Great electrostatic amplifiers?

[Alrainbow]

If you add low freq this changes tone and staging
but I guess you are looking for a happy medium
the Shangrala is a smooth sound but very musical still. The stax you have I can’t comment on.

 

[eskamobob1]

If you add low freq this changes tone and staging
but I guess you are looking for a happy medium

Pretty much, I dont need a bass cannon, I just need some info down there. TBH the Arya do that balance well while maintaining stage size and separation. What My ultimate ideal would be would just be that arya sound with the way way way higher technical ability of shang.

 

[Alrainbow]

Ok don’t think im
Nuts and have tried this.
sub under desk or chair you feel the bass as well as hear it not a joke
Lastly I have some bone conductor headsets you could try this as an add on I did but had good and bad not nirvana
The sub works well but needs to be adjusted for how loud you listen
the feel part does work.
stats to me don’t do Heavy like stat speakers don’t
Oh yea it measures but somehow this don’t translate to feeling it
Just saying lol.

 

[eskamobob1]

Ok don’t think im
Nuts and have tried this.
sub under desk or chair you feel the bass as well as hear it not a joke
Lastly I have some bone conductor headsets you could try this as an add on I did but had good and bad not nirvana
The sub works well but needs to be adjusted for how loud you listen
the feel part does work.
stats to me don’t do Heavy like stat speakers don’t
Oh yea it measures but somehow this don’t translate to feeling it
Just saying lol.

Fwiw, I've gotten the amount that I want out of Shang with a fairly bad transformer called the ifi Iesl. It just completely collapsed stage and toon a detail hit so bad that Shang was inline with sus unfortunately. But I at least know that bass qty I want is doable which is kinda the only reason I'm still entertaining the cans

 

[Alrainbow]

Ok let me say this cans get you there but you need to feel happy perhaps the amp / trans is to be left alone
How about the dac and preamp
It sounds like you’ve gone down many rabbit holes
so lol what’s next

 

[Gregadd]

"...to me make me comfortable blind buying."
When yyou are pushing the edge. By definition you are out of the comfort zone.

 

[Atmasphere]

Honestly, I am just generally kind put off by the fact that its a KG design. I think ive owned 4 or 5 of his DIY amps at this point and another 3 of his designs from headamp and I've not been particularly fond of any of them, so I dont realy trust his designs to go for a sound I like. I tried doing some more research on the ones you linked but I cant realy find any impressions to go off of to make me comfortable blind buying.

When you're running lower feedback designs as is the case with all tube amplifiers, the parts quality plays a pretty big role in the sound that you get. Things like grounding make a difference; stray capacitance, wire quality and so on. IOW this circuit would work fine if built up properly. I suspect that the amps you heard were not. But who knows? What was the quality that you didn't like about them?

 

[Alrainbow]

If otl then I would think the blocking caps do too in total sound scape to a given load ?

 

[eskamobob1]

Ok let me say this cans get you there but you need to feel happy perhaps the amp / trans is to be left alone
How about the dac and preamp
It sounds like you’ve gone down many rabbit holes
so lol what’s next

Pre isnt an idea ive played with at all (most use to integrateds just due to be a HP user), but dac is in the plans. While ive not heard much in the price range im targeting upgrading to, I've at least got some decent experience with stuff in the 5-10k used range. I do expect that the dac upgrade (currently targeting a trinuity) will get me some more incisiveness as well as some more steadfast sub-bass extension, but im not currently guessing it will be enough.

One place that I could potentially see some big upgrades in slam is fixing my power situation. Everything is plugged into my conditioner for safety (power surge blew a previous amp of mine so now im extra careful), and while it does have a current well for amps, I dont think its to a sufficient level. I am hoping that moving to a niagara or power plant with a much larger current well will help there, but I obviously havent tried it to know for certain.

Over all, the main reason I made this thread asking what existed in terms of speaker estat amps is because Shang currently reminds me quite a bit of what susvara sounds like while under powered. Thats (plus shang being know to be power hungry) has lead me to look into amp with more power.

And yah, ive absolutely gone down a ton of rabbit holes. Ultimately I have a setup that I adore (in sus + aic), so right now im mostly just trying to do some research to see if i think shang may be "fixable" with current options. If it is, I'll continue along with it. If not, ive still got sus, so luckily its low stakes.

"...to me make me comfortable blind buying."
When yyou are pushing the edge. By definition you are out of the comfort zone.

TBH I dont mind buying stuff I cant demo. Totaly within my comfort zone so long as I can find some impressions I feel are reliable enough to chance it. With the OTL KG designs I cant really find any comments on how they sound at all to get to that comfort level.

When you're running lower feedback designs as is the case with all tube amplifiers, the parts quality plays a pretty big role in the sound that you get. Things like grounding make a difference; stray capacitance, wire quality and so on. IOW this circuit would work fine if built up properly. I suspect that the amps you heard were not. But who knows? What was the quality that you didn't like about them?

oh, yah. OFC component quality matters quite a bit. While some of his stuff ive heard I am certain had lower quality components, I stuff like the BHSE from headamp or the custom built top spec CFA3 I have in house right now I trust to at least have not used trash.

Ultimately my main complaint with the KG amps ive heard has honestly just been that I feel they are designed with goals in mind that I dont realy care about. I think BHSE may be the best example of this. Hearing BHSE with 009 and its pretty clear that the amp was tailored to solve some of the major issues with that can, but its made some fairly major trade offs to get there (notably in detail level, bass control, and stage space). Using 009 on other energizers and that fairly unbalanced tonal response (that BHSE masks) is front and center, but detail is astonishing (often above BHSE levels even on lower tier energizers), bass is tight and tactile (BHSE can make it slam harder, but its a but wooly and flabby), and stage is huge with some wild and weird image placement (BHSE shrinks stage quite a bit and gives much more normal HP staging). Its not that I think KG designs are bad, but instead that I find they just aim for things I don't care about at the expense of things I do.

 

[Atmasphere]

If otl then I would think the blocking caps do too in total sound scape to a given load ?

If you're running an OTL headphone amp designed for ESLs, wouldn't you use a direct-coupled output? That way the DC at the output could bias the diaphragm of the 'phones.

We built one once for a set of STAX 'phones that we called a 'triple cascode' as it was a single-ended circuit using 3 tube sections stacked in cascode. The customer liked it better than his stock Stax setup, so there's that.