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I bought a pair of Kaldas RR1 cups/drivers/pads from the previous owner about 2 months ago. They squealed, Aumkar had generously replaced the headphones for him - and didn't require shipping back the original bespoke hardware. These were among the first RR1 produced. I've been totally stir crazy due to the lockdown. Though the most I'd played with electrostats was removing rotted foam from a set of lambdas, I figured this might be a fun project to tear down, and if I'm lucky restore. I modded an old Hifiman headband, and bought a cable from Mjolnir audio. I immediately heard the electric squeal, but it would periodically go away. I had a full 2 hour stretch of silence where I realized these were awesome headphones. Though I was biased towards my Koss ESP95X - after a head to head listening session, I had to admit I liked the Kaldas more for everything but treble. Unfortunately, the squeal and/or buzzing from the left earcup grew to become practically continuous. So I used Joamat's instructions to investigate and completely disassemble the left earcup. They were fairly easy to disassemble, except for one bolt that sits right behind the mini XLR connection. The mini XLR pins being so small, and me being TERRIBLE at soldering - I tried to avoid undoing the solder joint, but broke one of the wires. If you do this, be careful to undo the wired connections last, there are tiny M2 nuts that will fall out if you're not careful. After that, I found basically the same issue that Joamat found, the Bias wire was broken, and there were strands inside the female thread of the housing. It's possible that one strand got into the driver and caused the whine and buzzing. I liked the bolted assembly, and wanted to keep the headphones easy to disassemble, so I soldered in M2 terminal connections as shown. I had to use longer heat shrink tubing because I had wiring exposed at the mini XLR connection. I used a grinder on a dremel tool to make a larger hole in the cover - I found when I assembled initially, that I caused a short and lost volume out of the left earcup. To fix it - I ended up resoldering two of the wires at the mini XLR connection. Then I blew compressed air across the driver and stators, being careful to expose the driver for the most minimal time possible. Then I reassembled as shown including the two dust covers. Eager to test my work, I reassembled the headphones and connected to my Stax SRM 717. The left earcup was completely silent - success! Funny thing - the right earcup started squealing even louder! So I repeated the process of soldering terminal connections. When I reassembled, the right earcup still squealed. I was super frustrated, but went back and did the step I skipped, I blew compressed air across driver and stators. And that seems to have solved the final issue. I've now listened for about 10 hours with almost complete silence. To be honest there's been a handful of times, totaling maybe 30 seconds where I heard a slight buzzing, and thought "Oh no! Not again!" But shifting the earcup slightly cleared it immediately. My ears touch the dust covers, so I suspect it's a different issue entirely. Perhaps with a shift, my ear presses against the stator. The final picture is of my Frankenstein Kaldas RR1 conquests. I contacted Aumkar, not for help - but to suggest a few manufacturing improvements based on my findings. Aumkar was very kind, suggested that I solder directly to the bolts - and then informed me that he'd already incorporated all of the manufacturing improvements I suggested. So if you order a Kaldas RR1 conquest now - it will be more robust than the initial versions. Overall - I think this is a great product, and Aumkar has been a pleasure to chat with. If you're willing to buy an energizer separately, these sound better than the Koss, and far better than the L300/L500 I used to own. I hope Kaldas will produce a sequel. I like these headphones so much I'm having Vesper Audio quote out slightly thicker pads so my ears don't touch - and I ordered touch up paint to fix a couple spots I scratched or gouged during my project.

Shill.

Quartet – Ultravox

Get the Sonic Frontiers and keep the Parasound. This is H-C after all.

Listening to ECM on Qobuz, I think.

Peach cobbler, to take to Milo's house for dinner.

100% agreed. And for different reasons I also love the John Foxx-era Ultravox! as well....

Cool they made the 5mil mark 1637 items. --- great job team

Just in case there’s any question: Vienna , Rage in Eden, Quartet, and Lament. Bonus: Monument (live album) and Midge Ure’s first two solo albums. You might find one slow spot (left as an exercise for the listener) until you “get” it.

Down the rabbit hole I go.

Trying to make sure the next fire is bigger?

This isn't really ambient nor IDM: It is, however, simultaneously the most 1980s thing imaginable and absolutely timeless. Aged like a fine wine, made by two Swiss lunatics.

final version of SS/ZF board with jumpers to go from one to the other. 5 db of gain unbal to unbal 11db of gain ubal to bal 17db of gain bal to bal thinking of a relay board to sit on top with front panel SS/ZF switch. would be a unique feature cfp3rssfixedsssw - CADCAM.ZIP

that's not a dutch oven

I saw transub, and my mind went to a whole other place. Nevermind...carry on.

Here's to hoping, Kerry.

All four of those albums are perfection.

I was hoping for something quite the opposite, but one never knows

This album is too short! Straight into Lament...

So good.

This is the correct answer.

I liked her baked eggs recipe. I'll go back and watch the rest of them, too. She's very charming and she presents well on the video. The first episode of Downton was very serious and melodramatic, but the second episode showed more comedic potential. I joked to a friend that I am looking forward to six seasons (and a film) of British people being mean to each other in the nicest settings. A brief meme search on Google also gave me the term "posh frock porn."

Remarkably, most of the components survived. The current regulator, U1, was vaporized along with the set resistors. The main fire was from the bottom through hole resistor. Next step, Poubelle! After that, I’m putting in a more robust current regulator.

Actually, I think their strategy is that if you charge enough people will think they sound good or at least delude themselves into thinking they sound good to justify the price they paid.

Wow, it is so good! I was 10 years old when the original came out and I can remember playing multiplayer against friends in the days when we had to manually dial each other's 28.8k modems. And with the remaster:

Smoke em if you got em

Maybe if you smoke enough they actually start to sound good? 🤣

Uncle Doug YouTube channel. If you like electric guitar amps, cats, hot rods or drones, you'll probably like this channel. https://www.youtube.com/user/Stratosaurus1

Ghosts of West Virginia. Maybe the best Steve Earle album since The Mountain.

Last night we made pizza with mozzarella, parmesan, scallion, garlic hot peppers, pancetta and egg. Tonight, I made this recipe and really enjoyed it. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/28/magazine/punjabi-red-beans-recipe.html

I bought a pair of these headphones because I really wanted to see how good they could be and to support this new comer. My experience is pretty much similar to Birgir's. I like the build quality. The clamping force on the head isn't that much, which is a good thing. However, it can be a bit too loose. The headphones almost fell out of my head a few times. About the sound, they sound very similar to my Omega clone. I might be a bit bias, but my Omega clone has just a bit better bass extension. Overall, I would say that the phones are very nicely built. The headband can use some improvement. The price, IMO, is a bit pricey putting it in a similar price range as the Stax SR007.

I don't know, I kind of like the T3 better. It is hard to compare as I have not heard a L2 in a while, but I could happily live with the T3 + HD650 as my end game setup. It doesn't mean better isn't available, but that this is an immersive and Hippocratic (does no harm) setup for me.

Although I own the JH16s, not the JH13s, I also love how they sound out of a good desktop setup. (Portable amps generally don't cut it). There are two amps I would recommend. The first is the ECP Audio L-2, which Doug might be willing to sell you for $2K or you could try to find used. It is completely quiet with the JH16s and has a low enough gain that you can actually make pretty good use of the volume knob. It is a very clean/fast sounding amp, but is very easy to listen to - highly recommended with the JH13/16. I also like the Eddie Current Super 7, which has a low output impedance and was designed to work with IEMs. It is not quite as quiet as the L-2, but the noise level is still low. With the right tubes (RCAs) it is a little warmer sounding than the L-2 with somewhat deeper bass. If you already own the Zana Deux, the Super 7 might be redundant, though, so the L-2 may be the best bet. And ECP offers a 30-day return privilege, which is pretty unique and nice. Also, I have owned a few other amps (Woo 22, DNA Sonnet, Luxman P1-u) and did not like them with the JH-16s, so avoid those if they were on your radar.

R.I.P. Bonnie Pointer of the Pointer Sisters...