spritzer

I had the same issue and I'm pretty sure it was simply leaking to ground somewhere. At these voltage levels it is to be expected.

600V is a must for the HV stuff, bias and output wiring. I would also add 5K1 resistors to the output per the modern way to do things Bias is easy, you could just take a 4M7 resistor off the B+ but I'd put something in there that limits the possible current. A high impedance voltage divider that shaves off just a few volts in normal operation but comes in handy if there is a short. In other news, I just bought a mini SRA-3S so there will be a reforestation project soon. I might just go crazy with this one though...

I'll manage...

I use Bostik branded but that close to the sensitive electrostatic drivers isn't the best idea.

This new glue Stax is using is nasty, nasty shit. Some form of neoprene...

I'll probably just add them to my rather large stock of spare parts.

That's what I was going for. Good news on the 4070 front, I scored a SR-303 so I can bring them back to their proper state. Also made a new baffle so I can easily swap in the new drivers. It does help that quite a few Lambdas have met their end here...

You mean Skál!!!

The Lawry heater is just a resistor on top of the precision resistors.

Well I'm a viking so not that far off.

You haven't lived until you've blown something up...

Well I'm being pushed hard to make the amps a more permanent thing. I'm taking it under serious consideration as I now have the space to truly ramp up production. On another note, I'm fucking furious right now. So that 4070 I was talking about, I got it to perform better but the treble was still out of control. Something was off so I decided to swap out the earpads to make the fix more permanent. Well I remove the inlays and my heart just sank as they were nice and shiny silver... Dig deeper and I see this: No wonder they are so treble happy, they have fucking SR-507 drivers!!! So it was Stax in Japan who did this and could not properly attach the new earpads. I expect this shit from Yama's but not from the flipping factory. Now we know one thing though, what happens when older Lambdas are sent in for service now. They glue the entire assembly to the baffle, I certainly can't see any screws. ...and now a perfectly good SR-404 has to die.

Well size isn't everything, it's what you can cram in a small box that counts... My KGSSHV is smaller than the Stax amps but is much more powerful and with a completely regulated power supply. The Carbon isn't much bigger and more than twice as powerful than the mini... Plenty of threads here where we rip the amps a new one. We've not been as active in this but that should change shortly. Time to expose the shit that's popular on HF. Something to offset the fucked up news above, a pic of the ever growing Stax museum. I clearly need a second display case in the living room: 009, SR-Omega and HE90 on the top shelf Two SR-1's, SR-2, SR-3 and SR-5 on the next shelf The 404LE, SR-SC1, Lambda Signature, Lambda Nova Signature and Lambda Pro Being all abandoned at the bottom is the SR-X Mk1. A lot of other headphones all over the house plus a lot more in various stages of restoration.

If Stax were selling garbage like the Studio Six then they would have no problem with bigger and heavier amps. The markup on the Studio Six is insane compared to what Stax are doing. I don't think Dynamics have progressed so much in the last few years except for the HD800. I don't like any of the planars as they are just lackluster or some even just sound odd. Electrostatics have plenty of bass and a properly driven and setup 007 will outperform anything you can throw at them. For fucks sake... I don't buy the company raising funds for the owner but yeah... buy dCS gear?

Well the amp is not good but the headphones are excellent. Stax are stuck in a bind with their more expensive amps, the 727 (which I currently have one here) has a gross design decision which is just wrong and needs to be fixed. The 007t uses the wrong tubes for the job and there really aren't any good ones out there for Stax to use. They also have this morbid fear of amplifier size and weight (both making everything about them more expensive) so they are locked in place.

I do think that MSB have gone completely off the rails in terms of pricing and marketing bullshit. They've hit on the simple fact, more expensive is better. Nobody in their right mind would put the Woo WES, RSA A-10 and the BHSE in the same category of capable amps but people do it all the time as they cost the same. I don't know how many times I've had to field the question, "how can the 007 be better than the 009 when the latter is more expensive?". As for the MSB piece, not a chance that it uses transformers. Also the claims that it "needs" the MSB dac are also false. The DAC will output some voltage (can't find the specs but say 7.6V max like my DAC3) and handle volume/balance control duties. That makes this a bog standard electrostatic amp as there is no way around the high gain needed to drive electrostatics. Given the high output voltage of the dac (and since it is a constant you can design around) they could get away with slightly lower gain but not a whole lot. At the end of the day this is no different to me simply omitting the volume control on a Carbon so that it can be driven directly. The small little fact that they are charging 9 times as much for it makes me go WTF?? Granted, milled from solid chassis are not cheap and I'm moving into that direction as well.

No comment...

The 4070 has ports running down the sides of the baffle on each side. Plug those and the bass has nowhere to go hence massive cancellation issues.

We can clone anything... Well that and make it better than the original.

Ahh it's a JC-2 clone as well. One like this: http://www.ebay.com/itm/2016-Finished-JC2-preamplifier-with-R-core-transformer-ALPS-potentiometer-CL-166-/111581666488?hash=item19fac91cb8:g:n7EAAOSwy4hUSNB6 The real one goes for way too much these days.

On this note, I just bought a ML-2/JC-3 clone from China. Stereo amp but just 500$ delivered so it will be a nice platform to build something nice. I also got a JC-2 preamp (150$ shipped) which I'll completely gut and put some of our circuits in there.

Indeed, PM me for the delivery address... In other news, never buy a 4070 that has had the earpads replaced... Do it wrong and they sound incredibly bad, next to no bass and just treble. Now I have to buy some new pads and try to get them retuned. I did get a nice package yesterday, the aforementioned 4070, Lambda Pro, Lambda Signature, Nova Signature, 404 (in rough shape though so full resto on them), SR-SC1, 404LE and a mint Alpha Pro which will not be killed.

Nice!!! A word of warning, those stands have been reported to be very, very bad for the speakers so super careful when moving them.

Indeed but they are super rare. Mostly stuff that can be captured in one go

Indeed but the mastering was all done in PCM...