The Stax thread (New)
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Jul 28, 2013 at 6:30 PM Post #24,061 of 24,807
The question of high voltages has been brought up and the dangers therein . Unusually since I first started repairing 1930 tube radios in the 50s I have lost count the number of times I should have died from electrocution . From the UKs -240V AC to 350/500Volts power supplies. From CRT TVs with 20000V  or more to the tube but the worst was the large pentode tubes in the TVs with 800V or more at a HIGH current to earth . Arm felt like it had been hit by a sledge- hammer sore for days -lost feeling in fingers for   about an hour .Its the AMPS that kill more than the voltage.Luckily it wasnt across my heart.This made me investigate why I survive. It seems that I have thick dry skin which  raises body resistance[electrical]  I compiled a note book on electrical deaths  and the ones more liable to die  had fine- moist skin. Those people were most to be found in red-heads and blonds--NATURAL- this seems to be a racial background thing. like Celts-Scandinavian types . In percentage terms they were 3 times more likely to die from electric shock.A bit morbid but just observation over many decades.And try not to let the current run up one arm and down the other[across your heart] as that shortens the odds.Keep one hand in your pocket when working on HV.
 
Jul 28, 2013 at 6:43 PM Post #24,062 of 24,807
I know of at least 5 people that have successfully built kgsshv amplifiers as their first
DIY amplifiers ever. Blubliss built a T2 as his first DIY amplifier ever. Then he built
Another one, a kgsshv, and a ssdynahi and then completely rebuilt 2 x esx.

After personally seeing what Sachu did to an amb power supply it comes as no surprise
To me that he does not want to try and build a kgsshv

Birgir is right. We do this stuff for our own use. And we give the board files away to
Everyone. The bom's are also easily available to all. The schematics are available
And the boards are self documenting
 
Jul 28, 2013 at 7:01 PM Post #24,064 of 24,807
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@ gilency -
I believe he meant to say KGSS-DX.
It is a rare (early?) HeadAmp variant of the KGSS. Taller and not as wide as Justin's other KGSS build.
 

Wait, so does this mean there will be a commercialized version of this design?
 
I have been meaning to commission someone to build a KGSSHV or T2 for me but I've had no idea who to ask or where to look.
 
Jul 28, 2013 at 7:17 PM Post #24,065 of 24,807
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I presume my amp was the older T1 as the set, I think, was from the late '80s.
Perhaps muddied isn't the right term. I went to hear them and I knew right away that they weren't going to be great all'rounders so I waited a day to think about it as I can only afford one set-up. But the next day I went back to get them because "when they were good they were very very good"...
I tried to replace them with 507s and though the 507s were better for more diverse music I found I enjoyed them less so I gave up on Stax for a while. Now though I am excited as I am getting the 007 mk1 / 007Tii combo soon.

If the 007Tii arrives in time I can give you my comparison to the 006t.

I think everyone would be interested in a comparison. It seems that the general consensus is, that the srm-t1 and 006 aren't good with the sr-007's? The srm-007 does have double the power of the t1/006, which might help...
 
I actaully think the sig's are a bit hard to characterize. I think the sound stage could be bigger, and the 'phones would also benefit from a more dynamic sound. That is 2 aparent shortcomings to me, the rest is mostly about coloration as I see it.
 
Jul 28, 2013 at 9:54 PM Post #24,070 of 24,807
Well, I found the root (or at least the symptom) of the problem I mentioned earlier with my Little Dot 1+; two resistors on the right channel have clearly combusted at some point in the past. If I replace these resistors, would the amp work again, or is it likely that they are just a symptom of a larger problem?
 
Jul 28, 2013 at 10:33 PM Post #24,071 of 24,807
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Sprither has swithers?
blink.gif

Kind of hard to say, yeah
 
Spritzer has switzers ... er I mean....
 
Jul 28, 2013 at 10:56 PM Post #24,072 of 24,807
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Oh man, there's a sale for a HE90/HEV90 again. 13k seems like a ripoff though.
 
http://www.hifi-forum.de/index.php?action=browseT&back=1&sort=lpost&forum_id=265&thread=1967

 
And over on Audiogon for $22k
 
http://app.audiogon.com/listings/over-ear-sennheiser-orpheus-he90-hev-90-set-matching-pair-rare-and-original-2013-07-10-headphones-germany
 
Jul 28, 2013 at 10:57 PM Post #24,073 of 24,807
Quote:
Well, I found the root (or at least the symptom) of the problem I mentioned earlier with my Little Dot 1+; two resistors on the right channel have clearly combusted at some point in the past. If I replace these resistors, would the amp work again, or is it likely that they are just a symptom of a larger problem?

I've read that some parts in the Little Dot products might not be 'sized'  properly.  I suspect if you replace them it will work but if you replace with the same size (i.e., resistors rated the same WATTS power handling capacity)  they will just burn up again over time.  So maybe get the same value of resistance but higher WATTAGE resistors.  Probably not a good idea to use wirewound power resistors, they can be inductive and are sometimes not really 'right' in an audio application.  You can get non-inductive power resistors from Digi-Key have a look at  http://www.digikey.com/scripts/dksearch/dksus.dll?pv5=8248&FV=fff40001%2Cfff80482&k=resistor+non-inductive&mnonly=0&newproducts=0&ColumnSort=0&page=1&stock=1&quantity=0&ptm=0&fid=0&pageSize=25 pick out the resistance you need and go for a 10 watt resistor, or maybe a 5 or 7 watt will do, just go larger than the original part.
 
I have a Little Dot Mk III  that I like pretty well-  it's a fun headphone amp, and also a fun "tube buffer" or "tube line stage"  whatever you want to call it.  Not state-of-the-art but I like the tube-ness it imparts, or maybe I THINK it imparts tube-sound, but heck even a placebo effect is actually a real (brain/mental) effect- I'll take it.
 
Jul 28, 2013 at 11:00 PM Post #24,074 of 24,807
I have a potentially newb question for the STAX crowd. And forgive me if this should be asked somewhere else, but I feel it can get answered here the quickest. Okay on to the question.

I'm in the market for new headphones. My Sennheiser HD 580 broke after 11 years of use. And I'm really interested in STAX. I've done a lot of reading up on STAX from this thread and various other sources. So, I feel that I've got a pretty good understanding of them. But I don't know what would compare to my current setup. I've been using a Little Dot MK III amp and Sennheiser HD 580.

So if anyone could tell me the comparable STAX setup, sound quality wise not price, it would be a huge help.
 
Jul 28, 2013 at 11:08 PM Post #24,075 of 24,807
I think almost any current stax setup would be comparable to your current setup, with most being a big step up.  There are differences to the nature of the sound tho.
 
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