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Originally Posted by mikeg  Has Peter sampled this music on an EA-6 in his shop, and encountered the same problem? Have you tried this music on one of Peter's lower cost stat amps (e.g., his EA-1)? What's peter's suggestion for resolving this problem? Has he offered any ideas? BTW, I've just sampled 10,000 days, and Lateralus, and they are very different from the kinds of music that I usually listen to (i.e., classical orchestral music). Since you mentioned that the EA-6 seems to have better resolution that the BH, how well do you think that it performs in comparison with an HEV90, an ES-1, and an Aristaeus, for such music? Also, why did you select the likes of 10,000 days, and Lateralus, for evaluating the EA-6's performance?
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I have spent probably 10 hours on the phone with Peter over time discussing this design, MY TASTES, including gain requirements (MUST shake the pads off the phones), and explained in excruciating detail what I listen to. He understands this to a very intimate degree, and in excruciating detail. I have absolutely no idea as to how he tested, and to what degree, but this is REAL obvious, and will enlist some other indepentent observers to verify.
Tool is what I listen to almost daily, one or the other, along with a variety of other stuff (Jett - 'Shine On' and 'Get Born', B-52s, DEVO, The Who, etc), but I have to agree that this amp simply seems 'voiced' to classical, and just cannot handle compressed, distorted signal. This is not just an occasional observation - it makes the music almost unlistenable, and certainly less fun, almost stressful, thinking what this amp COULD be. The hints do not outweigh the obvious warts
Being that I am the PAYING customer, I can evaluate this amp with whatever I damn well please.
Previously, the amp would distort horribly at anything in the elactronic guitar band, chords or single notes... maybe a specific manufacturing defect (caused by the shipper), but now I'm getting some fuzzy static in a different range(s), but typically when there seems to be saturation.
No A/B testing against the BH just yet, mainly because I am running VERY familiar material through the EA-6, with _some_ excellent results. Jane's Addiction - "SuperHero' is, in fact, simply stunning. Alison Krauss 'New Favorite' is also stunning, especially the vocals, acoustic guitar and dobro...
Alex ( [ak]zip ) and I will meet (with others) to compare it against his ES-1 (that I have spent many an hour listening to) and 007t, as well as my Blue Hawaii, with the HE60 (x3), his OII (x2), his OI (x2) and perhaps the Koss 950.
Current bottom line: NOWHERE close to the Orpheus (that I have also spent a few hours listening to - HE90 and HEV90), but all other comparisons will wait until there are at least 3 others to INDEPENDENTLY write their impressions in a shootout thread - in the meantime, it's my duty to run through MY preferred playlists to determine if I can keep this amp (instead of the BH), ask Peter for a refund, or sell it to someone who ONLY listens to Classical / acoustic music. Having already worked (and reworked) this amp, the topology just looks to be a REALLY bad fit for me.
There - taking one for the team, but, I simply can't afford the time to continue working this design - 9 months is my limit.
in fact my first Electrostat ever.
? can these amps be used for other cans as well ?
