spritzer

Was that before or after he was desperately searching for the Stax wiring and even sending out his shills to try and get the info from us (which a 10 second Google search would locate)?

I don't think so, no. You can try asking KuboTen or Yama's though. The new pads come in a swanky box now with instructions and everything (though very Engrish at times). I must say I preferred the plastic bag with a label on it...

The lower price to get the hype flowing is nothing new but it has never been a secret AFAIK.

I guess those guys are looking forward to being carpet bombed then...

500$ USB cable on a 500$ amp makes perfect sense to me. Is this supposed to be ironic?

I thought that was just me...?

It turns out I was onto something by damping the front of the drivers and not just the back. I went out and bought a bunch of different cleaning cloths today and placed the thinnest one (made of paper-like material and almost see through) underneath the pads which has flattened the peak a bit and made it less noticeable and made it more recording dependent. The bass is also a bit overblown but very tuneful and responsive so I can live with that compromise. I will have to try a lot of materials though to see how far I can push this and if the damping in the back is even necessary. What makes all damping on the front of the drivers quite a bit easier are the new Lambda pads with the cloth dust cover. The old pads had the foam sown in on the sides but the new ones have "pocket" underneath the pads where the cloth cover is put. That is mounted on a disk so you can easily remove it from the pads. Good move Stax.

He expects perfection and we all know that the BH is far from good enough and will not hold it's value compared to the sheer awesomeness of the A-10. Who needs those huge heatsinks to provide ample current at any voltage when you have a SRPP output stage which isn't even linear into a capacitive load.

These aren't going to beat a SR-007 anytime soon. The Lambdas will always be more forward but if the midrange peak can be contained then that makes the phones a good choice for their given price range. ...wouldn't be the first time. These will be sold though as the only use I would have for a Lambda is for testing amps and I already have two other sets for that.

I just saw the link but didn't DL it. BSG was dead to me a long time ago so I'm not going to bother with this just yet.

Which is already on the net... At least the pilot is.

With two layers of felt (one more dense then the other) on the back of the drivers there is some improvement but the midrange peak still shines through. \ I'll have to find some suitable foam tomorrow and I'll also try to damp the phones next to the ear.

That's exactly what I'm after. The soundstage on the Lambdas is huge when called for so it can afford to be trimmed down a bit. We'll see if some extra foam does the trick.

Now you only need to give him some electrostatics...

That sounds about right. Allowing the bread to sit in a bath of steam for the first minute and then straying it will increase the crust for extra crunchy goodness. Bingo. The white marking beneath the earpiece is a dead giveaway.

Thanks and I need all the luck I can get since this won't be easy. Back to the salt mines...

I've held off fixing the drivers permanently to the baffles so that I could play with damping a bit. I have a pretty good idea what the better glue will give me (deeper more controlled bass) so that can wait but the biggest issue is the upper midrange/lower treble peak. The etch involved has mostly gone but the drivers were obviously made to sound like this and the only way I can change it is to crack them open and change the diaphragm. Not going to happen though as that would make this a one off and I don't want all the PM's asking me to do this "mod" to some other sets. What I can do is to try and damp it away but that's not easy either as damping always affects some other parts of the spectrum, most notably the bass. I've never been happy with the Lambda bass (overblown and lacks precession) so I really don't want to boost that area at all. I could also put in a port to raise the midbass which should balance out the sound a bit but that requires precision drilling at an odd angle into the baffle and that would be a last resort. I had two types of felt at hand (which I got from Eric with the 120ohm SFI drivers) and they do boost the bass a bit and also tame the bump but not enough. Looks like I will have to go to the arts and crafts store after the weekend and buy samples of everything they have.

I'll ask Craig to try and find one for me. It must be a fairly recent book as that's the SR-007A... You will get even better taste when you let them sit in the freezer. More natural sugar that way. Do you preheat the oven to a high temp before you put the loaf in, then apply the water and lower the temp to the recommended baking temp? When we bake anything we preheat the oven by 30-50

We demand scans!!!!

There could be some variation from unit to unit but this is a fit and forget glue so there aren't many ways to do differently. It's probably a combination of unwanted energy inside the drivers and just how damn bright these drivers are. That works in their favor in the Sigma and 4070 chassis so some damping might be in order to tame the upper midrange but it has to be done without lifting the upper bass too much. I'll probably "borrow" the cups from a Lambda Pro to see how the mineral wool affects the drivers but I'd really like to use some material that is easy to find almost anywhere. Certainly to some degree but since it is caused by a number of things which have to happen at the same time I simply don't know how effective the filter would be. Take the SR-Omega for instance, you have to play them relatively loud and then hit the right notes for the etch to appear.

Yup, it's the same thing. It's not a big deal but I wonder if it may become an issue once the drivers are permanently glued to the baffle. \ That's exactly it and it drives me mad too. The SR-007A/Mk2, HE90 and SR-Omega all have it to some degree as well. What makes it even worse for the SR-303/404 is the forward nature of the phones.

An update. I've got the drivers fitted now with my regular double sided adhesive to the baffles and it is definitely an improvement compared to how they sounded before. The upper midrange is still too prominent but the etch is mostly gone.. I've encountered an issue though as the drivers are airtight now and pushing the phones towards the head results in a momentary loss of output. I have to do more testing later today but this shouldn't be a problem. Next step should be fixing the drivers to the baffle with some urethane and then even some... ... damping. I'm certainly willing to loose some of the airy sound to make the sound more linear.

I've never thought much about changing the baffle but I'd very much like a new Lambda chassis which isn't made out of cheap plastic and would clamp the drivers in place. That is almost impossible unless you strip the drivers like I just did. It was a good move for Stax to switch over to the new dust guards. That's exactly one of the issues with the SR-007A/Mk2, the drivers are too far away from the ear.

Hopefully your Sennheiser rep will have something better then the Creek 21 amps on hand...

That glue is nasty to say the least so I try to pick off what pieces that I can with some needle nose pliers, then I use a razorblade to clean up the larger chunks and finish off with some cooking ethanol.