[philodox]

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[Pixel Pusher]

Nice Pabbi, glad to see your amp made it save and sound. The EA-6 makes the ESound look somewhat small and I know it's a solid sized CDP!

 

[Frihed89]

I see you are personally aquainted with Peter. I am not. I have talked to him via phone many times. He is very knowledgable and very friendly to talk with. But this is no way to run a a business. Blue Circle equipment is built only by Gilbert Yeung. He has no one else working for him that puts the equipment together, although he has at least two other people in the shop. I think the average wait time is 4-8 weeks at BC. Take a look. I am aquainted with Gilbert personally, on the other hand.

 

[philodox]

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[velogreg]

Quote:

Originally Posted by philodox I agree, on a personal level Peter is a great guy and he is extremely knowledgeable. And no, my amp was not ready. He will be delivering it to me on Thursday.I wonder if Gilbert is getting as much business as Peter? I think the main problem here is that Peter is trying to please everyone, but goes about it the wrong way. What he needs to do is give the buyer a clear expectation of when he is going to recieve the amp and PLAN FOR PROBLEMS. Right now he is building on the fly and if anything comes up there is a delay. He needs to have a little breathing room, not only for his buyers sake, but for his own sanity. If at the end of the day he cannot fill orders in a reasonable amount of time, that means he needs to hire on help. Plain and simple. Kevin [pixelpusher] mentioned that Peter is making some changes and hopes to start building up a stock of amps so that orders can be filled right away or after minimal tweaks. This would be a great thing, but unless he gets more manpower I don't see how he will pull it off.

From what I understand, Peter did have some help but he didn't work out. That coupled with being out for a few days with the flu really set him back even more. You can imagine what a personnel change in a small shop can do to the production schedule.

 

[philodox]

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[Pixel Pusher]

I did speak with Peter yesterday. He does have a new hand (based in Oshawa) helping him out, that literally just started. Peter is hopeful on the new guy working out which will improve the lead time.

As mentioned previously, Peter is aware of the lengthy wait for his customers and wishes to reduce that with building up future stock. Sounds like a plan but I don't expect the new operations to be implemented anytime soon. He has a lot of open orders which I believe has almost double in roughly the last few months.

I was told that he now has 4 new EA-6 orders + 1 for mikeg and 1 promised for a winter meet I plan to host. I'm guessing, all likely generated from this thread/ Head-Fi.

 

[pabbi1]

Wow... I am not writing anything until next weekend about the EA-6, since I need more data points, and true measuring sticks (ES-1 & 007t)... and, maybe, even a Blue Hawaii...

 

[mikeg]

I told Peter not to rush mine, since my HE90 is back to Sennheiser in Germany, for a tuneup. It'll be at least a couple of months before I get it back.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pixel Pusher I was told that he now has 4 new EA-6 orders + 1 for mikeg and 1 promised for a winter meet I plan to host. I'm guessing, all likely generated from this thread/ Head-Fi.

 

[Solude]

Quote:

Originally Posted by pabbi1 Wow... I am not writing anything until next weekend about the EA-6, since I need more data points, and true measuring sticks (ES-1 & 007t)... and, maybe, even a Blue Hawaii...

Not sure what you paid for your EA-6 but I'd think the HeadAmp KGSS, Woo KGTT, Stax 007T, Stax 717 would be in the same league. The ES-1 and KGBH are multiples of the EA-6 price tag for current production ones anyway.

I will assume from your 'Wow...' that the EA-6 at the very least compared favourably to the HEV70?

 

[spritzer]

Is there anything wrong with them? I think that there is something up with mine but I found nothing wrong when I opened them up. They sound like they are out of phase compared to my Stax phones but using a phase reversal adapter didn't fix it.

 

[mikeg]

My hope, and expectation, is that the EA-6 performs as well as an HEV90, an ES-1, and an Aristaeus. Anyone ever try a Woo Audio electrostatic amp? I wonder how well the Woo Audio amp. compares to the EA-6.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Solude I will assume from your 'Wow...' that the EA-6 at the very least compared favourably to the HEV70?

 

[Solude]

The Woo is Kevin's original amp that in his own words just doesn't stand up to the KGSS which people tend to compare the KGBH and ES-1 to.

 

[pabbi1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Solude Not sure what you paid for your EA-6 but I'd think the HeadAmp KGSS, Woo KGTT, Stax 007T, Stax 717 would be in the same league. The ES-1 and KGBH are multiples of the EA-6 price tag for current production ones anyway. I will assume from your 'Wow...' that the EA-6 at the very least compared favourably to the HEV70?

With the HE60 jack from Singlepower, and a HE60->Stax adapter from Apuresound (Alex), I'm sitting at ~$1850. I got an intro of $1599 for the EA-6 since I sprung first.

The HEV70 is not worthy to be mentioned in the same thread as the EA-6. The only reason I mention the other amps is that they are available locally via friends, and I just want some range of reality check, and with other phones. The ES-1 was great to me, but simply not enough output (I listened often at 5 o'clock and wanted more). My current gain is about 65% of the maximum of the tubes, and we're discussing bumping that to 85%, as, again, I simply need more gain.

So far, I am taking inventory of what the amp will do, and in a rather clinical way to help Peter voice this amp for the Senns, as he has none... had I been able to, I should have shipped him the HE60... but, alas, did not.

Also not convinced new tubes wouldn't help, so new glass is incoming.

So far... I have listened to 16 complete CDs... and, generally speaking, all electronica (NIN, Depeche Mode, Wall of Voodoo) and acoustic / bluegrass (Alison Krauss) is simply spectacular. Zappa, Dire Straits, Tom Petty and the B-52s have been outstanding. Janes Addiction and the Rolling Stones (Sticky Fingers) have all been really good (great in spots).

BUTTTTTTTTTTTTTT.... those who are familiar with my sweet spot know I prefer not only loud, but also snotty. Jet, Velvet Revolver, AC/DC, Audioslave and Mudvayne have been almost unaccepteble in any sense, to me. So, not sure if this is voicing, or just poorly mastered music that sounds good on lesser equiptment. These actually sounded better (well, at unacceptably low volumes) on the HEV70 - totally disturbing.

Thus, before I go too far, I want to move through a deeper range of familiar material to isolate where I want changes.

Or, just be resigned to a loud and snotty Blue Hawaii... like this (99% sourced and kitted)... yes, boards are in there.

I'm not gonna gush just because I spent a bunch of money. And, in fairness to Peter, I need to finish my listening for his feedback, and see if this topology fits me, or not, and what changes, if any, can be made, and with what tradeoffs.

I felt the same about the HEV90 - not really ready for ball-clutching rock. I can live with a lot of things, but not without GnR, Velvet Revolver and The Who... at volumes that panic normal humans.

 

[philodox]

Removed some of my posts from this thread as someone emailed them to Peter and they were taken completely out of context...