spritzer

That's the last version so ca. 1967.

Just post the pics somewhere and link to them, imgur for example. I have three different SR-1's and I like them all but Stax has certainly made better. It's remarkable how long they do last and two of mine fire up instantly. The third one needs some work but it shows how electrostatics do last. I spent a few hours yesterday listening to my Quad ESL57's which were made in 1968 and are 100% original except the PSU and crossover parts were refreshed a couple of years ago. Keep them out of the sun and they will outlast any cone speaker...

It's much cheaper to make, that's why.

Having the joint on the top like that with no internal support really isn't the best move. Still they have been doing it for 22 years so the failure rate must not be that high. I've never had one fail but then again my Lambdas don't see a lot of use.

It's something I could look into. I'm going to build one and see how I like it. I'm slowly working on a full size version of the circuit so that takes precedence at least for a while.

Communication was never their strong suit but I have little doubt that everything is ok. Some customers just need a lot of hand holding and places like PJ aren't for them.

It must have been a bad batch as these work perfectly. Some of my first ones had the center bump but I returned all of them.

I do... I do...

They work but if you want something that is nice, then you need a custom plug. Stupid simple to make though

Thanks.

Yup that's the one. So so quality but the fit is ok.

Those are the Chinese Stax sockets that were on Aliexpress but I've never seen this version before. It looks ok but the mounting is a bit odd with two pegs on each side. The tube is actually 6C5GT so pretty much half a 6SN7...well in a way. I have some US ones here as well but I'm just running the included tubes first.

Well it did end up costing me about 730$ all in so not that cheap. Fees in China, shipping from there to here and finally customs BS here. I'd rather have a SRM-323S but you know... I also need to do a lot of work to it before it is safe to use. It's impressive that almost none of the screws in this chassis actually work. Everything is loose and rattling, screws are too short with no actual purchase and the builder has never heard of lock washers. Now some pics, as you can tell by the bottom of the board, this is bodge city!! The PSU is completely unregulated and pretty much as basic as they get. CRC filters but that's it. Finally the VU circuit. Clearly off the shelf unit like the delay line above.

Kerry is the new Cavalli except you know... well engineered products and built correctly.

Yeah, not good at all. If it was floating then maybe it would work but not grounded. It's also two 6V legs used to power different parts with the CT grounding it. I just sent Kevin pics so we will have some better data soon.

It pretty much had to be an Egmont unless it used some obscure dissimilar dual triode. I might modify it and add a stage if there are any tubes that fit the octal socket and draw about 0.3A of filament current. Not that great. I've only tried it on my test bench with 207's but coming off my usual diet there of Carbon's, KGSSHV's and KGST's...it's not that good. Very weak bass and top end performance, sounds slightly "vague" which is probably due to the massive offset on the output. They are proper VU meters with a drive circuit hidden underneath the main PCB. I'll try to take some pics today to show how it works. There is no hum at all but I'm not happy with the common heater (center tapped) for this thing. It is running the cathodes at -380VDC so any heater/cathode barrier is long gone

Well thing has arrived: When it showed up it didn't work and the balance input still doesn't work. This is cheap...and I mean cheap. The chassis work is beyond crappy and when it arrived both volume controls were loose. Circuit wise it is really just an Egmont with a 10M90 plate load and a tale current source for the input stage. Some huge omissions though such as any way to balance or control the offset of the amp.

Thanks for this guys. I had lovely day with great food and even better people. The weather was perfect too and even though it is midnight, the sun is still shining.

The diaphragm looks exactly like that of Stax or even the HE60. Slight haze to it but other than that there is nothing. I'm sure the whole gold plated diaphragm was a type from german and they were always referring to the stators. If I open them up again then I can take some measurements. I'm sure the glass is a factor but the drivers also bear all the marks of massive QC issues. Spacers all over the place...

Happy Birthday Bakerboy!!

Ok...I had an interesting morning. It isn't every day that one takes apart HE90 drivers. Sorry no picks as I was too freaked out while handling something so delicate and well...fucking unobtainium. These were from the original production run so they needed some cleaning and one driver was imbalanced. Let's discuss how they were made... First of, the actual stators are indeed glass with gold deposits on them. The connections to them couldn't be soldered so they have adapter plates on them which hold the dust covers in place. The diaphragm is held in place with aluminum spacers and they are actually not glued together so access is excellent. Be warned though that there are small plastic spacers all over the fucking place so I'd advise against opening these up. The diaphragms are indeed not gold plated and they have a lot of tension on them. Now for the imbalance, the offending driver had the diaphragms completely fused into one of the stators. It had been this way for a while as the hole pattern of the driver was imprinted onto the plastic film. I slowly peeled them apart and recoated the diaphragm on both sides and now they work perfectly. There was a small hole where the drivers had arced through but it has very little impact on the performance. Small amount of noise from time to time but nothing as bad as an old Lambda Signature. The other driver might need a new coating as well as it seems to have some charge migration issues so that will be easy to sort out.

I'd be happy to store it. Plenty of space here!!

I think Kerry needs a proper reflow oven...

In other news, I just got some used HE90 drivers for my frames. I don't think the electrostatic museum is complete without an Orpheus... They have some slight channel imbalance which I'll have to look into but I think they are mostly made out of glass as Senn always stated. Gold plated diaphragm is likely BS but the black plate which holds the drivers is certainly glass and it has the same edge finish as the stators. The spacers are clear though so might be some form of plastic. Thanks. The team did just receive a hero's welcome with the downtown area full of people. http://www.ruv.is/frett/sjadu-otrulegar-mottokur-a-arnarholi That's a lot of people... Yup...he's probably right... My issue is the utter stupidity of not adhering to the standard set by Stax. King Sound certainly made their own cables and sockets, it's just too bad they suck so bad. Stick with the 1200Vppss standard. If Stax have been able to do so since 1982 how come they can't do it?

The spacer is certainly too thick or the stator design is completely wrong.