[TheAttorney]

I'm not sure that working alone is easier. I'd say that it has a whole set of challenges, particularly when volumes ramp up and you still have to do EVERYTHING yourself, and you really care about quality. 
Hence the long lead time in earlier days.
 
And yes, these get replaced by a different set of challenges when you try to subcontract to other companies.
Hence, I guess, why the BHSE's still aren't  exactly leaping off the production line. Especially if you care about quality.
 
And if you decide to employ staff directly under your control, then that brings in yet another set of challenges.
 
Going wild for a moment, if say a tenth of global ipod users decided they wanted to upgrade to a BHSE-based system, Justin would employ a HR manager, a Manufacturing manager, etc, to take care of many of those problems. But it requires a very different skill set to go down that route, and I imagine he'd rather not go there.

 

[David1961]

Quote:

I'm not sure that working alone is easier. I'd say that it has a whole set of challenges, particularly when volumes ramp up and you still have to do EVERYTHING yourself, and you really care about quality. 
Hence the long lead time in earlier days.
 
And yes, these get replaced by a different set of challenges when you try to subcontract to other companies.
Hence, I guess, why the BHSE's still aren't  exactly leaping off the production line. Especially if you care about quality.
 
And if you decide to employ staff directly under your control, then that brings in yet another set of challenges.
 
Going wild for a moment, if say a tenth of global ipod users decided they wanted to upgrade to a BHSE-based system, Justin would employ a HR manager, a Manufacturing manager, etc, to take care of many of those problems. But it requires a very different skill set to go down that route, and I imagine he'd rather not go there.

 
Hi TheAttorney,
l'm not saying working alone is easier, the opposite if anything, the point l'm trying to make is if you want anything doing right you do it yourself, because Justin is a perfectionist l believe he'd like to do everything himself but because of the demand for the BHSE it would probably not be possible, on to another subject the wailing times, before l placed my order l knew of the possiblity of a long wait, if that had bothered me l wouldn't have placed an order for it in the first place, but it doesn't, l'm more than prepared to wait as long as l have to.
 
 

 

[warp08]

Quote:

Hi EI_ Doug,
Regarding the silk-screening, l'm not sure about the front panels, but l believe top of the enclosure is being engraved, Justin would be the best person to ask though.
 
 

I believe he can do that in-house now with his new laser he had photographed recently.
 

 

[ericohgb]

Quote:

looks like he is #3 of 45.

Hi, Justin.
 
I preorder mine on February 2nd (2011).
Do you know which number I am of  45?
 
Regards,
Erico
 
 

 

[jcx]

Quote:

...
Going wild for a moment, if say a tenth of global ipod users decided they wanted to upgrade to a BHSE-based system...

pretty wild given the current number rather closer to 1 in 1000000
 

 

[justin w.]

Quote:

All the electronics are in, and the powdercoating is done on the enclosures - I suppose we can expect the anodizing/silk-screening will be done soon too, if it isnt already.  At this point, I'm guessing that we (and Justin) are at the mercy of his pcb assembly house. 
 
Hopefully they can take our order soon, and finish it quickly... these places seem to tend to favor much larger orders, pushing small batch manufacturing to the backburner  

i actually bought a laser engraver so i will be doing that work myself now.  PCB assembly is actually pretty competitive since most of the work has been shipped offshore so I always have good results there.  it's machining and metal finishing (in the USA) that gets bogged down because they favor orders from defense contractors and the medical industry

 

[verjuno]

Quote:

Hi, Justin.
 
I preorder mine on February 2nd (2011).
Do you know which number I am of  45?
 
Regards,
Erico
 
 

 you would be #9 in line.
 

 

[ericohgb]

Quote:

 you would be #9 in line.
 

Dear friend,
Thanks!
But how do you know that?
Regards,
Erico
 

 

[Elysian]

I have a general question for those who have heard the BHSE and amps comparable to the EC Balancing Act.

I heard the Balancing Act and, IMO, it's an amazing amp. I felt it particularly excelled in the following two areas:
- The sound felt incredibly 3D to me. It felt like the sound was coming from all different sides, from different distances (it was as though I was at the origin of a sphere, and the sounds were originating with different radii from the origin).
- The amp did an incredibly good job contrasting between very quiet/silent parts in the music and between notes, to quickly getting very loud, and managing that with a very linear smoothness. For example, if you had an axis that went from 1 to 10, a car stereo that's turned loud would do something like 7 to 10 in loudness (even the quiet parts would sound loud, but in a very crude way), while the balancing act handled something from 1 to 8 very well.

In comparison, the SR007A and SR009 (on a 323S and GES) presented both an extremely detailed sound, but in direct contrast to the Balancing Act (HD800), the electrostats sounded like they presented music on a relatively flat 2D canvas, with very limited depth. Against normal amps, the stats have appreciable soundstage (especially the SR009), but against the Balancing Act, it almost felt like a photo compared to an architectural model. I'm very picky about 3D and have disliked the Isone and Creative implementations of 3D, but in this case, I think Eddie Current has really nailed it with something special.

Will a high-end amp like the BHSE or WES provide a similar 3D sound like the Balancing Act does? I've been searching all over the forums for past BH reviews, and all of them comment very positively on the soundstaging capabilities on both amps (the WES seems to have the edge here). Is 'soundstaging' the word I'm looking for, with respect to the 3Dness of the Balancing Act? The Inner Fidelty review of the Balancing Act completely matches what I heard:

http://www.innerfidelity.com/content/eddie-current-balancing-act
"I’ll cut straight to the core of my sonic impressions and flat-out declare this amp, easily heard within the first few minutes of listening, to offer the most expansive, most realistic soundstaging of any headphone amp I have ever listened to. Its damn right other-worldly, and is simply instant transportation into something very hard to describe but easily heard and felt."

Will the BHSE get the O2 or SR009 close to the Balancing Act+HD800 in that regard? The Balancing Act gave a considerable sense of depth perception to the music's presentation, and it was simply awesome to listen to.

 

[purrin]

Come on down to my meet and find out. 

 The BHSE and BA will both be there.
 
From memory, the BHSE images much better than the GES (just too much gunk in the way.) I don't think anything is going to beat BA>HD800 (which you listened to) in terms of soundstage. You've got both the amp and the headphone (both known for their soundstage capabilities) to compete against. I think you need to make another purchase to supplement your electrostatic setup. In the meantime, you should also throw in a 009 to complement your O2. 

 

[Elysian]

Listening to your gear is dangerous! :frown: Will definitely contact you if I'm in Socal during your meet's time

Is there a schematic of the WES floating around? I'd love to look at that to compare to the BH.

You're probably right... I was wondering how much of it was two complementary forces with the BA and HD800 creating such an incredible soundstage. It really shocked me. I might not even need speakers, and I think the BA might pair really nicely with the Alpha DAC. I loved the tube sound.

If the BHSE can even sound somewhat 3D, I'd be happy, but the BA showed me how much I was missing. I'm concerned that the BHSE might also sound completely flat in comparison, too.

I am giving serious consideration to the suggestion of not getting the SR009, and instead putting that budget to the BA and HD800 instead. Need to decide soon given EC's build-time. On the other hand, the SR009 would be a perfect complement to the SR007A... argh!

 

[purrin]

Quote:

Is there a schematic of the WES floating around?

 
I'm not sure, but the WES is supposed to be a "GES on steroids". You can check out Kevin Gilmore's HeadWize site. I believe there are three caps in the signal path: input, inter-stage, and output. That many caps can't be good. Ask Spritzer or invoke his presence. He would know for sure.

 

[HeadphoneAddict]

Quote:

 
I'm not sure, but the WES is supposed to be a "GES on steroids". You can check out Kevin Gilmore's HeadWize site. I believe there are three caps in the signal path: input, inter-stage, and output. That many caps can't be good. Ask Spritzer or invoke his presence. He would know for sure.

 

[size=medium] My WES sounds more 3D, with better micro-detail than my old maxed GES (and seems to have about 25-50% more power).  But the BHSE that I heard at the last two RMAF CanJams had an even better soundstage and imaging, in addition to improved micro-detail that brings out the acoustics of the recording better.  Plus the BHSE had a bit more power as well.[/size]

[size=medium]  [/size]

[size=medium] Spritzer describes the WES as sounding dull, bland and lifeless but that isn't what I think about it - mine is still a very good amp.  Iron_Dreamer at the 2010 RMAF said that my HE-60/WES combo was the best he's heard the HE-60 sound.  It's just not optimal for the SR-007, and the synergy is better with SR-003, LNS, SR-404LE, Jade, ESP-950 and HE-60.  I'd love to try an SR-009 or HE-90 with it someday, but I'm thinking of selling it someday to help pay for my daughter's college. 

[/size]

[size=medium]  [/size]

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[ericohgb]

 
Quote:

 

[size=medium] My WES sounds more 3D, with better micro-detail than my old maxed GES (and seems to have about 25-50% more power).  But the BHSE that I heard at the last two RMAF CanJams had an even better soundstage and imaging, in addition to improved micro-detail that brings out the acoustics of the recording better.  Plus the BHSE had a bit more power as well.[/size]

[size=medium]  [/size]

[size=medium] Spritzer describes the WES as sounding dull, bland and lifeless but that isn't what I think about it - mine is still a very good amp.  Iron_Dreamer at the 2010 RMAF said that my HE-60/WES combo was the best he's heard the HE-60 sound.  It's just not optimal for the SR-007, and the synergy is better with SR-003, LNS, SR-404LE, Jade, ESP-950 and HE-60.  I'd love to try an SR-009 or HE-90 with it someday, but I'm thinking of selling it someday to help pay for my daughter's college. 

[/size]

[size=medium]  [/size]

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Friends,
I guess we're discussing the WES in the wrong place...
I do agree it's not optimal for the 007, but it's far from sounding dull and bland. 
It's excelent with the 009 by the way. Very large soundstage and 3D imaging. And no, WES is not a GES on steroids.
 
Going back to the topic, look forward to my BHSE to drive the 007 !!!
Regards,
Erico

 
 

 

[Elysian]

Thanks for the comments about the soundstaging capabilities   It sounds like the BHSE will be a considerable improvement over the entry-level amps for presenting a 3D sound for the SR007A and SR009, but not to the level of something like the BA+HD800.
 
It'd be interesting to find out whether the soundstage feels noticably larger on the SR009 than the SR007A through the BHSE, but that's probably a discussion for another thread.
 
I've decided to halt my upgrades until my BHSE finishes, and then decide what the next course of action will be.  It's hard to make a good decision on what to upgrade next since the amp situation is bottlenecking everything for me, and is mitigating any changes to my chain.  I'm glad Justin is periodically updating the build status for the bulk order, since it makes the wait easier being reassured that things are moving along in a pretty deliberate manner.