Laowei Posted February 19, 2017 Report Posted February 19, 2017 I'm pretty sure that riveting was done there simply to reduce assembly cost. The rivet is so damned small, it loses the mechanical integrity of the rivet bond when heated soldering the bias wire to it. Not enough to fully break contact and cause an obvious failure on manufacture. Could possibly cause intermittent problems after time and handling as folks have written about on the forums. All anecdotal on my part.
wink Posted February 20, 2017 Report Posted February 20, 2017 2 hours ago, spritzer said: I'm pretty sure that the loose bias contact is the reason for some of the imbalance issues. Not sure why they would use such a weak mechanical contact there.. Perhaps, they took a leaf out of "The Hifiman Method To Manufacture Cheap Flagship Headphones. Fifth Edition Version II ".
spritzer Posted February 20, 2017 Report Posted February 20, 2017 It's not that bad but they have probably replaced a lot of drivers over the years. Well that and headbands...that thing is just a pile of fail. 1
fat joey Posted February 20, 2017 Report Posted February 20, 2017 SR-009 suity amp http://www.phileweb.com/news/d-av/201702/18/40584.html No need to be anxious, DR KG. THe incoming STAX amp can't be as good as your KGSSHV CARBON
kevin gilmore Posted February 20, 2017 Report Posted February 20, 2017 i'm sure they can make a high quality amp. But they are subject to the same parts i use unless they find piles of obsolete parts. Kind of doubt they would do that at this point
spritzer Posted February 20, 2017 Report Posted February 20, 2017 I'm certain they can do a good amp but they are severely limited in terms of parts they can use, weight, power consumption and just how complex it can be. Well that and they are way too obsessed with using something "cool" and not ultimate performance. I doubt anybody thinks the 727 NO-NFB is a brilliant plan...
justin Posted February 20, 2017 Report Posted February 20, 2017 (edited) On 2/14/2017 at 5:02 PM, Laowei said: Finally received my replacement SR-009 cable from STAX Japan and their shipper A&M Enterprises. All looks good and will be soldering it in a few days. Talking via email with Douglas Ip of STAX, he mentioned that as of Jan 1, 2017 Yama Enterprises is no longer their STAX distributor/dealer here. Douglas is working now to establish a company and warehouse out of Dallas/Fort Worth Texas. Great news. We're getting set up as well. We were still sending in orders to Yamas and not receiving any response. Ended up visiting their office. Not sure if they knew or didn't know what was going on Birgir got an amp order due to this Edited February 20, 2017 by justin 2
Laowei Posted February 20, 2017 Report Posted February 20, 2017 1 hour ago, justin said: We're getting set up as well. We were still sending in orders to Yamas and not receiving any response. Ended up visiting their office. Not sure if they knew or didn't know what was going on Birgir got an amp order due to this Are you planning to just carry the main STAX product line, or will you also be including accessories and service/repairs too?
justin Posted February 20, 2017 Report Posted February 20, 2017 We've been selling the full product line for years, plus extension cables. We didn't have access to parts except maybe ear pads...but dealer cost was still more expensive than buying the pads from Japan, so it made no sense. I believe repairs might get sent back to Japan now 3
mypasswordis Posted February 21, 2017 Report Posted February 21, 2017 Do you know where/how we can buy parts, especially vintage parts, other than flying to Japan? Those pics of Stax factory tours show they have boxes of parts for pretty much every headphone they ever made.
spritzer Posted February 21, 2017 Report Posted February 21, 2017 We are shit out of luck on the old parts though I believe Stax has a lot of that stuff still in stock or it could be made in small quantities easily. I mean how hard would it be to make 300 normal bias Lambda cables which are 95% the same as the 207 cable? The problem with something like this is knowing the older models well enough to supply people with the stuff they need. The distributors fuck up the current lineup when it comes to parts so I have little hope for them knowing a Gamma cable from a SR-5N cable. I've toyed with the idea for so long to import Stax into Iceland but I doubt they would want their biggest critic anywhere near this. Still they could make a nice amount of money servicing the old units with minimal outlay... Ohh and thanks for that Justin. Did you ever get those 009's fixed after the NYC meet? I could take a look at them when I'm in the US next month... 2
wink Posted February 21, 2017 Report Posted February 21, 2017 Birgir meets Justin in the US. Justin: Here's the SR-009's you wanted to see that are awaiting repairs... Birgir: Seen 'em, not impressed. Birgir walks away........ 2
spritzer Posted February 21, 2017 Report Posted February 21, 2017 Smash with a hammer and hand him some 007's... 3
Craig Sawyers Posted February 21, 2017 Report Posted February 21, 2017 12 hours ago, spritzer said: I mean how hard would it be to make 300 normal bias Lambda cables which are 95% the same as the 207 cable? Yup. I'd pay money to purchase a normal bias Lambda extension cable.
mypasswordis Posted February 21, 2017 Report Posted February 21, 2017 (edited) If you just need an extension cable, there are still 6 pin to 5 pin vintage ones floating around. I used to have a few just because they came with the SRD7 boxes I bought, for whatever reason. They are not low capacitance so will change the sound a bit IIRC Would love to have normal bias cables to replace the cloth cables on the vintage stuff, and of course for the odd experiment/frankenphone. And some pro bias ones so I don't have to cut up an extension cable Edit: I also really need some vintage arc assemblies because those things are so fragile with the thin plastic. If anyone can point me to a person or place to buy some that'd be great Edited February 21, 2017 by mypasswordis
spritzer Posted February 21, 2017 Report Posted February 21, 2017 I have a few old arc's that have been salvaged from headphones which were too far gone but that's the only ones I know about. The cable issue is far worse though as they often see so much abuse. 2
Sherwood Posted February 21, 2017 Report Posted February 21, 2017 15 hours ago, spritzer said: I've toyed with the idea for so long to import Stax into Iceland but I doubt they would want their biggest critic anywhere near this. I doubt anyone not in their employ has made more money for Stax than you have. 1
wink Posted February 22, 2017 Report Posted February 22, 2017 Birgir is multi-talented...... he makes two kinds of dough.....
3x0 Posted February 22, 2017 Report Posted February 22, 2017 On 2/21/2017 at 6:47 AM, mypasswordis said: Edit: I also really need some vintage arc assemblies because those things are so fragile with the thin plastic. If anyone can point me to a person or place to buy some that'd be great I was looking for a number of old headband arcs back in November but turned up dry. FWIW broken arcs can actually be "welded" back together by manufacturing companies specializing in plastics. Won't look quite the same as the original but it seems fairly inexpensive to do and thus might make more sense than hunting down rare plastic headbands. The variation in analogous parts is also pretty interesting (and confounding). In my research I found an obscure headband screw that you'd think would be identical across the older Staxen is actually different between the Lambda, Sigma and Omega (nevermind weird production differences in the arcs themselves)...
spritzer Posted February 22, 2017 Report Posted February 22, 2017 The arc's are slightly different between different versions. So 1977 vs. 1982 etc. The Gamma arc's are also slightly different but will work for the Lambdas.
mypasswordis Posted February 24, 2017 Report Posted February 24, 2017 Another American made (sort of) electrostat, the Teledyne ph305. Most likely a Stax electret driver inside. No doubt the ph305 was made after Teledyne bought Acoustic Research in 1967, but not sure how much later. I really hope the stax electret drivers are the same size as SR3 drivers...
DefQon Posted February 24, 2017 Report Posted February 24, 2017 (edited) The Stax electret drivers are about 15mm smaller in diameter compared to the SR3 drivers. Edited February 24, 2017 by DefQon
mypasswordis Posted February 24, 2017 Report Posted February 24, 2017 Welp, I'll figure out what to do with them when I open them up.... They look almost identical to these http://www.head-fi.org/t/355709/k-mart-electrostatic-headphones K Mart needs to start selling electrostatic headphones again, it will definitely save them from bankruptcy 2
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