spritzer

The cap on the bias supply output is a big no-no these days so a 4M7 resistor after that is what I've usually done. Good that you added the 5K1 resistors though. You are right that this isn't for us so adding a small switcher to power the front end would be overkill. One other "wrinkle" to consider are the first and second generation T1's. Yours is the much more common second (which Stax called "new T1") but I've never had one of the earlier ones. The circuitry seems to be a bit different but I'm not sure what they changed.

Well I wouldn't call this close to the KGDT/KGST given how fucked the psu is and the weird way Stax adapt the circuits. The LV supply is something that has to be changed though, it's derived off the HV rails (see the large power resistors in there) and has to go. I haven't seen the article but I hope you touched on and modified the bias supply as it has no place with modern Stax sets.

The data from owners here is about 100km of range in Icelandic weather so not great but given the cost of the cars and the cost to run them... it's not bad.

Stuff like this is why I find electric cars and their rapid development so fascinating. They are going all out in solving the charge issues (hello high voltage) and the performance is just incredible. I've been toying with the idea of picking up a used Nissan Leaf as they cost nothing to run here, the electricity is so cheap. There are also new seat rails available which means I can fit in the bloody thing...

One possibility is that somebody has messed with the damping inside the cups. That said, the SR-5's were always a bit mehhh to these ears. Having done a lot of work recently with old SR-X drivers fitted with new diaphragms, the drivers can do a lot more.

Awww now you made me miss the pups...

This is the only set I have now but the plan is to have more made and keep a few around should people need them. They are not cheap though... Nothing terrible but my DIY phones project is running into silly money... In terms of the presentation, it is pretty much the same as the stock pads. They have so little padding that it made sense to make thicker pads and have them compress more. This is what Stax did with the 007's so it carries nicely onto these. There is maybe a smidge more bass control with these but it's hard to say. The bass is still a bit loose and the treble can bite a bit so regular SR-Omegas to these ears.

The first BHSE's did use A1968's in the PSU but I hope Justin stopped that a while ago. Any PSU issue with this design, check the pass fets but any "engineer" should have figured that out on his own. Seriously, troubleshooting PSU is the really easy bit.

So a gain stage is some how worse than a buffer stage and a step up transformer? Sure... this is the Craig Uthus line of thought. Let's paint all the way into the corner and then pretend it doesn't sound like shit.

Hmmm I don't think I removed the loop out on any of ones I've done. Pop the hood and I'd know... In other news, as the SR-Omega owners know all to well...there are no more replacement earpads and the old ones are pretty much awful. Any set with the stock ones will be mimicking a block of wood by now and the replacements Stax used to sell were pretty fucked as they were just wrong. First of all they were black and then the dimensions were also wrong. They are all gone now as well so what to do... Well take a crusty set of earpads and re-engineer some new ones with the company that is making the earpads for my headphone project. Now they are real leather with memory foam. They are also thicker as they are much softer and the opening was made smaller to control the bass issues if the SR-Omega. Now this is the just the first prototype but what an utter fucking pain in the ass to install. I've sourced the pins Stax used and I'll order some new mounting rings for the next batch but yeah, not easy to install. Something I'm not sure can be changed but we'll see. Here they are mounted to the headphones: Yup, the "old" earpads are new old stock but mine won't last forever. Now how does it sound...bloody brilliant and they are so much more comfortable. Some more listening to be done on my part but some of my issues with the SR-Omega have been greatly diminished.

Single gain stage in an electrostatic amp is beyond retarded. Now don't get me started on using transformers but a single gain stage?

Now recap that bitch...

Yeah, that is silly pricing.

Yes it does. Check the fuses.

That was back in the day...now not so much. They are responsible for the whole watt per dollar bullshit which nobody wins in. I call it the rise of Class B...

Even I don't stoop that low... One thing I'm interested in is a new DAC since I just sold the MSB. Sure as hell not going to waste money on the Yggdrasil...

Some seller on ebay at some point. No idea when...I just buy random crap when I see it.

Sony were nuts with all kinds of fringe pseudo science shit. Semi-conductive stator frames, odd cable dielectric, pentagonal diaphragms and crap like that. The ECR-600 I had was 100% push pull though, it was just electret with super high ratio for some unknown reason. As for a discussion between arnaud, Jazz and astroglide.. wouldn't see that one as the latter two fucktards are firmly on my ignore list. Reflections are far more likely from the headphone structure as the D/S gap is so small that there can't be any meaningful reflections.

Indeed, this "front stator reflection" crap comes from people who don't know anything about the subject or are trying to sell people luke warm single ended shit.

Floating would work but I've never had any issues with AC hum on this. YMMV though.

Take pics of the transformer primaries and we can see if this one can be converted. Some can, some can't. As for the balanced input, just copy what is already on the board. From memory there might be spots on the PCB for this as some versions had them. Also from memory these were a series resistors on the input (2K?), a cap to ground and a shunt resistor as well (probably 500K).

Yeah and I have some major reservations about the amp they are using. Any claims of real current delivery have to be treated with skepticism as there are no heat-sinks...

The EL34 heaters are floating at -400V so it would be pretty tricky to even do that at DC.

Yeah, it was a lot of effort to just try and tame a really, really unruly driver. Better spend that on dynamic headphones rather than lock it into a system like this.

I've never seen a fake 7 pin package and it would be pretty costly to do. The fets are just relabeled BJT's which would probably make for excellent input devices anyway...