spritzer

The newer driver. The "gold" applies to both black and white units as the original SR-5's had silver plates.

The SR-Omega pads are custom made to my specs, not something you can just find.

Happy Birthday my friend!!

I've always wanted to go to a hamfest...

I forget which pads but I bought a pile of them two years ago. Just look on ebay by the size and you should find some. I just bought the amp so I dunno but it will be first shipped to Kevin so expect silly high res pictures soon. What I'm hearing through the mafia is not good though but I'll wait for it to arrive. I also bought a 100V amp on purpose so that we would know if it could be rewired. If Stax are being assholes then I'll just install a new transformer. Hell then I could actually regulate the PSU...

There are also similar pads on ebay which work much better than the old Stax stuff. In other news, I just bought the first T8000 to hit the used market. Used for a couple of hours and then sold...yeah bodes well for the new flagship...

He will have it soon.

Yeah, I'll do some further testing with the insulation tester tomorrow. I have the Uni-T UT-512 and who knew Uni-T made something usable? Their meters are just garbage but this is kinda nice. It does complain a bit at 2500V but nothing too serious.

I think that might be true. I'm having some truly bizarre issues with an old Stax amp and let's just say that it put 120VAC on the chassis. I connect a source and boom!! I got a slight tingle but that's it.

Metcal for life.

Blowing it all up is half the fun. One amp recently tried to kill me which is less fun but still enjoyable...

Yeah, they should be. I think it was only the SRM-1 where there are major differences between the Mk1 and the Mk2. Really two different amps.

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.