[rice68]

hello
i'm from france
are anybody ear the mcAlister ea-8 electrostatic at can jam ?
If so, what are your thoughts about it? Good, Bad, etc...
thank

 

[spritzer]

Read this and then buy a Woo GES instead. There is even one for sale by a member here who is in Europe aka no import tax.

 

[ironbut]

Quote:

Originally Posted by rice68 /img/forum/go_quote.gif hello i'm from france are anybody ear the mcAlister ea-8 electrostatic at can jam ? If so, what are your thoughts about it? Good, Bad, etc... thank

Hi, I just noticed this thread. I can say that anybody that listened to my amp still doesn't know what an EA-8 sounds like. I've modified it mercilessly and it sounds very different from the way one sounds stock.

In general terms, the stock amp has a very "vintage tube" sound. Slow and euphonic. I can see how someone might love that sound,.. but I'd never recommend ordering anything from them!

 

[Jon L]

Where the heck was your table? That's the only 'stat amp I didn't get to try (or find) at CanJam!

Oh, what did you think of your modded EA-8 vs. other amps at the meet?

 

[ironbut]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jon L /img/forum/go_quote.gif Where the heck was your table? That's the only 'stat amp I didn't get to try (or find) at CanJam! Oh, what did you think of your modded EA-8 vs. other amps at the meet?

Hi Jon, my rig was the one with a Technics reel to reel (Tape Project) right next to Frank Cooter in the Summit Fi room.

I've got it sounding pretty nice now. New pot/switch/silver wire/rca jacks/upgraded supply resistors/increased bias. The main upgrades (soundwise) was bypassing the first coupling cap with a Russian k72 and replacing the second pair with a couple of DynamiCaps. I'll probably switch out the first pair with a V-Cap one of these days but so far I'm not hearing any smearing or phase anomalies from the bypass. I still have to decide if I want to go with larger value coupling caps before I invest in the good stuff.

Work in progress,.. this should keep me out of trouble for a while!

 

[ironbut]

Oh yeah,..

As far as the other 'stat amps, Ray's amp didn't seem like it had enough juice with the Jades or the O2's. He like a more clinical sound than I do so I'll leave it at saying that it wasn't my cup-O-tea.

The WES was nice and more to my liking. It was always pretty noisy in there so I was never able to get a good grip on it. From what I could tell, it seemed a little lacking in the details dept (I'm not sure what caps that particular one had or how long it was burned in either since it was a prototype put together for the show AFAIK).

The BHSE was clearly my fav of the new amps. Plenty of drive but smooth at the same time. It didn't knock my socks off but I'm not really looking for an amp that does.
I find that amps that do that are highlighting something and once you ear gets used to it, it compensates and it's balance that leads to my long term satisfaction.
My preferences tend to want a little cream coloration. The only stat amp that I really love are the ES-2's. I've heard Neilvg's a few times and spent time with blubliss's too. No weaknesses there.
Mikeymad's ES-1 is nice too but maybe a little too much cream.

Frank's Stax amp was just too new to say much about it. It improved a great deal from when I first heard it on Friday night. The addition of Filbert's modded dac really helped too. I'd love to hear it with about a thousand hours on it. It sounded excellent on Sunday though. Good detailing, tons of oomph, but a little lacking in the soundstage/imaging dept.. Those could easily be improved with burn in though.

All of my opinions have to be filtered through the fact that I'm very source oriented. There's a very fine inner detailing that very few sources have and even though 96/24 downloads can have some, they never live up to really great analog for me. As the reviewers often say, "there's more There there".
Considering the high price of most of these amps, any of them that obscure this super subtle stuff aren't worth the price. I spend way too much effort on my sources to get this quality to pay for something that negates it.