spritzer

That's nothing, one Omega at best. I always buy more parts then I need and always forget I have them later on. Earlier today I bought some 600 LED's which I'll probably forget about in a year and buy some more... It's the same OFC cable. If it had gold plated pins then it would be the rare black PC-OCC cable. There is some debris stuck inside the driver causing that buzzing. The bad news is that the Lambda drivers are almost impossible to disassemble and then put back together to clean it out. \ Try discharging the driver and blowing into it but that's about the only thing you can do.

I've only been so organized with the stuff I've been selling the last year or so and it is a frightening read coupled with all the post office receipts. \ Do any of you keep a detailed list of what you have bought and at what price?

You know that power is over rated anyway... We are clearly both wasting out time with all those huge caps, transformers etc.

He's working on a new version so two years...?? Just kidding but I'm not sure if he will make any of the older ones as parts like the K389's are near unobtainium.

That's how it starts but before you know it you have 50 Stax phones and no idea how you got there...

It's a whole different ballgame damping 'stats where less is usually more so you can try swapping out the wool with something else. The SR-X has a metal grill to protect the driver but they sit right on the ear. The Gamma's aren't really that rare and can be found quite cheap if you look hard enough.

While a ES driver behaves like a cap they aren't the same since you have to deal with damping and the load impedance presented on the diaphragm. Due to this and other factors the basic shape of an ES impedance curve is like a bell causing them to draw a lot of power at the treble and bass. If this wasn't the case then why did Stax and KG design amps with that massive current source on the output stage instead of a simple plate resistor?

The screws do indeed have to be fully seated or the drivers are loose inside the cups which is not good. You could remove the damping on the back (the yellow wool) but you still have the acoustic lens in the front so it won't do you much good. Your best be would be to get some Pro drivers in there or get a Gamma/Sr-X to try out. The Mk1 grow on you for a couple of weeks and then compare to the Mk2. Only then you'll see the light...

The earpads can make or break a planar headphone so I have no doubt that they are better but the problem would be which version you are getting... Perhaps Faust(of an undecided dimension) would care to disclose where he bought his?

They are indeed capacitors so their impedance varies with frequency. It can dip very low in the bass and treble while the midrange is pretty benign but the amp must overcome this above all else. High slew rate and a low output impedance are vital as well but if the amp can't maintain a stable output voltage into any load then you have bigger problems. As for the sound comparison, the BH is even more pure then the KGSS let alone something like the 717 I'm using now. I'm eagerly awaiting the BHSE and I have no doubts that it will be superb but I have a new DIY BH lined up just in case I like the older one better. One thing is clear, the synergy with the old BH and the SR-Omega is something that has to be experienced.

Now if you wanted nothing but voltage swing then the Koss E/90 would be the ultimate amp but that clearly isn't the case which goes to show that voltage swing isn't the end all yardstick to measure ESP amps. The KGSS will always be limited by the transistors in use i.e. how much voltage they can take but you can increase their bias and use an even more robust PSU to have moar powah on tap. This was never an option from Justin and I doubt it's something he'll even consider for the new model since extra heat is always bad news so consider this a DIY only option. The BH is fully DC coupled so it's very linear and while the tubes used do change the sound it's best just to stick with the best, Mullard XF1 and XF2, as they will last for years and sound great. While the BH does have more voltage swing it's not the ample voltage that makes a difference but the amount of current on tap. Difficult phones like the SR-Sigma are transformed from a midrange-centric mess to a fullrange transducer just because there is enough power for the phones to do their thing.

I told you that you'd find some use for those Omega pads...

First off, there is no speculation on my part as I've ripped apart plenty of SR-007 pads and I know that they are made of real natural leather just like it says in the link Deepak posted. I got that directly from the Stax service manager back in 2003 (Mr. Suzuki if I remember correctly) so you can doubt its authenticity all you want but that is the SR-007 owners manual, the one that shipped with the phones. Those that are claiming the pads to be pleather have never disassembled one and are speculating based on a PDF from Stax. Good for them but look at the pics I posted and tell me that the material looks like any vinyl you've seen. Better yet, open up a set of pads and take a look for yourself. There is way too much misinformation out there about Stax so I don't see any sense in adding to it with baseless speculation.

I would take them off, clean the leather with a good leather cleaner and deal with the foam separately. Foam and the wool used on old Stax phones can soak up a lot of smoke so I usually place them in small bag, spray some auto interior shampoo (designed to get rid of smoke odor) into the bag and then seal it. Then place it under a lamp or something for a few hours to increase the internal temp in the bag and after a while you get a nasty brown liquid accumulating at the bottom of the bag. I do this a few times until it is clean. You could also just wash the foam but this is the only way to clean something like the Sigma wool.

Happy birthday and demand more presents!!

They usually run for about 100-250$ depending on what they are bundled with and their condition. The earpads are still available so no worries there but the SR-X Mk3 has the annoying tendency to develop a channel imbalance so that's something to look for. The sound is great but these are monitor headphones so it's very clean and precise with a rolled off bass.

It was different which is good. It's all drying out nicely and should be ok but it looks like I'll spend most of the weekend throwing out stuff.

Yesterday was a strange Christmas Eve. Woke up at 2AM with no power due to it raining horizontally and spent the next two hours figuring out where the system was compromised. Once fixed I went to work and tried to explain to people that I couldn't whisk up a 5 pound Danish Rye bread in 30 minutes or other such stupid nonsense. Had an uneventful Christmas dinner with my parents until their power went out as well. Turns out that a water hose in the garage had burst and showered the whole room with water for at least an hour. To make matters even worse the car parked inside had an open window, directly in the waters path, so the car was soaked with 10cm of water on the floor. Should fine after a couple of days though and nothing but crap was damaged but it was a pain to clean up.

Isn't that called "The Head-fi"?

Happy birthday!!

It's hard work I tell ya!!!

I could do a torrent or upload them here but it's something I'll do when I have time. Check with me in mid 2009...

I do have the files here but they are nearly 400meg in the current .wav format so sharing them isn't easy.

Please forgive me for I have sinned. I've now sold off 95% of my wast Stax collection so unknowing, innocent souls, infecting them with the need, no craving, for electrostatic goodness that knows no bounds. This is the most heinous of acts as it may lead to financial ruin and countless hours spent checking Y!JP for rare models to pop up. :'(

Now we finally have confirmation of what we have thought for a long time, Elephas is indeed sniffing glue!!! Finding that the SR-404 pads are the same as Mk1 pads... Buy a set of Mk1 pads, smell them and don't do drugs!!! All of the Lambdas (except for the SR-202) use the same type of pads, featuring the same breathable faux leather. That includes the SR-303 (different color), SR-404, SR-SC1 and the 4070. It's a more advanced version of the material used on the Lambda Nova series which simply didn't stand the test of time and disintegrated. I have destroyed a few of these pads over the years (and the horrible sticky glue used to put them on) and the material has nothing in common with the leather on the Mk1. Cut open those 404 pads and check inside. The SR-202 pads do use some variation of the material used on the original Lambdas. Now I have no idea what pads Larry used on your bastard L-Pro's but they could just be normal SR-202 pads. The older Lambda pads are smoother with no texture and use a slightly thicker vinyl covering. Now there is a third version of the Lambda pads but I've only seen one picture of it so I presume it is the prototype Stax used. They've been known to use final prototypes for picture ops (as they did with the SR-Omega with the different cable entries) but these pads were made like the Omega pads i.e. each part sown together and not stretching the vinyl over the foam. Should be very comfy...