spritzer

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...

Their stance on DSD is well known so I wouldn't hold my breath. I must say I agree with them as DSD is just another way to sell people shit they already own

I do love the markings on old equipment stating the number of semiconductors inside. They should do that on computers these days...

Well the whole sorbothane and dynamat stuff is simply retarded. Same as the headband resonance where I saw it investigated once by Hifi News. The "test" was so horribly flawed that it wasn't even funny and clear that the tester simply got the results he wanted.

The elastic is much stronger in the new units so this is no longer an issue. Bass bloom is much more a factor of the earpad height than anything else. Also the smaller hole on the 007 pads will lead to less issues as a larger opening is always a terrible idea.

Well you can just unplug it so that that would be recommended. It is a pretty crappy circuit indeed... As for the actual amp, the main HV coupling caps can be upsized with no issues. I always used 0.22uf/630V polypropylene caps here as I had them in stock. There are no bad effects from increasing the value on these at all. What I'd do is measure the pin spacing and then go into mouser and find the right caps. I perfer the molded caps (i.e. not the box ones) as they are easier to place. Just go to film caps, polypropylene and the correct pin spacing. Plenty of 50V film caps as well. I like Panasonic for these as they are often quite small. A couple of other things, the 10pf feedback caps I'd also change. I suppose 500V units would suffice here but higher is better. I'd use silver mica because they are awesome. The two back to back100uf/6.3V caps could be swapped out for a single bipolar unit or even a ceramic unit. I would also swap out the 1K pot too as it will be pretty crusty by now.

It's more the PCB's that have a copyright as they are essentially a drawing i.e. artistry comes into it. That is certainly the version under Icelandic law.

Well that's because HF hasn't had any serious Stax discussion for years. I actually checked out the Stax thread over there this morning (replying to PM's is the only reason to go there) and seeing the discussion about diaphragm thickness just cracked me up. All of that info is in the old threads or stuck in the heads of us the old timers. As one of the mafia members said, "we've forgotten more about Stax than those fools will ever know". He isn't far off..

I was offered one of the Flux Lab units but it was before I moved so "mehh" was my only reaction. There have been some funny issues though, trim falling off as it is just glued in place and shit like that...

You can't do any comparisons on the 007t, it's just crap....utter crap. Anything with a flat response will sound bad on it and anything with hyped treble will sound ok.

Well there are three distinct versions of the 007A (might be more, who knows) and the first two sucked!! Well the first one could be modded into shape but Mk2.5 was just a lost cause.

Indeed. Kevin has a much more Zen approach to this but then again, I'm the hothead...

That's exactly it, they are too flat and the foam won't last.