spritzer

Yes, they are crucial. The biggest reason for this is the unique construction of the 007, they don't swivel on an axis to fit the angle of attack of the drivers to the shape of the head. This also controls the pressure placed on the earpads when they are worn. I for one have never met anybody that can use a stock 007, the fit is always wrong. Too much of an angle at the bend in the arcs on each side and the arc is far too shallow. That means the earpieces are placed at the wrong spot relative to the ears and the comfort suffers as well since the arc isn't supporting them properly. Yes and no is really the answer. There is nothing on the arc to adjust, hell just don't mess with that fragile POS too much or it will break. The earpads are the weak link here though and I like the effect you get by stuffing some scrap foam at the back. Helps the imaging.

Funny enough I just listened to a near NOS 007Mk1 just now and holy hell they sounded bad. Pads completely shot and the arcs have never been adjusted.... yeah not good but easy enough to fix.

Yup and as a testament to that I've been using mine non stop since I got them. I gave up on the first set I got in a couple of days....

More the undo...

They are bright but Stax have changed them. It's been all but confirmed that this was a deliberate act to fix them.

There were some slight teething problems but the current layout has been fixed.

Seriously, people just contact me and ask if I want to buy this stuff. It helps to be the Don.... The plan was to fix and sell it but I always missed my old silver one. There is a long road ahead before this one works properly though...

Here is what a stereo KGSSHV board looks fully populated.

The high frequency on the Blue Hawaii has been criticized over the years but it's not really true. The high frequencies of electrostatics require the most current so here is where a high power amp comes into its own. Granted, the BH isn't bright and it's easy to fake "good treble" by simply making something sound bright. I'm looking at you SR-009!!!!! Ohh and this was dropped off last night: It needs some TLC but isn't it pretty...

I never use one.

If they can be fixed by hitting them then all is good.

All the pre 1994 Lambda drivers look the same....

Yup, Stax ran out of 6 pin cables a long time ago.

That would be a normal bias Lambda then... with a 5 pin cable.

I've seen that a few times. Do they say "Professional" on top of the cups? Ohh and the resistors are actually silistors.

The diaphragm being stuck to a stator doesn't sit right with me for a few reasons. First of all, a diaphragm shouldn't be able to do that in the first place. The diaphragm is stretched tighter than the skin of a drum and there is no force inside those drivers strong enough to move it. It also stands to reason that if the diaphragm were to move from its center point between the stators at any point then the distortion would rise dramatically. It's a common misconception that electrostatics arc by the film touching the stator. The film doesn't have to touch the stator for it to arc, it just needs to break down the natural insulation of the air. That is ca. 100V/mill so certainly possible to do. Second would be how the "broken" driver sounded. I've heard drivers which have stuck to one stator a few times but all of them have been severely damaged and the distortion was easy to spot. This one was just lower in volume but it played just fine. Lastly how the bias supply in the KGST would have responded to diaphragm shorting out like that. Being a simple voltage doubler it can't (nor should it) maintain anything close to full output for the working channel. Granted it was a bit down in volume but it was one click on the DAC attenuator so not a major difference. Running Pro phones off normal bias can't do any damage what so ever.

Exactly the point, the 6+ has a huge battery for an iphone so use an ipad charger for it.

The 007 driver is held together in a resin frame and the 009 as well which is then encased in the alu shell so a lot of things would have to be loose on a lot of sets. I suspect the connection into the driver as the most plausible point of failure. The bias is indeed attached with a screw...

Ok.... something weird just happened. The SR-009 has seen heavy use recently off the KGST and today the right channel was suddenly quieter than the left one. No idea why but I've been wanting this to happen so I can study what the fuck is up with these things. First thing I did was to unplug and try grounding the stators and diaphragms at various combinations. Listening carefully when you do that gives an idea how the charge on the film is working. Nothing concrete to be gained from that so I just grounded all 5 pins. No change at all but when listening so some highly localized tracks I noticed the channels were drifting a tiny bit. Before ripping them apart I thought I'd at least try tapping them on the side of the housing as one does when there is some dust stuck in a driver causing it to buzz. Well here is the weird bit, one sharp knock to the side of the offending channel and it sprung back to life. WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK!!??!! One thing I did observe is that the volume level of the "working" channel is lower than it should have been. As soon as the "broken" channel kicked into full gear the volume of the "working" channel rose by 2dB or so. Maybe a bit more. No other conclusion can be drawn from the info at hand than the imbalance issue is not caused by a charge sitting on the diaphragm but rather some build anomaly in the driver.

It should meet the 75ohm standard but they never really claim it does. Use something like this instead: http://www.bluejeanscable.com/store/digital-audio/index.htm

While Belkin makes excellent stuff (love the USB cables, better than any audiophile BS brand) I doubt the subwoofer cable is 75ohm. More likely is that it is 50ohm which will fuck up the digital signal. Get some nice Belden 75ohm coax with BNC's.

This thread took a different turn... Anyway, my only KGST is in use right now so I just grabbed the nearest plate to my desk, a mini HV: A few of the holes are crooked but they are all there for airflow so I'm not that bothered.

What ever sustains them is good for us. More stuff to hunt... A 007 being harsh isn't something which springs to mind... ever. They are one of the most forgiving transducers out there so even the crappiest of recordings are just fine with them. Something is up and it could be something basic as the digital cable used. My one time being a reviewer (not really but the guy pleaded with me until I caved in) was to test a digital coax cable. It fucked the sound up so badly in the high frequencies that I offered to send him my normal 75ohm coax cables which cost 1$ per meter so he would know how it was supposed to sound...

I suspect there is a simpler explanation, one of the wires which goes from the cable to the drivers is broken. Those are fiddly to say the least and can be easily broken. If enough load was put on the bias supply to reveal the AC frequency then the phones would drop in sensitivity as well, especially on the Stax amp which uses on 10nf caps in the bias supply.