[Pokemonn]

maybe expensive, but must be sound good...?

 

[SeaWo|f]

Expectation bias FTW!

 

[paradoxper]

Na. It's just the HiFiMan way. Trail blazers.

 

[Pokemonn]

haha since we have not heard it yet, only we can do is expectation.

 

[stersa]

BHSE is arrived...




Regards

Sisco

 

[JimL11]

Very nice! Enjoy!

 

[stersa]

Tks..

Best musical amp for Stax SR009 and SR007 MK1..

I have had multiples devices..and BHSE,is the last station to best Electroestatic Sound.

Magical Sound..



Regards

Sisco

 

[Whitigir]

Agreed, many people is still under a bad myth that Stax has no bass lol! IMO, with the right amp, Stax is magical

Congratulations

 

[DSNORD]

Considering a Stax 009/BHSE purchase. No experience with tubes or electro stats to date. Present systems:

Home Office Nearfield 2 Channel- Mac Mini>Dante Ethernet/unDAES-O AES>Schiit Yggdrasil>Schiit Ragnarock>KEF LS50/JLAudio e110 sub. Balanced.

Listening Room Headphone- Sonos>Schiit Gumby>Schiit Jotenheim>HD800S/LCD-X. Balanced.

Listening Room 2 Channel- Sonos>Lyngdorf TDAI-2170 with Room Perfect>LS50/e110.

I’m totally happy with all these components and have no plan to replace any of them. The BHSE could go in either room but likely will start out in the Office.

How much space is needed above the tube tops to allow for heat dissipation if rack mounting is desired? How hot do the tubes get (anyone shot IR readings off stock tubes?)? Do you have to rebias each time the system is fired up or just now and then? How long do tubes take to stabilize for consistent sound? Is the ALPS $1000 pot worth it?

Thanks for the feedback. I’m sure I’ll come up with more questions as my research continues. This seems like an interesting pairing- word on the street is that nothing beats it, but unfortunately my purchase will be totally blind and dependent on me believing the hype since I have no access to a system to sample here in Eastern PA.

 

[JimL11]

You should have the amp on the top shelf of a rack with nothing above it as it burns about 180 watts all the time, mostly from the amplifier unit. Think of a light fixture with two 80 watt incandescent bulbs and that will give you an idea of the heat generation - you don't want to hold your hand above that for very long. Each tube burns about 20 watts, you'll probably burn your hand if you touch it. The amp takes a while to warm up, but mostly due to the solid state elements reaching thermal equilibrium. You can measure the output voltages and see when they stabilize, somewhere around 1-2 hours IIRC. Totally new tubes will need some time to burn in, however, once the tubes have burned in, the bias is stable - if you check it in 1000 hours it probably won't have changed much, if at all.

If you can you should listen to the 007 as well as the 009. While the posters here seem to lean towards the 009, I prefer the 007, and in an informal survey of 6 listeners at a recent Albuquerque meet who listened to both the 007 MkII with port mod and an 009 via my BHSE, half preferred one and half preferred the other. The 009 is brighter sounding than the 007, something like the difference between a Focal Utopia and an LCD4, if you're familiar with those. And of course, the 007 is significantly less expensive.

 

[DSNORD]

Thanks for the quick response. Can the power supply stay on in standby mode and then activate the tube unit when desired or is the whole thing either on or off? If the former, any idea of standby power use? Tubes may not be something for me if I have to sit around for any significant time before being able to listen to things. I don’t envision leaving the entire unit energized all the time if the latter. Thanks.

 

[Whitigir]

Thanks for the quick response. Can the power supply stay on in standby mode and then activate the tube unit when desired or is the whole thing either on or off? If the former, any idea of standby power use? Tubes may not be something for me if I have to sit around for any significant time before being able to listen to things. I don’t envision leaving the entire unit energized all the time if the latter. Thanks.

Don’t know about BHSE, but Grounded Grid and T2 only need filament warming up, and that is 1 minute or so, then the Hv kicks in, and you can slam your head with music right then

 

[bearFNF]

It only takes a few minutes for the amp to actually start. I usually wait about 5-10 minutes before I start listening and it sounds just fine. But that's only because I'm getting my drink ready.

Thanks for the quick response. Can the power supply stay on in standby mode and then activate the tube unit when desired or is the whole thing either on or off? If the former, any idea of standby power use? Tubes may not be something for me if I have to sit around for any significant time before being able to listen to things. I don’t envision leaving the entire unit energized all the time if the latter. Thanks.

 

[Whitigir]

It only takes a few minutes for the amp to actually start. I usually wait about 5-10 minutes before I start listening and it sounds just fine. But that's only because I'm getting my drink ready.

Nah, I have to say that I could never observe the differences from when it was just started to getting warmed....never could tell if “oh, after 2 hours she sounds better!” Honestly, she keeps on slamming, and I enjoy it through and through every sessions. So to my own opinion, there is no warm-up needed, but that is just me

 

[JimL11]

I have to say that my response in terms of warm-up had to do with the voltages stabilizing, not the sound. The T2, Carbon and GG all have servos to keep the output voltages stable and close to zero with respect to ground, whereas the BHSE does not, hence it can drift during warm-up. Note that because it is a differential design, the absolute voltages will change whereas the differential voltages, which is what makes sound, are pretty stable.

So, for example, the right channel has inner and outer stator voltages driving the headphones - the difference between inner and outer stator voltages is what produces the sound. At turn-on, say the inner stator voltage is +30 volts with respect to ground, and the outer stator voltage is +32 volts with respect to ground (aka offset voltages), then the differential voltage between them is 2 volts (aka balance voltages). After warm-up, both the inner and outer stator voltages are 0 volts. So the absolute change in voltage is 30 and 32 volts with respect to ground, but the differential change in voltage is only 2 volts. Note that these numbers are totally made up, but the relative changes are reasonably close.