[pabbi1]

Man, nothing like having a local guy with an aisle full of zeners, and an 60' wall with bins full of resistors and caps - EXCEPT he is closed on Sunday.

 

[Beefy]

You should still be able to fire it up, do the initial setup etc. without any problems. Your offset might just drift around if one rail drops out of regulation, and it might not sound as good. I really doubt you'll break anything......

 

[pabbi1]

Speaking of sound, anyone else with comments?

 

[Beefy]

I'm thinking that the majority of builders electrocuted themselves.

 

[les_garten]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Beefy /img/forum/go_quote.gif I'm thinking that the majority of builders electrocuted themselves.

Here's an actual photograph of an eXStata listener!

 

[pabbi1]

One design, so many Darwin Award candidates... sigh.

 

[Sathimas]

I ordered the parts from mouser yesterday and will hopefully start to solder next weekend.

The main problem is that I ordered the transformer with wrong values so it'll take some more time for the new one...
Hope to get him until mid of February.

Maybe the problem why many builders don't post their impressions is that they have nothing to compare to?
I also will have no possibility to compare the amp to any other stat-amp.

 

[TimJo]

Here's an update on my eXStatA. I ended up going back to the GE grey plates that I got from pabbi1. The RCA's sounded fine, but they exhibited a strange behavior on one channel. I didn't spend too much time trying to figure it out, and instead went back to the GE's since there is probably little to no difference in sq based on the tubes.

With the RCA's I have, I could dial in the offset and balance on the left channel, but then in a manner of hours, the balance would drift about 4 volts in one direction, and the offset around 2 volts. I would then get them dialed in again, and then they would drift again. I tried both sides of zero (i.e. setting the balance slightly positive or slightly negative) but it would then drift in either direction, away from 0 volts. It seems like one of the tubes must be bad, but I only have the four of them. Anyway, putting the GE's back in, they dial in nicely, and remain stable.

Man, I am really loving this amp. Can't get enough listening time on it...

 

[cyanoacry]

Hey all,

I've been listening to my SS amp for a while now, and here are some initial impressions. My previous setup was a Stax 2020 combo---SRM-252A + SR-202, with stock Stax cables and a gamma-2 source. Only thing that's changed is the upgrade to an eXStata.

- detail is incredible!

The amp really does reveal microdetails---down to the point where I could hear SMPS noise in several TV episodes I had. Sure, I thought it might've been placebo or noise coming from the amp, until a friend of mine ran a spectrogram on the audio:

That 16KHz peak is audible, and I don't think I would've noticed it with my previous setup. (The audio is lossless from the Blu-ray version of K-ON! 14.)

Other tracks showed similar revelation in detail. Small orchestral pieces are suddenly filled with breathing and scraping; the soundstage is huge on any well-recorded classical track. One particular track that stood out to me was "Shin'en" from the first Mushishi OST. It's a track consisting solely of bells, and you can tell that post-recording modification is small if non-existent. The reverberation is incredible, and you can hear the movement of the bell-players' feet if you listen carefully.

Detail's always a dual-edged sword, though. MP3 drums and cymbals sound notably terrible, but it's possible to enjoy music that's at 128Kb/s anyway, if only because the musicality is there. Dynamic compression shows equally well---you -will- know when your music has been passed through a blender, and you'll be yelling at the studio forever.

- the amp is dead quiet

Before I installed the attenuator, I couldn't see anything out of the amp. I have a Fluke 115 meter, and the mV scale AC didn't show anything either with the inputs grounded/hooked up. Without any connections, the amp seems to like to oscillate---this isn't a problem, though, since it's always hooked up. No noise, even though it's currently sitting on my desk without any shielding whatsoever.

Connecting a Joshua Tree attenuator caused some problems; there's a slight buzz on the left channel that I've isolated to the transformer running the JT inducing noise in the lines, but the amp itself is sound.

- bass is extended, full, and tight

Listening to trance tracks on the eXStata is amazing. I live in a dorm with a roommate, and I have the gamma-1 portion of the gamma-2 feeding speakers. The first time I listened to Cascada, I had to make sure the speakers were off---the bass is considerably better than I remember.

This amp is worth its weight in gold. There's really no reason to complain---HeadphoneAddict's review was pretty much spot on. If people hear this amp, there's no going back.

I'd like to do some quantitative analysis on the amp, just to make sure there's no bias involved. Once I get it cased up, we'll see---I have access to some nice lab equipment here at college, and hopefully a lab won't mind me borrowing stuff for a weekend.

cyanoacry

 

[TimJo]

For anyone who hasn't checked out the Dallas meet impressions, you should take a quick look since pabbi1 had the eXStatA there. Here are some comments.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ktm /img/forum/go_quote.gif The big draw for me was the exstata. And it didn't disappoint. It beat both my current units, the srm-313, and srm1mkII. The srm-313 has too much high end and the srm1mkII too little. The srm1 seems to roll off very early in the highs. The exstata covers the whole range very well with good bass and wide soundstage. I tested it with stock 404's. I could live with that combo very well. Goal for this year: get a set of boards and build an exstata. If that fails, stake out pabbi1's house and wait for him to thin out his collection!!!!

Quote:

Originally Posted by luvdunhill /img/forum/go_quote.gif Listening to the Cavalli amps, I immediately noticed that the current version is a vast improvement over older iterations. I couldn't get that strange clipping to happen and it never seemed to run out of steam. However, in the back of my mind the analogy went like this: Gen1 SS > Gen1 tubes && Gen2 tubes >> Gen1 tubes so, does Gen2 SS >> Gen2 tubes? If you don't follow, I'm very excited to hear the newest solid state version. The frequency response relatively even to me, with perhaps a slight dip in the midrange. I felt there was some artificial detail in the highs that I more or less attributed to the upsampling source. The bass was pretty even I though, extending very low but without as much midbass impact as the Blue Hawaii. I listened mostly to the Stax and didn't really bother with a HE60 comparison. I felt that the overall sound was a bit better with the 404LE, with my "fit adjustment" outlined above. I think the HE60 / 404LE was a better comparison than either with the SR-007mk1. They were in fact rather similar, and at the price point I think I'd take the 404LE over the HE60. Anyways, I enjoyed the Cavalli amp and cannot wait to hear the new solid state revision, as I have high hopes for it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by luvdunhill /img/forum/go_quote.gif ...Anyways, someone who was listening pointed some sibilance out on a recording or two, and when we compared that same track on the Cavalli 'stat amp, that particular track was much smoother.

This is what I have found as well. I commented on this a week or so ago, because when listening to vinyl, sibilance can be an issue. This amp connected to the phono pre amp creates a very clean yet smooth sound.

 

[pabbi1]

I believe Marc will be taking measurements, and find him a pretty even handed reviewer, even if he is misguided on the hybrid vs SS thing...

But, this amp has caused me to completely rethink my source.

Oh, and the proto WITH the follower mod (which we did not have in place at the Houston nor DFW meets narrows the gap in differences between versions.
Just finished that last night (replecing resistor strings), and plan to see what those differences are - since I have a production unit, a completed proto, and a set of proto boards waiting to be built.

 

[BoilermakerFan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by pabbi1 /img/forum/go_quote.gif One design, so many Darwin Award candidates... sigh.

My DMM died, so I just licked the pads to see if it had voltage...

Now my tongue is numb, but I think it's about 340V and it made my face look like this:

 

[Beefy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sathimas /img/forum/go_quote.gif Maybe the problem why many builders don't post their impressions is that they have nothing to compare to? I also will have no possibility to compare the amp to any other stat-amp.

I'm in this boat. My only comparison is a SRD7-SB powered from a T-amp, and the chances of me listening on any other Stax or 3rd party amp are slim to none.

 

[pabbi1]

Well, you could still say if you like or don't like... and just that it really is working... Not everyone has the opportunity to roll out the entire armory of the Stax mafia.

And, pictures of builds are always, well, fun.

 

[Beefy]

I'm pretty sure I have already said it is much better than my previous combo