The Headcase Stax thread

[Dusty Chalk]

9 hours ago, mypasswordis said:

K Mart needs to start selling electrostatic headphones again, it will definitely save them from bankruptcy

Lollers.  

Also:  K-Mart is in trouble?  Just selling cheap stuff ain't good enough any more?

[wink]

I thought that was Walmart...

[Dusty Chalk]

42 minutes ago, wink said:

I thought that was Walmart...

No, they sell stuff cheap.

[mypasswordis]

4 hours ago, Dusty Chalk said:

No, they sell stuff cheap.

 

Apparently they've been closing a bunch of stores every year for years, and just closed the very first K mart store. Sad

[DefQon]

On 2/25/2017 at 10:30 AM, mypasswordis said:

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

I actually posted driver pictures of my Numark ES-701 back in 2015 in this thread. All the Teledyne, Numark, Lafayette and Audiosonic are clones one way or another of the original Pioneer SE-100 electret headphones, the Kmart, Teledyne are just rebadge of the Numark ES-701's. 

Based on what I've read on Japanese websites, the drivers are designed by Elega (also known as Fujiki Electric), Elega were the very first to make full blown electret headphones before any of the later competitors (Stax and Audio Technica) came into the scene as far back as mid 1960's.

The drivers are an odd construction and the removal/re-assembly of the baffle and earpads is a PITA.

Pulled apart (destroyed) Stax electret driver from an SR-60 (SR-30 Japan domestic model).

 

 

[mypasswordis]

Cool, I always wanted to own a Pioneer SE100. Wonder why so many different companies sold them... seems kind of like Fostex/Foster do these days, OEMing drivers everywhere. Also strange that the drivers are from an entirely different company but use the same 6 pin Stax plug, albeit wired differently. What's the diameter of these drivers? I still want to do a swaparoo with some SR3 drivers if I'm going to put the Gamma Pro drivers in the SR3. They look potentially big enough to swap in your pics

[DefQon]

Just a bit smaller then the size of my palm. The SR3 drivers are small in comparison. I would pull the driver apart but since I did spend about $170 on this Numark which came in its original box, manuals and in like NOS condition I'm keeping it for collective purposes. Haven't been able to find another used one for cheap, prices have inflated a bit on ebay over the past 2-3 years.

I've always wanted to own the Pioneer SE-1000 with its matching adapter. Have never seen one come up for sale though.

Edited February 26, 2017 by DefQon

[mypasswordis]

That's why I never bother buying NOS headphones... first thing I do when I get them is open them up and see what makes them tick  and sometimes to fix them so that they tick like they're supposed to. Prices definitely keep going up, but you should be able to find one without an adapter/energizer for cheap, and just rewire them for Stax. Do you actually know anyone who owns a SE1000? Only pic I've seen is straight from Pioneer's website. 

The Pioneer SE100 was introduced in 1971 so if these are indeed all clones they probably came out a couple years later, so mid 1970s

[spritzer]

Yeah the SE-1000 would be awesome!!   

[Pars]

Speaking of older electrostats, anyone recall the Marantz ones from the '70s, ES1 or something like that? My brother and I used to have a set; he may still have them. Were these any good? I can't say I recall being impressed with them.

[DefQon]

1 hour ago, mypasswordis said:

That's why I never bother buying NOS headphones... first thing I do when I get them is open them up and see what makes them tick  and sometimes to fix them so that they tick like they're supposed to. Prices definitely keep going up, but you should be able to find one without an adapter/energizer for cheap, and just rewire them for Stax. Do you actually know anyone who owns a SE1000? Only pic I've seen is straight from Pioneer's website. 

The Pioneer SE100 was introduced in 1971 so if these are indeed all clones they probably came out a couple years later, so mid 1970s

My Numark did have its original paper receipt and the date was early 1974, also it seems it was sold for about $59.95 back in 1973 based off this copy of an advertisement so the dates do sort of match:

 https://books.google.com.au/books?id=GgkEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA58&lpg=PA58&dq=numark+es-701+headphones&source=bl&ots=zGAGhTDWYQ&sig=kaOZzaC6nYyZX266P4HHIaHxs0Y&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjmzYLU7KzSAhVJwbwKHX5fCC0Q6AEIRTAJ#v=onepage&q=numark es-701 headphones&f=false

Have never seen any form of real life pictures of the SE-1000 just Pioneer ad pictures floating about online. The Napolex and Elega electrostatic headphones also are on my look out list. I missed out on a local ebay Elega CR-2074C last year which sold for $150'ish. Anything Elega and Napolex is extremely scarce and rare. The early Napolex units are possibly SR-3 - SR-5 clones drivers and baffle wise in construction but the design is slightly different. I have been on the hunt for the Toshiba electret which I've only seen Birgir own and posted pictures of here many moons ago. There is also the Technics EAH-80 that is quite interesting:

http://20cheaddatebase.web.fc2.com/TECHNICS/EAH-80.html

Elega

http://20cheaddatebase.web.fc2.com/elega/CR-1070C.html

http://20cheaddatebase.web.fc2.com/elega/CR-2072C.html

http://20cheaddatebase.web.fc2.com/elega/CR-2074C.html

Napolex

http://20cheaddatebase.web.fc2.com/napolex/ES-100.html

http://20cheaddatebase.web.fc2.com/napolex/EX-1.html

http://20cheaddatebase.web.fc2.com/napolex/NSA-3.html

There are possibly more other unique electret/electrostatic models floating about that never saw the light out of Japan as they are domestic models and its evident that most big Japanese brand manufacturers had some electret or electrostatic headphone in there product lineup. Designs and rebadged models can be traced to Elega, Stax, Pioneer and Audio Technica. Sony is about the only company that never did OEM copies of the former mentioned manufacturers, shame Sony today is not what it was back in the 1960-90's.

30 minutes ago, Pars said:

Speaking of older electrostats, anyone recall the Marantz ones from the '70s, ES1 or something like that? My brother and I used to have a set; he may still have them. Were these any good? I can't say I recall being impressed with them.

The SE-1S and its matching EE-1 adapter? Fairly average sounding I'd put them just a bit below the SR-3N in terms of fidelity (resolution, soundstage, treble, mids, highs and bass), the comfort is quite shit though as the headband clamps fairly tightly to your noggin' if you have a big head.

Edited February 26, 2017 by DefQon

[mypasswordis]

Best thing to do with the Marantz sound-wise is sell them and use that money to buy a Stax SR-5NB or Gamma or something. You could probably even get some Lambda variant if you wait patiently enough. If they have sentimental value, it is what it is.

Most of those Elegas/Napolexen look very similar to various Stax models. The NSA is clearly a SR-X clone. Those big, bulky cups in the early Elegas are probably taken from dynamic headphones they previously made. Superex made the same mistake and also corrected it in later models.

Edited February 26, 2017 by mypasswordis

[spritzer]

The Marantz is one of the worst OEM Stax sets.  The Magnavox was much better and naturally, they aren't Stax compatible.  Both the pinout and the diaphragm specs are incompatible... 

[mdr30]

On 26 februari 2017 at 1:00 PM, spritzer said:

The Marantz is one of the worst OEM Stax sets.  The Magnavox was much better and naturally, they aren't Stax compatible.  Both the pinout and the diaphragm specs are incompatible... 

I got the NAD20, are those the same drivers? Doesn't sound too bad but not good enough to spend too much time on.

Not Stax pinout.

What about the diaphragm specs?

[spritzer]

Never had one of those so I'm not sure. 

[DefQon]

I had the NAD Model 20E many moons ago, also had the similar looking ortho model as well.  It was pretty good sounding after a pad change (mine were flat), same connector as Stax normal bias offerings but not pin compatible. Never tried it on a Stax adapter to see if it is pin compatible. The adapter was similar in many ways to the SRD-5sb though, so I assume only the wiring to the drivers was possibly different.

[bwck2000]

http://www.erji.net/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=1977953#lastpost

Use google translate to read the post.

its about a guy making diy megatron having shitty layout , wiring and parts on its amp and several other accuses

I simply can't believe how he can make a diy es amp looks like this

and that megatron is sold for 19800rmb ......

[spritzer]

This idiot has been making shitty amps for years and keeps posting here.  I think it might be time to ban him from the site for good.  He's also been stealing from my site to advertise his shitty amps as if they are in some way comparable. 

Now lets start with the Megatron and only...what the actual fuck is enough for this.  I mean seriously, those caps carry a lot of voltage and are just PSU bypass caps so why the fuck use vcaps?  Only explanation is "i don't have a single clue as to what I'm doing".  All the terminal blocks are the shitty Chinese ones which are not safe, the board is covered in flux and those 2SA1968's look mighty suspect to me.  Also, hot glue and electrical tape scream high quality!! 

As for the KGST...holy fuck this is bad.  The CCS heatsinks are wrong so you will cook the fets in no time, all the wires are the same color (very SinglePower) which is all kinds of stupid and placing the volume control there has to be some of the dumbest shit I've ever seen.  The sheer lack of know how needed to think that this is a good idea...  wow... 

[DefQon]

What a waste of vcaps. What's the guys user handle here? I remember somebody with a similar name posting in the Megatron and old KGSSHV thread.

Edited March 2, 2017 by DefQon

[bwck2000]

The ID is the same in both sides

[mwl168]

I love the bit where a 2-gang volume pot is used for a balanced stereo amp...

[kevin gilmore]

well if you are craig, you wire a 2 gang pot as parallel shunt with 2 resistors because that is moar better.

unlikely this was wired that way.  also requires a reverse log pot.

[spritzer]

Indeed so here we are probably just talking about plain old dishonesty. 

[wink]

Which is far betterer than rotten slimey deceitful skullduggery and outright dishonesty.

These are the type that when asked to break a nine dollar note don't even blink an eye......  

Then pull out their wallet and exchange it for 3 three dollar notes......   

[Tachikoma]

So, I've recoated a formerly fubar'ed pair of SR-5 drivers with Staticide 6300, and it seems to have changed the sound of the drivers - in the GP frame (which I extracted an untouched pair of drivers from), it sounds a great deal less bright than the drivers that lived there previously.

I've already tried recoating these drivers with lesser antistatic solutions before, and the balance would never come out right. With Staticide however, it just "saturates" after 2-3 coats, and the balance just rights itself... within this data point, anyway.

Edited March 14, 2017 by Tachikoma