A-10 Thunderbolt ll, Fully Balanced Electrostatic Amp/Pre-Amp - Page 6  

Ray--Does this mean that the production units are almost ready? I'm still drooling over the thought of mine getting mailed.

Hmm, the A-10 itself is crap, just a flying cannon with an OFFSET FRONT UNDERCARRIAGE!
Wonder how good is this...

Well geez. Never knew good sound was so big.

Had the good fortune to meet Ray today at CanJam, and sample the A-10 and HE90 (along with the Jade, which IMHO isn't in the same league soundwise).

Also had the very good fortune to be able to have an "A/B shootout" comparing my Stax SR-Omega/SRM-T1S to the A-10/HE90 with my own CD audio selections (very familiar with their sound). As much as I like the sound of my equipment and have obviously gotten used to it, there's no question the A-10/HE90 sounded richer and fuller, specifically down low. Mine was clearly "thinner" though perhaps a bit brighter.

However when we decided to eliminate my amp as a possible explanation and variable, and connected my SR-Omega to the A-10 in order to be able to truly compare the headphones apples-to-apples (and by implication, to effectively compare the amps), it was ASTOUNDING! My Omega turned just about into an Orpheus!!! All of us (me, Ray, and Ray's wife) were all astonished!

It was obviously the amp that had done this. I am now a living breathing sales pitch, and just about ready to pull the trigger and replace my long-beloved SRM-T1S with this magic-sound-producing A-10.

I am the converted. Truly remarkable.

I really liked the A-10 with the HE90 and Jade, but the O2 Mk2 sounded like they had more of a flavor of their own (which is why I sold mine). And Ray's modded HE60 sound brighter than I recall my HE60 being, so I didn't like them as much as the others. I understand the amp is tuned for the HE90, so I don't expect that all stats will excel with the tubes that are installed right now. The Jade were not as good, but the HE90 are maybe not $8000 better either.

I wished that I had my O2 Mk1 with me to try out, but maybe someone will have some of those around Sunday. I also didn't try to max out the volume because I was fatigued and it was like almost 6PM and I needed a break. I look forward to trying it again at the Colorado meet in July with my own headphones (O2 Mk1, HE60, Jade, woodied Gamma Pro, SR-003). If the HE90 were economically feasible for the average headphone addict (or the A-10 for that matter), I would not hesitate to buy and enjoy this setup. I can't comment on the O2 Mk1 until I have had the chance to try them out with the A-10, but the 600v P-P voltage swing of the paralleled tubes should be about 33% more than my current setup, and I always say that I am happy with it except for wishing for just a tiny bit more power and gain. I didn't have an opportunity to push the A-10 as loud as it can go, but it didn't leave me wishing for more.

Interestingly, the Woo WES prototype is only pushing a 400v peak-to-peak voltage swing (will be 800 when done in a couple of months), and it sounded better with the O2 Mk2, but worse with the Jade. But that's another story for some other time.

Yeah, a flying cannon that can kill tanks with the cannon alone and has served very well doing CAS for troops along with proving to be very hardy in the face of anti-aircraft guns.

A-10 fires its cannon continuously for 7 seconds: stall

Aha! I brought my woodied HE60 and compared to Ray's HE60, not realizing it was modded. I was very puzzled but attributed the difference to maybe mine being well-burned-in. What are the mods again?

I am given to understand that the drivers are turned back to front in the housing, which in an electrostat would, nominally, not make any real difference. However the shape of the HE60 drivers means that such a procedure would destroy the baffle seal to the ear chamber, a most obvious and likely symptom of which would be to kill off the low bass (which the HE60 is light on to start with) and probably cause other FR anomalies.

Yeah, Ray flipped the drivers 180 degrees when he replaced them with new ones last year, and liked it better. He says he made sure his driver/baffle is sealing well, because I asked about it, but I didn't ask him how he accomplished that. He claims they are warmer than other HE60 that he has compared them to. I didn't hear that when I listened, but it did not take away from the fact that the A-10 blew me away with the HE90 and EH Audio Jade. I am somewhat confident that my HE60 will sound more balanced with the A-10 than his, and after the July Colorado meet I am supposed to review the A-10 (I decided to wait until then). We can compare his and my HE60 then (and out Jade and O2 as well). I did have my drivers replaced by Sennheiser last year as well due to a severe channel imbalance, and have not modded them except for the Stax plug that Rudistor put on for a previous owner (and an HEV70 adapter).

The gun would only stall the cannon because of gases entering the engine intakes which was fixed long ago. The recoil from the gun was never enough to slow the plane enough to stall, not to mention you would not want to fire long duration bursts in order to preserve the lifespan of the barrels as well as it being pointless.

And since this is a thread for the amp, I'll leave the talk of the plane at that.

I recently heard this one Ray's own personal audio set up @ home. His set up included:

-RSA A-10 Thunderbolt II
-Meridian G08 Compact Disc Player
-(2x) CAD 211 Anniversary Edition Mono Amplifier
-Don't know the Manufacturer of the Speakers- here's a pic below



THIS THING WAS AMAZING. Completely balanced in all effects. I give this thing 2 Thumbs and 2 Big Toes up.

I loved it,

Spencer D.

So, you listened to it as a pre-amplifier not a headphone amplifier?
Interesting, but not quite what most Head-Fi'er would do...

Well, I also listened to it as a Headphone Amplifier at the meet earlier that day- it was great. This thing sports a Pre-Amp pretty well also.

Spencer D.

Wow. I really need to go to some of these jams. I can;t even begin to imagine what they cold sound like.