[David1961]

AFAIK, Birgir has stats amps available now, however I don't know how they compare to the BHSE.

 


Pretty sure birger makes a version of the BHSE too....

I'm only referring to the stats amps Birgir has available now, to which his version of the BHSE isn't one of them.
As NoPants has said though, he's recently sold one.

 

[aive]

I'm only referring to the stats amps Birgir has available now, to which his version of the BHSE isn't one of them.
As NoPants has said though, he's recently sold one.

 
Ask him? He might put one together for you in less than 2 years...

 

[NoPants]

   
Ask him? He might put one together for you in less than 2 years...

He doesn't take comissions, whatever he builds he puts up for sale. He's probably the last person to ask if you have something specific in mind

 

[Rossliew]

Birgir is building 2 Mjolnir Audio-type BHSEs of which one has been spoken for. No idea when it will be completed though.

 

[vinyllp33]

My little collection waiting for BHSE (forget the HD600  ) :




Pretty sure I'll pull the trigger on some SR-007 mk1 before the BHSE reaches my door. So one more time :





Ali

Oh what fun awaits you!

I assume that those are Gamma Pro's and Sigma Pro or Sigma/404?

BHSE will bring them to their full (and most likely ultimate) potential.

Awesome collection!!

 

[NoPants]

I used to own gamma pros about 7 or 8 years back, I regret hocking them- they almost never appear on the FS forums

 

[David1961]

 

I'm only referring to the stats amps Birgir has available now, to which his version of the BHSE isn't one of them.
As NoPants has said though, he's recently sold one.

 
Ask him? He might put one together for you in less than 2 years...

 
I'm not after a BHSE because I've already got one which was built by Justin, I was just replying to one of your posts where you say Birgir does his version of the BHSE which I already knew because I visit his website quite often.
 
I am eventually going to get another stats amp [ when I've the spare money ]  because while I'm very happy with my BHSE, with it having tubes I'd never leave it on while I was out.
So the next stats amp I'll be getting will be a SS because with a SS amp it wouldn't bother me about leaving it on while I was out..
Leaving the BHSE on unattended might be safe to do, but I'd never take the risk.
I'm also wanting another stats amp for if something happened to my BHSE, then I wouldn't be without listening to my 009's.
 
That SS stats amp will be one built by Birgir which is none of the ones he's done, I just hope that when the amp I have in mind is available [ if he decides to build that particular amp ] I'll have the spare money.

 

[cucera]

That SS stats amp will be one built by Birgir which is none of the ones he's done, I just hope that when the amp I have in mind is available [ if he decides to build that particular amp ] I'll have the spare money.

Well I guess we have the same in mind (KGSSSC) and according to the other place he just got the bosrds. But I doubt he will sell his first one and if he builds more of the I am in line, because as much as I love the BHSE I would prefere the convenience of a solid state electrostatic flagship amp.

 

[David1961]

Well I guess we have the same in mind (KGSSSC) and according to the other place he just got the bosrds. But I doubt he will sell his first one and if he builds more of the I am in line, because as much as I love the BHSE I would prefere the convenience of a solid state electrostatic flagship amp.

I'm not sure if it's the same amp because the one I'm thinking of is the KGSSHV Carbon, whereas you've put KGSSSC.
The two probably are the same amp but Birgir has said he's putting that amp on hold for sometime, whether he's had second thoughts I don't know.

 

[Ali-Pacha]

I assume that those are Gamma Pro's and Sigma Pro or Sigma/404?

BHSE will bring them to their full (and most likely ultimate) potential.

Awesome collection!!

You're right on every sentence 

 Thanks 

 
Ali

 

[cucera]

I'm not sure if it's the same amp because the one I'm thinking of is the KGSSHV Carbon, whereas you've put KGSSSC.
.

Yes I think we felt the same that long shortage withstand for Kevin Gilmore Solid State Silicon Carbide (new SC output Transistor Type)

 

[astrostar59]

Yes David, I agree on leaving it on is nice. I had 300B power amps for my speaker system, and I found I would not use it as much because I was going out in an hour or so and it takes that long to warm up, then the switch off thing. It ended up being sad in the corner. I tend to leave my KGSShv on all day and night if I am listening a lot and working at my desk. Otherwise I switch off over night, or if I go out for a day or longer.
 
I think both SS and Tubes take an hour or so to get full performance. The extra heat generated by tubes can in my old Power amps cause issues, but from what I saw, not with the BHSE.
 
As long as you check the tubes for arching on switch on, and test the bias every week or so, you should be ok. I found tubes start to get muddy and fuzzy treble when they are on the way out. I only had one structure calapse, and it took out the amp heading a repair, but that was probably unlucky.
 
I still have a tubed DAC, which is on 24/7 but those tubes are small pre-amp ones with lower voltages and else heat. They are good for 20,000 hours.

 

[justin w.]

since building my first Blue Hawaii in 2004, i've only seen 2 bad EL34s out of hundreds. one went bad after being powered on/off hundreds or thousands of times over a few days. the other was from a brand new set of SED EL34

 

[statfi]

 #6160 of 6557 10/19/14
  To give people an idea of how I rate these tube differences, I've used a simple subjective scoring system:
1 point = the smallest discernible change that I consider reliable, repeatable and desirable.
...
 once I've latched on to a 1 point improvement, I don't like it taken away again.
         ...

1. The Herbie Halo III dampers will add 1 to 2 points to any of the tubes, other than the Treasures, which were too big to try. Of all the above changes, I found the tube dampers the most difficult to quantify. Still evaluating with the xf2s.

 
 

Bottom line: I agree with TheAttorney's assessment that the effect of the "dampers" is more than just "reliable, repeatable and desirable", i.e., deserving of more than 1 point.  I don't have enough comparisons to "calibrate" TheAttorney's scale quantitatively, but the effect of the dampers is well above the thresholds of "reliable…" and now indispensable!  Images take on a greater solidity ("stereoness"?) in space.  The soundscape becomes more transparent, less "opaque".  Instrumental "action" and technique is clearer.  Musical lines are more easily distinguishable and followable.
 
I got the dampers on a Wednesday, and could not face trying to do A/B comparisons after my routine 12-hour day, so I just put on Sibelius' 2nd from a complete Decca set I recently "found" among my 24 cu. feet of LPs, and was very pleased indeed with the first three movements through the BHSE, 009s, et al., without dampers.  However, the next night, I inconsistently *had* to hear the dampers, and gingerly put them on, shielding the glass of Justin's stock Mullards with Kleenex, and sliding them down until they were just below the upper planar insulator that holds the conductors in place, before "igniting" the BHSE.  Finally playing the fourth movement (with my apologies to Sibelius, for the 24 hour intermission), I was amazed to find that the solidity of images in the hall was so much better than the night before, and musical lines were so much clearer.  Both, but especially the latter, for me, substantially increased the emotional impact of the work.  I was elated with my non-negligible outlay, but decided not to report back here until I could do a better A-B test.
 
I had been obsessed about the sizing of the Herbies.  Steve Herbelin catered to me: "I recommend going with the HAL-O III-35. If you order online, mention in the "comments" section of the order form that they are for Mullard EL34s and I'll size them appropriately for you (erring a little undersize)."  When they arrived they seemed to be sized just right: a slight force, ounces maybe, is needed to get them to slip down the tube.  After my first experience putting them on, I became much bolder, and now, armed in some old ski-glove liners, boldly slip them on and off now even with the tube ignited.
 
When Saturday arrived, I took the time to do at least one B-A-B test, starting with the dampers on.  Receiving the BHSE a month ago was really great (full stop).  One of the few listening sessions I expect to remember for the rest of my life is hearing the Solti/Wilkie rendition of Beethoven's fifth on the BHSE shortly after its arrival.  With the BHSE the brilliance of the composition and the beauty of the performance had an emotional impact as large as any in my musical experience, including live performances.  This was beyond my expectation based on the opportunity to audition the BHSE extensively at an RMAF in Denver, albeit, with digital sources.  This experience with Beethoven's fifth seemed to set a good bar for evaluating the dampers, so I went back to well, for Beethoven's seventh, recorded in the Sofiensaal instead of the Medinah Temple.
 
The dampers give an enhanced sense of the recording space.  Without the dampers, I get the strong impression of images of instruments on a screen instead of in a hall.  Also, the orchestra sounds more congealed, less open.  With the dampers there is more "separation" of the choirs in the orchestra, with apparent space between them, yet without any sense of being overly etched.
 
Dampers make the "sounding" of the instruments themselves clearer.  I found it easier to, e.g., hear when the basses are doubling the cellos, and distinguish the violas from the violins.  I previously had been pleased, very pleased, with the sense of bass brass instruments moving volumns of air through the 009s, generally.  Of course that is not possible with Beethoven's orchestration.  However, now, for the first time I remember, I could "feel" how much air the string basses were moving, with the now damped BHSE.  As folks on this forum know, the 009s go way down.  With the damped BHSE the deep and mid bass have both more weight and clarity, without being louder, per se.  It is not as if one turned up the bass control of yore.  Without the dampers, in some sections, I could heard the basses "humming along", but with the dampers I heard the bowing technique with which they were being played!  An analogy to finish off the sounding of instruments: I find putting on the dampers similar to the experience of riding my bicycle through wooded terain wearing my glass spectacles instead of my contact lenses.  The spec's correct my astigmatism, so that I can see each leaf and branch on each tree distinctly, and how each catches and reflects the light of the sun according to its peculiar nature and position.  In some sense, this is subtle: no change in hue or saturation or brightness, but so pronounced.  The dampers do something similar in the audible domain.
 
Dampers increased the beauty of the sounds.  An achingly beautiful line from violins with the dampers occasionally became a bit shrill or screechy without.  At one point, without the dampers, the oboes poked out of the "stringed fuzz" like kazoos, but with the dampers all the choirs were easily distinguishable doing their own, so well composed things.
 
Finally, with the dampers, the music "made more sense".  There was more emotional impact from Beethoven's transitional developments and resolutions, because I could really hear them as constructed.  For example, in other contexts, it is well recognized that *someone* entering a room is an "event": through centuries of ceremonies, in theater and film, etc.  With the dampers, simple entrances of instruments or choirs onto the master's soundscape become *events*.  They are themselves, in their own space, and part of that brilliant composition.
 
So, first, with a very good but unfamiliar recording on an otherwise very well known system, and a bit of negative prejudice about the whole thing, the efficacy of Herbie Halo Dampers was manifestly evident and very pleasant.  Then, those benefits were confirmed with a somewhat more systematic comparison.  Now, I could not imagine going on without them.
 
Thanks to TheAttorney for tipping us off.  'Can't wait until my XF2's arrive.  Can it really get better?

 

[TheAttorney]

Thanks to TheAttorney for tipping us off.  'Can't wait until my XF2's arrive.  Can it really get better?

 
Phew! I do get a bit concerned when I stick my neck out on something controversial. People do and don't hear all sorts of things, so it's good to get positive feedback.
 
If you've got stock tubes then things will definitely get better than this - you may find you'll need to slightly open out the C ring on the larger xf2s.
I would not recommend adding the dampers onto hot tubes - cold metal onto hot glass just doesn't seem like a good idea. Sliding up or down or sliding off should be ok though.
 
Speaking of controversy, I've been trialing some alternative output fuses (as AMR don't do fast blow versions). The good news is that you can do better than the AMRs, but the bad news is that one ones I like are a mere 4 times the price - Ouch!
My trial has just been suspended as my 009s arrived a couple of days ago and the 007/009 comparison is more interesting than any fuse.