BoilermakerFan

Thanks. I'll sit tight and wait a bit longer. Still trying to get my hands on a 003 cable. The two companies I contacted in Japan have not replied to multiple emails.

Stax is claiming that a new model 003 is released. The eBay seller states that it was a new model released in Dec. '09 in Japan. A few peeps linked to a Japanese site showing the new 003s earlier this year when the 507s were first made public. I have no idea when my 001s were made, but I'm trying to ensure I get this newest version of the 003s. I haven't talked to AudioCubes and will actually try to avoid them if at all possible.

Well, maybe I'm interpreting the pic of the interior wrong... But it looks it looks filled to me. But they have left the center terminal open on the SFI jacks but have Pro Bias on both jacks. Are you really surprised? Still seems asinine to me, I would have gladly paid $75 more for the Teflon jacks and both bias levels. Well, not really since I can build my own with much wider bandwidth and luvdunhill's jacks. Thanks. I think AudioCubes has the new 003s in stock since they note the new 1.5um diaphragm. I'm just glad the sales volume is low enough on them that Stax kept the housing the same so my tips will be interchangeable as well as the cables.

Yes, yes it does and they are still shipping without a plug in the center position to prevent Normal Bias plugs from being plugged in... I the mods would have to be done at the jack, it looks like the bias board is encapsulated in epoxy. Spritzer, have you heard the new 003s? It looks like the new 003s have silver screens on the back and they changed the diaphragm from 2.5 micron to 1.5micron, but I haven't been able to really get any more info on them. But for $200, I think it's easier to grab them and have the new driver with my custom tips and just swap cables when I want to go portable.

A copy and paste from the other site, but I wanted to keep you guys up to date too: Update on the 001 tips. They were still sounding dark. I went back to the stock tips and headband and confirmed the mids were recessed and the highs were rolled off. Went to my fitting appointment and the audiologist shortened the tips about 1.5mm and flared the ends slightly. That made a huge difference for the sound and improved the comfort even more. But, the mids are still recessed and we think we know why, but I'm going to let my congested ears clear before making my final analysis. However, I'm still going to have them remolded. I paid $170 for two little pieces of plastic to fit the ends of my 001s, might as well get them perfect. My audiologist said he felt there was a misunderstanding or assumptions made that caused the tips to look the way they do when mounted on the driver, with the driver flush to the side of my ear instead of being aimed down the ear canal as they do stock. He felt they did that to hide the tip and make it more stealth. I told him I don't really care if the whole damn tip is visible, I only care about a solid fit, a comfortable fit, and maintaining the stock sound signature when the driver was positioned correctly. I really have no plans to wear these out in public per say. The bend and the reduced ID kill the highs and recess the mids. We're going to manipulate and use clay to reposition the driver where it should be in relation to my tips and have Starkey make the tip ID oval to match the Stax driver. But the great part is that they can rescan my modded tips to get the new length of the inner ear section correct from the factory, so they will be the 1.5mm shorter from the start, and they can also shift the ID opening a bit in the tip as the right side was off by 2mm compared to the left. Then the new tips get scanned again and stored at Starkey, so if I break, wear out, or lose a tip, they can run either one individually or as a set. So, I'm really glad I decided to pull the trigger and try it. I know we'll get the sound correct on the second attempt since we can mod them slightly in house if the sound is off a little again. The improvement in comfort and the secure fit is just simply awesome. I'll find out the material mine are made from. I can highly recommend it. It's very hard when you first go to insert them and they are cold. This makes it much easier to put them in. When they warm up the are much, much softer and they expand to seal off the ear canal. They do not really add any isolation because the driver is open and the sound comes through, or leaks out, but for me that is a good thing. Too much isolation or more closed sounding cups really compress the sound stage for me and the air is gone. These tips keep that same air and nice soundstage of the stock setup. Now I really can't wait to get the remolds back, upgrade to the new 003s when they are finally hitting the streets, and get my magnum opus 'stat amp built for them. I guess the best praise I can write is that these tips have shown me enough potential to deliver everything I wanted in the 001s such that I'm ready to mod my little amp and I've decided to hold off on LCD-2s. I don't have the gear lust for the LCD-2s now that I had even two months ago. I still love the sound of the LCD-2s, but the lust to own a set has dwindled significantly now. I just wish the iPhone 4 was a better source for the 001 amp. It runs out of oomph and I have to have the iPhone up to one click off full volume and the 001 amp is easily 70-85% of full rotation for normal enjoyable levels or listening. My Sony DAP does better at 55%-70%, but the Denon CDP straight into the 001 achieved acceptable levels of loud at 30%-50% of the range on the attenuator. So I think a Music Streamer II + or Pro will have to find it's way into my travel bag and I'll just buy a little Pelican case to hold everything in one waterproof, impact resistant box.

My audiologist used a national company called Starkey out of Minneapolis, MN. He did the ear impressions, marked were we wanted the tips to end and where in the ear they should be. Then I go back in Monday for final fitting. The tips have made the 001s darker. I suspect we can fix it with a shortening of the tip insertion depth, opening the ID and polishing it will help. If it doesn't, then I'll have them remolded with a much larger ID to following the stock opening. BUT, comfort has improved exponentially for the better, so I will keep at it until I get the sound sig back and have the same fit.

It was solely for comfort. But the sound has changed a little, but it could be the source as it was just briefly tested with my wife's iPod Mini. The bass is stronger and the highs were a little quiet. Seems counter to what you would expect since the driver fit is a little loose on the tip and the driver is pulled out of the ear and moved away. I'm fighting off an ear infection and I'm really congested too, so I can't give final impressions until the fit is checked by the audiologist on Monday and my congestion clears up. The loose driver is actually growing on me though, since they can pull away from the tip in the event of a cable snag. Keeps the cable safer and prevents the discomfort from a ripped out in ear tip. They definitely do not need the headband anymore. The tips are not silicone, but a harder plastic with 30% silicone that softens and seals better as the ears warm it up. They get more comfortable with time.

Here are my 001s with custom tips.

Woohoo! My custom tips for the 001s are finally in. My appointment for final fitting is Monday morning at 10:30am. I'm hoping they don't need a remold or too much adjustment so I can bring them home at that time. Starkey did struggle with them, so I'm not sure how much they will cost moving forward or how many times they had to mold this set. I'll let you guys know...

I have parts... Contact me via PM and I'll get you taken care of. Far less than the alternatives...

That what I was thinking, but Stax discontinued the older 003s. If the drivers were tweaked or changed, I would definitely just buy the whole new 033s instead of just a 003 cable to use with my existing 001s. Of course, if the cable is more than $100 shipped, I'll just buy the whole new 003s anyway and have both. I've come to really like the small 001 setup, unsure if I'll mod it instead of trying to build a new small amp or wait until you and KG release the new DIY portable design. I need to finish my new headband and cup design for them. Copying the basic idea of the stock Stax holder, but in HDPE with more range of motion with spring loaded ball bearing balls to add the tension and hold the two pieces together and putting it on an AKG K140 donor headband for extra comfort with leather head strap.

Spritzer, I saw the new SR-003 link, but do you know what changes were made to it? It looks identical to the previous model. I'm hoping my 001 cable will work with them so I can mod the amp and have the 003s as a portable and home setup with custom molded tips.

Wow! I guess I need to start charging more for my NOS arcs... I'll have to bump their price up to $40 each or so, plus shipping.

I think the worst offense is the use of Normal jacks without plugs when the damn units are set up for Pro only bias stock. There is the potential of many damaged Normal bias Stax cans on that box. I almost plugged my precious Lambdas into it at CJ, but decided to ask, then get better clarification before I plugged in. Since they're being so cheap, how hard is it to stuff the end cap of a BIC pen into the center hole?

Fair enough. I only know what I have in mine and I'm very happy with what I paid and traded towards them. It's a dead point now anyway, they're sold.

Well, I don't know what he had in them for the original trade with Smeggy, but I have about $610-670 in my TPs between the cable, O2 pads, and everything I'm sending Smeggy as our agreed on trade. The first pair sold for $500 without the $130 O2 pads, so the $600 asking price doesn't look like flipping to me. The fact he's giving so much back to Smeggy is cool too. I had ESW9s and haven't heard the ESW10s, but the ThunderPants are leaps and bound better than the ESW9s.

It's potentially part of the problem with Koss driver failures and I'm not sure I would use them off a Stax Pro jack on the SRD7.

Is the mastering on the LP version as horribly compressed as it is on the CD or does it actually have a little dynamic range?

What's the budget? I can have dual sets drafted up in CAD and cranked out on our CNC mills, then off to the anodizer, but it's not free. A cheaper way is to find the time to get over to my buddy's place with two bars of 6061-T6 and chuck them in his metal lathe, but that's the slow pine box to Georgia route...

My knobs were crap too, 4.5mm ID on the small knob and 5.25mm on the bigger bottom knob.

I'm a beta builder, one hybrid and one SS version. I'll use a balanced OptiVols for volume so I just need RK27s to control both channels. I'm looking at those dual and quad ALPS for bass and treble controls on a console refurb.

I tore apart my Sylvania TV camera last night to gut it for the eXStata Hybrid build, so I didn't have time to dig through all the totes. I'll see if I can find their tote and measure what I have.

How many are you looking for? I might have two sets of vintage knobs that would work. I'll have to measure them. Both are silver. I might have one set in black plastic with a silver center dot too. I have a knob cache, but it's only the knobs from gear I pilfer for parts before I drop off the PCBs at the electronics recycling center. Mostly late-60's consoles and 70's low to mid-fi integrated receivers. I also have a friend with an insane collection of knobs from gear he has pilfered over many more years than I have.

It's the underlayment felt. It sucks out the mids too much when dampening the bass. I'm working on the other two Yamahas tonight so I can spend a little more time with the RP182 before I tackle Kabeers Stax energizer. Then I have about 5 headphone prototypes to build and test, not to mention teh new MHM V1.2 board should be showing up at Tom's tomorrow and he's flipping it to me by early next week.

I have Colin's RP18s here for some dampening and pad trials. There are two other Yamahas in front of them in the cue, but then I'll tackle those and I can let you know how they turned out. Colin can too after he gets them back.