[ironbut]

Ok-ok,.. so I'd read all the bad press that Peter McAllister had gotten a couple of years ago. Following one particular poor souls trials and tribulations had put me off of the idea of buying an EA-4 when I was trying to find an affordable avenue to get on the electrostatic bandwagon.
A little over a year ago I got chance to really sit down and listen to most of the top 'stat's and decided to get a pair of the He Audio Jades (then the 1.2b).

I've always been one for the " Early Adopters Club" and while it's a sure fired way to get an ulcer (especially if you're as lower middle class as I am) it can be kinda exciting.
So back to McAllister,.. I knew that his speaker amps were getting some good press and he'd upgraded the EA-4 to the 6 and now the EA-8. I thought there was a chance that his "reported" poor build quality and long wait times had improved. I shot off an email to discuss what the new tube compliment and other changes had resulted in. Things sounded good and we discussed the exact configuration I'd be looking for.
The Jades were still in the pre ordering stage so I thought I'd go for it and order an EA-8. Peter quoted me a reasonable amount (just over $2k) which was about the same as a Woo GES would be with all the upgrades ( BTW I priced Woo's upgrades and it wasn't that much more than it would have cost me for the parts alone so it's a pretty good deal). But, being me, I just had to see what was up with the EA-8 since I knew that I'd be able to directly compare it with most of the other amps at CanJam 09.
What I was hoping for was an amp that would sound great and I could modify to perhaps surpass the $4k + crowd and build a nice case that was exactly what I need ( desktop space is always at a premium at Chez ironbut).
Peter told me it would be about 3 weeks to build the amp so I hoped it would arrive at about the same time as my Jades.

SinglePower lite

That's how I think of McAllister Audio now. To make a long story short(er), I put down a deposit at the beginning of Nov. 08. I paid the balance around Xmas since I was told that the amp was done and burning in. I was told that the amp was either going to be sent that week or had been sent about every 2 weeks as I inquired about it. I got the amp at the beginning of April.
After about 100 hours of troubleshooting, I finally got it to work on Monday May 4th. I sent 9 emails to Peter asking him for advice on what might be wrong, things I should measure, operating principles etc with only a single suggestion which was totally wrong despite the measurements I'd made on my own that proved otherwise (he was convinced it was the bias/headphones and it was in the second gain stage). It turned out that he'd installed a 150 ohm resistor in the supply instead of a 150k resistor. I probably would have found it sooner but with the haphazard wiring the resistor was under layers of wires and components. I've seen pictures of this kind of build quality in manuals under "how not to build gear". Aside from the insides, the chassis is a total write off due to dents, scratches and a plastic faceplate covering with glue oozing out from under it. But, like I said, I went into this figuring that if I liked the sound of the amp enough, I'd re-case it anyway. Unfortunately, some of the components (pots, switches, power supply caps) are epoxied onto the metal work so they could be ruined after chiseling them out.

So, how does it sound? Is it all worth it in the end?

Once I got the amp working as it should be, I started doing some tube rolling. With all that time waiting, I was able to pick up some nice tubes for the input and the second stage. The input was a 12au7 which I already had a couple of nice pairs. I discussed with Peter the possibility of some close subs. One required that the heater current be increased and since I'd already been waiting 2 months more than the original estimated time, I forgot about that one and was able to pick up 10 pairs of some of the usual subs for 12au7's. Unfortunately (there's that word again) when the amp arrived, and without notifying me, Peter had changed the input tubes to 7au7's.

The amp sounded extremely pleasant but too tubey for my taste. Lucky for me, the 7au7''s are cheap as dirt so I was quickly able to pick up a number of pairs for future tube rolling efforts.
At the present, I have 2 RCA cleartops on the input. The second stage- 6CG7/FQ7- I have a pair of Mazda's. The next stage are a pair of Sylvania VT231/6sn7 (blackplate, black base) and the outputs are an assortment of 12DQ6 . The rectifiers are another 12DQ6 and a 12 BQ6. If you have an iron will and decide to order an EA-8, who knows what tube compliment you might end up with. I'm quite positive that if you asked him not to change the tube types, it would make absolutely no difference if he decided to.

With the above tubes, to me, the sound is now excellent. It's now very revealing and detailed but with excellent pace and flow. It seems a little light with some large symphonic works but that sort of thing can be rolled or modded away. The bass goes deep and the midbass has plenty of slam. It's difficult to separate the sound of the amp from the Jades but so far it has responded very well to tube rolling (I've been from etched to syrupy).

I'm not sure if I'll ever be able to honestly say that I'm happy with the amp as it is since I could've built it in the time I spent toubleshooting it. Maybe when I rebuild it and get that McAllister Audio plastic, glued on faceplate off of it and into a nice looking cabinet I'll feel a little different.

So, I guess this is a warning for all you folks that want something a little different from that polished GES or cheaper than the other competition. This ain't no free lunch. If you've already ordered an amp from Peter, hopefully you won't have to go through all of this but it's very likely (he has yet to give me any indication that this isn't the status quo or unusual in any way).
Take my advice and just forget that you ever ordered it. Some day it'll arrive and you can be happy. But until it's in your hands and working correctly, all bets are off.

ps, Can you imagine if he had the kind of orders that Mikhail gets!

 

[Jon L]

Holy KRAPP!!

What the hell?

 

[derekbmn]

I have a loooong story much like yours in regards to an EA-4.(still not working right) Dealing with Peter is VERY nerve racking and honestly I would stay far away from his stuff.(very far) The build quality is beyond terrible.

I am very glad you figured out the problem, but would really love to know what problem(s) you were actually encountering.

The general problems are usually described as numerous odd distortions. It often seems very frequency dependent.

I would love to get to the bottom of it. Any info would be greatly appreciated by me and i'm sure others with defunct amps.

 

[ironbut]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jon L /img/forum/go_quote.gif Holy KRAPP!! What the hell?

Pretty crazy huh?
To top it all off, since my Jade was in the first ten and had a 50/50 chance of having a defect, I asked Peter if I had time to lend them to someone with a high bias Stax amp to test them out and enjoy them until I had an amp to drive them. That's when he started telling me every other week that he'd either ship them that week or that he'd already shipped them and I should get it any day. He even gave me a tracking number back in February (that didn't work of course).

Well, like I said, it's sounding great now and I can put this experience behind me. I did learn a few things about troubleshooting as I measured every voltage, resistance and capacitance. I also either jumped or replaced every wire, desoldered and resoldered every tube pin, replaced the pot (with a much better one) and was in the process of removing every capacitor and sub-ing a known good one when I pulled a bypassed electrolytic (in the stage that I suspected to be the problem) and uncovered the resistor that I was only able to see the first 2 bands of before to discover that it was 150 instead of 150k ohms.

It's really a shame but poor Fang from HeadDirect got pulled into this mess since Peter swore that the amp was working perfectly. I assumed it was one of the defective Jades and bless his heart, Fang had a new to me in 4 days of the time I sent the original one to him.

I'll have the EA-8 at CanJam. Just hope to god that you don't love it!

 

[spritzer]

Sadly this is nothing new and the horrible build quality (makes Single Power amps look safe) is coupled with the cheapest, nastiest parts available and the circuit makes the Egmont look well designed. Stay away from this crap...

 

[ironbut]

Quote:

Originally Posted by derekbmn /img/forum/go_quote.gif I have a loooong story much like yours in regards to an EA-4.(still not working right) I would love to get to the bottom of it. Any info would be greatly appreciated by me and i'm sure others with defunct amps.

While I was troubleshooting I did find 7 cold solder joints. They were mostly on grounds and one wire had no solder on it at all. The only thing that was holding it in place was some flux! Of course if they were something other than grounds or connector wiring ( I have an HE90 connector at the end of the line of jacks and the dropping resistor was just hanging there) it would have been obvious.
Those can be real buggers to find since they can look pretty good but the slightest bump will make them loose contact.
If your problem is frequency dependent (and repeatable) capacitors are always suspect but it could be a bad solder joint too. One pretty low tech way to home in on bad components/solder joints is to take a wooden chopstick (non-conductive) and tap on every component and solder joint with headphones on and the amp turned up to a medium level. Lots of times that tapping and prodding will result in crackling sound on your cans.
Most of the bad joints that I found were under something. Many times several connections are made to one spot. That's where good builder usually use some sort of post or a ground plane. Peter just keeps on soldering more component legs or wires on over the last one. Every time you do that, you reheat the solder joints that were done before. Most of the solder will drain off and it just takes a slight touch while the joint is molten to break the connection. Peter has the habit of heaping great gobs of solder on the ones that are hard to get at. All that extra solder just helps to obscure problems and cause others ( on an early tube amp project, I thought that the more, the better and I had to replace 2 tube sockets the the solder had run down into).
There are lethal voltages under the hood of that EA-4. And even when you're using a wooden probe, keep one hand in you pocket. For anything other than this simple test, let your amps power filter caps sit un powered for at least a couple of hours before you jump in ( I don't know how many times I've laid a forearm across a "hot" cap as I've looked at something inside an amp).
While you tap you way through the amp (don't forget jacks, switches and pots and the wires leading to and from them) look closely at them with a bright light. If they're totally disconnected, all the tapping in the world won't change the sound you hear. Also, check to be sure that two or more bare conductors aren't almost touching. Solder spikes or the pointy ends of component legs sticking out will arc to the next conductor easier than a smooth rounded solder fillet. If your eyes are anything like mine, you're gonna need a small gas giant above the amp to see these.
Other than that sort of basic stuff, there's bound to be a competent tube amp repair guy within driving distance. If you don't know of one, go to your favorite audio shop and ask them. They probably have someone that they use to do warranty work on the amps they sell. Even these 'static amps aren't nearly as complicated as your run of the mill CD player or solid state amp. They might need to know the pin assignments for the headphone plug and the bias voltage that it should be applying to the appropriate pin of the connector. If you don't know these, there's a diagram on Headwize in the "All Tube Electrostatic Headphone Amp " project article written by Kevin Gilmore (the one the Woo GES is based on). That article will probably be enough for a good tech whose never seen an electrostatic amp in their life to figure out what's wrong. Aside from the bias circuit, it's just a balanced amp.
In my amp, the output stage has 4 outputs. Left channel- front and rear. Right channel-front and rear. These are directly connected to the headphone connector and the fifth pin is for bias of both channels. All these channels should output about the same AC voltage if a sine wave is applied to the input and you don't move the volume pot. The bias voltage is probably too high for you to accurately measure without a high voltage probe for a voltmeter.

 

[catscratch]

You're not the only one; I also tried my luck with an EA-2 and my story is similar. Months after months of delays, and in the end an amp that has serious problems. Except that I decided to not bother with troubleshooting the thing since I have no DIY skill myself and simply wrote it off as a loss. When me and a friend (who does have DIY skills but unforunately lives on the other side of the continent) opened the thing up we simply couldn't stop laughing for about 30 minutes at the build quality. I'll spare the grisly details but I probably could have built something better as a high-school project. The casing is also dented, scratched, and extremely poorly finished.

And, like in your case, the thing that adds insult to injury is that the amp did have real sonic potential, at least with the SR-404 - that is, when it worked. The soundstage was massive, the dynamic range was very good, and the amp basically made the SR-404 stand up and sound much like a Grado with soundstage. It was the first time that I actually liked the SR-404, and also the last. And on that note, I'm not going to risk the O2 by plugging it into the amp so don't even ask.

So, my suggestion is to stay away from McAlister amps, at least the electrostatic ones. There are many much, much better options at the price, starting with the 717 and the basic Woo GES, and considering the time and frustration, you're better off picking up a soldering iron yourself and building a KGSS. At least this way you're learning a useful skill at the same time.

 

[pabbi1]

Anyone want some of this? Just a fading memory.

EA-6

 

[Lil' Knight]

Is it possible to build a KGSS now? Are all the parts available?

 

[ironbut]

Quote:

Originally Posted by pabbi1 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Anyone want some of this? Just a fading memory. EA-6

That looks awfully familiar ! Even those Illinois Capacitor film caps. (I guess those are a favorite with vintage restoration which Peter does).

Just out of curiosity, what is the tube compliment of all your McAllisters?

 

[plaidplatypus]

I compared a McAlister electrostatic amp to a SRM-313. Based on that I will never get a McAlister amp for my earspeakers.

The McAlister dynamic amp is amazing with the HD650.

In conclusion: McAlister dynamic, Yes. McAlister electrostat NO!

 

[vcoheda]

i've heard some mcalister stat amps that sounded very good, but the build quality was not.

 

[derekbmn]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ironbut /img/forum/go_quote.gif Just out of curiosity, what is the tube compliment of all your McAllisters?

4x 13EM7 2X 6cg7 and 1x 7au7.

My amp has been to a tech (a great one-old timer tube guy). He called Peter to get some of the operating paremeters for it and .......Peter couldn't remember. So he said he would call him back once he found them and not surprisingly never heard from him.

The amp also has been back to Peter. He quickly said he had it fixed (bad connections in the amplifier section) and he sent it back quickly.
The problems were still there.

 

[ironbut]

Quote:

Originally Posted by catscratch /img/forum/go_quote.gif considering the time and frustration, you're better off picking up a soldering iron yourself and building a KGSS. At least this way you're learning a useful skill at the same time.

I was planning on building a BH last year. I started by ordering the transformer from that guy in Atlanta. When I didn't hear back from him I contacted him again and when nothing happened for 2 months, I gave up on it.
I was always kinda lukewarm on that project anyway. I'm not real crazy about hybrid amps. I've listened to the KGSS, the KGBH and one of the prototypes of Justin's SE and I prefer the sound of the ES-1 and ES-2. But of course Mikhail's off the list (he laughs uncontrollably in a manner reminiscent of Inspector Clouseau's Chief Supervisor).
I was really excited about a year ago when Craig Uthus told me he was thinking about building a 211 based electrostatic amp but he lost interest and began other projects. I guess he has a solid state version in the works though.

I know what you mean about the potential in this amp though. I'll keep it pretty much stock for CanJam. But afterwards, I'll go through with my plan to recase, rewire, move the PS outboard and upgrade the caps. It'll be easier on my wallet than having to fork out the big bucks all at once. That's one nice thing about having it in a chassis that I'd be happy to s**t can. I can experiment away and not have to worry about being careful not to scratch it.

 

[ironbut]

Quote:

Originally Posted by derekbmn /img/forum/go_quote.gif 4x 13EM7 2X 6cg7 and 1x 7au7. My amp has been to a tech (a great one-old timer tube guy). He called Peter to get some of the operating paremeters for it and .......Peter couldn't remember. So he said he would call him back once he found them and not surprisingly never heard from him. The amp also has been back to Peter. He quickly said he had it fixed (bad connections in the amplifier section) and he sent it back quickly. The problems were still there.

Bummer. I don't think that his hearing is very good since my amp had about a 15dB deficit on one of the channels.
One of the last emails I got from him, he suggested I send the amp and my headphones back to him. There was no freakin' way I was going to send it back into that black hole.
I've also tried to find out some of the operating levels which would have helped enormously in my troubleshooting efforts and he just wouldn't give them up. I'm sure your tech has run into that sort of thing before and knew that he wasn't going to get any info.

Maybe it's just me, but I have to wonder about guys that do business like this. I mean, it must take a healthy dose of denial not to realize that he's turning his customers into mortal enemies.