Stax 009 in Japan? - Page 4

Quote:

Originally Posted by n3rdling 

I'm guessing high output imp or output Vrms

Most Japanese sources have single ended output stages so the XLR in an afterthought.  How this is handled varies from manufacturer to manufacturer as some use transformers (vintage SOTA Sony gear) or some good phase splitting circuits but all Esoteric's I've seen are scraping the bottom of the barrel with truly nasty opamp based phase splitters.  Better let the Stax amps take care of that. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by spritzer 

Most Japanese sources have single ended output stages so the XLR in an afterthought.  How this is handled varies from manufacturer to manufacturer as some use transformers (vintage SOTA Sony gear) or some good phase splitting circuits but all Esoteric's I've seen are scraping the bottom of the barrel with truly nasty opamp based phase splitters.  Better let the Stax amps take care of that. 

Except that the K01 appears to be deriving the hot and cold signals directly from the DACs rather than the cheap phase splitters you're referring: http://esoteric.teac.com/resources/pdf/k-01.pdf

If this an issue of output level on the xlrs, it is also user adjustable for the k01.

Lastly, the output impedance on the XLRs is 100 ohms, an industry standard I believe and nowhere near an issue for any preamp.

Looking into a direct competitor, although Japanese as well, the balanced signal appears to be detived also directly at the DAC stage: http://www.accuphase.com/cat/dp-700_e.pdf

Well those aren't schematics, just block diagrams and they have been known to be wildly inaccurate.  If the K-01 is built like that then there is indeed not a phase splitter but instead they use an opamp to sum the differential output from the DAC's.  Yeah... not a good way of doing things... 

For the Accuphase, look at the output voltage.  It's the same for RCA-XLR which is not something one sees often.  Either there are 3 complete output stages per channel or they are just using one splitting then output at unity gain.  I've never seen the insides of a DP-700 so I can't be sure what's going on there. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by David1961 

No ! I didn't pay a thing, however UK customs did keep hold of the package for a few days and then eventually cleared it, PriceJapan do have the same policy with what they did I believe on everything, but I don't want to say what it was.
 

 

 

I said that I didn't have to pay any import VAT [ which in the UK is 20% of whatever the cost is ]  when I received the SR-009's + SRE-950S extension cable, however I've just received a letter asking me to make a payment of £35.27 to UK customs. So I did have to pay something after all.