spritzer

I agree, it just looks like unplated brass with some age on it.

That thing is bizarre. 🙂 Rather odd too as Stax were so paranoid of using metal housing for these things, hence the ground reference in each cup using resistors off the audio line.

I somehow missed this reply completely. The issue with these is that they are in no way Stax compatible. Sure the bias supply might be 600V but for this driver design it should be far higher. Even with the Carbon CC (so more power than you can throw at any one set of headphones) it starts to compress and act up which are the tell tale signs of trying to compensate for a lower bias voltage with the drive voltages. It creates and odd effect so yeah... can't really recommend an amp for these. I need to do a follow up really as there is so much oddity here. I cracked open the supplied headphone cable and wow... it is so weird. Think Hifiman cable but worse... Then we have the energizer which I just rebuilt to my SRD-7 spec. It is just weird, channels swapped and the wiring made no sense at all. Nice transformers but the rest is just utter crap, also unsafe as only the back panel is actually earthed. All 6 panels which make up the chassis are tied to the corner posts, which are made out of plastic so non conductive.

The diodes can go bad, especially the zeners on the output sockets but that's about it.

Mmmmm pie...... Port modded I'd always pick the 007's as that unleashes their full potential but stock... well that puts the CRBN's on a more equal footing. The 007's are more honest over al but that can also be a detriment for some users and the CRBN would be a better fit with many music styles. They are more forgiving and warmer where the 007's will always be brutally honest. Also the CRBN's does things the 007's just don't do well, ease of fitment for one...

I hope to get a set of the SR-X's soon as I've lined up pretty much everything that competes with it, including some oddballs like a SR-Omega with 007 drivers (probably my favorite headphones for just sitting down and listening) so it will be fun to compare. I even bought a second hand 009S, now that they are really coming down in price, and this thing is such a disappointment. How could Stax fuck this up so badly, I mean the drivers are a bloody work of art but the sound... ohhh the sound. Oddly thin and bright sounding with so little body to it as this was supposed to be the one that fixes the 009's issues. It's a combination which works for the Sennheiser HE60 but here it just falls flat, robbing music of vitality and life so you end up with a likeness which is not real at all. With the HE60's one adjusts to their sound signature quickly but this just makes me furious... Seriously, somebody at Stax should sit down with these and a 007Mk2 on any random track and honestly say which is better. Randomly Elvis Costello - Veronica came up while I'm typing this and it is just bright, lifeless and boring. I replayed with the CRBN's off the same amp and this is far, far better.

I don't think you can delete all of your posts like that, back in the day we couldn't even edit them.

Antek uses M8 bolts and the 50VA units are pretty heavy so a M4 would be pushing it.

I'm way behind on posting pics off all the shit I've been buying recently but yeah... if it is available I can get my hands on it. Those portable amps out of China are utter crap though...

I can't see where the bias is handled, looks to be missing the adjustment for the second stage plate and no output resistors. The bias supply is always where Woo amps have fallen flat without seeing it, hard to give it a clean bill of health.

I've spent some more time with the headphones now (when I really should be testing out the new CRBN) but I like these a lot. They really do nothing wrong, soundstage is a bit flat (flat earpads though) and they aren't great with small detail retrieval but other than that they are neutral, honest sounding and I can spend hours listening to them. Now for the wanky things (besides that name, seriously... anus in your company name can never be a good idea ) such as the box these ship in: Almost Voce bad but at least it is well made, unlike the Mr. Speakers box. Here is the silly dual cable for these, male 3 pin XLR's on one end 3 pin mini XLR's on the other. It feels terrible and I'll rip it apart later. What truly bothers me is this shit, these are cheapest XLR's you can buy short of the knock off Neutriks and they are pushing 600V bias and 200Vrms through this? Yeah it's not ok... I'm thinking about what I'm going to do with that energizer as the transformers seem to be pretty decent. Probably just fit my own PSU to it and change it to three Stax sockets that the headphones actually fit into.

I've had my eye on these for the last year or so but waiting for a cheap set to come up. There are three versions they sell and I found the cheapest one for sale, brand new in the box with the transformer adapter. I'll take some pics of the system tomorrow (shortest day of the year here so... yeah not great for photos) but I've at least a pic of the headphones and the internals of the transformer box. Here they are and I quite like the looks and the build quality. They are using mini XLR's which is not ok but questionable connector choices are a theme here. The stock cable is beyond crap (more on that tomorrow) so I'm using a Stax PC-OCC off my RR-1's. They feel substantial but also light and fit my head snugly at the largest extension. Carbon Fiber headband and the leather is nice. On their site they claim the Minima is supposed to have pleather earpads but these are clearly genuine leather. These look very similar to earpads I've bought from China in the past and nothing wrong with the quality. I shone flashlight through the driver to you all could see the structure, very unusual drivers here. Now onto the adapter box... yeah this is not good. That's it... and yeah there are so many issues here. Let's start with this gem: It's hard to capture on "film" but the IEC input and the fuse holder are completely uninsulated and mere millimeters from the metal frame of the transformers. Thankfully the chassis is earthed but yeah, this is not to code and an instant CE violation there. In the first picture you can also see there is no protection for the transformers at all and we will get to why that is an issue. Now the active parts: The bias supply is driven directly off the mains, no isolation between you and the wall. Now this was commonplace in the 70's but now... I'm not sure this meets any modern standards. The bias supply is a simple voltage doubler and for 117V they just add another doubler on top. There is then a 600V zener clamp to make sure the bias doesn't rise above that threshold. None of this has the elegance of the Stax bias supplies and frankly this is just sad. For instance the LED for power indication is driven directly off the mains, through one tiny resistor. Now you might notice those 3 pin XLR's there and yup, they are the stock outputs for the Euridiche, the Stax output is just for convenience. One of my biggest gripes is with using XLR's as they are in no way rated for these voltages, especially the cheap, no-name, units they are using. Also check out the clerances on that PCB.. bias and high voltage signals less than 1mm apart. Then we have what scares me the most, see those traces which go right to the edge of the board and into pin 3 of the XLR's...? Yeah that is the bias so 600V is sitting there, pressed right up against the chassis with exposed solder connections. Sure this is after the ballast resistors (one 4m7 for the Stax and separate 10M units for each side of the XLR's) but still... They have a lot of faith in the powder coating on the chassis. Finally the Stax socket, 3D printed and fed directly off the XLR sockets. Almost no way to actually cram a Stax plug in there but you know, I almost had to use a hammer. 😉 Then we come to the final issue, on paper these appear to be Stax compatible despite the stupid XLR connectors and similar bias supply but nope... they are so inefficient that my usual test amp (Icepower 50 module with a preamp tacked onto it) was at max volume to get these to my normal listening level. I plugged in my test SR-207's as well and they were at half volume using this transformer box. As seen in the first pic, I've fitted them with a Stax plug but they make the Carbon CC work for its pay so yeah, you need a very powerful amp to drive them. Now finally, how do they sound... pretty damn nice actually. 🙂 This is off the Carbon CC prototype in my rig right now and they are very balanced sounding, slightly dark sounding but very mellow and open. They are not overly forward or bright, unless when called to be and I can listen for a few hours with nothing bad to say really. Bass is plentiful and deep, midrange has a nice presence to it and the soundstage is pretty good. Top end is a tad dark but it is very mild and they make for a relaxing and pleasant package. So TL;DR... great headphones that are let down by being too inefficient, frankly unsafe transformer box and stupid cable/connector choices. Change the cable to Stax and drive them off a powerful amp and the sound is great.

There are far simpler ways of making that bias supply, a simple voltage divider off the B+ would work just fine. For the pro bias, I'd put an adjustable voltage doubler off the main transformer, see something like the original KGSS article on Headwise memorial.

Feel free to post pics and we'd be happy to take a look at them. You open up the top panel and there are cans inside of there you need to open up as well.

See the Megatron thread to read about everything Felista Audio... its about par with Jr audio in build quality.

Yup, never solder close to electrostatic drivers without covering them with something solid as any flux splatter with go right through them.

It is likely due to dust or some other debris inside the driver which is shorting between the film and the stator.

Here is the code: 1,3,6 is 100 volts 2,4,6 is 120 volts 3,5 is 220 volts 2,5 is 240 volts

I agree, if this isn't a loose wire then somehow a charge got stuck on the diaphragm. That should get back to normal over use so I'd just leave them sitting and playing music.

The 009 headband is such an utter pile of crap... The winner for the most stupid headband goes to one mystery electrostatic I'll be posting about soon.

Interesting how much is borrowed from the Omega but better implemented 30 years on. Funny to see only five rivets holding the earpads on as the sixth one interfered with the cable entry back then... One concern I have is the thin housing as on the original and how that might behave when pushing them. At least there is no fragile acrylic shell here which will break after 30 years...

I'm still waiting for my set and no word on when it will ship.

I always apply the port mod so my impressions are always with that in place.

There was a transition at some point in probably 2009 (though it could be earlier) that I noticed with the sets at Canjam '10. The midrange had this etch to it which nothing I could do to alleviate. The first sets of the Mk2 did not have that and when I finally bought another set of Mk2's in 2014 (or '13... can't remember) it was gone.

Those always sound a bit off (not as bad as the Mk2.5 units but still) so they are further down the list