spritzer

Yup, transformer in each cut and weight is close to 1kg. I rebuilt one 15 years ago and recently got the urge to mass with one again. 700V bias (well cut off so probably lower in practice) and I'm going to put new earpads and a headband on them.

That's what I was thinking, the margins must be insane on these as its a store not really known for any good deals. Now I'm thinking if I did a deep dive on this earlier in the year when I got a set dirt cheap... or I just sent all of that to Kevin? Well first off input, bunch of parts here USB xmos, A/D etc: All of this leads to a pair of ESS 9028 dacs: Not the best picture but that looks a lot like filtering to try and make up for the utterly retarded driver design: Finally output stage... yeah this is pretty dire. Remember this thing is 4k$... Now how does this thing actually work? The clue is those two gray caps and the wires going to the headphone plug. 450V B+ on a single rail so shall we say a maximum voltage swing of ~840Vppss and the bias is clearly 2000V. The bias is superimposed on the audio signal after the output caps and then we have the grounded shield, that's it. These are even simpler than what Koss were doing in the 60's where the back stator on the ESP6 (and 7, 8 and 9) are grounded but otherwise normal electrostatics.

I don't think Warwick are doing so hot these days... I snapped this in Selfridges on Oxfordstreet yesterday and I might have been tempted as an insane collector if I didn't already own one of those piece of shit amps. Well that and it sounds like shit... there is that issue too.

Unless it is a set with the handmade markings and the slightly smaller housing, they are all 200V bias so any normal bias would work just fine. I'd remove the cap after the ballast resistor just to be sure but that's about it.

Yeah, that is quite sad. We bought a season ticket the winter of 2222/23 so we went there a few times a week. The gap they are filling up in the second picture is indeed the walkway to the lagoon... and those guys are utterly nuts for working so close to the lava

This is a small one but already causing plenty of damage. This did crack me up from last night: All in Icelandic but on the bottom "It is unlikely that there will be an eruption in November"... from the day before. Then the next piece of news is "eruption started next to Stóra-Skógfell". Here is a view from 9am this morning from the small town I grew up in at the west edge of Reykjavik

Could be an ESP-7 too as they used the same shells/headband but I'm not sure if the cable on those was ever coiled.

Same really, the swing back and forth from working and then the channel imbalance sets in again. I bought another set that I've been using so I'll likely scrap this for parts.

I won't be getting a pair try out but I might send one of the originals in for an upgrade. I have an original set sitting with Kevin in the US so that's an option. The price is silly though... they were already pretty expensive to begin with.

Now after only 7+ years of the T8000 being a fairly shitty amp... Stax have made extra input boards for them. No word on pricing yet but yeah... who fucking cares

No, and it should ideally never be run above 350V.

That's how I feel as well, I bought another one as they are that good but it's hard to recommend them at this point.

I've been using the Mini for all of this week but lacked all motivation to post more impressions as the sound is just so bland and not "there". Now my Stax SR-X1 has its issues but when it works... is a far more engaging listen. The sound of the Mini just hangs there in mid-air... for some music it ok but other it just falls flat on its face. The lack of a proper seal is clearly an issue here as they exemplify all of the negative traits of electrostatics. Similar to the utter trashfire which is the Shangri-La SR. in this regard. Now I woke up this morning, turned on the rig and one driver squeals like mad. Typical Hifiman quality control then, they lasted less than a week. 🙄 I had planned on opening them up, swap out the trash cable and take pics of the insides but hadn't got around to it so they are completely untouched.

Only two possibilities here, a bad connection (which it isn't) or a coating issue as the charge slowly fades away. I just bought another set so if that fails too... I'll be pretty ticked off.

An update on the SR-X1 issue. I left them unplugged for two weeks and when plugged back in they were back to normal. About an hour in and the right hand side is dying again... slowly fading in volume as I listen.

I'm sure it is just pure cost saving... I mean King Sound has some nice cables with a production volume which is likely a small portion of what Hifiman make and at a far lower cost.

Holy necro-bump Batman!! 🫣 I just got the new Mini Shangri-La - aka. Jade 3.0 (as the last one didn't sell) so instead of making a new thread or filling up the Stax thread, this kinda belongs here. I don't know how Hifiman does it but these manage to feel even cheaper than the Jade 2... this "new" headband works just fine but premium it sure as shit isn't. Same trash cable as on the rest of the lineup, why they continue to use this I can't even fathom. As for the sound... "mehhh" comes to mind quite a bit over the last 4 hours I've used them. They like to be played pretty loud but nothing really stands out, they are inoffensive, rather bland sounding. I'll play around with them some more but the highlight is they are reasonably comfy and they fit large heads.

I think dCS are just in the same boat as MSB, super high prices yet you get better performance on the stuff from China that is a 1/10th the price. Now on the subject... there are too many stories out there but I'll never buy anything made by Focal - just stay away from that trash heap of a company in general. Another is Hifiman... though I did order the new Mini Shangri-la but I really should have waited as there are plenty for sale used in China right now.

This does indeed sound like a coating issue. Quite a few sets are experiencing issues I've been told so something is clearly going on here.

That's what I fear is going on as it got worse and worse. I tried to discharge the diaphragm and no change. I can't see anything from a visual inspection and it's not a connection problem so yeah... this is not good.

It's the same design as the 252S and at 4W total power... you can't expect too much from it. It's confirmed... my SR-X1 right hand driver is dead. Down to almost no output and it is not the cable.

Well I took them apart so some pics: The earpads just pull off and are much better made than the 009 pads. Remove 5 screws and the back just falls off. Notice the hole next to the top screw... yeah that's a port. Stax did miss a trick here as they could have sealed the back and front completely with a rubber gasket similar to the HE60. Here is the other side and the drivers is just held in place by those 4 screws. The plate holding the driver together appears to be made from metal and it does exert a bit of force down on it. I don't love the soldering on this though... Screws are out and I did look inside the drivers and it's standard Stax fair from the x07 series. Metal stators and metal retaining rings for the diaphragm and dust covers. Here is a port block idea but I can't really test it as this set is borked...

I just opened them up (pics incoming) but I could see nothing amiss inside the driver. They are still as imbalanced so I'll have to get another set now. Stax and driver failure is certainly becoming a big problem these days...

Now on the X1 topic, I just put mine on and the right driver is failing. Substantial channel imbalance and nothing has happened to these... so time for an investigation.

The 270S is a large part of that as it is kinda shit.