spritzer

Electrets can (in theory at least) have the same problem as electrostatics where a charge of the wrong polarity sits on the film and impedes its movement. Sony thought it was a large enough problem to design semi conductive driver housings to prevent it from happening.

Ditto. Group buy?

Your doing this the wrong way... The 007 is more neutral on better amps because then the amp isn't limiting the performance of the phones. The amp can be neutral sounding but lack power (and the other way around) but the end result of how an ES transducer behaves will always depend on the amp not being a factor and being able to feed drivers all the power they need with enough left over for peak transients. If the amp can't supply enough current to keep the voltage in the treble region from sagging then that is hardly the headphones fault. Stax could have done what they did with the Mk2/A and changed the character of the phones to suit their lackluster amps but that's a terrible idea in my book. When the MDR-R10 was designed there were no dedicated headphone amps to speak of so should Sony have tailored it to play well on a walkman? No, they made the best phones they could and even made a speaker amp adapter so the phones could be driven by a good amp. The 717 does do a respectable job with the 007 but the 007t or any of the other tube amps are a bad match to say the least. I've been living with the 717 now for 7 months and while I can't wait for the BHSE the small Stax amp does a respectable job. It's not what I'd call fully neutral but for less then 700$ it's a steal. The Stax amps under performing doesn't reflect badly on the headphones in any way as making a great headphone is a lot cheaper then making the amp to match them. The SR-007 is a very thought out design and built so that they could get maximum performance without any crazy ideas such as mesh stators or other such lunacy. Amps are tougher as you need heavy items such as transformers and heatsinks coupled with transistors that run for a few $ a pop. That's why Stax will always be very financially constrained when making amps as they are only getting max 30% of the retail price for each unit sold (basic retail rule of thumb). The amp actually costs 1/3 to 1/5 of that 30% to make and the rest covers all manners of overhead (manufacturing rules of thumb). With these margins you are very limited in every way and a small increase in the cost of manufacture grows exponentially. If Stax were to make something like the BHSE then it could never be made under 15k$ and would probably be closer to 20k$. While the Stax amps aren't dark sounding it is their limited power output that makes the 007 sound like poo. If it were simply a matter of how the amp would sound then we would all buy an Egmont and be blissfully ignorant, rolling caps and tubes like crazy to achieve some sound we were after. That sadly isn't the case and the needs of the 007 still haven't been fully met though I can assure you it is being worked on...

It's always handy to have a sledge hammer around if you want to cave somebodies head in. Since we are on the subject of Thor, the story about him wearing a drag to get Mj

I do. The new printers for the food industry are amazing and make something like that Coke bottle possible.

Yup, called Mj

Well I do have some resemblance to my mythical namesake though I lack the beard.

There is no doubt in my mind that Stax tried to tame the top end of the phones deliberately. That's why the open area of the stators is so small i.e. air damping which provides the diaphragm with a cushion of air to prevent it from oscillating. This also changes the electrical parameters of the drivers so you need more power to open up the treble. You really need the BHSE and some good silver cables.

Awwww chucks....

Some phones do need a rig tailored to their needs as it were. The HE90 doesn't play well with a DC-coupled amp and needs something to color the sound, be it a bad choice of tubes or some caps. The Lambdas don't need all that much power driving them as the housing can be overloaded making the usual colorations even worse. The Sigma's are the complete opposite as they need something clean and powerful to overcome the limitations of the design and make them really sing. I for one do think that most popular transducers are to bright. Could be that they are made by old farts, for old farts but they simply don't sound natural to my ears. Some voice their gear to impress and a relaxed treble presentation isn't something that will impress 99% of listeners. As for the SR-007, drive them off the 007t, or some other low power amp, and have no clue how to wear them and you will end up with a dark, bass heavy mess. Feed them well in a neutral system, with the correct fit, and I don't think they are dark at all. Do they lack the excessive treble energy of the SR-Omega and He90? Yes, but those phones are simply excessively bright and have the etch to prove it.

Happy birthday old bastard...

Now that Elephas has had some personal time with his leather pads the war can go on... For less then 100$ then the electrets aren't bad but don't spend much more then that. All Stax amps have the SRM prefix but the SRA is for the intergrated amps which had some kind of a preamp function.

I have a bunch of NIB (new in bag) SR-X pads and no headphones for them so feel free to drop me a line when you need them.

It's a truce then. The pads do look worse as they age but clean them with some leather cleaner/conditioner and they look like new.

I have some new SR-X pads that I can sell you at less then what AC is asking for them.

That's nothing, one Omega at best. I always buy more parts then I need and always forget I have them later on. Earlier today I bought some 600 LED's which I'll probably forget about in a year and buy some more... It's the same OFC cable. If it had gold plated pins then it would be the rare black PC-OCC cable. There is some debris stuck inside the driver causing that buzzing. The bad news is that the Lambda drivers are almost impossible to disassemble and then put back together to clean it out. \ Try discharging the driver and blowing into it but that's about the only thing you can do.

I've only been so organized with the stuff I've been selling the last year or so and it is a frightening read coupled with all the post office receipts. \ Do any of you keep a detailed list of what you have bought and at what price?

You know that power is over rated anyway... We are clearly both wasting out time with all those huge caps, transformers etc.

He's working on a new version so two years...?? Just kidding but I'm not sure if he will make any of the older ones as parts like the K389's are near unobtainium.

That's how it starts but before you know it you have 50 Stax phones and no idea how you got there...

It's a whole different ballgame damping 'stats where less is usually more so you can try swapping out the wool with something else. The SR-X has a metal grill to protect the driver but they sit right on the ear. The Gamma's aren't really that rare and can be found quite cheap if you look hard enough.

While a ES driver behaves like a cap they aren't the same since you have to deal with damping and the load impedance presented on the diaphragm. Due to this and other factors the basic shape of an ES impedance curve is like a bell causing them to draw a lot of power at the treble and bass. If this wasn't the case then why did Stax and KG design amps with that massive current source on the output stage instead of a simple plate resistor?

The screws do indeed have to be fully seated or the drivers are loose inside the cups which is not good. You could remove the damping on the back (the yellow wool) but you still have the acoustic lens in the front so it won't do you much good. Your best be would be to get some Pro drivers in there or get a Gamma/Sr-X to try out. The Mk1 grow on you for a couple of weeks and then compare to the Mk2. Only then you'll see the light...

The earpads can make or break a planar headphone so I have no doubt that they are better but the problem would be which version you are getting... Perhaps Faust(of an undecided dimension) would care to disclose where he bought his?

They are indeed capacitors so their impedance varies with frequency. It can dip very low in the bass and treble while the midrange is pretty benign but the amp must overcome this above all else. High slew rate and a low output impedance are vital as well but if the amp can't maintain a stable output voltage into any load then you have bigger problems. As for the sound comparison, the BH is even more pure then the KGSS let alone something like the 717 I'm using now. I'm eagerly awaiting the BHSE and I have no doubts that it will be superb but I have a new DIY BH lined up just in case I like the older one better. One thing is clear, the synergy with the old BH and the SR-Omega is something that has to be experienced.