The Headcase Stax thread

[chinsettawong]

Glad to hear that everything is back to order now.

About your question, personally I do not think that it's a good idea to keep the amp on all the time. Yes, it will take a little while for the headphones and the amp to be at their best condition. I would say 20-30 minutes of warming up is enough.

Wachara C.

[edstrelow]

After all, it looks like the amp simply activated the headphone protection circuit and I did not power it off long enough yesterday night to reset it. It's all working just fine tonight!

Does any know if turning off and on the amp with the headphones plugged and volume near maxed out would make it go into protection mode?

Furthermore, in case my daughter manages again to sneak into the room, would it be better to turn the amp on / off daily and unplug the phones everytime? i.e. in case it's the scenario above, is that really bad for the headphone and / or the amp?

I always keep the amp on and the phone plugged because I thought I read somewhere it takes quite some time to fully polarize the membrane and make it run optimally... If this is just unfounded audiophiliac paranoia, then I surely can do with the power off and unplugging when not in use...

cheers,

arnaud

I accept that these types of equipment need to warm up but I don't like the sound of the amp when it has been sitting on for a long time. The sound seems to get thin, lacking in bass and have some slight rise in background noise. I prefer to short period of sitting, say 30 minutes and then a minute or so of playing louder than I would be listening.

[deepak]

I accept that these types of equipment need to warm up but I don't like the sound of the amp when it has been sitting on for a long time. The sound seems to get thin, lacking in bass and have some slight rise in background noise. I prefer to short period of sitting, say 30 minutes and then a minute or so of playing louder than I would be listening.

wat

[Voltron]

I accept that these types of equipment need to warm up but I don't like the sound of the amp when it has been sitting on for a long time. The sound seems to get thin, lacking in bass and have some slight rise in background noise. I prefer to short period of sitting, say 30 minutes and then a minute or so of playing louder than I would be listening.

[Driftwood]

Could that behavior not be explained by the amp not getting proper ventilation/overheating and the operating outside the design specs?

I think if you want to leave an amp on for a prolonged period of time, you would want to make sure it is properly ventilated.

[mypasswordis]

I accept that these types of equipment need to warm up but I don't like the sound of the amp when it has been sitting on for a long time. The sound seems to get thin, lacking in bass and have some slight rise in background noise. I prefer to short period of sitting, say 30 minutes and then a minute or so of playing louder than I would be listening.

Is this before or after you put the ERS paper on the cables and put up the hello kitty drapes for room acoustics?

[livewire]

I accept that these types of equipment need to warm up but I don't like the sound of the amp when it has been sitting on for a long time. The sound seems to get thin, lacking in bass and have some slight rise in background noise. I prefer to short period of sitting, say 30 minutes and then a minute or so of playing louder than I would be listening.

I dont know about the ERS paper treatment but I do prefer the Hello Kitty drapes!

At the risk of being heckled like poor Ed, I do notice the same thing with my Stax setup

when left on for prolonged periods. (although never any background noise whatsoever)

Good to know that I'm not the only "nutcase" around here.

[livewire]

And overheating isnt an issue. All is well ventilated and runs cool.

[spritzer]

Overheating isn't the issue here but rather the DC offset rising too much. That is naturally tied to the temperature of the amp but the wall voltage is a much bigger factor.

[arnaud]

Thanks Birgir, that would explain then. The amp is on the top of the shelf with plenty of air to ventilate so heating does not seem like a reasonable reason at the moment. It's not particularly warm inside the flat either.

On the other , I wonder if the electricity supply has lost stability since the nuclear plants issue...

[spritzer]

Extra load on the system would cause the voltage to sag a bit so that could be the issue.

[spritzer]

Just came across this. See there were crazy Stax people here in Iceland when I was just 10 years old...

[spritzer]

Ok, here is a bit of a conundrum. I got a SR-007A last night and as expected it didn't fart and sounded sub par like all the other Mk2/A's I've tried. Now today came time to try it with the BHSE so I wanted to fix the fit to have it on a level playing ground with my old Mk1. Now the strange part, with a good fit they do fart a bit and the bass is almost as controlled as the Mk1... Now this is one of the first units made (SZ2-1040) so it's not a mk2.5 (SZ3-XXXX) which makes this all a bit odd.

[The Monkey]

Isn't it all kind of due to the fact that the mk2, even in its original iteration, is still a pretty damn good headphone?

[arnaud]

Ok, here is a bit of a conundrum. I got a SR-007A last night and as expected it didn't fart and sounded sub par like all the other Mk2/A's I've tried. Now today came time to try it with the BHSE so I wanted to fix the fit to have it on a level playing ground with my old Mk1. Now the strange part, with a good fit they do fart a bit and the bass is almost as controlled as the Mk1... Now this is one of the first units made (SZ2-1040) so it's not a mk2.5 (SZ3-XXXX) which makes this all a bit odd.

I believe I have one of the last mk2 series being in the SZ2-1600 range (purchased new in summer of 2010). I did your spring mod but did not go all the way with blocking of the ports. The bass does sound a bit uncontrolled at times through my stock 727A, yet it cleared gets better with ensuring a good fit (I must take off my glasses for instance to make the seal).

You'll say: so what, this is well known. But the interesting thing for me is that my way to know the fit is right is to systematically check that it makes some kind of farting sound when pushing against the ear cup toward my ear. It's a weak fart, nowhere near as obvious as I remember from mkI series, but really you can hear something going on. I've posted pics of my unit before and I believe you or someone here did see the ports.

[spritzer]

Have to tried to bend the arcs to get a better fit? A stock SR-007 will never fit me correctly and the same goes for most people, even those not cursed with "gigantic head syndrome"...

The ports are indeed still there on the SZ3 models as well but I guess Stax are using the pads to close them when the headphone is worn. Same thing as I'm hearing but since we have confirmation that the SZ3's are indeed a new version (supposed to have new drivers as well) the whole thing didn't work properly.

Isn't it all kind of due to the fact that the mk2, even in its original iteration, is still a pretty damn good headphone?

It's clearly one of the 4 best headphones in the world, there is no denying that fact. The whole problem was that the Mk1 is so astonishingly good that even the SR-Omega has serious flaws in comparison.

[The Monkey]

It's clearly one of the 4 best headphones in the world, there is no denying that fact. The whole problem was that the Mk1 is so astonishingly good that even the SR-Omega has serious flaws in comparison.

Well, I can't argue with you there.

[arnaud]

Have to tried to bend the arcs to get a better fit? A stock SR-007 will never fit me correctly and the same goes for most people, even those not cursed with "gigantic head syndrome"...

I forgot about this one, I guess I did not want to mess extensively with the headphone. I am guess I should then bend it so as to increase clamping force and ensure the seal? I do have a small head (I should add "physically speaking" else I might be quickly corrected by some here ).

The ports are indeed still there on the SZ3 models as well but I guess Stax are using the pads to close them when the headphone is worn. Same thing as I'm hearing but since we have confirmation that the SZ3's are indeed a new version (supposed to have new drivers as well) the whole thing didn't work properly.

Humm, I must have got myself one of the last sets for sales in Japan in the SZ2 series and I wasn't aware of so many changes in the "mk2.5" version (a new driver!?).

Anyhow, the way I see it, if I want to bring my stax experience to the next level, the next move is 349,000 yen away .

[spritzer]

The aim with bending the arcs is to make the headphone disappear really. Most of the time it presses a bit to hard somewhere around the ear so you need to give it some slack and/or adjust how the arc is, as in its height.

[padam]

Maybe the pads that make some difference as there was a revision there, now there is a "universal" replacement pad for the SR007/SR007A and in the past there were separate pads for the two. Of course it could be that they just renamed it but I think the leather used was a bit different.

[deepak]

Maybe the pads that make some difference as there was a revision there, now there is a "universal" replacement pad for the SR007/SR007A and in the past there were separate pads for the two. Of course it could be that they just renamed it but I think the leather used was a bit different.

Are the universal pads available in brown?

I am guessing the answer is no

[padam]

Which is exactly why I used " "

The point is, that I think that the old black MK2 replacement pad might not be the same as the new one which they put on the newer MK2 phones as well by default.

Edited May 1, 2011 by padam

[spritzer]

I have those universal pads (EP-007) on my Mk1 and they are identical to the ones on this SR-007A AFAIK.

Btw. I just got a SRM-727 to mod and holy hell the 007A/727 combo is bad. Two components with exaggerated bass response don't mix well...

[Tachikoma]

Out of interest, has anyone successfully repaired a pair of drivers with a serious level of channel imbalance? I'm wondering whether it'd be worth my while to try to restore my pair of hugely imbalanced gamma pro drivers.

[edstrelow]

Out of interest, has anyone successfully repaired a pair of drivers with a serious level of channel imbalance? I'm wondering whether it'd be worth my while to try to restore my pair of hugely imbalanced gamma pro drivers.

I would guess this depends on exactly what you propose to do by way of repairs. If the imbalance were due to something like the one stator contact being disconnected that would be a fairly easy fix. If the driver is seriously damaged, eg. holes in the driver membrane I don't think they are easy to rebuild.

I once split the driver unit of a Sigma so that one stator came off completely. I glued the driver unit back together and amazingly it was nearly ok, and nearly balanced compared to the good driver. However, gradually it deteriorated and I finally sent the whole set to Stax Japan, back when you could still comunicate with them. They rebuilt the set as a Sigma pro.

Re:007 headband. In order to get a good fit, I found myself bending the metal arc assembly a whole lot more than I initially felt comfortable doing in order to get a proper fit. But the whole structure seems very strong and well-made and can take a fair bit of manipulation.

Of course one can question the design decisions that made such a balky set-up in the first place. However, I do like the fact that the structure is very rigid, i.e. the drivers are tightly fitted to the fames which in turn are tightly fitted to the arc assembly. There is no wiggle in the system. I would guess that this might have some sonic benefits even though it resulted in a set-up which is hard to adjust for many people's heads.

The only residual problem I have with my 007A is that the top elastic is needing to be tightened again. This will make three such adjustments I have done.