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LOL i was just about to post that!

BTW I share your opinion about the HF-1. That can has no business sounding that good. It puts the hugest grin on my face when I walk around - folks must think i'm a psycho stalker when I'm hitting the pavement.

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I like that, love the Greek mythology reference...

...just pray your orpheus doesn't get thrashed by thoracians

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jason,

i am a person but not the lucky one. i wish it was mine. i accidently sat on the lucky b's he90 & resulting in a slightly reshaped headband & the left ear piece is a bit dented. it's not so bad that sennheiser can't repair it given enough time & skilled recrafters. it now has some character. maybe the mystery owner wants to sell it to me now before he sees the damage.

i don't know why justin went to all the trouble to build an amp for which there are so few headphones. it must have been a labor of love & the love resulted in one hell of fine sounding amp for the he90. it is truely a 1st class he90 amp & worthy of an hev designation. those few lucky dogs that got in on the he90 now have a worthy amp option. i have not heard another worthy amp out there at the present time with the exception of sennheiser's hev-90. justin, you out did yourself this time. congratulations on a great sounding amp. i was really impressed with the result. i found it natural, easy with authority & pleasure to listen to. i feel honored to be one of the 1st to hear this outstanding he90 amp. all i need is a he90 & then i can place my order.

besides the he-90, i have to comment on the grado hf-1 which i heard for he 1st time. i was not expecting anything new & different but it is & i really liked the sound & i was surprised to find out the price. it is a fine headphone at a really good price & a lot of fun to listen to, imo. i only heard it with the ae-1 & it was a winning combo.

three he90's in one room at the same time & to that hirsch reminded us that 1% of the world's production was on hand. how cool is that?

it is always a good day when i can hang out & listen to he90's & a he60.

It was another great meet at Hirsch's place, he was, as always, a great host well until we started dissing his R10's, then I thought Stevio and I were going to get thrown out on our ear!

CAVEAT - I only heard the HeadAmp prototype with some Fisher branded Telefunken's Hirsch had around not with the JJ Tesla's that were in it to begin with so my comments are based on those tubes.

The 007t was a nice little amp but wasn't in the same league as the HeadAmp prototype. Switching back and forth between these two made it instantly clear who was the big dog at this meet. Without the HeadAmp prototype to compare against it probably would have been a very enjoyable experience. With the HeadAmp amplifier there to compare against it was shown up pretty thoroughly. Likewise with the HE-60's. they were nice but weren't in the same league as the HE-90's. I did get to hear the Stax 007t and the HE-60's paired up after Hirsch changed the pads on the HE-60's and the sound (in absolute terms) was first rate. Considering the price difference, it's a pretty hot setup but by direct comparison, it isn't in the same league as the HeadAmp/HE-90 combo. In particular what both these components lack compared with their big brothers is the same amount of weight and realism to the music.

The HeadAmp prototype and the HE-90s were a wonderful setup. They did not really sound like the only Orpheus I've heard, bozebutton's. Of course there were some major differences in the setups. When I heard the Orpheus, it had Siemens tubes in it and was being driven by bozebutton's EMM setup. So comparing the two of them is fraught with danger at best, but hey, that's what we're here for right?

The Orpheus was notable for it's smoothness and the way it reproduced vocals in particular. It wasn't the fastest or most detailed experience I've had but it just got soooo many things right that it was magic. It was really a setup that you could put on and drift away with, it was magic in many ways. In comparison the HeadAmp prototype was more detailed and better defined. I didn't think I'd ever find myself typing this, but in my opinion, the Meridian was bottle necking what the amplifier and headphones could do.

The HeadAmp prototype was tighter and better defined than the Orpheus system I've heard previously with a crisper leading edge. I was having a hard time relaxing to the system though since it took me 5 hours to make a 3 1/2 hour drive to the meet because of traffic and I had some stress built up. So while I really couldn't drift away to the music, that might have been a personal issue! It also seemed much faster than I remember the Orpheus. The "slowness" of the Orpheus is part of it's charm though since it makes audio elements like human voices sound incredibly real while with the HeadAmp, they were less smooth. Of course the down side of the Orpheus behavior was noticeable when I was listening to it since it had some trouble with powerful bass from a reggae track. The HeadAmp prototype had no such problem, it handled the same bass with aplomb. I personally think the tubes and the source were partly the cause of the difference and the better quality components used throughout the HeadAmp amplifier also resulted in some of the difference. My gut feeling is that the HeadAmp prototype would surpass the HEV-90 on technical measurements alone but as with many things audio, I would need a lot of time and consideration to decide which I preferred. So bozebutton's you can send over the HEV-90 when I get my HeadAmp amplifier and we'll get cracking on a real comparison. Oh yeah, and the EMM labs gear too!

The bottom line on this is that it's the first amplifier that I have heard other than the HEV-90 which I would spend my money on and recomend to others. Even after Justin had left Stevio, Hirsch and I were sitting around talking about how much we enjoyed his amplifier and how well it had come out. After the last NY electrostatic meet I had voiced some hesitation over how well this project would come out based on the difficulties Justin had to overcome to make it work. Those concerns have now been laid to rest!

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I concur completely. After the NY meet, I was sweating if I would actually be able to find an electrostatic amp for an HE90 at all. This is the first amp other than the HEV90 that I can unhesitatingly recommend for use with the HE90.

I third that recommendation! No clone references please, as it does a disservice to Justin's fine work.

This is indeed great news for HE90 owners. I look forward to hearing it one day. Quote:



Hirsch, have you (or anyone else) found that tuberolling produces significant differences?

I am seriously considering this amp for my HE-60. The KGSS has the speed but misses the midrange tonality completely for the Senn cans. I was going to get a 007t, but I may have changed my mind.

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We tried two different tubes besides the stock JJ Tesla's in the driver position. There was some noise out of one of the 5751's, and it's possible that the 5751 may not be good substitute for the 12AX7 in this circuit. Fisher-branded Telefunken smooth-plates were another story, and gave a touch more tonality and definition to just about everything.

It's worth noting that this amp does not autobias. When you change tubes, you need to go in with a meter and insure that you've biased the amp properly for the new tubes (adjustments are made with trimpots).

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Just so you guys know this name is already in use and extensively as the "Euridice".do a search and you will see thousands of hit complete with schematics (SE WOT Line stage Preamp)

I don't think changing a single letter in a name then mating it to a "version" of an already a known amp to be a very good wedding.

Just my opinion.

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One note, the amp comes with jacks for the HE-90 and the Stax headphones. We didn't get to try the Stax so I can't say how good it would be but you would probably want to hang onto that Stax to HE-60 adapter...

I just got word from Justin: The amp will be called the Aristaeus.

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An ancient Greek pastoral deity, the son of Apollo and the nymph Cyrene, but also Uranus is mentioned as his father. Aristaeus was made immortal by Gaia. He is the patron of the hunt, agriculture, cattle, and especially bee-culture. Aristaeus also taught mankind how to cultivate olives.


THIS JUST IN!

Although generally considered good, he was indirectly responsible for Eurydices death. When he tried to seduce her, she fled into the forest and was bitten by a snake.


I love it- responsible for Eurydice's death, how appropriate to this discussion!

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So the amp is named after the dude who tried to violate Orpheus' wife? What exactly is Justin trying to suggest?

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And thus responsible for causing Orpheus to become a recluse...which is not suggestive of what the amp is trying to accomplish.

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which is not in the realm of possibility considering the Euridice is widely recognised as a quality preamp and is not only built widely but used in many systems of extremely high quality,many the match of the ultimate available at any price.