[Ali-Pacha]

Great ! Looking forward to ordering it
Not fond of natural cotton, but it's just one opinion among others.

Ali

 

[mercman]

Black for me

 

[jhellow]

I would order natural cotton when available.

 

[bmichels]

l love the Champagne version !

 

[statfi]

Still deciding on offering the natural colored cotton sleeving as an option - thoughts?

Better metal and dielectric sound great to make the sound even better !-) I listen with my eyes closed, so, not so interested in the cotton. More info on new tube options would be most welcome.

 

[Rushton]

ok, i may place an order

We've been working on a new power cord (between the power supply and amp) for the Blue Hawaii SE, which is a flat style cable. Not only is it way more friendly to use, but the design is better as well. All conductors are still the same gauge as the garden hose style cable with better quality wire and dielectrics. We'll be offering this cord soon to BHSE owners and it's starting to ship with new builds now. Still deciding on offering the natural colored cotton sleeving as an option - thoughts?

Very interesting new development, Justin. Can you talk more about the changes in wire and dielectrics?
I would be hesitant to request the natural color for fear it would become "dingy" looking after a few years as the cotton ages. Would be black for me!

 

[bearFNF]

Black for me, too.

 

[Phil95]

ok, i may place an order

We've been working on a new power cord (between the power supply and amp) for the Blue Hawaii SE, which is a flat style cable. Not only is it way more friendly to use, but the design is better as well. All conductors are still the same gauge as the garden hose style cable with better quality wire and dielectrics. We'll be offering this cord soon to BHSE owners and it's starting to ship with new builds now. Still deciding on offering the natural colored cotton sleeving as an option - thoughts?

Hello Justin
This link cable is interesting. Will it be only available from HeadAmp (USA)? At what price? Does it improve the sound quality?
Thanks

 

[Mr.Max.]

Found on eBay. another new Chinese EL34 equivalent, the Shuguang WE6CA7 PLUS.



They list carbon plates, but nothing else in specs. No internet history on reliability, but 1 year warranty. Looks interesting. The bases appear oversized and would not fit my GG without metalwork.

Sorry,
news on the test result?!?!?!

 

[fredx]

Hi, I'm new to the forum and to head-fi. I picked up a BHSE second-hand and had a few questions I was hoping for some help with. When I first got the amp I did the bias adjustment immediately, and all was good for awhile. Then one of the input fuses blew. It was a 3A 250 V fuse. I've looked at posts on here and some people mention using a 2A fuse for the input, and others mention using a 3A fuse. So which is it? (I realize that there's a 115V US version of the amp, and a 220V european version also, so this may explain the difference. I have the US version, so I'm thinking that 3A 250V is the correct fuse, but I'd like to be sure. The owners manual doesn't specify.) Also, I'm puzzled as to what caused the fuse to blow in the first place? I did change the power cable from a normal one to a fancy, hifi one. Also, i hooked up a little tube preamp to it. I'm wondering if I need to redo the bias adjustment each time I make a change like that with the amp, and is not doing that what may have caused the fuse to blow? Thanks for any advice.

 

[bearFNF]

If you are talking about the AC fuses in the main power plug. The original stock value was 2.5 amp (LF.T2.5AL250VP). Over the years I have had the BHSE I have gone through several of these fuses. The start-up surges cause the fuse to degrade a lttle more every time you power up until the fuse goes. Usually only one at a time. But I have noticed the other fuse usually shows signs of the spike. So I end up replacing both at the same time.

I have been given a new fuse (by headamp at AXPONA) to try, that IIRC, they said comes stock in later production units (unconfirmed). It is a 3.15Amp fuse (LF.T3.15AL250VP). I was told this fuse should handle the start sequence better. I have not tried it yet. Been a little busy lately but will try them later this week.

 

[justin w.]

We've used a couple different fuse values depending on the manufacturer and model of the custom power transformers. Currently we use 3.15A for 115V use and 1.6A for 230V use. Sometimes in the past, we accidentally undervalued it slightly and it might blow 1 out of 1000 times, but 3.15A seems to be the best fit with the current transformers. These are always slow-blow fuses.

By the way it's pretty rare to need to do the offset/balance adjustments (everyone including us calls it bias but it's not). STAX amps all have these same adjustments hidden inside the box. Unless something is wrong with the tubes or your room temperature has changed by several degrees or more, it's probably not needed.

 

[fredx]

Thanks! That's what I needed to know.

We've used a couple different fuse values depending on the manufacturer and model of the custom power transformers. Currently we use 3.15A for 115V use and 1.6A for 230V use. Sometimes in the past, we accidentally undervalued it slightly and it might blow 1 out of 1000 times, but 3.15A seems to be the best fit with the current transformers. These are always slow-blow fuses.

By the way it's pretty rare to need to do the offset/balance adjustments (everyone including us calls it bias but it's not). STAX amps all have these same adjustments hidden inside the box. Unless something is wrong with the tubes or your room temperature has changed by several degrees or more, it's probably not needed.

 

[Golfnutz]

If anyone is interested in acquiring NOS tubes for their BHSE, I've just listed 4 quads (2 quads XF2/OO, and 2 quads XF4/DD), and a used quad of XF3's.
Not much of a deal really, as I'm looking to get what I paid for them (4 years ago). Prices have gone up since, but I've listed them for what I paid (or a little less on some).
I've never used any of these tubes, other than to test them when they arrived, so they should still be considered NOS as from when I purchased them.
The 4 quads are all in excellent shape (all tested very well), and most of them came from Tube World who has a high reputation for selling quality tubes.
My experience has been any decent used vintage EL34 tubes will sound better than any of today's reissue/replica EL34 tube.
PM for any additional info or photos.
Thanks.

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/philips-made-in-holland-el34-dd-nos-tubes-for-sale.906262/
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/siemens-mullard-el34-quad-s-of-xf2-oo-nos-tubes-for-sale.906224/
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/philips-mullard-el34-xf3-used-tubes-for-sale.906279/

I forgot to mention, I will be putting my BHSE up for sale shortly, and it will be a package deal:
BHSE (black/120v) w/quads of Philips Metal Base, Philips XF4/DD halo, and XF2/OO halo
SR-009 w/SRE-950S extension cable - cable was never used
Stax SRM-1 amp (Spritzer reconditioned) - in excellent working order (good for office or bedroom)
None of the tubes listed with BHSE package deal are from the other NOS tube listings mentioned earlier

 

[Velomane]

@Golfnutz if you're in Canada and willing to sell the BHSE to a Winnipegger, let me know. I may be interested.