is a new dawn and a bleak future facing my E-stats longevity. I was thinking these would compliment the SR-007 MK 2 / Carbon but this really is a take over.

Having owned a DCA Aeon Noire for a while the DCA Stealth got me interested. I like what Dan is trying to achieve, with the introduction of the Expanse I couldn’t resist the urge to buy another flagship. So I have an Expanse incoming, will be pairing it with a CFA2. I do not like the dicky naming of the products, minor gripe hopefully I’m happy with what the Expanse brings to the table being that I love what the Noire achieves at its price point. Will be updating with impressions when I’m ready, has anybody heard or owned a DCA Stealth or Expanse?

Done. Go Nate!

Happy Birthday!

The black front panel looks amazing! Congrats!