Weird Earstream hifi amplifier from Poland

[Hydrawerk]

These hifi amplifiers  are made in Poland. Their internal construction is very strange. Like it was made by a 15 years old punker or so.
Look down on the web. http://highfidelity.pl/@main-320&lang=en
http://audiovoodoo.org/dopieszczony-zarowno-pod-wzgledem-budowy-jak-i-dzwieku/
http://highfidelity.pl/@main-415&lang=en
The company is called Earstream. They have a web, that is today closed. www.earstream.eu
You can use an archived version. http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:b--dcpN_7oIJ:earstream.eu/+&cd=1&hl=cs&ct=clnk&gl=cz

[Hydrawerk]

Some photos.
Please note that crap SMD soldering.

[Hydrawerk]

next

[Hydrawerk]

more pics

[Cyberdragon]

What the hell?! This is the most elaberate and stupidest "white van scam" I've ever seen. He has a whole website, but he's also an incredibly stupid try-hard. If he was going to "white van scam" people, why would he put picures of the terrible wiring inside?! That's basically saying "buy my steaming pile of dog shit". I hope he gets convicted for fraud and selling dangerous electrical products.

EDIT: it got even worse...

[Hydrawerk]

That company was launched in 2012 or so and I think that he uses a good 230V AC transformer so you cannot be killed. Everything else is shit, of course.
The web was introduced in 2012 probably.
https://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.earstream.eu
https://web.archive.org/web/20121109060809/http://earstream.eu/page/54/Sonic+Pearl+standard/l

[tatus1969]

except for that beautiful case, my 13yr old son could have done that. rectifier and filter caps (did they save the 2 additional diodes for full bridge???), linear regulators, more caps, and an opamp based analog stage. all tied together with solder and tape

[Hydrawerk]

https://web.archive.org/web/20131118040759/http://earstream.eu/page/54/Sonic+Pearl+standard/l/en

Sonic Pearl is the top quality dynamic headphone amplifier with linear preamplifier function. It combines all the knowledge collected during development of Moonlight and Black Pearl headphone amplifiers with over a year long evolution of discrete solid state power supply architectures, described in section Power Supply Units. The chassis is manufactured from 10mm thick aluminum sheets on CNC machines and painted in two selectable colors - anthracit black or pearl white, both with crystalline powder effect. Logo and graphics are gold or black depending on chosen color. Its sound quality is considered by people who bought or heard Sonic Pearl as much higher than comparatively priced competition, actually being the new reference level of a headphone amplifier for dynamic or magnetostatic headphones.

[Rbastler]

He even scraped of the numbers on some parts 

[Cyberdragon]

"Years of engineering" Bet you not only did he not put any good work into it, he probably also stole the circuit from somewhere else. No way he designed this, his electronics skills look like they came from instructables.com. He soldered wires to the pins of the ICs then soldered those into the sockets, which doesn't even make sense. Given that he likely stole the circuit (or used a generic one from the internet) it might actually sound fine...untill his cold solder joints fail.

[tatus1969]

well... the way he cobbled everything together, there's a good chance that every copy of this device actually sounds different. he should have sold them as a: unique headphone amp, made from individually selected and hand crafted components.

[bitslice]

He's massively increased his production costs for the sake of not using a PCB?

I get that these people like to recreate the tag board construction values of old tube designs, but I bet if the whole lot were soldered properly onto a 4 layer PCB, then it would sound exactly the same and he'd have something to show off.

[wraper]

Conclusion
The Ear Stream Sonic Pearl amplifier is a good example of how well-made and refined, in terms of both its design and sound, may be a product from a new, tiny manufacturer, if the people behind it know what this is all about.

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[StillTrying]

Was he wearing that black rectangle thing over his eyes when he soldered it up. 

It looks like there was only ever just that one built to me.

http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews2/earstream/2.html
http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/earstream/4.html

https://mniec.wordpress.com/2013/11/09/polish-wanna-be-high-end-cmoy-headphone-amplifier

[Hydrawerk]

Their webpage should be online now. http://earstream.eu/index/index/l/en
But it does not work in my Google Chrome, no idea why.

[Cyberdragon]

Report their facebook page as fraud. (Enough reports should hopefully get them taken down)

Now we must deploy the big guns, or should I say, big capacitors.

If anyone can find a cheap one of these on ebay (if they are out there), send it to either Dave (just for a stabbing rant) or Photonicinduction to blow it up.

It would make some of us feel better to see this thing destroyed.

[janoc]

He soldered wires to the pins of the ICs then soldered those into the sockets, which doesn't even make sense.

Aren't those originally SMD parts? It seems to me that he soldered that into the sockets as a kind of "breakout" so that he can use SMD chips on a veroboard the whole mess is constructed on. But why he didn't just use DIP versions of those things I don't know, especially since those are most likely just regular opamps.

[StillTrying]

If anyone can find a cheap one of these on ebay (if they are out there), send it to either Dave (just for a stabbing rant) or Photonicinduction to blow it up.

I can only find 2 possible ads, It might be the same one amp that they're/he's trying to get rid of.
http://electronics.forumsee.com/a/m/s/p12-37988-0530195--for-sale-sonic-pearl-headphone-amp-pre-amp-great-hd800-match-shipping-included.html