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It's worth checking the transformer, but that seems like the less likely issue here. Transformer induced noise will generally either increase with volume (if it is being picked up on the input wires) or be constant with volume (if it being picked up past the pot). And you have pretty good distance here. The grounding, however, does not look very good. It is difficult to see exactly what is going on, but what you need is a single ground point that everything connects to directly. I usually put two terminals somewhere, such as in the middle of the case, spaced about an inch apart. Run a thick-ish piece of wire between them, and call that your star. Connect everything - the PCBs, the jacks, the RCAs, the pot, the PS, directly to it. For earth, connect the earth pin on the IEC to the case as close to the IEC as possible. If everything (jack, pot, RCA) is isolated from the case, then you can use a ground loop breaker to connect that point to your ground star, but if you are grounded correctly, it is probably not necessary, or useful. Instead, I'd just connect that point to your star ground, too.

When I first got into serious audio in the late 70s', I eventually narrowed my speaker choice to DQ-10s, Magneplanar (can't remember the model) and DCM Time Windows. After lots of auditioning, I finally settled on the Time Windows. Never regretted that decision.

My Hera with about a year in between. From: To: She likes well biased amps!

They look like Quad ESL57, but they are the wonderful and obsolete Dahlquist DM10. They need more room behind them though. In the way that only Germans can, they have remanufactured the ESL57 https://www.quad-musik.de/index.php/en/products/electrostatics/esl57-qa .

So I tried to do this a couple times, seriously, from beginning to end, but as time progressed and repetitions iterated, I started stopping doing less and less. Now my takeaways are -- because they seem to offer the most return for the least effort: Distilled water -- yes, especially in my area, where I don't even like the taste of the water "...none of the silty sludgy stuff at the bottom" -- not so much. The main reason I do French press is it provides a richer flavour experience. I used to drain the last few drops, but now I don't -- that's the entirety of what I get out of the bottom. Spoon off the floaters -- definitely. Just makes it easier to press, duh. Boiling water -- no, not so much. I believe this is to compensate for the longer wait, so I just don't. I believe there is an optimal temperature for most coffees to brew at -- or at least start brewing at -- so I prefer my coffee slightly too cool and brewed at the "right" temperature. If you think there is an optimal drinking temperature which is hotter than what you get at the end, just throw it in the microwave for a few seconds. I do sometimes do this, because I do believe there is. Freshly ground beans -- alright, you all sold me on that, I definitely grind my beans fresh every morning just before brewing. That said, there is no amount of correctly brewing coffee that will make coffee I don't like into coffee I do like. I tried. Didn't work.

A nearly 3 month old thread... you have your 1st post and you recommend something that was already recommended back in early December? Not a good start.

I've never seen anything off the shelf for sale but Vesper can make some for you: https://vesperaudio.com/earpads

Left to right: 404, L700 and 507 Sigma The one with 404 driver is more laid back and has more colouring while the 507 one has the best transparancy . But the L700 sigma is the best with a very full bodied mid bass and excellent 3D- imaging and soundstage I have never heard of in any other headphones. Love all three of them

It has been a few weeks since I have had time to sit down and listen to my system. Innuos mkii > YGGY > Mjolnir BHSE > 007 Most of my listening has been in my car or BT buds at work. The difference is startling. Makes me think of the republic (if my memory is accurate) where Plato describes people viewing the world via shadows VS the actual objects.

Man, that's some quality shit there Nice solder blob on the left side. Thinker: Excellent built. Cue up some Talking Heads - Burning Down The House...

ok, this scares the shit out of me. hennyo level of quality here. Second pic, the power supply in the upper right is an ebay high voltage switcher that's $7 I know its $7 because I bought some for the up and coming stax mafia portable, and its actually a pretty decent supply but can handle only about 5 watts of output power. You can see two more under the fan. Fan is required because those things get hot especially when you try to push them over 8 watts. And according to people at diyaudio that use them for tube preamps, the main diodes blow up at 10 watts. No way is this a kgsshv-carbon in terms of power. Barely 10% if that. Also limited to about 400v A pair of switchers on either side of the pot drive the HV supplies. So Switchers driving switchers. Not the most quiet of things. And the rest of it, yikes power supply pics here

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

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.

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

Is there a problem with plugging stats into a live amp or unplugging from a live amp, as opposed to plugging into & unplugging from an unpowered amp? I have made those mistakes a couple of times.

The dust cover is inside the driver shell.

@spritzer Interesting. I always hear 'fables' of the original Omega so I was quite curious. The 2.9 is the best Stax phone I have ever owned by a long shot. Is the midrange on the 2.9 more akin to the 007mk1 or the more tilted midrange of the mk2.5? Or are the mid ranges pretty much the same

Talking about the pads: Given the price for Stax earspeakers, I was shocked to learn that the pads are affixed using adhesive sheets. I expected something more “mechanical” than adhesion. One pad is already peeling away a little bit.

So I had the 009S for a bit but I went and got the modern 007A instead, wow.... Even though in its current state its underdriven (353X) It absolutely smokes every other Stax can I've heard or owned. Way better than the 009S and 009 and a meaningful step up from the L700. I just have to get a proper amp now (haha)

black-anodized CNC aluminium case, sheep skin with memory foam earpad, copper electrode with 25% more open area than typical stax models, carbon fiber skeleton on the electrode and plastic parts made of industrial grade 3D-printed nylon. The electrode design is similar to the omega driver I posted eariler in this thread. Regarding the diaphragm and the coating, I can't speak too much but the coating is nothing similar to what you can buy in Walmart or Amazon. the diaphragm's active area is 90mm. The sensitivity is similar to 007 but lower than that of 009. Its sound quality is very interesting. its tonality is similar to 007mk1 and less darker but the clone's detail revival ability and soundstage size surpasses 009. The only weakness I noticed is the bass. 007 gets more punchy bass and some people might prefer how the bass is presented on 009 more. IMO stax sacrifice quite a lot of other aspects of sound quality to produce a better bass on its top model.

After some absence from the game went to stax dealer to listen to the new lambdas and I must say I really enjoyed the L-500 sound, not bright as fuck as the 507(didn't have the L-700). I had the 007 mk1 which I though was too dark but the 007mk2 sn/Z3 on the dealer just sounded pretty spot on. Maybe I'm just aging to prefer this sound and my mind is playing tricks. Is the L-700 the lambda do get or older versions are still better?

For me the 009S is a clear upgrade as it fixes the skewed tonal balance of the original but it's not perfect. While they fixed that skew it exposes the other issues the 009's had, most prominent the bass suckout and limited bloom.

Only partially. If it was a 'full-on' ad, it would be the usual, 'best I've heard, worth every penny, you must upgrade now' rather than 'I think I prefer the SR-007 Mk2 now'. Speaking of which, in this shop, both the SR-007 Mk2 and the stock SRM-727II (as well as the SR-L700) are available at a significant discont (weirdly, the set price is not discounted), although I don't have any experience with them but these are a lot better than the usual EU prices.

It's a bargain!!!!

The KSE1500 with foam tips are amazing. Even in noisy environment, the noise isolation is just incredible.

100% fits

Yes. Run a bead of silicone caulk around the ear pads and seal it to your head.

This has probably been asked to death but I couldn't find the answer through search. I know direct sunlight is no good for STAX, and ambient light is okay. I just want to confirm is sunlight through a window okay? Or should I rearrange things to keep them away from windows too. Thanks!

The front fell off.

I've no problem with glasses. Using those.

Hard to compare them directly as we have not yet built the adapter to drive them off normal bias outputs but the KSE1500 is just a tad bright for me. I fixed it with the EQ with a slight dip at 6khz... As for the sound, the KSE1500 is pretty good, much more in line with the neutral tonality of the 007's over the 009's.

You don't really need to go straight to the BHSE/009. Even a regular lambda/kgsshv combo sounds good. Or an 007/kgsshv combo to give u top tier sound.

Surely the little wooden stand and headphone condom are part of the masonic garb, without which you're not really a member of Stax Club? I'm pretty sure that if you have those, even the headphones are optional.

Where the earspeakers at, tho? :thinkinghandonchinemoji: :

But nobody cares about those.

Got it - thanks I ask because "smoother and more refined" on the "s" version does not appeal. My main listening is Naim 2 channel (PRAT) so smooth is definitely out. Interesting that they will be keeping both versions of the 009. On a side note my first foray into the Stax world is my newly arrived L300 Limited and 353. I am EXTREMELY happy. It is easy to understand why Stax for years has always been held in such high esteem amongst Naim users. The L300L/353x combination, imho, is an amazing value. I also have the Utopia here so $1700 Stax headphone/amp vs. $4000 Utopia is quite remarkable.

By the time a lot of us got to the point of owning Stax, there was a lot less hair to deal with. Other than maybe ear hair?

Nah, it makes them sounds more exotic. Also encourages people to learn japanese.

This time I won't be an early adopter. Maybe not even a later one, hopefully not a late one.

Thanks to the Wayback Machine the page is stored at https://web.archive.org/web/20171221234807/http://stax.co.jp/Export/History.html

The amp is only putting out about 20ma assuming a KG design, not to sure about stax. Even with all that voltage all you will get is an annoying zap. Just to give you an idea of how little current that is, 20ma is less than we normally use for temporary pacemakers in cardiac surgery and those leads go directly into the myocardium of the heart to regulate the beat. We typically use 50% higher voltage to start and go up from there..

It's KGBH SE (Analog Edition) made by Flux Lab Acoustics. http://fluxlab-acoustics.com/Products/18 I'm usin' it for my personal enjoyment with ES headphones.

If it passes the Spritzer test, it will have passed the hardest one. Good luck!!!!!!!!!!

I vote for Spritzer......

https://www.head-fi.org/articles/terms-of-service.6725/#mot

Perun is already a quite old design ,my approach to this is to have no expectations at all,i make no prejudice against a new product by comparing it to other bad phones wich were presented in the past .I take Perun as a "fresh newcomer" on the market ,if it's shit then it's shit , but i make no estimates before i have heard it.As soon i get these phones i will report back.Phenomenon is already a good example of a excellent electrostatic design wich competes with the best.I'm not sure if this is true but i remember to read somewhere that the driver of Peruns are manufactured in Japan.

Looks like e-stats are getting new and new competition. Not bad per se. Of course a lot of sub-optimal designs may come out first, especially long-term durability may be an issue. The question - as always - is not as much how good they are now, but how fast will they improve (well, change). For instance, Phenomenon made a rather big jump in quality between membrane v2 (that AFAIK only Spritzer and I had) and v3 (I don't know who else than me has it). The v3 measures almost exactly as the 009 except in the upper mids/treble where it's smoother and sounds even better. Compared to v2, there is more bass impact and more relaxed sound. However, the designer hasn't stopped and has bold plans on what to do next. Looks like a complete driver redesign every few months or a year, while even v2 was very good (with different than stock pads). Quality of execution may not be as high as Stax, but there seems to be a lot of competence in chemistry and physics. Don't underestimate things for granted. Of course, also don't take things for granted. Nobody knows yet how durable these new products will be. I don't know anything about Perun, but I might be interested 2-3 iterations later... at least they compare it to the 009. Well, one area where the 009 is hard to catch is sensitivity: they sound much louder than MrSpeakers or Phenomenon. Even more so, I'd be interested in commercial headphones Wachara would make... Also, it would be nice to see a new Stax Omega range... not even a rumour out there?