spritzer

There are some similarities but the HE90 has a solid baffle which the driver is attached to which is in turn attached to the wooden back. It's quite clear that the HE90 is the blueprint for the design but there are some interesting twists such as the housing is angled and so are the pads. Not nearly enough but it helps create that flat soundstage.

6 wood screws and there is nothing to to seal the baffle or dampen vibrations.

That ranking system is way off... I'm crazy but not that crazy. ...and to prove my last point, some internal pics of the Jade. Taking them apart is a pain but mostly just removing the screws which hold the housings to the forks. Those that have opened up a HE60 know exactly what I mean. The drivers are quite well designed and very robust. That dust cover has to go but other then that the drivers are great. I put those markings on the drivers if anybody has to open the phones up at a later date. As can be seen, the pads are a mess. They are held down by some liquid glue which is applied with no care what so ever so it gets everywhere. Due to the design it would be hard to use double sided tape but some metal spring would work perfectly. Here are the drivers back in the housing and after I added some blutak to seal the baffle. There is really nothing to stop the baffle leaking so this could help but I haven't done any comparisons yet. Finally they are back together. I'm far from done so I have to find some way of attaching the headband temporarily as the screws get old real fast.

In a general sense there is nothing wrong with the SR-007 Mk2 but as a successor the the Mk1 they are seriously fucked up. Btw. Jade recable is done so stay tuned for all the gory details in a few hours.

These phones are supposed to be from the same batch but I don't believe the difference is contributed to anything but the crap build quality. I have tried many different types of diaphragm coating and while there are changes they don't manifest as a static sound and mostly affect long term stability of the drivers. What will contribute to the sound is just how badly the earpads are mounted to the housing and the total lack of anything to seal around the drivers. I'm going to open them up today so I'll know better what I'm working with. Removing the port from the equation removes the midbass hump and restores the much more natural bass response of the Mk1. You can use what ever you like to plug the port or even use felt so that it will be partially open if you prefer it like that. My version of the mods is to restore the phones to the Mk1 sound but you can go some other way as well.

The NXT panels were produced by either Cyrus or Mission (same company at the time) and they even made a statement speaker with a Cyrus logo. See here and here. They also made some speakers which were like picture frames and had a sub woofer but I can't remember what they were called.

Late tonight is early morning here so that works for me.

Ok some info on the Jade design. I haven't ripped them apart yet as I'm still adjusting to their sound but I did take a peek... The earpads would be easy to replace for anybody as they are simply glued to the sides of the cup, so very HE90 but they used a clip to secure the pads. Underneath is the protection plate and it appears that the drivers are bolted to it and it is then secured to the chassis. I'll know more once I take them apart but it looks like there is nothing to seal the baffle so that might explain some of the strange behavior. Time to break out the bluetak and the Stax cable.

I'm a viking so what can I do. If you have anything to say, talk to my axe just as it cuts you in half... The soundstage was what struck me first but it is really the tonality that is eating at me now. They are even worse then the HE60 which says a lot! There are peeks and valleys all over the place making some songs (even parts of a song) sound great while others are just annoying. Ohh and they are hard to drive, no question about it as even the 717 is struggling a bit. Justin, where is that BHSE!

I'm always ruthless as I don't like compromises. They do have their moments though and I have to see what I can do to help them along. One things for sure, those dust covers will have to go as the holes are much larger then the ones used by Stax. You can stay tuned for some exploratory pictures in the next few days...

Right now I'm sitting here with a Jade on my head. The build quality is quite horrible to say the least and the pads are way too stiff to serve their purpose and should really be tapered. The cable is far too stiff and has to go which is something I will be doing. They really look like a 20 year old used Lambda covered in small nicks and scrapes except they are new and everything is just stuck together with some glue. Now onto the sound. Simply dropping them into my computer rig instead of the SR-Omega/007 is quite a cultural shock. The soundstage is far too wide, so much so that is messes with the stereo image. This makes the soundstage very 2D and they have no depth to speak of. They are certainly forward and just a tiny bit aggressive in the top midrange but I'll have to spend more time with them to know if some etch is hiding behind it. The midrange is ok but nothing spectacular. The bass is very much like the He90, all show and no go. It lacks the presence, depth, control and texture of even the SR-Omega let alone the younger brother, even the ESP950 has cleaner bass from memory. The bass goes deep and can be impressive at times but it is slow and sloppy, pointing to the chassis not being able to soak up all the extra energy. There are also some strange things going on with the lower midrange/upper bass, some suck out which makes them appear a bit thin in places. Now these are just first impressions after a few hours out of the box (they aren't new though) so they might change. They are pretty common but sought after on the headphone forums fetching about 250-300$. Well worth it though.

Also if you checked the internal picture there are 4 wires leading to the transformer which usually means that the transformer works on the two systems.

As can be seen in the pics there is a switch on the back to change the input voltage.

Ahhh so pretty.

Buy a CNC machine? I'd start off with plastic or fiberglass cups as they are easier to handle and you will have to make a few prototypes.

I just wanted to be sure it was the actual mylar membrane that you looked at and not the dustcover. You'd be surprised how many don't realize the difference. The SB unit is just like a mains powered unit except that it draws the AC voltage from the audio. They are are both limited by zener diodes so the input voltage can never exceed 100v.

There are no parts available for Gamma phones (earpads, housings, drivers or arcs) so you are out of luck there. Stax did say that they might be interested in making some drivers for us but that was some time ago and it would have to be a large order. As for the damage... well I didn't think that was even possible as Stax always put silistors on the normal bias outputs to limit their output voltage but Pro drivers are immune to arcing with the drive voltages present. Did you remove the drivers from the housing to check inside as that is the only way to check?

Here is the Koss schematic.

Look at a picture of the stock phones and you can see the cup design... They are the same size as a Lambda but just deeper so the flat part of the housing is about the same size as a Lambda When you remove the damping you expose some of the things they were trying to hide in the first place, namely the upper midrange etch and some bass issues. Look at the last picture of the baffle and notice that the long sides have a notch cut into them. That's the port.

KG redrew the Koss schematic and I should have it here somewhere. I'll have to look for it though... The SRM-1 I don't have. All the Lambdas have the foam lining the inside of the cups and it should be available from Yama's.

Nope, the SR-Lambda is simply better as it doesn't have the midrange recession and the uneven bass and treble of the Pro's.

I have no idea what wood was used as I never opened my set but they use the standard Lambda baffle (i.e. flat) and the port is in the baffle. There is a cut out running almost the full length of the baffle from top to bottom on each side of the driver. Here are the only pics I have:

True but I've never seen either a dead SRM-1 or a L-Pro.