The Headcase Stax thread

[justin]

On 3/27/2019 at 9:52 AM, spritzer said:

So I guess blue is the new black? 

I broke down and got a 009BK... I know I'm weak but we all knew this would happen.  What's funny is that after 6 sets of 009's that have gone through here, these are a bit different.  They are still bright and the bass is mehhh but they are not as bright as my other set and the bass is improved.  Could be unit to unit variation but that's not the norm with Stax so I'm curios if they have updated the 009's a bit.  More listening to come... 

We (Peter) will have the SR-009BK at AXPONA in Chicago this weekend if anyone wants to check it out

Edited April 12, 2019 by justin

[tomtan]

Hi,

I've just bought a stax SR 007 mkI and a SRM007t second hand for rather cheap on yahoo auctions. I have 7 days to test it and get a refund if it doesn't work. What should I look out for? I'm really excited to finally get a stax but want to be sure it's not going to fail on me very soon after.

Thanks

[spritzer]

I don't think anything is going to fail but things to look out for, noise in the headphones with nothing playing, bad connection where the cable meets the earcups as that is a known failure spot on the early Mk1's and the condition of the earpads and the headpads as the earpads wear out and on the really early Mk1's the headpad disintegrates.   As for the amp, take the top off and look at the silver getters on the tubes, if they aren't nice and silver I'd swap out the tubes and if one is milky white...you need new tubes.  I would also blow all the dust out of the amp as it can short out the amp but that's about it. 

[tomtan]

Thanks spritzer! 

For the headpad and earpads, is there any place I can get new ones for cheap? I believe the mk2 and mk1 version would be the same?

If I need new tubes, where would I find them?

 

 

[Rossliew]

3 hours ago, tomtan said:

If I need new tubes, where would I find them?

 

 

Just get on ebay and search for the tube types you need. Or just Google and there should be sellers like tube depot and the likes who sell new and used tubes.

[spritzer]

Cheap and Stax parts don't go together.  The issue is more "can I even get that?" 

[Timb5881]

Well I pulled out my Stax SR-X Mk III today.  I tried doing a light hot air blow on the right speaker, and it seems to have helped balance it out.   Right now I am playing the MFSL Gold Disc of Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon and it is so far sounding very good.

[tomtan]

19 hours ago, spritzer said:

Cheap and Stax parts don't go together.  The issue is more "can I even get that?" 

Ok, indeed, saw that the earpads for the SR007 are sold out on stax' japanese site... Wonder if they restock often enough?

By the way, I read that the earpads on sale now are for the sr007 mk2 and are slightly thicker than the original pads, does that change the sound that much?

[spritzer]

I prefer the newer 007 pads and they last a lot longer than the old ones. 

[Laowei]

19 hours ago, tomtan said:

Ok, indeed, saw that the earpads for the SR007 are sold out on stax' japanese site... Wonder if they restock often enough?

By the way, I read that the earpads on sale now are for the sr007 mk2 and are slightly thicker than the original pads, does that change the sound that much?

FYI: Search on eBay for STAX EP-007.  Five Japanese vendors have pairs for sale there. 

[tomtan]

Thanks, I actually found some later on rakuten by doing a search on kakaku.com... Almost half price of ebay by directly buying in japan.

[ALSO]

New SR-L500MK2 & SR-L700MK2 w/detachable cables in a "high-class" matte black box.

 

SR-L500、L700後継機、SR-L500MK2、L700MK2を6月5日に発売いたします。Λシリーズでは初のケーブル着脱式になります！ 又、ケースホルダーがアルミに変更し、さらにSR-L700MK2はケース外観もマットブラックにし、より高級感を出しました。

 

 

Edited April 19, 2019 by ALSO

[spritzer]

That does look like a nice solution for a detachable cable but they did say somewhere it was the first time... ehhh no...  SR-Omega...

[garageboy]

Why, though? 

I rather they improve the yokes

[catscratch]

They did improve them. The original had straight yokes, the result of which was that the earcups couldn't swivel outwards enough and the clamping force was applied to the top of the earpad more than the bottom, causing comfort issues and bad seal.

It looks like the shape of the yokes is different on the new one, which should remedy this. Though it looks like it might also increase clamping force a bit, unless they enlarge the headband.

Either way, comfort issues, shitty bass, and a top end that was just a little bit too peaky are my main complaints with the L700. Seems like they're trying to address 2 out of 3 at least, and it should end up a better headphone.

... unless they find some new and innovative way to fuck it up. I wouldn't put it past them but I'm getting one either way.

[spritzer]

I will be getting a set as well.  The L700's have potential but this is modern Stax so fuckup is a 50/50 tossup...

[Rossliew]

4 hours ago, spritzer said:

I will be getting a set as well.  The L700's have potential...when sprinkled with Spritzer magic dust so fuckup becomes a non-issue  

 

[Mach3]

Removable cables... Bloody should have been the standardized 20+ years ago after the release of the SR-Omega.

It like buying a new cars with no ABS brakes.

[stax lover]

 

Greetings, how does stax 407 compare to stax 404 LE sound wise

Also is the stax 323s more powerful than 007Tii 

Any thoughts bout new stax amp D50 is that good to drive 007mk2, I know its not a carbon,  I seek to buy a carbon or a KGST soon, just trying to figure out which to buy, if in the future I will add 009S,  but in general how would those 3 amps rank ( 007TII, 323s, D50 )

Any mods for stax 407, like changing pads that improves it sound

I own stax 307 whose headband I destroyed the yokes parts of them, and now, and the pins of the black yokes/forks are stuck inside the earspeakers, I am trying to get them out, so now I am seeking a new headband or yokes or the forks what ever those black things are called that hold the earspeakers to the headband,

Also I own 407, L300LE and stax 007mk2 late 2017

Love them all, but 007 mk2 is my favorite even more so than my Hifiman he1000 SE

As for l300 LE I expected better and more bass I like it though, strangely I find the 407 has more bass than the L300LE

I do not mind looking into buying Hifiman Shari La JR or Me Speakers Voce, still reading more bout them to decide which is more suitable for me

 

[Scgorg]

So, I've been sitting here for a while with the SR-009S on my head and my thoughts are somewhat mixed...

I borrowed a friends SR-507 the past few weeks, so my ears have been "tuned" to that sound. Needless to say 009S is monumentally better than whatever the fuck they did there. Pads are a little uneven, the seam matches but the oval inside of the pad is tilted maybe 10-15 degrees different between the pads, odd. It sounds pretty nice and even all the way down to 100-ish hz, at which point the bass just drops like 5dB??? It extends well but no matter how bass heavy the music it just sounds like elevator music behind what is actually playing. When spritzer said bass suckout I expected this to be relative to the 007, but no, this is just plain bass light. Clearly a notch below even DF neutral...

So, I noticed the baker said he wanted to try different pads. Did it bear any fruits or is the bass unsalvagable? Worst case I'll just EQ it... I'm sure a better amp will help at least a little but my KGSSHV is out of comission for the time being And I don't think even a carbon would make up for the suckout, although I'm not one that hears very large difference between amps.

[garageboy]

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.com%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F273834429795

 

Good luck with that... $1500 for a blown kgss 

[spritzer]

On 5/7/2019 at 4:04 PM, Scgorg said:

So, I've been sitting here for a while with the SR-009S on my head and my thoughts are somewhat mixed...

I borrowed a friends SR-507 the past few weeks, so my ears have been "tuned" to that sound. Needless to say 009S is monumentally better than whatever the fuck they did there. Pads are a little uneven, the seam matches but the oval inside of the pad is tilted maybe 10-15 degrees different between the pads, odd. It sounds pretty nice and even all the way down to 100-ish hz, at which point the bass just drops like 5dB??? It extends well but no matter how bass heavy the music it just sounds like elevator music behind what is actually playing. When spritzer said bass suckout I expected this to be relative to the 007, but no, this is just plain bass light. Clearly a notch below even DF neutral...

So, I noticed the baker said he wanted to try different pads. Did it bear any fruits or is the bass unsalvagable? Worst case I'll just EQ it... I'm sure a better amp will help at least a little but my KGSSHV is out of comission for the time being And I don't think even a carbon would make up for the suckout, although I'm not one that hears very large difference between amps.

I never found any way to properly fix them.  Changing the pads made some minor changes but I just gave up and moved on. 

8 hours ago, garageboy said:

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.com%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F273834429795

 

Good luck with that... $1500 for a blown kgss 

It would be worth it for the Black Gates alone and easy enough to fix. 

[garageboy]

Huh, thats dirt under the 2sc3675s and not magic transistor dust? What would cause the diodes to blow to begin with. 

[justin]

Looks like the diodes and the power supply FETs, or at least one of them, is blown. And what you're seeing is probably 15 years worth of dirt. That alone could cause a failure, or something in the amp failed and caused the power supply to blow. This is a very very early KGSS, you can tell because the 1N914 diodes are crossed in the left channel due to a PCB error. That was fixed after the first run of boards. Also has cheap stepped attenuators from China (eBay) that were popular on Head-Fi at the time. This is probably from 2004

[spritzer]

Now time for something super rare... a balanced SRM-1 Mk2 PP.  I didn't think any of these existed as there was the ATR version for studio use which had a stepped attenuator and balanced inputs but in almost 20 years of searching...none have turned up.  Then I came across this one last year in Japan in pretty rough shape with tape all over it. 

I naturally over payed as usual but then again, how often does one find something like this:

So years ago I did this and nice to see Stax did the exact same mod as me.  Remove the 100R resistor to ground on the other side of the fet and put two resistors off the board in its place.  The amp also arrived with one channel dead, shorted transistors and  almost open resistors in the front end.  Now for the money shot...

This is clearly stock from Stax as all the screws match what they used at the time but one odd thing is that the markings are actually engraved into the back and not simply silk screened.