spritzer

Nope, that's the production stuff.

In reality the bias harvest a negligible amount of energy from the audio signal so the effect is pretty small. My main issue is with the cross talk it will generate as Stax always placed the bias supply (or the transformer on the later versions) between the channels to maximize the potential available. Well that plus the extra inductance of the second transformer is bound to have some effect. That all being said, I'd really pick this over having the mains effective rigged directly to my head which is the case for all of the mains units. Couple that to 40-50 year old diodes, caps and carbon resistors and it is a scary thing. As for the Topping, I've been thinking about what to do with it. It's main issue is the crap amp and bias supply so that could be fixed. Retrofit the small bias supply Kerry designed for the portable amp project (200V boost battery charge chip fed into a voltage tripler) and change the amp boards for some Class D design. I've been using Icepower for over a decade to run my transformer boxes so something like that.

Completely different package so you need to match the pinout but that should be it. Could be some freak oscillation though to look out for. Still this wouldn't be worth it as real 2SA1968's are probably 50$ each now for low quantities and most for sale are fakes. I can't remember the rail voltages on those amps but if it is +/-300V, then a 700Vpnp would work. There are none in current production but they can be found.

That's actually a SRM-1, not a Mk2 unit. It seems Stax just had a bunch left over so they stuck them in a Mk2 chassis. These amps are less than 1% of all SRM-1 Mk2's so yeah, not a true representation of them. Still the 2SA1968/1967 would work there attached to a heatsink. Edit: Given the rail voltages, a 600V part might even work there or a 700V one.

Maybe a very old SRM-1 Mk2 has some obsolete parts but the rest can all be replaced either directly or by substituting close parts. Anything after that can also easily be fixed. Now how long we will have HV TO220 parts is not clear but I've lost count of how many SRM-1 Mk2's I've fixed over the years and none were a complete write-off.

Shit happens?

Happy Birthday my friend!!

Perhaps we should design replacement modules for people...

The thing is, we are not swayed by how much something costs. There is no correlation between price and performance. Let's put it this way, the Sennheiser HE-1 is ok... nothing more than that and would be elevated greatly by using other amps. The drivers are just a further development of the HE90 so they can be easily converted to Stax standard. I'm not going to pay 30K$ for a new set just to throw away the amp though. The Hifiman Shangri-la is just awful and that was off the BHSE. Couple that with bad build quality, cheap materials and that they will all die... yeah fucking trash. I tried the Apperio at Harrods the last time I was in London and with everything unfamiliar, a sales gremlin breathing down my neck and a short audition... I didn't want to comment on it but it is very similar to the Sonoma/Bravura so not high end by any means. I'd rather get a Stax L500Mk2 with a good amp... As for Viva, Woo Audio, LTA or what ever trash there is... go ahead and throw your money away.

I really need to do something with these...

Why are you trying to shill this trash?

Yeah, that's my recommendation as well. A SRM-1 Mk2, SRM-3, SRM-313 all walk over this thing. Sure the older ones need some new electrolytics at this point but it's a much better sounding system. L300's are also not as good as the x07 series was but quick mod, remove the stupid screen inside the earpads, remove the earpads and take out the 4 screws. Swap the back panels between left and right and fix them back into place so they are reversed from where they were before. Helps clear up the imaging of them.

I know but same shit driver design and amplifier. What are the odds this isn't shit as well?

I have a couple of the Sonoma Model 1 sets so I've been looking into making an amp for them. They are pretty much worthless at this point so can be picked up cheap but yeah, single ended and the driver design is all kinds of stupid. The bias is 1350V and the amp runs on a single 450V rail so the bias is doing most of the work here. The bias is actually on the drive signal with the AC signal super imposed on it through a 2000V cap. Why did they do this? It was supposed to be cheap but sold for 5K$... yeah. They are also very non linear so the internal DSP is doing a lot of work. I did listen to the Bravura in NYC and what a fucking turd. The drivers are close to identical so all of the same issues as the older Sonoma. You can hear it's a tailored sound from the DSP as they try to fix the mess the drivers are making. None of this makes any sense...

What is that supposed to achieve?

He's fucking retarded and more of a shill than Jude... which says quite a bit. I feel really sorry for anybody who watches garbage like this and thinks he's getting anything else than a sales pitch.

I was just sent this and I had to share it: Now we all know Z reviews is trash but this is just pure shilling.

Good to have you back. The L500Mk2 is the most neutral of the new Stax but imaging is still wrong for me so I'd recommend a used SR-207. They are used quite a bit in studios.

Nope, they are just very different technology so even if you had two separate amps in the same box, there would be issues.

This thing really tops out "how stupid can we make something" and given that the iesl barely worked... I'm not hopeful this is any better given the iFi stuff is just terrible.

Yup that makes sense. The 507 pads were very much a move back to the original pad design for the Lambda as can be seen on the prototype pictures. I don't know why they are smaller than all the other pads though.

The thing is, the 303 and 404 pads are made from the same material and that also applies to the LNC and LNS pads. Stax did change the material between the versions as well... the Lambda Nova pads do turn rather nasty. I've seen a NOS unit though and the material is close to being identical. The 307 and 407 pads were changed though, very different construction method and different materials. Any pads with the cloth inserts are those pads. Now if you have dark brown pads with harder pleather, perhaps Lambda Signature pads? I know they were fitted to Nova Signatures that came in for pads falling apart back in the day. They last for a long time too.

Could be a factor but where did you get Nova Signature pads which haven't decomposed by now?

Yup and here we have the extra issue of a crap amp driving the transformers so yeah... it's not good.

"Easily worth the 7500$ price tag"... ehhh sure 🙄 It's great that the big players are entering the market but these prices are just silly.