Leaderboard

Thanks for the update Bryan Just pulled the trigger on a Clearance REL T/7i from AA (Audio Advisor).

Life can be difficult growing up with a "hipness" level far exceeding those around you! 🤪

Second coat of finish. I still have rack rails to install, to hold the gear. The holes are vents, which will get black mesh behind them.

Buy audio components with competently designed power supplies. A $3 inductor does way more than any of these cables or conditioners.

I believe more in Power Conditioning than Power Cords. Almost any good shielded design works fine after a conditioner in my house. That said, another Crump design (TG Audio SLVR) seems to make a positive difference to my ears no matter where it's used..... I didn't want to believe, but just when I thought I was out they dragged me right friggin' in 😂

Speaking of Chris Harris,.. This one's for you Mikey

Been there, but yeah not in a while

I'm really wanting some striped bell bottoms.

This. All of this. I used to build my own power cables too, but mostly just for fun and I don't think I ever spent more than $20 or $30 in parts which still felt silly.

Nice, Jim!

I used to make my own power cables also, but the reason had nothing to do with the sound. It was to have them exactly the length I needed. Now I have a whole box of different length power cords that does come in handy.

I remember listening to the vinyl recordings my parents had of the 2000 year old man comedy bit

Mine kind of sounds like that - but for the wrong reasons..😁 Ed: but to see the falcon cut through Eau Rouge and Raidillon is pretty cool.

Around the same time as Joy to the World was first getting airplay. my Mother made me and my two brothers bell bottoms with matching large vests (not unlike the guy to the far left on the album cover). We were the hippest dudes in school. Mine was rainbow stripes, so even before the LGBTQ community adopted the rainbow flag (1978), I was flying the colors!

It never gets old. This one ages like fine wine.

$135 for an IEC power cord is a lot of snake oil. I've built a few Bob Crump Asylum power cables, and honestly can't tell any difference between them and generic hd 14ga IEC cables. For a CD player, very little current so even 16ga would be just fine.

I'm a bit skeptical about the Entech meters, and what they are actually measuring. I have heard it said that they look in the band 300kHz to 700kHz, so the am medium wave radio band. Whether that is representative of problems in audio is debatable. After all audio gear cheerfully picks up 800+ MHz from mobile phones, Monster Cable had a variant of the Entech meter that they provided to their cable and conditioner outlets so that a sales person could demonstrate how good the product was. Same as Shunyata do now. I'm trying to buy one just out of curiousity. If I snag one for not much, I'll do some tests (oh and probably take the back off to find out what is in there...).

Been using my Above the Tie DE razors and Gillette Fusion for around 7 years, but now feel it’s time for a change. That change is to an SE razor using Artist Club blades, and the one I’ve chosen is the Blackland Vector, along with its stand. Should be receiving them within the next few days.

Not necessarily reading, but some good stuff in there

Can it really be that I'm the first new member in more than two years? In any case, I've been in and out of audio for 30 years, and in the headphone hobby for the last 5. I picked up a little NIB Stax 2170 bundle two years ago and enjoy it tremendously when I use it (as opposed to several Sennheiser, Audeze, Hifiman, Beyerdymanic and AKG's). Now looking to go further up the Stax tree with a lightly used SRM-353x / L700 Mk I, or new in box local stock SRS-5100 (SRM-353x / L500 Mk I) for about 20% less. Both are storming good deals, with local support vs better earspeaker being the deciding factor. My search on the 353 led me here, so here I am!

I appreciate their dedication to their beliefs

How did I not know about Jonell Mosser or this homage to Townes van Zandt? Followed by Which, IMO, is their best album and has one of the best, if not the best, opening track of any album.

That's sweet Nate! As for me... I'm planning on getting back into vinyl, so I purchased a Parasound Zphono USB. I can also digitize any albums I might want to. But that left me with a dilemma, as the rack I built for My Parasound Z stack won't fit any more gear. So today I built a new rack to accommodate all seven Z units. It's in the first coat of finish, and I still need to attach the rack mounting hardware, but it might just resemble the speakers I built about 2 years back. Pics within a few days.

Hats – The Blue Nile

One vote for the CFA/GRLV.

Ha. Thanks all for your help. In the end I went with a Magrette Regattare Tiki for a decent price in comparison to the other final choices. New Zealand Post, US Customs, and the local Post Office did everything they could to get it to me by 2024, but it arrived a couple days ago. A little too big, a little too heavy, but uncomplicated.

Glad to see people other than myself who are quite sensitive to EQ. Like you found, manipulating EQ by as little as 2-3 dB in midrange seems to really reduce that "you are there" transparency and realness for me, to the point I will not own headphones or speakers that require this type of adjustment..

After measuring the ES-1α yesterday, I became concerned with the 1200Hz peak and went to EqualizerAPO to try to EQ out that huge peak. Here are my findings after fiddling with EQ. v1) Firstly I tried to get the 300Hz-2000Hz to my beloved HD800S as closely as possible This meant getting as much as -7.5dB@1200Hz and -6.4dB@1000Hz In the first few iterations, I instantly felt female vocals getting cleaner and no longer heard the nasal sound. However as I approached the set target, I instantly felt the sound quality drastically reduced. Vocals no longer sounded nasal but now sounded rather plasticky and the sharpness within tracks were more pronounced. v2) After looking at some graphs at diyaudioheaven, I decided to focus on the 1000Hz region. I decided to reduce the emphasis on the 1200Hz-2000Hz region and sound fidelity improved, gaining clarity. At this point it was -4dB@1000Hz but I felt I was trying to EQ it too much. v3) After referring to my measurements of the revered Sennheiser HD6## series, I decided to get it to -2dB@1000Hz. I adjusted and removed many of peaking filters and ended up with this final iteration. This EQ removed the nasal just enough that I could no longer notice the nasal & tinny sound from my songs. I kept the adjustments on the 300Hz-700Hz region but you could remove it without affecting fidelity. v4) I tried adding sub-bass by using a low-shelf filter of +4.5dB@20Hz. My measurements showed -5.5dB@10Hz but the SRM-T1W was specified to be ±1dB@DC-20Hz so I set it at 4.5dB. I felt that the difference was minimal and this reduced fidelity overall because I had to do adjust the whole frequency band by using a preamplification of -4.5dB and also limited the volume you can push your headphone/amp to. To conclude, I feel the only noticeable sonic weakness of this headphone during my early impressions seems to stem in the 1kHz region. It's surprising how a -2dB EQ can affect the fidelity of this headphone and it's a testament to how sensitive our hearing is in this region. As with any headphone and IEM, there is some sibilance with the ES-1α but the EQ for that is dependent on the length of your own ear canal.

ESLab ES-1α Measurements: (MiniDSP EARS. 500Hz 84dB normalized. All graphs use 1/12 smoothing.) (Electrostatic Rig #1: Laptop->Soncoz SGD-1->STAX SRM-T1W->MiniDSP EARS Rig #1) *Since I'm using a STAX Tube Amp (SRM-T1W) there may be some low and high frequency falloff in my measurements. Also the Right channel on my MiniDSP ears tends to measure higher bass than the Left channel. Also during measurements, I had difficulty getting the Right channel to seal properly while I had relative ease with measuring the Left channel. ESLab ES-1α (blues) vs STAX SR-507 (reds) <Raw Measurements> \\Solid (Left) vs Light (Right) \\L&R Averaged ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ESLab ES-1α (black) vs STAX SR-507 (purple) <Pur1n's SBAF Compensation. Left channel only> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- (Notice: Electrostatic measurements and headphone measurements are using different rigs) (Electrostatic Rig #1: Laptop->Soncoz SGD-1->STAX SRM-T1W->MiniDSP EARS Rig #1) (Headphone Rig #2: Laptop->Oppo Sonica->Massdrop THX 789->MiniDSP EARS Rig #2) *Rig #1 (Electrostatic Rig) registered less bass due to the different MiniDSP EARS units & also I'm using a STAX Tube amp which may have a sub-bass roll-off. I had difficulty getting the Right channel to seal properly. Left channel seems to be more indicative of the sound I'm hearing and henceforth I will be JUST using Left channel measurements. ESLab ES-1α (black) vs Verum 1 <Pur1n's SBAF Compensation. Rig #1 vs Rig #2. Left Only> \\ ES-1α (black) vs Verum 1 w/ Default Pads (olive) vs Verum 1 w/ Perforated Pads (brown) ESLab ES-1α (black) vs Hifiman HE-500 w/ Focus A pad & Fuzzor Mod (green) <Pur1n's SBAF Compensation. Rig #1 vs Rig #2. Left Only> ESLab ES-1α (black) vs Audeze LCD-2.2 non-Fazor w/ Dekoni Velour Pads(maroon) <Pur1n's SBAF Compensation. Rig #1 vs Rig #2. Left Only> ESLab ES-1α (black) vs SendyAudio Aiva (orange) <Pur1n's SBAF Compensation. Rig #1 vs Rig #2. Left Only> ESLab ES-1α (black) vs Focal Elex (lilac) <Pur1n's SBAF Compensation. Rig #1 vs Rig #2. Left Only> ESLab ES-1α (black) vs Beyerdynamic DT1990 w/ Analytical Pads (teal) <Pur1n's SBAF Compensation. Rig #1 vs Rig #2. Left Only> ESLab ES-1α (black) vs ZMF Aeolus (orange) <Pur1n's SBAF Compensation. Rig #1 vs Rig #2. Left Only> ESLab ES-1α (black) vs Sennheiser HD800S (crimson) <Pur1n's SBAF Compensation. Rig #1 vs Rig #2. Left Only> ESLab ES-1α (black) vs Sennheiser HD6## <Pur1n's SBAF Compensation. Rig #1 vs Rig #2. Left Only> // ES-1α (black) vs HD600 (brown) vs HD6XX/650 (pink) vs HD58X (red) vs HD660S (green) Longtime lurker here. I converted to the dark side just recently. I hope the measurements are a useful comparison tool for you. My Early Impressions: I feel the ES-1α has very natural bass and mids and that is comparable to DT1990 w/ Analytical Pads, Verum 1, Hifiman HE-500 & Audeze LCD2. There is some brightness in the 1.5kHz region which is more elevated than the Sennheiser HD600 and are also present on the SR-507, SR-007, Focal Elex and SendyAudio Aiva. Upper treble is well extended giving it an airy feel and big soundstage. The uneven treble does make some vocals (particularly female vocals) recessed like in the HD800S, which you may or may not like.

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.

Yes you are right I think Mk I is better little wider soundstage marginal, this could be due to the snugger fit on the Mk II. And by "sharper" I meant they have better treble performance than the Mk I. Also they seem to be little faster. Take it with a big grain of salt may be my mind is playing tricks on me 😁

"Better" is a relative term, each has its advantages and disadvantages. There are several SR007Mk1 variations (70xxx with the carbon box, 71xxx, SZ1) and it is probably very hard to find a 'golden' sample now, because why would anyone sell such a headphone, unless he is completely unaware of the differences and happen to accidentally own such a pair. And without comparing two SR007 headphones side-by-side(maybe new pads on both and a properly seating headband, since both may also affect the sound), it may be difficult to evaluate it. So for practical purposes, the Mk2.9 should be a better, safer option.

HC´s number one rule: have more components in your warehouse than Mouser. Follow the trail of burned components Certified dead: CL resistor, r12, c2m1000170d, 2x bc557b, 2n3904. njm7915fa Changed as a precaution: Q7 10m90s. Q8 & Q9 ksc5026m and 24v diode. The rest of the components passed the test. Total: A few euros and a couple of hours.

In my opinion the direct sun light means direct UV that is degrading many materials. I think that plastic dust cover is not transparent for UV and it means you shouldn't worry about it. But probably more dangerous is heat from sun light. If you do not have windows with infrared filters on the glass (for example I have), it is better to place Stax in the shadow.

It’s some time since I disassembled the headphone and my memory isn’t the best, anyhow. Remove earpad fixed by double sided tape and remove the two screws now exposed. Gently remove the now loose inner ring one none ear side and all inner parts are accessible. It’s easy to detach earcup from headband, one screw only, and cable – then you have the earcup completely free. I believe it’s fairly easy to work on the headphone, but as always be careful. Personally I think Kaldas is an overall nice design. Good luck.

I hope they change the freaking headband. The 007 Mk2 is one of the few headphones I straight up cannot wear. The self-adjusting headband strap is too tight and keeps pulling them out of place, and there is absolutely no articulation on the earcups at all, so they're never exactly right. Since the 007 is so fit dependent, I have to pretty much hold the earcups in place. Yeah, the 007 still sounds very good (modded, tweaked, etc) but if you can't use it, what use is it? Stax have a LOT of work ahead of them, and so far all we've seen is lackluster amps at twice the price they should be.

Any one have any experience with ES Labs Sigma headphones?

My personal pair seems to be somewhat more sensitive than the 007. If I use the 007 and plug in ES-1a while keeping volume the same I find it gets too loud. This might also be related to the more forward midrange/lower treble, however.

I used two transformers. both with electromagnetic shields, static shields and potted from http://www.mueller-rondo.com/kontakt.htm . (The low voltage transformer can be used for the blue hawaii - the 6922 windings are just not used the other voltages and currents are fine.) low voltage: transformer two windings 6.3V 4.5A for EL34 heaters one winding for each channel NOTE these windings are -400VDC to ground two windings 6.3V 1.5A for 6992 heaters one for each channel and my HT delay board two windings 15.5V 0.4A for golden reference LV board + and - 15VDC high voltage transformer one winding 365V 0.2A for dual golden reference HV board -460VDC. NOTE 365VAC gives 516VDC which gives less than 10% margin before reaching the 550V limit of most high voltage 550V 470uF input caps on the golden reference HV... so be careful if your household mains voltages are usually higher than spec. one winding 322V 0.2A for dual golden reference HV board +400VDC and +580V stax bias one winding 192V 0.18A for golden reference HV board +220VDC The blue hawaii just fits in a single 2u case 400mm deep, using 1 transformer with less windings - one less high voltage and two less 6.3V, golden reference LV board and golden reference HV board. The mini T2 has two transformers AND an extra HV board so the issue is not height but depth, to give you a size idea the transformers are Low voltage diameter 105mm height 55mm High voltage diameter 115mm height 65mm not having shields in the transformers will result in some hum and electrical interference if you turn the volume all the way up if you go single case. Not potting the transformers might make them a little smaller. putting the transformers into a separate case makes both the blue hawaii and mini t2 absolutely silent. you cant easily use the space bellow the mini t2 amp boards because they have 4 pillars which screw into the bottom of the case so you don't bend the amp boards when inserting or removing the valves. Neither the golden reference LV or HV boards will fit bellow the am boards because of this. for both my blue hawaii and mini t2 builds I went with the following case https://modushop.biz/site/index.php?route=product/product&path=102&product_id=195 its 2u, 400mm deep and has large heat sinking and is fully aluminium so fairly easy to drill. The heat sinking is overkill for the mini t2 - which runs quite cool, but the blue hawaii needs those large heat sinks, For the umbilical chord I used 1KV silicon rubber multi-strand copper hookup wires (https://www.mouser.co.uk/Search/Refine?Keyword=CT2956) for good flexibility and Russian 19 pin military connectors (https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/19-pin-Soviet-Military-connector-Female-Male-Set-Oty-1/254196620095?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649). I then covered the bundle with expandable nylon braid and tested the leads with an insulation tester and they passed 5 minutes at 2500V with 20+Gohm resistance. They failed insulation at 5KV. P.S. if you build golden reference HV boards kemet do 550V 470uF caps which are 65mm high and will fit in a 2u case https://www.mouser.co.uk/Passive-Components/_/N-5g73Z1yzvvqx?Keyword=kemet+550V+470uF&FS=True. Be careful Kemet also sell 680uF 550V caps that are 80mm high and will need a 3u case to fit . (https://www.mouser.co.uk/ProductDetail/KEMET/ALC10A681EL550?qs=%2Fha2pyFadug678O2NPlQ%2F8WMW0dBZWV2y30oREQu6XgezeenvV90cA%3D%3D). for the +220VDC golden ref board you can save some money and go kemet 470uf 450V or even 400V. I didnt simply because I might re-purpose the 220V board to a higher voltage sometime.But the 550v 470uF kemet caps are not cheap. P.S. the golden reference LV board is not necessary, only the servos are run from the + and - 15V lines so you could just populate the low voltage section of the GRHV board. However, if you don't want thumps on switch-off the + and -12V lines require large capacitors so the servos stay powered while the HV lines fade. I found ~15000uF to 22000uF is required but these caps are physically too large to fit in the simple LV section of the GRHV board. They fit fine in the GRLV board, but a full GRLV board is extra expense just to avoid switch off thump. I use GRLV boards in lots of projects so again they can be repurposed...

Do you prefer Kaldas RR1 or ES1a for listening?

Hey all, as a follow-up on my posts, Aumkar and team sent me a new headband assembly; just received today and it looks much nicer!

The bolt was OK, the wire though was broken. Maybe the bolt damage the wire when it was tightened. Anyhow I got the opportunity to see how the RR 1 is built. I also disassembled the driver unit. Spacers seem to be about 1.3 mm thick and the sound when knocking the diaphragm it sounded about right. And yes, everything is easily accessible, except the pads maybe. Bottom line: I like the design. P.S. As the original pads were removed I took a pair of 007 pads

Interesting, not sure how the bolt would come loose. Stators are now laser-cut Brass, you can directly solder onto them if you like. The front Stator connection might be challenging due to packaging reasons but it is workable if you want to solder it and not use our bolt method. Furthermore, every part of the Driver is serviceable because it’s all bolted and no glue is used. Spacer is Aluminium though.

more multi working on the left cabinet for time being… lots of multi-vitamins

Finally she (in the middle, on the Prosecco) arrived from India. Surrounded by her new family.

Ummm….. I expected a little more attention to detail. I was about to finish the purchase when I saw your photos. I think I'll wait a little to see if unfortunately your problem has been a coincidence.