The Headcase Stax thread

[Whitigir]

lol, @spritzer ! I just had a crazy thought.  How about Sr009 drivers in 009S aluminum housing ?

Edited July 28, 2018 by Whitigir

[spritzer]

Yeahhh I'm not going that far.  One thing that I might do, a custom housing to make it less of a shell and more an integral part of the phones.  Way too much other stuff to do though...

[Audiojunkie]

On 7/27/2018 at 7:54 PM, spritzer said:

Too funny....

As for the 009's, this is very much still a common thing and Stax have never admitted to the issue.  I know of one set which was sent back three times for new drivers and last I heard, they still work but it is a pretty staggering failure rate. 

Yikes!

[spritzer]

What is worse though is the damage suffered to the drivers while they were installing them.  Visible finger marks in the dust covers...  yeah not good. 

[JimL]

4 hours ago, spritzer said:

What is worse though is the damage suffered to the drivers while they were installing them.  Visible finger marks in the dust covers...  yeah not good. 

Weird. I was under the impression that they were assembled in a clean room, which means masks, gloves, etc. and so no finger marks. Or maybe that's just assembling the raw drivers?

Edited July 29, 2018 by JimL

[eggil]

My 009S doesn't have a serial number. It says SAMPLE instead.

Any idea of why?

Bought it new from Justin. 

[spritzer]

39 minutes ago, JimL said:

Weird. I was under the impression that they were assembled in a clean room, which means masks, gloves, etc. and so no finger marks. Or maybe that's just assembling the raw drivers?

The drivers are assembled there but all the testing etc. after that is just done out in the open. 

14 minutes ago, eggil said:

My 009S doesn't have a serial number. It says SAMPLE instead.

Any idea of why?

Bought it new from Justin. 

 

Talk to Justin as this happened to another set which he also sold.  Not sure what is going on with that... 

The serial number on the 009S is underneath the left arc so no sticker there? 

[eggil]

Oops. It is there: SX9-1025.

I am used to see the serial number where the "SAMPLE" tag is though. Strange.

[justin]

I think what happened here is that "SAMPLE" is referring to the piece of plastic which is the headband arc. Likely from the first batch of headbands made which ended up being the final version, and STAX forgot to remove it from a few headbands

Edited July 29, 2018 by justin

[spritzer]

That is very plausible but does make one wonder about the QC... 

[Kattefjaes]

On 7/18/2018 at 1:33 AM, Audiojunkie said:

That's how I felt about the Sonoma stat headphones. Except they also had too much treble too.  

At least you could hear them. I heard them at a show hall a couple of years ago, and they didn't have enough gain to let me hear much over the gentle background hubub- a little bit of mid, and that was it.

I'm afraid that the salesman* demoing them are a little hurt by my refusal to effusively praise them, because I couldn't hear a bloody thing (and I am not someone who needs or even enjoys high volumes). I was probably also too obviously horrified with the mandatory DAC/DSP as well. I just ended up wondering why anyone would want such a thing, thanking him, and beating a hasty retreat.

 

 

*..and he was a salesman, I asked a couple of mildly technical questions, and he blanched visibly.

Edited July 30, 2018 by Kattefjaes

[wink]

.

Edited July 31, 2018 by wink

[Audiojunkie]

On 7/30/2018 at 8:30 AM, Kattefjaes said:

At least you could hear them. I heard them at a show hall a couple of years ago, and they didn't have enough gain to let me hear much over the gentle background hubub- a little bit of mid, and that was it.

I'm afraid that the salesman* demoing them are a little hurt by my refusal to effusively praise them, because I couldn't hear a bloody thing (and I am not someone who needs or even enjoys high volumes). I was probably also too obviously horrified with the mandatory DAC/DSP as well. I just ended up wondering why anyone would want such a thing, thanking him, and beating a hasty retreat.

 

 

*..and he was a salesman, I asked a couple of mildly technical questions, and he blanched visibly.

I had several days with them in house and all I kept thinking of was that 1980's Wendy's commercial: "where's the bass?"

The SR-007/009 blew them away! Not even close. $5k is ridiculous for them IMO.

[mdr30]

Anyone got a surplus 6-pin Amphenol plug or similar?

[spritzer]

I have plenty of the 5 pin plugs but no 6 pins. 

[bwck2000]

Have anyone seen an omega driver like this? I got this from someone who sended his omega to Japan for driver replacement. Unfortunately this driver I have developed imbalance ,but Ill do a recoating soon~

[spritzer]

Never seen anything like that....

[chinsettawong]

11 hours ago, bwck2000 said:

Have anyone seen an omega driver like this? I got this from someone who sended his omega to Japan for driver replacement. Unfortunately this driver I have developed imbalance ,but Ill do a recoating soon~

Take it apart and show us some inside pictures, please.

 

[bwck2000]

[chinsettawong]

Interesting.  I don't know how one can drill holes like that.

[bwck2000]

It is probably made by photo etching and soldering between the rectangle grid and the perforated electrode. To my surprise , the area of the perforated electrode under the rectangle grid has no holes and the whole surface is flat. The design and the build of the electrode is kind of like what 009 is doing and beyond what a diyer can do? Probably a prototype from stax.

I tried to ask the previous owner about the serial no. of her omega but I'm told that the staff from stax teared the label off from her pair ...........

[spritzer]

Very interesting and clearly prototypes or something like that.  Stax always photo etch the stators so this is normal but the strengthening bars on top are interesting. 

[Whitigir]

Wow, that is probably a lost unicorn in this universe.  Excellent! Thanks for the pictures!

[dh]

I have a clean Silver front panel and knob from my SRM-717 that I would like to trade for a panel/knob in Black. Or I will buy Black panel/knob outright. Anyone?

[Kattefjaes]

On 8/1/2018 at 8:56 PM, Audiojunkie said:

I had several days with them in house and all I kept thinking of was that 1980's Wendy's commercial: "where's the bass?"

The SR-007/009 blew them away! Not even close. $5k is ridiculous for them IMO.

I feel like some decent Lambdas and a sensible amp would kill them, even- without the massive downside of having to use their DAC. $5k is a lot to ask for something that compromised.