[thainxce]

Its look like a heavy metal . I like it much , especialy his mysteriously black shell . Awesome !!!

 

[mab1376]

I wish i could afford this.

 

[Neogeo333]

Quote:

I wish i could afford this.

Just a thought, can people interested in the Dark Star ask Ray to build one with same internals but with less dramatic chassis?  I mean i love the chassis and I personally think is THE best looking chassis to this day, non other can compare in this dept.  But you guys think Ray can knock 40-50% off the price if he use a regular square chassis?  Maybe something simple like one of those B22 chassis.  I will buy that in a sec.
 

 

[Syan25]

It is a DREAM amp - the price is what you'd expect and someone if it wasn't that price - we'd be thinking what's wrong with it...

 

[choptalk]

Quote:

It is a DREAM amp - the price is what you'd expect and someone if it wasn't that price - we'd be thinking what's wrong with it...

We are our own worst enemy.

 

[jcx]

not quite as refined casework but 2x bridged audiosource amp-100 would be arguably competitive with Dark Star's chip amps - TDA7294  DMOS output power chip amps with Dr Cherry's "output inclusive" Miller compensation has a good chance of beating Ray's OPA541 on audio distortion at higher frequency
buy 2 for ~$200 and set the bridge switch - cheap "dual mono", likely bigger power supply capacity than the Dark Star too
no balanced inputs
http://www.google.com/products/catalog?pq=class+2+ac+line+plug&hl=en&cp=16&gs_id=1p&xhr=t&q=audiosource+amp-100&gs_upl=&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.,cf.osb&biw=1920&bih=1069&wrapid=tljp1329534334717031&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=shop&cid=13970784420185798018&os=sellers&sa=X&ei=ihU_T9qnDKjX0QGO27HbBw&sqi=2&ved=0CHIQ_QgwAg#scoring=tp

 

[TheWuss]

Okay, jcx. Send me one on a loaner, and i will gladly do a shootout against ray's chip amp.

 

[bcg27]

Because it is so difficult to design a headphone amp with 2 percent thd at 10 kHz. Yes that is all you are listening to with this amp. I would hope that if I were spending 3.5k on an amp it would have lower distortion than the headphonesI am using it with

 

[Maxvla]

Is that at normal listening levels though?

 

[grokit]

Quote:

Because it is so difficult to design a headphone amp with 2 percent thd at 10 kHz. Yes that is all you are listening to with this amp. I would hope that if I were spending 3.5k on an amp it would have lower distortion than the headphonesI am using it with

I'm guessing that you haven't listened to the Dark Star yet either, as I haven't read any complaints of distortion among those that have heard it. In fact among those that have heard it, the impressions have been nothing but superlative.

 

[bcg27]

That just means you don't know what you are hearing.
It's not an opinion whether the distortion is there or not it's simply where you like it or not

 

[grokit]

Quote:

That just means you don't know what you are hearing.
It's not an opinion whether the distortion is there or not it's simply where you like it or not

 
There have been multiple impressions that the Darkstar has a blacker background than a sampling of B22s when comparing directly, you should give it a try sometime. Just because you read something into the specs doesn't mean you will ever hear it with your ears.

 

[bcg27]

Show me a measurement of the ds having lower noise than a well built b22 and maybe I will take you seriously. otherwise it's all anecdotes and people wowed by a nice box. The data sheet doesn't back your claim, and data sheets don't lie

 

[grokit]

I'm just parroting the impressions I've read by those that have listened to both amps side by side, which you clearly have not. I haven't either but then again I'm not dissing an amp that I haven't heard.

 

[bcg27]

Contrary to popular belief here amplifiers are not some kind of magic voodoo. They are well understood devices that can be measured and quantitatively evaluated. Maybe all the people on this thread like listening to distortion but I would rather my amplifier does what is supposed to