[planet]

I emailed Justin a couple weeks ago to ask if the 12 week lead time quoted on the site is correct, and he simply said (paraphrased) "will ship in more like 14 weeks."

 

[justin w.]

  Just added myself to the order list. I'm curious whether anyone knows if the 2014 Batch is still open, or is the 2015 Batch the next one available?
 
Thanks!

 
there are the ones that are about to ship, and then the next batch which should be finished fairly soon because i already am getting the circuit boards for it, i already received the raw enclosures, the connectors/cables are already wired, so other than assembly, what needs to be done for those is:
 
1) powder coat the enclosures
2) front panels still need to be machined. i have been in contact with vendors regarding the aluminum for this. trying to get responses is hard..
3) machined front panels will then need to be polished/anodized

 

[winegeek]

Great news, thanks for the update!

 

[magiccabbage]

   
there are the ones that are about to ship, and then the next batch which should be finished fairly soon because i already am getting the circuit boards for it, i already received the raw enclosures, the connectors/cables are already wired, so other than assembly, what needs to be done for those is:
 
1) powder coat the enclosures
2) front panels still need to be machined. i have been in contact with vendors regarding the aluminum for this. trying to get responses is hard..
3) machined front panels will then need to be polished/anodized

just as a matter of interest - how long does it take to put together the GSX MK 2 when you have all the parts  and are ready to go? I have always wondered how long a build like that might take. Of course you don't have to spill the beans if you don't want to, im just curious. 

 

[justin w.]

  just as a matter of interest - how long does it take to put together the GSX MK 2 when you have all the parts  and are ready to go? I have always wondered how long a build like that might take. Of course you don't have to spill the beans if you don't want to, im just curious. 

 
the circuit boards i have assembled by a company, who also assembles the wired connectors (though for the next batch i had those done by a guy in-house when i ran out of other things to work on). the standoffs were also press-fit into the enclosures rather than having to screw them in by hand. so there really is not a lot of assembly labor. Most of the time is spent ordering parts, going over prototypes/samples, discussing specs with vendors, and doing other things that vendors aren't going to get right, such as precision matching of the Toshiba JFETs, and final testing. If i divided all of these things per unit it is probably around 20 hours per GS-X mk2.

 

[GloryUprising]

 
just as a matter of interest - how long does it take to put together the GSX MK 2 when you have all the parts  and are ready to go? I have always wondered how long a build like that might take. Of course you don't have to spill the beans if you don't want to, im just curious. 

the circuit boards i have assembled by a company, who also assembles the wired connectors (though for the next batch i had those done by a guy in-house when i ran out of other things to work on). the standoffs were also press-fit into the enclosures rather than having to screw them in by hand. so there really is not a lot of assembly labor. Most of the time is spent ordering parts, going over prototypes/samples, discussing specs with vendors, and doing other things that vendors aren't going to get right, such as precision matching of the Toshiba JFETs, and final testing. If i divided all of these things per unit it is probably around 20 hours per GS-X mk2.

Damn all that work!

It's hard to find such dedication in an environment of commodity goods!

Thanks for the hard work!

 

[XVampireX]

Justin, is it too hard to figure out a workflow where you can meet peoples demands? I can't believe people ordered it a year ago and just recently got it!
I'm still interested in the GS-X mk2, hopefully with Auralic Vega I'll have an end game setup.
 
P.S: The first question was not meant to offend, I'm talking about getting more people working on this because from what I understand, justin is outsourcing some of the work to other companies but builds it all himself. Based on the year waiting time I'd be afraid of ordering one...

 

[justin w.]

  Justin, is it too hard to figure out a workflow where you can meet peoples demands? I can't believe people ordered it a year ago and just recently got it!
I'm still interested in the GS-X mk2, hopefully with Auralic Vega I'll have an end game setup.
 
P.S: The first question was not meant to offend, I'm talking about getting more people working on this because from what I understand, justin is outsourcing some of the work to other companies but builds it all himself. Based on the year waiting time I'd be afraid of ordering one...

 
I wish there was a magic parts store that just sold everything i need, but there isn't. When there is an 8 week lead time for the aluminum, 8 weeks for a machine shop to make the parts, 4 weeks minimum for metal finishing, plus shipping/communication time, i'm looking at 6 months for front panels -- more if prototypes are needed. Double this if i get a bad batch of aluminum which is what happened last year with the BHSE front panels. So i'm actually now testing all the aluminum before I use it, and this is adding about 6-8 weeks. This means if i build 50 amps but get orders for 100, there will be at least an additional 6-8 month wait. This has happened multiple times. I have to be careful about ordering too many parts. There is really not much difference between selling 10 amps and 2 amps per month. Though the latter could result in sitting on a pile of parts for the next decade, and I can't do that.

 

[tvolpe1600]

How do other companies deal with these same issues? Buy cheaper aluminum?

 

[purk]

  Justin, is it too hard to figure out a workflow where you can meet peoples demands? I can't believe people ordered it a year ago and just recently got it!
I'm still interested in the GS-X mk2, hopefully with Auralic Vega I'll have an end game setup.
 
P.S: The first question was not meant to offend, I'm talking about getting more people working on this because from what I understand, justin is outsourcing some of the work to other companies but builds it all himself. Based on the year waiting time I'd be afraid of ordering one...

 
 

How do other companies deal with these same issues? Buy cheaper aluminum?

 
Pretty simple.  Use the run-of-the-mill chassis/front plates like most companies.  I suggest you to wait for Justin to go through his build process as it worth the long wait.  The build quality of his amps is just the best in the business, especially the BHSE & GSX-MKII. 

 

[tvolpe1600]

No doubt - I am in the batch that is going to ship soon, so I am not complaining at all. I just wanted to confirm the difference and learn a bit more about what divides normal chassis/front plates from the exceptional and beautiful ones that HeadAmp sources. Justin has mentioned a few times over the months that he has very strict / specific specs when it comes to ordering material (which is a good thing, obviously).

 

[justin w.]

How do other companies deal with these same issues? Buy cheaper aluminum?

 
i think it's different for everyone, there are companies who specialize in making complete enclosures for high end audio/video equipment. the stuff always looks exactly the same. the easiest stuff to do is the brushed finish that looks really choppy. it's run through a machine with a wire brush like a papa john's pizza oven. very easy, boring, looks terrible in anything other than black or silver. it also doesnt look very good with laser engraving
 

 
like this. the aluminum quality isnt an issue with this kind of finish

 

[Dubstep Girl]

^ woo audio

 

[Rico613]

^ LMAO !!! . . 

 

[tvolpe1600]

Ahh I see now. That info on the finish made total sense. Everything clicked in my mind. Thanks!