[dukeskd]

KG isn't a real person, and you guys should know better for spreading misinformation... KG is indeed the alter ego persona of Justin.

 

[Asr]

4. Why do some people say that Kevin Gilmore designed the Blue Hawaii? I've seen this name come up many times in Stax mafia threads, and I believe he is a Head-Fi member too, but isn't Justin Wilson of HeadAmp the creator of BHSE? Yet I've seen many DIY amps named after KG, such as KGSS or KGSSHV, but I don't know any companies that sell these amps commercially. Who is Kevin Gilmore exactly, what is his relationship with HeadAmp, Justin, or BHSE, and if he's such a talented amp designer, why doesn't he have a company of his own? Perhaps he is Justin's alter ego?

 
That's because he did design the Blue Hawaii—or the "KGBH", specifically. The Dynalo, KGSS, and KGBH are all examples of circuits designed by him. Note that he designed the circuits, he doesn't often build amps using them.
 
Currently no one is allowed to commercially build amps using KG's circuits except for HeadAmp, and the BHSE is Justin's design evolution of the KGBH. The way I understand it, there's a sort of working relationship between Kevin Gilmore and Justin. They are not the same person and I find it surprising that anyone would suspect so. They have separate user accounts with completely different locations. Justin has attended countless Head-Fi meets over the years which he's been photographed at: http://www.head-fi.org/t/662707/lightbox/post/9414198/id/841840
 
Gilmore clearly likes to design amp circuits for fun and for the benefit of the community here, though I wouldn't guess as to why he doesn't do it more professionally. I'm sure that he has his own reasons. Below is a photo of him that I took at the 11/09 Chicago meet called "ChiUniFi 2009", where I first met him. He was also part of the team that organized CanJam 2010 (the independent national meet that year) in Chicago.
 

 
I was under the impression that Gilmore had a "doctor" title but the Northwestern staff page clearly indicates the doctors from the non-doctors so I'm a bit confused on that now: http://aslloginsrv.chem.northwestern.edu/Home/Staff.html

 

[Radio_head]

He is called "doctor" on account of his being a thyme lord:
 

 

[NoPants]

these pictures are clearly photoshopped, I can tell from having seen many in my time

 

[Radio_head]

 
Gospel of Alex/John 8:7 "And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, 'Let him who is without sin among you be the first to cast away his Shakti stones."

 

[dukeskd]

^That's the truth.

 

[arnaud]

About the T2, it's worth mentionning the schematics were provided by stax to the diy community FOR the diy community and not commercial cloning by third parties.

About the KG and JW, everybody knows justin bakes bread for a living, kevin is manfucturer of torsaded cable with special properties and there's another bloke who has designed all the stat amps like kgss (kg stands for keine glukricht, which itself means voltage alright in norslandinc language). And yes, absolutely nobody has met or seen a pic of any of these people, it's that mysterious!

 

[NoPants]

Stax's own T2 also seems to suffer from thermal issues, and the PSU is always operating at 50% capacity. Someone else can confirm this while I finish up my Justin Gilmore Megatron

 

[Rico613]

Well, to help clarify things.  It seems that there are ample photos of Kevin and there are many photos of Justin.  However, and this is where it get's tricky, there are NO KNOWN PHOTOGRAPHS of them together.  While there are many possible explanations, I'm wondering if they can even occupy the same space-time without creating a serious ripple in the force . .  . just a thought . . .

 

[NoPants]

^ think this explains it, Justin is Kevin from the future where Kevin wanted to cash in on the small margins of commercializing amplifier designs

 

[alcyst]

so a $12k BHSE would piss you off? sign up now and i'll do it 

This is the wrong time of year to do that taunty tempting jokey thing. Like you are joking, uh?

 

[Maxvla]

I would guess a T2 built to Justin's standards would be more than 12k, even with his relatively small margin.

 

[NoPants]

I would guess a T2 built to Justin's standards would be more than 12k, even with his relatively small margin.

There is the issue of an abundance of fake parts, a problem which affects the production of the BHSE as well. There aren't too many modern substitutions either as the current market doesn't particularly need HV parts. This has probably been explained before but I think it should be repeated more often than not. 
 
One cannot simply ebay into transistors

 

[songmic]

Okay, so I think some of my questions have been answered. So the reason there is no commercial version of the T2 other than Stax's original T2 is because Stax has forbidden any third party from implementing T2's design for commercial purposes, so we're only stuck with DIY. Here are a few more questions...
 
1. What is so special about this T2? For anyone who has heard it--either the Stax or DIY version--is it really the best-sounding electrostatic amplifier ever created, surpassing even the mighty BHSE? How would you describe its sound, and its advantages/disadvantages compared to BHSE?
 
2. Correct me if I'm wrong, but T2 was discontinued a long time ago, right? If T2 was indeed the best amp, then why did Stax decide to discontinue it and regress to building lesser amps? From what I know, the T2 was not really a special limited edition like the Sennheiser Orpheus or something like that, but a commercial, free-for-all amp designed to drive the then-flagship SR-Omega. When Stax released a new flagship, the SR-007 mk1, Stax released SRM-007t which was a matching amp for the SR-007, but much less quality than the T2.
 
3. What makes the T2 so expensive like everyone is saying? I mean, I don't know much about design or circuitry, but which aspect of its design warrant such a high price tag? Sheer number of parts needed to build a T2? Or does building T2 require very expensive material, like gold? Is the T2 much larger and heavier than any other electrostatic amp?
 
4. If Kevin Gilmore is not the same person as Justin Wilson, then why is HeadAmp authorized to use KG's design? What is the relationship between Kevin and Justin? If KG is a professor at a university who is a genius at designing circuits but doesn't have the time to commercialize them, then was Justin one of his students who asked for KG's permission to use his design to start a legitimate business?

 

[Maxvla]

I may be wrong, but I thought the BHSE was Kevin's version of the T2.

Did you see just how large and overbuilt that T2 was in the picture? That amp is like 4x the size of their other amps (combining both enclosures). Also, I think the T2 is the only Stax amp with a separate PSU.

Kevin and Justin are indeed separate people. Everyone is just having fun with you. I don't know the details of their relation, but I would imagine it is sort of a license paid or free-to-friend/respected colleague, limiting commercialization to Justin's operation.