[astrostar59]

Anyone know what the size of the e-stat market actually is? How many Stax headphones are made per month for example?

I wonder if the market for them is not promoted enough, has no real sized dealer network and thus the audiophile mainstream
customers are ignorant to the SQ on offer.

It may be a pity huge companies (in head phone world) like Sennheiser have not managed to market such a product in real world
volume. The other side of the market IEM is booming I guess because of the portability aspect.

And if the e-stat market was bigger, had more players, surely the prices would come down as mass production went up?

Dunno. I am not complaining, the SQ of Stax gear is that good I will find the money for it somehow, as do other die hards.
It is an expensive hobby though.

 

[BeyerMonster]

 
I think you'd still be successful if you decided to build only portable amps and DAC's. You'd also probably end up with a lot less hassle, but that's only IMO.

Car companies like McLaren and Ferrari produce vehicles primarily to help finance their racing teams. Maybe Justin makes the portables to help finance the limited production TOTL amps.

 

[David1961]

[CONTENTEMBED=/t/439657/headamp-blue-hawaii-special-edition/5160#post_10534073 layout=inline] [/CONTENTEMBED]
I think you'd still be successful if you decided to build only portable amps and DAC's. You'd also probably end up with a lot less hassle, but that's only IMO.

Car companies like McLaren and Ferrari produce vehicles primarily to help finance their racing teams. Maybe Justin makes the portables to help finance the limited production TOTL amps.

I'd say Justin is the only one that could answer that.

 

[TheAttorney]

  ... The next batch of BHSEs... is probably going to be the last as critical discontinued Japanese components are very hard to find now.

I take it you'll hold back a few of those critical discontinued components as spares - to cover possible repairs in the future?

 

[BeyerMonster]

 

 

​
I think you'd still be successful if you decided to build only portable amps and DAC's. You'd also probably end up with a lot less hassle, but that's only IMO.

Car companies like McLaren and Ferrari produce vehicles primarily to help finance their racing teams. Maybe Justin makes the portables to help finance the limited production TOTL amps.

I'd say Justin is the only one that could answer that.

Agreed. By the same token, I doubt he's going to take business advice from a few armchair quarterbacks on Head-Fi either. 

 

[Bones13]

Agreed. By the same token, I doubt he's going to take business advice from a few armchair quarterbacks on Head-Fi either. 

+1

 

[justin w.]

More panels arrived today that will hopefully allow me to make up for the shortage in the silver panels. this is the last of them

 

[Rico613]

^ Congrats to Bones and others waiting for silver pannels . . .

 

 

[preproman]

  More panels arrived today that will hopefully allow me to make up for the shortage in the silver panels. this is the last of them

Hay..... What about the rest of the black panels???

 

[justin w.]

i did get some black panels too but i think i was going to be ok on those

 

[justin w.]

i know most people are interested in batch #3 (the one that is now in testing) but since i'm still about a week away from receiving the custom packaging for those, i got some work done on batch #4 -- which is the orders from very late 2013 to present -- to try and make it move faster. All of the circuit board components for the main amp/power supply boards were ordered. The longest factory lead time that I saw was probably about 11 weeks but most of the parts were in stock somewhere. Also, the blank power supply boards arrived today. Waiting for an update from the machine shop on when the parts set sail, which is all of the enclosure parts except for the front panels, as I will still be waiting quite a while for aluminum for those.

 

[bearFNF]

  i know most people are interested in batch #3 (the one that is now in testing) but since i'm still about a week away from receiving the custom packaging for those, i got some work done on batch #4 -- which is the orders from very late 2013 to present -- to try and make it move faster. All of the circuit board components for the main amp/power supply boards were ordered. The longest factory lead time that I saw was probably about 11 weeks but most of the parts were in stock somewhere. Also, the blank power supply boards arrived today. Waiting for an update from the machine shop on when the parts set sail, which is all of the enclosure parts except for the front panels, as I will still be waiting quite a while for aluminum for those.

Thanks for the info...

 

[dude_500]

  i know most people are interested in batch #3 (the one that is now in testing) but since i'm still about a week away from receiving the custom packaging for those, i got some work done on batch #4 -- which is the orders from very late 2013 to present -- to try and make it move faster. All of the circuit board components for the main amp/power supply boards were ordered. The longest factory lead time that I saw was probably about 11 weeks but most of the parts were in stock somewhere. Also, the blank power supply boards arrived today. Waiting for an update from the machine shop on when the parts set sail, which is all of the enclosure parts except for the front panels, as I will still be waiting quite a while for aluminum for those.

 
Out of curiosity, is there a reason you order blank boards instead of mostly-populated? I understand that the silicon is so hard to get/test that you probably couldn't logistically outsource that, but it seems having all the passives installed at the board house would be a lot cheaper than doing it by hand.

 

[purk]

Out of curiosity, is there a reason you order blank boards instead of mostly-populated? I understand that the silicon is so hard to get/test that you probably couldn't logistically outsource that, but it seems having all the passives installed at the board house would be a lot cheaper than doing it by hand.

It may not be cheaper if you are doing a small run like Justin's BHSEs.

 

[justin w.]

   
Out of curiosity, is there a reason you order blank boards instead of mostly-populated? I understand that the silicon is so hard to get/test that you probably couldn't logistically outsource that, but it seems having all the passives installed at the board house would be a lot cheaper than doing it by hand.

 
i could have the company that makes (outsources..) production of the board order the parts and do the assembly. I don't do the assembly. But I do provide the parts to a company that assembles the boards. Typically, if I want them to provide the parts for me, they charge a 20% premium on the parts for this, and they aren't going to shop around, it's not their money. It took me about 1 day to order the parts which were $12k. So they probably would have paid $15k for the parts + 20% = $18k. So I saved $6k for doing the parts ordering myself in 1 day's work. i know my time is limited but i cant see how something like that isn't worth doing.
 
Maybe for some companies the appeal is cash flow as they wouldn't have to pay for any of this until 30 days after receiving assembled boards.