The Headcase Stax thread

[ojnihs]

Originally Posted by postjack

I've never gotten shocked, per se, but the other night while listening to some Lionel Richie on the Lambdas I did pee my pants and forget my name for about a half hour.

[spritzer]

Originally Posted by postjack

I've never gotten shocked, per se, but the other night while listening to some Lionel Richie on the Lambdas I did pee my pants and forget my name for about a half hour.

Thanks for the help Spritzer, I'll just enjoy the music and not worry about the grill.

Ehhhh ok... ... good for you...

The grill is painted so it should be a good conductor and they often oxidize with age so the conduct even less. I wouldn't worry too much but if you want to fix it I can help you.

[Smeggy]

Next set of Lambdas I get are going straight under the knife for a 45deg driver mod. Half way between Lambda and Sigma. Should be fun!

[spritzer]

Originally Posted by Smeggy

Next set of Lambdas I get are going straight under the knife for a 45deg driver mod. Half way between Lambda and Sigma. Should be fun!

That would be a cool project. I'm probably going to mod another one of my Sigmas and mount the drivers next to the ears and see what effect the then ported enclosure has on the sound.

[postjack]

Originally Posted by spritzer

I wouldn't worry too much but if you want to fix it I can help you.

Thanks for your offer spritzer, but as long as its not affecting the sound and I'm not electrocuting myself, I'm not going to worry about it.

In other Stax news, I finally ordered some speaker wire so I can hook up my SRD-7MK2. If the reader recalls, this is the modded model I bought a few weeks back with the stock speaker wire removed. It hooks up via the speaker outs on the back, which are now speaker ins. I've been using an SRD-7/Pro up until this point, which has two pro bias outs instead of one pro and one normal. Sounds great with my OII, but I've been missing my Lambda.

[Dusty Chalk]

Originally Posted by Smeggy

Next set of Lambdas I get are going straight under the knife for a 45deg driver mod. Half way between Lambda and Sigma. Should be fun!

The smegma?

[spritzer]

First off the disclaimer. This is live AC voltage you are working with so do this at your own risk. If you do not know what you are doing have somebody that does take a look at it. While I've tested the 240v version and it works fine this is posted without any responsibility on my part for any damage due to Stax changing the design at some point. This works with my two C-series SRM-1 Mk2's and my B-series SRM-T1. This is only intended for those amps that didn't ship with a voltage selector plug. If it did come with one... then use that then!


The picture above is how the rear of the socket should look like but Stax often changed them around to have the component only for one voltage. If it reads 100v (or 117v, 230v etc.) only on the back and there is no plug in the voltage selector socket odds are that the socket is wired differently. It needs to be changed to the above configuration or the amp can catch fire or worse.

Since there are two white wires I marked them on the picture, AC power in and from transformer. The AC power comes from the power switch and is in the upper row. It is connected to 3 pins while the other white wire is in the bottom row and only connected to one pin. That one is connected to the primary of the transformer. The only other pin that has more then one connection is the gray one. You can connect to any of the joined pins as they are all the same.

Here is the list. You need to put a jumper wire between different colors where the + sign is. There are always two different connection per voltage with either two or three different colors.

240v configuration

Gray + Purple
AC power in + Blue

220v configuration

AC power in +Green
Blue + Gray

117v configuration

Blue + Purple + AC power in
White + Green

100v configuration

AC power in + brown
Green + White

[deepak]

I've been listening to this setup for the last few hours. Can't comment too much since everything in the chain is new except for the cables



More impressions tomorrow when the jet lag wears off.

[postjack]

same setup i ran for a while, except an 840A in place of the Denon.

[ojnihs]

damn another da-500 in head-case

[deepak]

Originally Posted by ojnihs

damn another da-500 in head-case

[ojnihs]

man you are making me want stax even more now deepak. i've been hankering after the OII's for years but have never had the funds (or courage) to go after them

[deepak]

Originally Posted by ojnihs

man you are making me want stax even more now deepak. i've been hankering after the OII's for years but have never had the funds (or courage) to go after them

You can buy all the nice stuff you want when you're qualified. In med school I used an SR-60 and HD580 straight out of my laptop, ate a lot of noodles and Subway :P

[ojnihs]

Originally Posted by deepak

You can buy all the nice stuff you want when you're qualified. In med school I used an SR-60 and HD580 straight out of my laptop, ate a lot of noodles and Subway :P

subway, now that is a staple

[en480c4]

Originally Posted by deepak

I've been listening to this setup for the last few hours. Can't comment too much since everything in the chain is new except for the cables

More impressions tomorrow when the jet lag wears off.

I'll be curious to hear your thoughts on the DA-500. I've been very happy with it considering the price they go for (when you can find them).

[postjack]

Hey Stax Fans-

Last night I did some more bending of my OIIs headband, but this time it was some serious bending. As I've said countless times, I have a big head, and while the OII was comfy before, now that I've really bent them so I can get the cups way down over my ears, they are super comfy. I also now am appreciating the pads more in spritzer/duggeh style, with fat part of the pad behind and a bit below the ear, with the crease more on line with the eye. This creates a great seal and amazing bass. Listening to Sgt. Peppers on vinyl last night, I'd never heard such clear and full bass guitar before. Then I put on Downward Spiral and rocked my ass off. March of the Pigs was crazy insane chaos in my head, and the bass line in Closer was simply amazing.

Later, when I was listening to Meshuggah and Ministry, I realized why it is the OII does metal so well, despite its "laid back" sound signature. To borrow a line from Carville, "its the midrange, stupid!" It replicates the crunch of electric guitar better then any can I've heard. This same midrange magic does wonders for vocals of all kinds, which sound so beautiful they put me in a drooling stupor.

[postjack]

in other news, i see my last.fm sig updated. I hate it when it scrobbles songs and says they are from a greatest hits album.

[ojnihs]

Originally Posted by postjack

Later, when I was listening to Meshuggah and Ministry, I realized why it is the OII does metal so well, despite its "laid back" sound signature. To borrow a line from Carville, "its the midrange, stupid!" It replicates the crunch of electric guitar better then any can I've heard. This same midrange magic does wonders for vocals of all kinds, which sound so beautiful they put me in a drooling stupor.

damn you postjack, damn you

[deepak]

Originally Posted by en480c4

I'll be curious to hear your thoughts on the DA-500. I've been very happy with it considering the price they go for (when you can find them).

I don't have much of a benchmark to compare it to right now other than the E-MU0404usb. I don't have my North Star with me.

Originally Posted by postjack

Hey Stax Fans-

Last night I did some more bending of my OIIs headband, but this time it was some serious bending. As I've said countless times, I have a big head, and while the OII was comfy before, now that I've really bent them so I can get the cups way down over my ears, they are super comfy. I also now am appreciating the pads more in spritzer/duggeh style, with fat part of the pad behind and a bit below the ear, with the crease more on line with the eye. This creates a great seal and amazing bass. Listening to Sgt. Peppers on vinyl last night, I'd never heard such clear and full bass guitar before. Then I put on Downward Spiral and rocked my ass off. March of the Pigs was crazy insane chaos in my head, and the bass line in Closer was simply amazing.

Later, when I was listening to Meshuggah and Ministry, I realized why it is the OII does metal so well, despite its "laid back" sound signature. To borrow a line from Carville, "its the midrange, stupid!" It replicates the crunch of electric guitar better then any can I've heard. This same midrange magic does wonders for vocals of all kinds, which sound so beautiful they put me in a drooling stupor.

get on the Blue Hawaii gravy train man.

[deepak]

SR-Lambda

Fit and comfort:
Feel very light on the head probably because of the weight distribution. Very comfy, the pads are the only complaint after listening for a few hours (pleather?) The cloth headpad is an improvement from the sr-404's leather. Not much clamping, no problems if I'm wearing glasses.

Not to wax too poetically about these but to say I'm extremely impressed would be about right. They are very musical with an uncanny midrange- the midrange is the closest I've heard to the Grado HP-1000. Except more detailed and more "in the room" rather than in your head. Still they sound like a pair of circumaural Grados with their forward signature. They handle rock and jazz exceptionally well. They tend to get a bit homogenized with large scale classical. They handled everything from Metallica to Neil Young, Miles Davis, Robert Cray, Ravi Shankar, etc without breaking a sweat. Depth of soundstage isn't that great, but it still goes out there a little bit. The Stax can handle open mic (single mic) recordings like no other headphone. And one of my favorite parts- the bass impact is simply sweet as hell (Radiohead's 15 Steps sounds so good same with the mfsl of Dsotm, lots of PRaT).

The not so great parts are that they don't reach very low, low basslines and piano pieces sound light. I don't like them at very, very low background listening levels since the bass loses impact. But at lower to medium levels for active listening the bass impact is perfect. And they are a bit diffuse and hazy like the Senns. Still a bit of "bite" up top but no where near as bad as the SR-404, I prefer the darker SR-007. And it kinda sucks that if I want to use them for background music I have to be sitting next to a big power amp, but they'll still be replacing my HD580 and SR-325 theres just no contest.