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Season 4

I haven't had much time for DIY headphones recently but I just sent for some parts to be made and one might be a truly unique stator principle. More on that later but I've been using these lately and finally post about them after seeing that SJY pile of fail: I found this Hifiman Edition X for next to nothing as the pads were trashed and both drivers were blown. Gotta love that Hifiman build quality... Anyway, the plan was to design some drivers for this shell and then make my own version of the Shangri-la as the stock ones are frankly utter crap. Given the complex shape of the baffle in these I put it off for months but finally got off my ass and made these: This is the same piece but reversible for each side. There is just enough space in the housing to cram Stax Lambda drivers in there and I just happen to have quite a few in stock... shocker. Then we ended up with this: The back grill was glued into place but with the driver glued to the baffle, it holds it all in place as there is no extra room in there. I added the coarse foam to back to make them look more stock as I didn't have any of that black cover Hifiman uses. The baffle uses the stock neoprene gaskets from the planar drivers and it's okey for the seal but not quite perfect. The drivers in these are Lambda Signature units (no real reason I chose those, just what came to hand) and the cable is a Stax extension cable. I added the strain reliefs to the housing and the cable is so tight in there that it doesn't need any more fixing in place. Then they were finished off with some sheepskin earpads off Aliexpress as the stock Hifiman units are trash. These are the drivers with the protective mesh in place (just as they were in a Lambda/Sigma) but I also ordered some baffles with slots cut in them so I could put in thinner drivers to have a bit more space behind the drivers.

So a new electrostatic seems to be incoming: https://apos.audio/products/sjy-argos-electrostatic-headphones?utm_campaign=hyperfuse_last_day%20%2801KZW4554JVNW58G1HET4TN43W%29&utm_medium=email&utm_source=alex_nongdpr_never_subbed_active_180&_kx=cd77Rbf3yu6_OAujM-M4VU1ihuQFsjtyVcb-jl8r-OKxvi62Czezy2yxdLQUUnAj.Ldk8SW I've been keeping an eye on them for a while, no idea what that company is but hey, more the merrier and all that. I just saw the new updated page for these and it is just what the fuck, are they retarded? First off, "fully vented drivers" being spun as something that is positive. Hello, what is the number one rule of planar design? Something about an infinite baffle? No? Anybody here have any fucking clue what they are doing? No? Let's spin our engineering ineptitude as a positive Yes, that is what the drivers need, room to breathe. A common problem with all planar drivers is that they are just being suffocated. What a novel idea and people making planars for 70+ years have clearly all been wrong. Seriously, who thinks the actual reason is that the drivers are horribly unstable so the extra pressure from a sealed baffle would knock them out of balance. So instead of fixing that, let's just employ marketing wank. Then we have the cable... what the actual fuck. Just look at this thing: Anybody who makes a braided cable for electrostatics needs to be taken out back and beaten repeatedly with a copy of the Art of Electronics. The whole point of the fucking cable is to minimize capacitance... not add to it!! Now this looks like the cheap crappy headphone cables coming out of China so I very much doubt it's high voltage credentials. I also love the Y split on a commercial set of headphones... a piece of clear heatshrink. It's also 1.5meters in length, probably to cut down on the pile of extra capacitance this turd adds to the load. Then you can get a proper extension cable and have the headphones reach anything as these are hardly portable.

Wait, what? Transitioning back on track. 😉 Bill Evans Trio With Symphony Orchestra (full album)

(not Bill Evans) Schumann: Complete Symphonies by Los Angeles Philharmonic (2026) https://open.qobuz.com/album/t0z8is48e0tzb Example: I don't think I have ever listened to all four symphonies in a sitting (2.25 hours). This new release is good. Mustavo and the LA Phil sound good. The engineering is solid, but not amazing. On the 'Platoon' label? It is interesting how the works flow, 17 tracks really sounds like one piece.