The Headcase Stax thread

[The Monkey]

^I'm glad someone else has been listening to that combo. I've been loving it.

[mypasswordis]

More than can be said for the average Stax fan owner!

FTFY Must be something about the couple hundred volts of bias near the head.

[padam]

Little update on the Airbow site, now the driver unit is a SRM-253, they say a PSU is in development. I suppose it isn't as good as the 'bigger' amps while the price remains on the high side.

By the way, anybody heard a STAX DAC like this one? Are the any good or they just surpassed by others in this price range?

[Tony]

Wow, nice little amp: perhaps the upgrade to the SRM252? Or just the same, just "rebranded"?

[spritzer]

It could be a new version of the 252 as the 353 should be close to being released. The old amp was certainly just a rebadge with a new PSU but I don't know if they actually did anything with the amp circuit.

[padam]

I guess they used to have the 222 (and 222P) derived from the 212 and now this one derived from the 252A, so they just fell in line with the current range but I don't know(the translation is a bit blurry as usual but it might say that), the upcoming better PSU probably helps a fair bit but it will cost as well (and may only work at 100V?). Question is, whether all this cyro stuff works on amps as well since it is said to work on the SR-404.

[spritzer]

I'm not buying the cryo crap but the SR-SC1 sounds a lot like the SR-404LE from memory. The drivers assembled a bit differently perhaps?

[padam]

So it could happen that a brand new SR-404 (SR-303?) that has earpads with the newest type of mesh by default sounds a fair bit less edgy than the older ones? I can't imagine why they would make one driver with two variations.

[spritzer]

Nope, had a new-ish SR-404 here and it sounds just like the older units i.e. badly. I seriously doubt that the difference is down to the earpads since I changed them out on my SR-SC1 back in the day.

[Dusty Chalk]

And that's the same driver that they use in the 4070? What do you think of the 4070 enclosure? Do you think it'd be worth trying frankensteining a different driver in the 4070 enclosure? Or would it make more sense the other way around?

[padam]

From my understanding the 4070 is really good as it is and uses the same 404 drivers so it doesn't make much sense either way around. The only mod that I can remember is Carl fitting in Airbow SC1 drivers to the 4070 and the bass gained serious thump but some time later it was broken

[spritzer]

The 4070 enclosure is brilliant but so is the whole headphone design. Managing the backwave without resorting to diminish the true dipole action of the drivers is something to be very proud of for Stax.

[mypasswordis]

I'm not buying the cryo crap but the SR-SC1 sounds a lot like the SR-404LE from memory. The drivers assembled a bit differently perhaps?

You know, that's exactly what I was about to say but ended up not posting it for some reason. I don't buy into the cryo cap, either, and was thinking maybe it's just the way the drivers are assembled especially since you experimented with rebuilding one awhile back. If I ever feel the need to get tweaky as hell I'm going to buy an SR-303 and mod the shit out of it. Won't happen in 2010, though.

[spritzer]

The difference between a SR-404 and the LE is so big that I'm sure tweaked drivers come into play. The LNS drivers are all but identical to the SR-404 yet they sound nothing like each other.

[Bidoux]

Hello everyone,

I bough a SR-34 stax headset and energizer. Is it possible to use a dynalo without heatsink on output transistors and 18 W transfo to drive the energizer or is it a really bad idea ? Sheer audio said the HA-006 + can be used as power amp...

Thanks for any answer.

[Beefy]

Is it possible to use a dynalo without heatsink on output transistors and 18 W transfo to drive the energizer or is it a really bad idea ?

I would guess that is a bad idea, assuming the SR-34 box has a low input impedance - but I can't find this info in a quick Google.

I used an M3 for a short while to drive a Stax box, and it works well enough, but pushes a LOT of current into the low impedance. The big heatsinks on the M3 get rather warm.

[Bidoux]

I would guess that is a bad idea, assuming the SR-34 box has a low input impedance - but I can't find this info in a quick Google.

I think it is around 8 ohm. Thanks for the advice Beefy, I'll wait until the ExStata.

[Elephas]

Hi everybody, it's 2010!

Still discussing Stax stuff, I see.

[spritzer]

Naturally, 2010 is the year of Stax.

[Hopstretch]

Stax today. Stax tomorrow. Stax forever.

[spritzer]

Well that and the 50th anniversary of the earspeaker. Plans are already in motion to celebrate it...

[mypasswordis]

Hell yeah, it's time to

STAX IT UP!

[Bidoux]

I think it is more like:

Stax Up !

[Dusty Chalk]

Well that and the 50th anniversary of the earspeaker. Plans are already in motion to celebrate it...

Earspeaker shaped cake?

[spritzer]

Not a bad idea but no, it's a new amp/preamp design to celebrate the SRA-6S, the first high end Stax amp. I'm working on a prototype with tubes you've never seen before and are very cheap in a circuit similar to a mini WES or a balanced HEV90. Nothing is set in stone yet but the plan is to have the PCB's available and if I can get somebody locally to make me a chassis, build a few amps including one that I'd send as a gift to Stax.

The main problem I have is the tubes are very hard to work with (i.e. I need to compile some of the data myself) and I really need a clone to get all these projects done.