The Headcase Stax thread

[Smeggy]

It means increased prices for vintage gear =(

Classic catch22

That's why I already have all my vintage Stax. Every time there's a damn 'stat flare-up a whole new bunch of people go on a Stax rampage and drive the prices up. I'm fully stocked with all the vintage gear I need less maybe an ortho.

[spritzer]

I've been playing with the SR-007A tonight and decided to try and find that damn opening that is causing this bass bloom and it seems that I've found it. The first picture is the one I took a few minutes ago of the SR-007A open and the latter is the only one I have of my SR-007 Mk1 with the pads removed.

Please note the notch above the cable entry on the SR-007A. It's tough to make out the different heights in the white plastic bot the earpad flap rests on the second from the top and as you can see the notch goes where the earpads can't cover i.e. sound from the chamber can reach it without any obtrusion. The cable entry has a small gap on each side so they could be acting as mini-ports and allowing air to escape the capsules and thus making the Stax fart nonexistent.

[milkpowder]

Ah now I understand. Thanks for the pictures (and the courage:D).

[spritzer]

Ah now I understand. Thanks for the pictures (and the courage:D).

That didn't take much courage compared to what I just finished doing... Lets just say that refurbishing a Lambda driver is a terrifying experience. Scraping off the old glue is required and wielding a razor blade less then 1mm from the diaphragm is a sobering task. It went off without a hitch and now it's 24 hours until I know whether it worked or not...

[blessingx]

Fingers crossed.

As resident expert spritzer, mind if I ask if there are any serial differences you're aware of for the 0007t like the srm-1/mkIIs A/B/C?

[The Monkey]

Whatever. I think I should just get the O2.

[spritzer]

Fingers crossed.

As resident expert spritzer, mind if I ask if there are any serial differences you're aware of for the 0007t like the srm-1/mkIIs A/B/C?

The new Stax serial numbers are so complicated that there is no way to read anything from them. There have been some revisions of the 007t over the years but I'm not sure what it is that they did. I suspect it is mostly changes to the layout and some part changes but there is no way to know for sure as Stax will never fess up.

Whatever. I think I should just get the O2.

You know you want to...

[Duggeh]

That didn't take much courage compared to what I just finished doing... Lets just say that refurbishing a Lambda driver is a terrifying experience. Scraping off the old glue is required and wielding a razor blade less then 1mm from the diaphragm is a sobering task. It went off without a hitch and now it's 24 hours until I know whether it worked or not...

If you'd fouled up you could always do what all the ignorant ESL57 owners did and mend everything up with sellotape. Fudge it on to some noob on ebay and when they complain tell them that they ran the risk with a vintage product.

[slwiser]

Having the Stax SR-X MK3 with the Fitz DIY adapter for a few weeks now I have to say that these are sounding much better than I thought they would and did at first.

Now my long term interest has been advanced toward a more modern Stax. I am now reading with interest these threads to see what I can learn.

One question that seems obvious but to me is not quite is what is the difference between a Stax amp and a Stax driver?

The DIY driver I have is a modified SRD-X unit with some upgraded components that Fitz developed. The SR-X unit has also been re-cabled by Fitz. This is the unit that 003 sold a couple of months ago. Anyone with any experience with these units have any comments?

Thanks

[postjack]

One question that seems obvious but to me is not quite is what is the difference between a Stax amp and a Stax driver?

i'm pretty sure they both mean the same thing. I think "driver" is just the term that Stax uses to describe their amps.

You might also hear about "adapters" or SRD-7s, which are basically something you hook up to a speaker amp that converts that power to something a Stax earspeaker can use.

[dc]

yeah stax transformers/adaptors (ones made by stax are pre-fixed with SRD need a speaker amp)

whereas stax energisers/drivers/amps (Stax branded are prefixed with SRM) are basically dedicated amps

[slwiser]

I have it connected to my Lavry DA10 XLR-RCA outputs to the RCA inputs of the DIY driver unit. The SR-X MK3 is detailed enough for me to clearly see the difference between the sources that I can use. I have two set up now to that I compare and these are the Lavry and the iMod with the Auricap doc. The Lavry is clearly better.

So there are no speaker amps involved in my setup at this time only the Lavry XLR output.

Does this mean that the DIY driver is an amp or is this handicapping the SR-X severely by not having a speaker amp in the loop? It is my understanding that the DIY driver by Fitz is a re-boxed SRD-X unit with some upgraded components and works as an amp.

This is the unit that I am talking about:

http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f10/sold-price-drop-stax-sr-x-mk3-electrostatic-headphones-diy-driver-unit-312969/

[dc]

I think only fitz can answer exactly what he did, but it sounds like he modded a transformer to become an integrated stax amp

[blessingx]

Speaking of sources (and the Lavry specifically), anyone else find STAX (or at least Lambda Pros and Golds specifically) not particularly source dependent? I don't mean that you can't tell the difference, but that the sound doesn't collapse the way it does with some phones that are more finicky. Moving from the DA10 (admittedly without balanced as I don't have a balanced cable at the moment) to Pico to even Squeezebox 3, I find they're all quite pleasant listens (with the only two energizers I have much experience with, the srm-1/mk2 and srm-007t). There are clearly 'betters', but it does approach 'flavors', more than I would have expected (or compared to my dynamic gear - getting rare listening time lately). Which makes me believe they're more amp dependent, thus I'm contemplating downgrading my source to upgrade my amp to the 007t.

Anyone have a similar or contrasting experience?

[deepak]

Speaking of sources (and the Lavry specifically), anyone else find STAX (or at least Lambda Pros and Golds specifically) not particularly source dependent? I don't mean that you can't tell the difference, but that the sound doesn't collapse the way it does with some phones that are more finicky. Moving from the DA10 (admittedly without balanced as I don't have a balanced cable at the moment) to Pico to even Squeezebox 3, I find they're all quite pleasant listens (with the only two energizers I have much experience with, the srm-1/mk2 and srm-007t). There are clearly 'betters', but it does approach 'flavors', more than I would have expected (or compared to my dynamic gear - getting rare listening time lately). Which makes me believe they're more amp dependent, thus I'm contemplating downgrading my source to upgrade my amp to the 007t.

Anyone have a similar or contrasting experience?

The SR-Lambda sounded great out of my North Star M192 and Denon DA-500. But it was very capable of revealing source differences. Much better than my lesser dynamic combo. That's not to say the Lambda sounded worse on the cheaper source, it was still really, really good.

[blessingx]

I even did a test (warning readers please relax eye muscles to avoid reflex rolling) with the iPod touch and they sounded on the same planet as good.

[spritzer]

If you'd fouled up you could always do what all the ignorant ESL57 owners did and mend everything up with sellotape. Fudge it on to some noob on ebay and when they complain tell them that they ran the risk with a vintage product.

... ... I do admit to having used tape to repair over the years but only small nicks on the dust covers where a total replacement would have been too risky. As for the said Lambda driver, I just unclamped it after letting the glue settle for 18 hours and it plays beautifully with no imbalance compared to the other driver. It's nice to have a set functioning again which I had basically written off as future spares.

I think only fitz can answer exactly what he did, but it sounds like he modded a transformer to become an integrated stax amp

I'm probably wrong but isn't it simply a T-amp driving transformers? That would be a very simple way of creating a small amp.

Speaking of sources (and the Lavry specifically), anyone else find STAX (or at least Lambda Pros and Golds specifically) not particularly source dependent? I don't mean that you can't tell the difference, but that the sound doesn't collapse the way it does with some phones that are more finicky. Moving from the DA10 (admittedly without balanced as I don't have a balanced cable at the moment) to Pico to even Squeezebox 3, I find they're all quite pleasant listens (with the only two energizers I have much experience with, the srm-1/mk2 and srm-007t). There are clearly 'betters', but it does approach 'flavors', more than I would have expected (or compared to my dynamic gear - getting rare listening time lately). Which makes me believe they're more amp dependent, thus I'm contemplating downgrading my source to upgrade my amp to the 007t.

Anyone have a similar or contrasting experience?

Here you come to the familiar oxymoron of all 'stats, how can something so transparent be so forgiving of the crap it's fed? A better source will have a huge impact but a Sony PS1 sounds pretty good with Lambdas for the whopping price of 5$ in parts...

[Duggeh]

Congrats on the restoration/rescue!

[spritzer]

Congrats on the restoration/rescue!

Thanks. Now I only hope that the cable has stopped shorting out somewhere internally. It was fine until I tried to remove most of the smoking stench from it by allowing a small volume of strong cleaners to wash over the cable in a closed environment. I guess som go into the plug and is shorting it out. It's been cooking on top of the SRM-1 Mk2 for 12 hours now so it should be dry...

[dc]

Omegas FSOHF, is that price pretty good?

[spritzer]

Omegas FSOHF, is that price pretty good?

Since I didn't see any SR-007's for sale I guess you're talking about Kane's SR-?. They are rare and sought after so the price isn't bad considering that and that they beat the HE90 on almost everything but there is always a dark cloud hanging over them. \

[deepak]

Omegas FSOHF, is that price pretty good?

IMO for an SR-Omega that is a great price. Ones on ebay have sold in the $3500 range. Plus you have the benefit of dealing with a trusted member in this case.

[Duggeh]

Would not surprise me to see that one reappear within the year with the front number turned a notch.

[dc]

Ah, so my memory is not so bad as I do recall seeing them go for much higher.

Not that I am seriously interested as I could not justify that kind of money on a discontinued headphone with its inherent problems.

Someone else might be though... maybe Elephas needs a third

[milkpowder]

Darn it! I missed Afrikane's SR-007A! He was only selling for 1,350 shipped. I messaged him afterwards and apparently it was gone in less than two minutes