arnaud

It turns out people having issue with 009 assume (and so does pj btw) that it's necesserily a bad 009. Turns out the recent drama on the HF thread was a faulty amp and not a faulty phone... For some reason though, the amp did not get fixed, and no way to check the repair bill as "PJ needs to protect their sources" for equipment. Otherwise, am surprised about the change in tonality between tour current 009 pair and the original. Stax would not seem the kind to alter the voicing, esp. not the 009. Would be worth sending to Tyll for measurement against the other 3 pairs he has in his dbase. One thing I noticed on mine though is that pads are starting to flatten, certainly can't imagine they'll last 10years... Arnaud

You guys don't get it, do you? The rkvertose will soon take over the world, we're dooooomed!

It's a positively reinforcing message they bring us there. If 50kUSD is what it takes Senn to release a flagship combo, then a 10kUSD source with BHSE / insert your fav stax phone here sounds like a dirt cheap plan arnaud

Actually, isn't the cup with a smaller diameter hole a helmholtz resonator to achieve eq target? The inner neoprene ring would be for setting the Q factor of the resonance (I assume it's tuned at 3-4kHz). The outer neoprene seals the edge of the driver against the cup, doesn't it? Arnaud

Sell a set of spare parts to whomever paranoid owner out there! [such as myself]

Bring it on! I really really liked the previous version you had sent over (as everyone who listened to it too), what is evolving in the design? I am still a bit puzzled about why only changing the cloth cover affected the tonal balance so much on the "current" version, maybe the measurement will illustrate the difference. Having said that, now that Tyll as a kick-ass stat amp, that is a faster method and result much more useful data point . If I may suggest something on the float replica, try either to add a bit less acoustically transparent screen to tame the upper mids/highs or some other way to reduce front/back wave cancellation so as to get a bit more bass presence. The larger baffle doesn't seem practical, but maybe a way to decrease the distance from ears to electrode? Last, I can't wait to hear any of you power angry phones through the bhse, that would certainly also change the perceived response I bet! Cheers, arnaud

Couldn't find an active discussion on diy stat phones so posted here. Finally some well deserved recognition for the master chef of stat diys: http://www.innerfidelity.com/content/extraordinary-diy-electrostatic-headphones-chinsettawong . Wachara, the usage of car audio speaker grills turned out quite nice didn't it! congrats again, arnaud

From what I read, the pm1 were designed in the US, the chief designer comes from ribbon speakers design. I am not sure I'd be too keen the the dac/amp in isolation (it may be a bit too ruthless to my taste), but it actually paired nicely with the very laid back PM-1.

If not a p.e.q, it at least comes with a nice 12 band or so analyzer so you know where the problem is I have absolutely no need for another desktop amp/dac but playing with the HA-1 at least Fujiya Avic headphone festival made me want one actually. It just feels smart from the layout, U.I., in/out options. I don't often see gear that transpires intelligence from the designer(s), the HA-1 feels like a very very well thought little bugger. More impressions / pictures on the other site under the festival impression's thread (should be hard to miss even if you seldom visit).

Ah! I've seen it 10 times already, heading to 11 after reading this...

They are not shills, they are professional brand-building marketers, some respect please!

Looking at the pic closer, isn't it that the magnet is actual a slate with a hole in the center (the grey color rectangular black surface inside the transparent baffle)? With the zillion number of traces they put on the diaphragm, that would explain the high efficiency.

Tyll, let's redo this 300 hours of burn in video like for the k701 .

There is indeed a universal version coming but small bores / conchae need not apply. The sound though, the sound...

On the positive side, Poor wording on my part, I did mean to say there is a lot of good content on this site. It is also refreshingly honest, which is not something easy to say for most sites. Most of all, I have seen cycles on HF, just like here, maybe because active posters come and go and this changes the flavor of the site a bit. It's all fracturing of open doors, but just felt compelled to post that I felt the recent posts resonated strongly with my personal experience. Going back to silent mode now .

I seldom post here, have had times where I felt the site was more of a playground to release stress on the poor newbie passing by. But these days, I feel that, no matter how dirty and political this all gets, there is always some benefit to preserving freedom of speech... I feel there is indeed a disturbingly tight relationship between the sponsors and the staff running the site. I guess people develop friendships with vendors and this explains that. I am labeled as a stax fanboy for that reason and certainly understand the human nature. I also know Jude personally and can totally understand he's just a naturally enthusiastic and social person so he's really most likely doing this for fun besides the simple need to run the site as a business. What I find disturbing is we don't see really innovating gear sorting out but just the latest bright and shiny being the best thing to ever happen since sliced bread. I have been there, certainly falling myself for new toy syndrome more often than not. But what I see is not really more innovation but many more vendors trying to get a piece of the cake. However my slight issue with the hd800, I consider it as true innovative design, we haven't seen much of that since. On the other hand, general pricing of gear is certainly on the rise, for no other reason than there being a very receptive audience and well oiled hyping machine. That is disturbing to me as I feel we, as consumers, are simply shooting ourselves in the foot with this. I have been around the site for over 10 years now and very much feel the time of innocent/independent gear evaluation and reviewing is long gone. Not convinced birgir's style is the way to go and I actually feel sorry for alex as he doesn't seem the bad guy he's been portrayed as. On the other hand, I also also feel it would be tragic to censor critical speech...

I think this is the same discussion we had on HF but, before blaming stax, I'd take a good look at PJ. They specialize in grey market business, totally goes against stax policies so I wonder where they get their stock from (especially for a product in high demand from the authorized resellers and official distributors). I have seen the manufacturing and QC with my own eyes, they go the hard way about taking out the lemons. Now, as birgir mentioned, there are variables that are out of stax control and no matter how much QC goes on within the factory, shit can still happen. Personally, I have a hard time imagining Stax sending refurb units to any of their channels, especially not with the kind of defects reported here. Or that would be a bold move to try to discourage grey market...

You may need to adjust the amount of added damping to your liking as it can indeed get dull when applied in excess. The issue with single felt/foam layers is that they will roll off not only the peak at 6kHz but also all the frequencies above it and, even worse, in larger amount. It's fairly easy to simulate / design that stuff when all porous material properties are known (sort of like you design engine mounts to isolate most at specific frequency). Unfortunately, but you never know the acoustic properties of stuff bought at the local hardware store, hence a computer model is of limited value to the diy people. I recall though that the guys at changstar went a long way with this and the latter mods seemed pretty darn good at scooping up the mids, relieve the upper mids peak and not remove too much above 8kHz to keep it alive sounding. Not sure what ceetee sent you but there may be more to it?

Ok, everything ultimately matters but it's not like the 009 is wrong on so many counts to start with and there doesn't seem to be a need for a very drastic change in voicing. Anyhow, moot point since Stax is firmly convinced they've got it right on this one...

It may "just" be a matter of using a thicker / less tensioned diaphragm to get back to the original omega from the current 009 iteration. If there's a will from Stax, this surely isn't impossible to achieve...

Well, it's not like Stax could officially say much else but they did mention 007t2 and 727A during the interview last year... Then again, they're also working on a successor to the T2, so it means they recognize they can do better than their current offerings... Officially, all development projects are done one at a time so the amplifier in design wouldn't have been available at the time of 009 development... For the issue with matching amps, maybe the makers could start with recommended output impedance for the amp?

Interesting read about the HD800 sounding best with ~40-50 Ohm output impedance amps. If we're to believe Sennheiser, the HD800 was developed with their own lab amps, the recent HDV whatever amps being a result of that. I do agree this site is turning into a mini-HF as enabler . I am curious about the L2, heck even the fixed SinglePower. I recall hearing the "toaster" (Supra) circa 2002 or 2003 in Detroit, at the very beginning of SinglePower I guess. It was scary to plug phones in that thing but I have vivid recollections of it being the best of the meet by far and me hesitating to spend 1 grand on a fire hazard toaster. Build quality wasn't a priority from the start but I felt something special about the sound. Mind you, that was as a total newbie, my first experience with tube gear, and coming from rather dry amps from Meier Audio... arnaud

I am tempted! Have done soldering of populated integrated amps boards while I was doing an intership at an audio manufacturer so I guess I am not a total noob. But I can probably do much worse than hennyo nevertheless Any example chef d'oeuvre of his to take inspiration?

Hennyo's been asking me to buy parts from Japan for him through pm. I said I'd help (when time permits) if it was benefiting all the builders / e.g. group buy centralised by a reputable member / through public post in the forum (not pm). Haven't heard a word since!

Birgir, does this mean this is a build an idiot like me could take a shot at while not taking too many chances with one's life?