spritzer

The soundstage on the SR-X Pro is much smaller and doesn't scale like the 007 so it is always on the small side.

The midrange on the SR-007 has this "stand out" feature but there is nothing unnatural about for me as it isn't a constant. It has more to do with how the small soundstage "interprets" a normal stereo image which places the key instruments in front of you and in the focal point. The treble on the 4070 is very good and certainly on par with the SR-X Pro. The 4070 is a closed headphone so you loose a bit of sparkle due to that but they are never harsh. Ruthlessly revealing, yes, but never harsh.

They are very different and the ESP10 drivers could even be something special in the right hands. They are heavily airdamped so no etch to worry about and work just fine off the Stax Pro bias. The ESP9 needs to TLC to sound ok but they will never even approach what Stax was doing at the time, let alone better it. Bypass all of the complicated Koss crap and open up the back of the drivers (there are PCB's directly on top of the drivers) plus some damping and they aren't half bad. It's much closet to the Pro version. The bass is quite similar and so is the slightly subdued midrange (compared to the SR-007).

I got your PM but I might just as well post it here. Electrostatic drivers make noises when something is wrong but the headphone drivers we use do not suffer from any bad effects due to the weather or the season like their speaker counterparts. The winters are pretty mild up here but I've never had any issues. The hum is then definitely not normal so the first thing to do it the check if it really is the headphone that is causing the problem. You didn't say what driver you were using so a tube slowly dieing could produce a hum sound or some other part of the system could be at fault. If the headphones are at fault then hum usually points to the bias leaking as some debris inside the driver will cause it to produce a static sound and even oscillate violently in very bad cases. This being an SR-Omega I would start off tightening the bolts on the back of the headphone. There are 5 hex bolts on the rear screen and of those two are fakes. bolts nr. 1,3 and 5 are used to secure the driver in place so tighten them but don't apply too much pressure. If that doesn't solve the problem then I would remove the earpads and secure the screws hidden underneath them. To remove the pads you have to loosen pins inside them with you fingernail. It's a sleeve that goes into the housing of the headphone and when the pin is inserted it expands. If none of this helps then it might be a problem with the bias connector on the drivers. The two stators are connected by soldered lead wires but the bias is connected by a mechanical connection which could go bad over the years. The cables inside the earcups could also have gone bad or the main cable but both are strong and not prone to fail. Now you could also have some dust inside the drivers so while you are working one them check the dust covers for any tears or holes. The best way to do so it to reflect light off the membrane as any non-reflective spots will be a sign that something is wrong. Your too cheap to use just about any plastic bag?

Then it's clear you need some Sigma pads in your life. PM me your address and I'll send them out on Monday. The 4070 headband could probably be arranged. I've never seen it listed though and since it is screwed into place (from the inside of the housing) Stax may not consider it "user replaceable" and thus not sell it.

If you need any help then just ask. I should have some old Sigma earpads if you want to try them as well.

I was more thinking about using the Lambda arc then the actual chassis and that seems to be more then possible. Do you know any good carpenters? You could also bug Steve or Gary...

Can't beat the ghetto look. Are the drivers about the same size as a Lambda housing or bigger? If you could use Lambda arc and a custom housing with a new baffle then it would be a very comfy headphone. As for the design... I really don't think they tried anything else. Just see Mr. Purtscheller who worked on the Floats and just continued that work. It can be very hard to break the mold...

Do tell young squire!! Better bass control I would guess plus some other improvements? Just spent a few hours trouble shooting my old Kenwood. It had been acting out for the last few years which I just chalked up to dirty contacts but it turned out to be a broken speaker selector switch. Easy to fix by simply bypassing it but now I have to find a new amp to test Stax adapter boxes...

I've never even tried to find any but some open celled 1/2" stuff should do. There is a thicker material at the bottom but it should be easy to separate the two.

I'm not sure that the old forks work with the arc and wise versa. I'm pretty sure I tried it once but can't remeber if it worked or not.. They probably wanted the S/N to see if you had bought the headphone from them.

Happy Birthday!

You would love the SR-X Mk3 Pro then. It takes all the good aspects of the normal bias model and better them plus adds some much needed bass presence, not a whole lot though but it goes deep, very deep, and they have a bit of a soundstage as well. You should also try the 4070 since it is a more modern version of the SR-X but they sound similar.

That's not a bad idea and perhaps shorten the legs a bit too. Finding a car I can drive for more then 5 minutes has proved tricky...

Don't have a scanner... I need to buy one though as I have quite a bit of old reviews collected.

There are about 12-15mm of clearance but I did form the arc so that it rises a bit higher then it should i.e. I moved most of the bend which should be closest to the ears over to the whole arc.

They were just fine, the earpads aren't particularly comfy but that's not my fault. I also can hardly use the HE90 due to limited range on the arc and I wear all of the Stax phones at maximum extension (not the SR-Omega but they have an extra 12mm at each side). No beard and or a horned helmet... I do scare small children so that they run away or they look at me utterly bewildered.

(hides in shame as Jecklin Floats won't even fit my huge head...)

In some Stax news, I just got one of the few reviews I know of the SR-Omega/SRM-T2 combo but sadly it is in German. Needless to say it is in "Absolute Spitzenklasse 1" Stax. Here is the service list on the Japanese version of the Stax site and the SR-5 pads are still listed as being in stock.

Brilliant as I was just looking for that info. Time to gut the old KGSS chassis and put a BH in there...

Is there another Hubble type of incident looming...?

What about adding a fixed attenuation to the cable going from the Gamma to the Mini? It's just a couple of resistors for each channel, tied to ground.

I do want those but it's a few grand just to get them up and running again. The TOTL Stax speaker was the 8X-BB... which stands for battery bias.

I have way too many project to add on a Dynafet but I could do with some k389 replacements...