[wink]

Not state of the art at it's bleeding edge.

 

[arnaud]

Quote:

Didn't quite mean to jump on it like that. This is what happens when I post something elsewhere minutes after making a post on sound science.

No worries, it was more about wink with his non-sequitur and other astute words . Great practice anyhow so don't mind my comment  

 

[autoteleology]

Why's that?

 
Heh. I feel like that little kid who is always trying to tag along with his big bro and his friends but isn't really cool enough to fit in. 

 

[anetode]

Quote:

No worries, it was more about wink with his non-sequitur and other astute words . Great practice anyhow so don't mind my comment  

Oh I've fallen for worse on HF today. Thanks wink

 

[DrForBin]

hello,
 
i find the discussion of various amps and their qualities/differences very interesting. i seems that the best way to sum it up is that everyone has a different ultimate reference and that slagging someone for their preference is like arguing that chocolate ice cream is (somehow) morally superior to vanilla and if you disagree, well then you are on the road to perdition.

 
if it will link, i would offer this as a potentially enlightening bit of thought concerning taste in audio equipment:
 
http://www.theabsolutesound.com/articles/magico-q5-loudspeaker-tas-214/
 
the thoughts in paragraphs  2 to about 10 seem to help me with my perspective.
 
cheers
 

 

[wink]

Quote:android

Oh I've fallen for worse on HF today. Thanks wink

No problem, we keep each other honest.
 
Quote:as above

This is what happens when I post something elsewhere minutes after making a post on sound science.

That's why I try to keep away from that forum.
 
It's all too subjective for me.    (can't find my sarcasm meter)
 

 
Found it!

 

[gilency]

Me likes the SR-009 with KGSSHV.

 

[tiga3mata]

It's basically the ultimate expression of an all tube electrostatic amp with an EL34 based CCS for each output.  So that means 8 EL34's plus the input tubes.  The complexity of the filaments is in another league as the CCS EL34's cathodes are sitting on top of the output tubes so they will see a lot of voltage.  This violates the C-Fv so they need fully isolated transformers right next to the tubes. 

This design was the fruit of a rather prolific few months when design after design was drawn up and then made ever more complex.  The output stage came from me cloning the RSA A-10 and trying to make something useable from that mess of a circuit and some good ideas from Kevin.  It may look like SRPP but it isn't as SRPP can't work for electrostatics. 

Sounds like a crazy over the top take no prisoner design and an estat fanboy's wet dream...... and with a name like MEGATRON...me want...!!

 

[Beefy]

Quote:

ES headphones are pure C - no question of range of bumpy load Z vs frequency multi driver iem @ 20 Ohms nominal to a 300 Ohm with single 50% bass bump choice for the amp designer to "optimize" - either a ES amp can drive a ~100pF C or not (~ 70-200 pF range)

 
Are they? I had read (from KG I think) that at low frequencies load Z is very very high, almost pure capacitative, but at high frequencies load Z begins to fall dramatically. Very similar to piezoelectric material properties, only without structural resonances causing impedance spikes.
 
Quote:

This is turning into a vocabulary and logic contest.

 
In science we call it linguistic masturbation.

 

[kevin gilmore]

Quote:

 
Are they? I had read (from KG I think) that at low frequencies load Z is very very high, almost pure capacitative, but at high frequencies load Z begins to fall dramatically. Very similar to piezoelectric material properties, only without structural resonances causing impedance spikes.
 

 
This is the definition of a capacitor. impedance is inversly proportional to frequency.
 
the only inductance is that of the cable, and that only has an effect well into the megahertz range.

 

[Beefy]

Check check.

 

[spritzer]

Wink did touch on something important here, in the past Hifi meant, to borrow from Quad, the closest approach.  We are never going to recreate a live sound but we can get close.  In recent years this has changed, probably a reaction to the high feedback/loads of power movement of the 80's/90's where the specs were the only thing that mattered.  It's just supposed to sound "pleasant" which is all well and good but it's often used to hide equipment which is frankly sub par.
 
The transducer is indeed the limiting factor in most systems but it is also the most varied component in terms of achieving good performance but also good specs.  You can have two speakers that measure quite well but sound very different from one another.  This is what the rest of the chain should help by passing the signal in the best way possible to the transducer.  An amplifier should just be wire with gain and enough power reserves and speed for it's drawbacks never to affect the transducers ability to recreate the signal. 
 
There are always going to be limitations in terms of the technology used and the price point but that is the real key to engineering, make the most of what you have.  I love oddball designs so I'll never discourage them but they should be made as linear/good as is possible. 
 
I'm all for discussion of new things but I'm skeptical by nature and I'm sure that applies to most of us here.  We aren't buying our first set of headphones or some are even at 100+ so a healthy dose of skepticism is always good.  Just take the King Sound Emperor, I'd be very happy if it turned out to be good but going by the clusterf*** that is their speakers I'm going to keep my excitement in check.  Regardless, I paid full retail price for my set to try and ditto on the Stax SRS-2170 to compare against it. 
 
Same applies to the amps, I'm simply not swayed by a shiny box and I've designed enough to know about the multitude of pitfalls most designers haven't got a clue about.  These are things that you don't need to think about with "normal" amps but here they are a big deal.  I'm also all to familiar with the shady underbelly of this hobby where people get discounts in exchange for positive reviews which makes it much harder to trust what people are saying.  You see, it's not shilling if you just get a discount... 

 
Quote:

Sounds like a crazy over the top take no prisoner design and an estat fanboy's wet dream...... and with a name like MEGATRON...me want...!!

 
To be fair it is one of the most complicated amps you can build.  Each channel has 4 filament supplies you need to contend with, front end, output tubes and one each for the CCS tubes.  It will also run very, very hot but it is surprisingly small.  There is also the small issue of live AC in the amp chassis... 

 

 

[singh]

Quote:

 
Same headphone, just Japan vs. Export names.  The normal bias models use the drivers from the SR-X Mk3, same as the SR-5N does.  Pro models use the same driver but with a different diaphragm and larger spacing. 

 
Oh i meant the gamma pro sharing the same driver with SR-x MK3 pro ( sorry got that wrong ). I have heard people putting in gamma pro's driver in to SRXmk3 (NB ) and saying its SRX MK3 pro.
 
How's the sound of Gamma pro ? is the SR_X Mk3 pro that better ( than gamma pro ) that people go though the risky process of swapping drivers ?

 

[DefQon]

I have a pair of Gamma Pro's with the Alpha Pads, it's not the best e-stat out of the Stax range but it is very musical, quite rare as well. Some people like putting the Gamma Pro drivers into the SRX MK3 to either it makes the sound bit better or higher resale value due to the rarity of the MK3 pro's in the market, they use the same drivers just different enclosure and housing.

 

[El_Doug]

I was under the impression that the Alphas were identical to the Gammas, except for the pads - so what you have are a pair of Excellents, perhaps with the wrong logo printed on them  
 
Whatever you do, do not let anyone butcher those poor cans.  The Alpha/Gammas are wonderful headphones, and Spritzer is definitely going to hell for his role in encouraging so many people to cannibalize them for their drivers
 
Quote:

I have a pair of Gamma Pro's with the Alpha Pads, it's not the best e-stat out of the Stax range but it is very musical, quite rare as well. Some people like putting the Gamma Pro drivers into the SRX MK3 to either it makes the sound bit better or higher resale value due to the rarity of the MK3 pro's in the market, they use the same drivers just different enclosure and housing.