The Headcase Stax thread

[luvdunhill]

It seems to sound better. That is all there is to follow

[mwl168]

What do you all think of Charles Hansen's (of the Ayre fame) article below about PCM vs DSD? I am a big fan of his early Avalon speakers so tend to pay attention to what he has to say...

 http://www.ayre.com/insights_dsdvspcm.htm 

[Dusty Chalk]

1 hour ago, luvdunhill said:

It seems to sound better. That is all there is to follow

I kind of hate sweeping statements like that.  I mean, we're just conjecturing here, what's the harm in that?

Sounds a little too much like, "just listen to the sweet, beautiful music".

[MLA]

5 hours ago, mwl168 said:

What do you all think of Charles Hansen's (of the Ayre fame) article below about PCM vs DSD? I am a big fan of his early Avalon speakers so tend to pay attention to what he has to say...

 http://www.ayre.com/insights_dsdvspcm.htm 

Nice link!

I would agree DSD does make less sense for recording and/or storage, and that it's probably in playback there may be differences (i.e. what Kevin said earlier about easier, phase preserving filter implementation for DSD). Jussi Laako who is the guy programming HQplayer says this in the manual:

"Some of the more affordable sound cards and D/A converters have suboptimal digital and analogue filters, while still having support for higher sampling rates. Effects of this can be reduced by applying high quality upsampling in software before feeding the signal to the audio hardware at a higher rate. This moves some of the artifacts of the suboptimal hardware to higher frequencies, away from the audible band".

"Most modern D/A converters are of the delta-sigma type. Built in delta-sigma modulator of HQ-player allows using DSD-capable converters with this native data format, in many cases bypassing a lot of DSP processing in these converters and allowing a more direct data path to the conversion stage".

Since I hear a difference, I guess my hardware just is not up to standard  

[Craig Sawyers]

Ayre are a very interesting company. Their preamps in particular sound glorious, and are works of art internally (the KX-R). Can't afford one, but that is a different story.....

[wfojas]

This fellow struck again yesterday . He was selling an SME V tonearm.  Before he did that though, I saw he had no feedback at all.

Oddly enough, the numerous  bank accounts still has his real name. This person was previously reported in this post in this thread. 

https://www.head-case.org/forums/topic/786-the-headcase-stax-thread/?page=431

 

He tried to sell it to me, I am in the USA, he in the UK. I did a lookup on his name and his address and it showed up here in head-case.org. As thanks, I wanted to propagate the information, as it does show up in searches.

 

Hi Bob,

I did. Just tying up all the threads.  Is this you?

 

https://www.head-case.org/forums/topic/786-the-headcase-stax-thread/?page=431

 

 

Hi willy, 

Well if you are sure it's ok.  

I saw the word PayPal, and wasn't sure if it would work for me because I don't use PayPal.

 

In which case, the details you need are

 

Sort code 20-25-36

Account number.  805711792

 

Regards 

Rob

The info you need is as follows

- IBAN account no.:  GB67BARC20253680571172

- name of account owner: Vingel patanao & ROBERT WOODHOUSE

Vingel is my wife, and she is the lead name on the account. If only one name is required then please use vingels name

- bank name: BARCLAYS BANK

- bank address:

Market Cross , 

Stratford-Upon-Avon , 

Warwickshire

CV37 6AP 

UNITED KINGDOM

- bank identify code (SWIFT):  BARCGB22

 

My home address

 

Cotswold view

Four pools

Worcestershire

Wr11 4tj

United Kingdom 

 

If you need any other information just let me know. Feel free to call me any time.

And if you would let me know what value you would like me to declare on the customs form that would be helpful. The full UK retail price of the tone arm is £2350.  To declare this amount would give you full cover, but the import costs would be very high I guess.

Anyway if you could advise me of your wishes then I can fill out the decoration accordingly.

Regards

Bob

On Tue, Dec 13, 2016 at 12:30 AM, [email protected] <[email protected]> wrote:

Hi willy

 

Please could you drop me an email ASAP and let me know what your intentions are now. 

If you no longer want the arm then just let me know so I can readvertise it.

My previous email gave options for shipping but I haven't heard back from you.

 

Look forward to hearing from you

Regards

Bob

Sent from my iPad

On 12 Dec 2016, at 16:36, Willy Fojas <[email protected]> wrote:
Hi willy

 

I've just calculated the shipping cost using Parcelforce website This is part of Royal mail. For a small parcel they are very reliable and the least expensive.

I've got a figure of £61.90 gb pounds for insured shipping using their global priority service

I don't have PayPal , but if you have a friend or relative over here in the UK I'm willing to go and meet them if they're not too far away from my home

Or I can forward you all of my banking details.

Anyway, feel free to give me a call and have a chat. My number is 0044 7729369942

 

One thing we need to decide on is the declared value that I put on the customs label. Obviously I don't want you to get hit with too much, if any,  import duty and tax.  So we can figure that one out between us.

 

Look forward to hearing for you

Regards

Bob

 

[Dusty Chalk]

15 minutes ago, wfojas said:

This fellow struck again yesterday . 

A bit more context wouldn't hurt.  Don't just assume everyone knows what you're talking about.  Even a link back to a previous post would help.

[Craig Sawyers]

I read that three times and still don't have the foggiest clue what it is all about.

[mypasswordis]

It also took me awhile to dechiper but if you click that link to page 431, you'll figure it out as well. Willy was about to be scammed by "Bob" but googled him and found this thread.

 

How is this guy not incarcerated already, when everyone knows his name, wife's name, phone number, address, passport, and bank info? No doubt most or all of these are fake except whatever burner phone he's using, but still. A lot of his info still matches the info from page 431.

[Craig Sawyers]

Got it. He looks like a real piece of work that needs to be taken down.

Where he allegedly lives is about 70 minutes drive from where I am. If anyone knows where and if he is auctioning something, I'll contact him and ask if I can drop in to inspect the goods 

[Dusty Chalk]

Sorry, missed the link, thanks.

And yeah, how is this guy not incarcerated?

[DefQon]

On 14/12/2016 at 10:33 AM, Craig Sawyers said:

Got it. He looks like a real piece of work that needs to be taken down.

Where he allegedly lives is about 70 minutes drive from where I am. If anyone knows where and if he is auctioning something, I'll contact him and ask if I can drop in to inspect the goods 

The pos' address:

Cotswold view

Four pools

Worcestershire

England 

United Kingdom 

 

 

Not my screenshot but yeah

 

 

Edited December 14, 2016 by DefQon

[Craig Sawyers]

Well isn't that interesting. Kingsbury is in London.

Four Pools (Lane) is in Evesham, and has post code WR11 1DJ (not WR11 4TJ - but note the close similarity). And Four Pools Lane is a road through a trading estate with no houses.

WR11 4TJ is a tiny isolated development of about 100 houses about 2 miles North of Evesham in which the road names are Byrd Row, St Egwins Close, Heathfield Road, Kings Lane and Lloyd Close. No Four Pools there at all.

So it is anyone's guess where precisely he is, or even what his name is - I've seen various versions even from the Head Case threads. The only other slightly obscure reference I found is that someone with the same name on his (perhaps photoshopped) passport was registered as an absentee voter in elections in the Philippines.

I noticed that his 100% positive feedback on eBay from 76 sales are not possible to see - he has set his eBay account to be private. So the 76 sales could be all shill bid and entirely fictitious.

[Pars]

FME, only cunts(tm) have their auctions private on ebay. Usually for shitty reasons such as the POS, to obscure their activity.

[Craig Sawyers]

Just been looking at the image of the guy's passport. It is definitely fake, as compared with my expired passport from the same generation as that one. If you look just under the "f" of "of"  (as in United Kingdom of...)you will see a small typed letter "P". That is in the same font and size as the lettering on the rest of the passport.

You can see that the lettering in his fake is much, much larger and the wrong font. Also it is cropped and missing the bottom 20%.  So the whole passport image is a complete fake.

The utility bill is also a fake. As noted above the address is a fake. The bottom of the page is cropped (the bit where the bank sort code is for direct debit payment). And the last time a utility bill looked like that was more than a decade ago. And even then it did not look like that - they had by law to state the dates for which the bill related.

This, from the British Gas website is what a real bill looks like https://www.britishgas.co.uk/youraccount/discover/your-bill/understanding-your-bill.html . Note that there are four pages with an astonishing level of detail.

One potential route to tackling this POS scammer is for those who have been ripped off to contact BBC's programme Watchdog. They regularly track down people like that, confront them on the doorstep, and involve the police. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006mg74 .

And the Police will take this very seriously. Obtaining money by fraud is a crime, and they will prosecute, particularly as this goon is a serial offender. In fact they could probably do him for money laundering too.

I feel very strongly about this clown - he is the worst of our country, preying on overseas customers who he can feel confident won't or can't track him down. Let's prove the bastard wrong.

Edited December 15, 2016 by Craig Sawyers

[Craig Sawyers]

Ran a check on the IBAN code ( GB67BARC20253680571172). It turns out to be a valid code, and refers to the bank account he quotes 805711792, so that checks out. Except the bank that this account is held at is Barclays in Leicester (LE87 2BB)! Now the sort code he quotes 20-25-36, which cross validates with his account number and leads back to an account at the Barclays Leicester LE87 2BB branch.

So - Coventry is a scam - the account is actually in Leicester; the IBAN, account number and sort code all lead there.

By the way, the SWIFT code he quotes is incomplete. BARCGB22 simply says it is Barclays. There should be an additional three digits that identify the branch - but I guess that he did not want to make it too easy to find out where his account was.

[mypasswordis]

Wow, really nice sleuthing. Maybe if you submit all the info you accumulated to Watchdog or the police in Leicester, they can do something. He'd be a pretty bad crook if his info was real, but the account number is the one thing that has to be right. He says the account is under his "wife" Vingel Patanao, so maybe that's something they can use to locate him as well.

I noticed the subtle bit of trolling he did with his "name" in the emails as well. He signs off as Bob through all of them, until he uses Rob in the last one.

[spritzer]

Got this gem today... I mean we all know the cable makers are idiots but this is just priceless:

Quote

Hi Spritzer,

 

Sorry to bug you but I figure you know just about the most on this topic.  I have a good friend who has way more money than sense and wants me to take apart his SR-009 and remove the stock cable, replacing it with an OCC silver cable (probably two 3-conductor braids going to the 5 pin pro plug).  The wire would be finely stranded 19awg OCC silver litz with PE insulation.  I’m not an electrical engineer nor do I have any experience with Stax, but I understand how they’re assembled from photos that I studied (ants in my Stax thread) and I have the best tools money can buy and am used to recabling headphones.  Every time this idea is brought up on forums it’s strongly discouraged, but this guy could afford to have me blow up 10 pairs of SR009, so we just want to figure out if this is doable regardless of risk.  

 

Our questions:

 

1) Will something bad happen soldering/desoldering the SR009’s cable

2 ) Is there something about a PE-insulated or Litz cable with reasonable insulation that would make it unsuitable

3 ) Is it so precisely assembled that it’s much harder to put back together safely than a normal headphone 

4 ) Does it absolutely need to be parallel or is that just because you have to manage 3 wires and don’t want to braid them

we’re at least not doing this blind as I’ve downloaded all the pix of the disassembly

last one

5) Is the cable permanently attached/molded into the plastic strain relief assembly that attaches near the driver

With a yes to #5, we would try to salvage and bore out the assembly a little so it’s usable but the stock cable is gone from it.  New cable would be crimped or cable tied in place.  

6) Anything else major that we’re overlooking

 

I appreciate your advice, if you ever need any parts or wires for a project I distribute Eidolic connectors and am happy to help out with any cable related needs.

 

Sincerely,

 

Peter Bradstock

Owner, Double Helix Cables

 

Edited December 15, 2016 by spritzer

[kevin gilmore]

well this guy clearly has no clue, and does not understand capacitance. or the voltage ratings on the wire.

and i'm not going to sell him any 5 pin stax plugs

reminds me of the idiot that made a krell ksa5 power cable filled with magic pixie dust and managed to get the wiring wrong and did a number on that amp.

[Sechtdamon]

On 13.12.2016 at 5:13 AM, Pars said:

thought that most preferred the sound of PCM to DSD?

You are not alone my good sir. I prefer 44.1/16 PCM but the things Dr. Gilmore told are quite interesting. I'd like to try the ideas when i got a capable dac.

 

1 hour ago, spritzer said:

Hi Spritzer,

 

 

 

Sorry to bug you but I figure you know just about the most on this topic.  I have a good friend who has way more money than sense and wants me to take apart his SR-009 and remove the stock cable, replacing it with an OCC silver cable (probably two 3-conductor braids going to the 5 pin pro plug).  The wire would be finely stranded 19awg OCC silver litz with PE insulation.  I’m not an electrical engineer nor do I have any experience with Stax, but I understand how they’re assembled from photos that I studied (ants in my Stax thread) and I have the best tools money can buy and am used to recabling headphones.  Every time this idea is brought up on forums it’s strongly discouraged, but this guy could afford to have me blow up 10 pairs of SR009, so we just want to figure out if this is doable regardless of risk.  

 

 

 

Our questions:

 

 

 

1) Will something bad happen soldering/desoldering the SR009’s cable

 

2 ) Is there something about a PE-insulated or Litz cable with reasonable insulation that would make it unsuitable

 

3 ) Is it so precisely assembled that it’s much harder to put back together safely than a normal headphone 

 

4 ) Does it absolutely need to be parallel or is that just because you have to manage 3 wires and don’t want to braid them

 

we’re at least not doing this blind as I’ve downloaded all the pix of the disassembly

 

last one

 

5) Is the cable permanently attached/molded into the plastic strain relief assembly that attaches near the driver

 

With a yes to #5, we would try to salvage and bore out the assembly a little so it’s usable but the stock cable is gone from it.  New cable would be crimped or cable tied in place.  

 

6) Anything else major that we’re overlooking

 

 

 

I appreciate your advice, if you ever need any parts or wires for a project I distribute Eidolic connectors and am happy to help out with any cable related needs.

 

 

 

Sincerely,

 

 

 

Peter Bradstock

 

Owner, Double Helix Cables

Did you even answer to him, Birgir?

Why the fuck he wants especially LITZ silver for 009? Why the fuck he even wants recable them? Too many stupid questions have been inserted my brain, I doubt if I can sleep now.

Edited December 15, 2016 by Sechtdamon

[spritzer]

If I'll answer it will be something along the lines of that cat pic and "buy a clue".  I loved the part of "affording to blow up ten 009's" as if that was some mark of greatness.  Also, all electrostatics post 1985 use ribbon cables...maybe that is a clue? 

[mypasswordis]

Time to attach the output transistors to the headphone housing like HE1?  

[Sechtdamon]

"I’m not an electrical engineer nor do I have any experience with Stax, but I understand how they’re assembled from photos that I studied (ants in my Stax thread) and I have the best tools money can buy and am used to recabling headphones."

This is the best part of the story for me. according to his way of thinking, anyone read the whole stax thread on HC should be capable of making their own Electrostatic headphones, amps, dacs, maybe some pastry, things made of wood, granite...

 

I feel bad now, cuz I've read whole thread but I can't even rewire my own electrostatic headphone. Am I just stupid Sirs?

[arnaud]

Clearly, the best action plan here is for birgir to do his best and help this fellow actually burn through 10 pairs of sr009.

When you see 2kUSD cables popping for 4kUSD utopia phones and takers, that will be a nice change as the cable work here should be cheaper than 10 pairs of drivers, a good deal.

 

 

 

[Tinkerer]

13 minutes ago, Sechtdamon said:

"I’m not an electrical engineer nor do I have any experience with Stax, but I understand how they’re assembled from photos that I studied (ants in my Stax thread) and I have the best tools money can buy and am used to recabling headphones."

This is the best part of the story for me. according to his way of thinking, anyone read the whole stax thread on HC should be capable of making their own Electrostatic headphones, amps, dacs, maybe some pastry, things made of wood, granite...

 

I feel bad now, cuz I've read whole thread but I can't even rewire my own electrostatic headphone. Am I just stupid Sirs?

 

I rewired my 007 MK I. Like most things, you just have to not be scared of it and have steady hands. It was more of a pain in the butt to find a place that had a spare cable in stock and figure out how to disassemble them without instructions than the actual recabling. It's just 3 small gauge wires soldered to 3 small soldering pads on each driver. The only trick is to do it quick, because if you sit there and pump a lot of heat into a thin polymer diaphragm, that can end badly.

 

In other news, I had one of those days where I got both a good surprise and a disappointment at the same time. Got my T1W in and opened it up. Somebody went through the trouble to replace all the main power caps and the tubes the last few years. You could tell both by how good they looked and how the main board was squeaky clean while the pot and input boards had the appropriate 20+ years of dust on them. So once I changed the voltage to 117 local, I fired it up and it works perfectly. Balance and offset could be better, but within acceptable specs. I don't know how much of that is the tubes wearing or if they adjusted it at all. The pots seem to be in the default position. Will get it tweaked right in short order. So much for it being listed as "junk".

 

Not sure if I even want to build the solid state tube replacements at this point. Probably should just to see how different it sounds since I have almost all the parts anyway. Just waiting on those sinks.