The Headcase Stax thread

[JoaMat]

sun factor 15 will do

[spritzer]

UV and plastics are not friends so no sunlight would be the best option. 

[Whitigir]

Stax is officially the Dark Knight! Only remain and works better in the dark

[DaveLTX]

due to the rarity of stax sockets, has anyone tried to mill one out of teflon?

I have a mate with a CNC mill and i'm thinking if it's possible to use contacts from something else?

[kevin gilmore]

Justin and birgir sell stax sockets.

[DefQon]

Back from a long hiatus, any of you folks listened to the VOCE estat from mrspeakers? Calling in Kevin, Birgir 1.2...3..

[spritzer]

I need to get my own set at some point but impressions from those not affected by the hype are far from positive...

Speaking of the hype, I was at a bookstore yesterday and saw the "The Absolute Sound Hifi+: Ultimate Headphone Guide" and picked it up.  What a steaming pile of lies, misinformation and BS posing as reviews.  The Trilogy SPD H1 "review" is really something else with claims of "all point to point wiring is done with silver plated teflon wire"...sure but that reads like the amp is wired point to point when it's all on PCB's.  Also claims about the design are just precious... 

I haven't gone over the Shangri-la Jr., Voce, Sonoma and other reviews so I expect more of the same. 

[Rossliew]

A waste of money buying the mag? ?

[spritzer]

Yeah...should have read it there for free.   

[gaming_freak977]

Hey guys, recently joined the Stax world a few months ago with some L300LEs+Woo Audio Wee and Emotiva Basx-A100 to power the Wee. Just a couple of months into lightly using them the left side gave out and wouldn't play sound any longer. Needless to say I loved them right away and no other headphone sounds like them so I was a little annoyed.

I've got replacements on the way fortunately but my only concern is if maybe the Wee killed them? Am I right in suspecting it or did I just get unlucky with my pair?

Appreciate any feedback you guys have, thanks.

[spritzer]

They could have.  Crack open the WEE and take some pictures of the bias supply so we can know for sure. 

[gaming_freak977]

Here are some pics I snapped before leaving for work:

https://imgur.com/qIrvneF

https://imgur.com/dZLHAM7

https://imgur.com/fHpc18M

Wasn't sure what the bias supply looks like so tried to get everything. If you need better pics just let me know.

Thanks.

 

[Whitigir]

I just realized that I can’t chew on things when having Stax 009 On without my glasses...it farts and is annoying X_X....the first time ever that I appreciate wearing glasses 

someone needs to design a glasses wear for Stax Headphones !! For those who don’t have sight problems

Edited September 5, 2018 by Whitigir

[spritzer]

3 hours ago, gaming_freak977 said:

Here are some pics I snapped before leaving for work:

https://imgur.com/qIrvneF

https://imgur.com/dZLHAM7

https://imgur.com/fHpc18M

Wasn't sure what the bias supply looks like so tried to get everything. If you need better pics just let me know.

Thanks.

 

The bias supply is that gray box towards the front but what's in there...I'm not sure.  Sure looks like an off the shelf flyback transformer for CRT displays which they have used in the past and are 100% unsuitable for this role.  Can you take a picture of any marks on that box? 

[judo]

3 hours ago, Whitigir said:

 

No fart with glasses( I have too) they are not sealed.  Any differences in the sound you hear ?

[gaming_freak977]

2 hours ago, spritzer said:

The bias supply is that gray box towards the front but what's in there...I'm not sure.  Sure looks like an off the shelf flyback transformer for CRT displays which they have used in the past and are 100% unsuitable for this role.  Can you take a picture of any marks on that box? 

Took another look but can see no markings. Here are some additional pictures:

https://imgur.com/n2dHBUA

https://imgur.com/mJakadw

https://imgur.com/95Vbntm

https://imgur.com/kBE4jfE

If there are any markings I think they'd either be on the back or the bottom of the supply and I'd rather not remove it if possible. Either way is it safe to say this isn't the best thing for preventing damage you think?

[spritzer]

If this is just some off the shelf crap flyback unit then there might be no markings at all.  They are 100% incompatible with this role and probably why the L300's died.  Now Woo might be rolling their own bias supply and potting it  but that makes no sense to me at these voltages. 

I did look through my collection of WEE picks and other units which caused problems have similar units in them.  No ballast resistors either but that's something which Woo doesn't give a shit about (and damages headphones).  I wouldn't continue to use this thing but do check under the can next to the power input and see what's in there. 

[kevin gilmore]

measure the bias wire from stax jack to stax jack.  Had better be 10 meg  (5M x 2). Anything else and the thing is not good for the headphones.

[Whitigir]

16 hours ago, judo said:

No fart with glasses( I have too) they are not sealed.  Any differences in the sound you hear ?

With small frame glasses, not much, but with larger frame, the subbass is stronger and bass overall shift toward sub and lower bass.  Tight sealing gives it a much more balanced and accurate bass.  I have not observed much on the mid to high spectrums, unless the ports are vastly huge, then it becomes muddy

[gaming_freak977]

4 hours ago, spritzer said:

If this is just some off the shelf crap flyback unit then there might be no markings at all.  They are 100% incompatible with this role and probably why the L300's died.  Now Woo might be rolling their own bias supply and potting it  but that makes no sense to me at these voltages. 

I did look through my collection of WEE picks and other units which caused problems have similar units in them.  No ballast resistors either but that's something which Woo doesn't give a shit about (and damages headphones).  I wouldn't continue to use this thing but do check under the can next to the power input and see what's in there. 

I think I'm just going to use something else. I've been looking at some of the Stax amps and think the 353x, srm-1/mk2 or 323 would work just fine. I assume at least Stax know what they're doing and don't build amps that blow up their own headphones?

On a side note...how is it that Woo Audio get away with this? It doesn't seem like a big difference from a cost stand point to design it a little safer. The Stax SRM-7 doesn't have this issue right? And that can be found for less than the cost of the Wee these days by quite a bit.

[spritzer]

The Stax stuff is perfectly safe but Woo just don't give a fuck.  They have been pulling crap like this for years but when you are a major sponsor of certain sites... you can have negative stuff removed.  Even their mega-buck amps are like this. 

[JimL]

Birgir is correct, it costs nothing extra to do it right.

[spritzer]

Might even be cheaper. 

[gaming_freak977]

5 hours ago, spritzer said:

The Stax stuff is perfectly safe but Woo just don't give a fuck.  They have been pulling crap like this for years but when you are a major sponsor of certain sites... you can have negative stuff removed.  Even their mega-buck amps are like this. 

That's very disappointing from such a big brand in the industry. Any thoughts on the Stax amps I listed? Is one better built than the others or will any of those do?

Appreciate your feedback.

[spritzer]

The Stax amps are perfectly fine.