spritzer

He was here and is the reason why you can't edit your posts. We don't want that ignorant fucktard here pushing his crappy Ultrasones.

I too would blame this on the source as the Mk1 is as smooth as the come but will reveal everything the source spits out. The noise level at the meet may have been too high but they are almost impossible to miss. It sounds like a high pitched plastic squeal though.

Wait what??!!?? Etch on the Mk1? The SR-Omega has it but that's something I've never heard from a 007, be it a Mk1, Mk2 or my hybrid.

Most headphones are indeed easy to measure but electrostatics are special. The amps are far from sufficient and the fit makes or breaks the sound... now you know why I call normal dynamics boring. Ask Smeggy to whip up for you a SR-007 earpad adapter and find a Gamma headband. That makes them far more comfortable.

Depends on the PSU used. Many use a universal switcher supply that should work on 230v.

Wow... just wow.

Indeed, knowing the basic measurements should confirm what we are hearing but even getting those basic measurements would involve a lot of trial and error. A small change in the pads is all it takes to break the seal.

That's easier said then done due to way the Sr-007 frame is designed. Getting the correct fit is a necessity so while that is easy enough to do by ear it's hard to do on a dummy head. We can leave the subjective part of listening and concentrate on the fundamental rules that govern how the drivers will behave. We can start off with port loading and why it isn't a good idea. Planars are tricky beast and one of the most common problems is the backwave canceling out the bass. With speakers this is usually "fixed" by placing the speakers far from the back wall and by placing something that will diffuse the backwave to the rear of the speakers (look up the Sound Lab "Sallie"). Another way is to increase the size of the baffle as that will allow the speaker to produce deeper bass. The same applies to headphones and why you only see solid earpads on planars as the designers are trying to keep the backwave out and to extend the baffle. The SR-007 is close to airtight (the lovely squeal lets you know about that regularly) so Stax tried very hard to design them like that but then adding a port will let some of the backwave in again and make the baffle "appear" to be smaller. This is clearly audible and will show up on a well setup test. The other big part is the acoustic loading on the drivers or rather what the driver "sees". This is normally altered by damping but the distance from ear to the driver is just as important. This is why the Sigma phones are so much harder to drive then the Lambda equivalent which use the same drivers and why the height of the A/Mk2 drivers affects the sound so much (also why the Mk1 pads should be replaced regularly). The drivers need to be placed as close to ear as possible or damped heavily. The SR-Omega suffered for the distance with a mild upper midrange coloration but with the SR-007 Stax decided to go into hyper mode and damp the diaphragm more then they had ever done on a full size driver. With the A/Mk2 they should have increased the damping a bit more to make up for the distance but that clearly wasn't the case and is why I question the wisdom of this whole thing. The SR-001/3 is another example of a heavily damped driver. The drivers are the size of the housing but only open on less the a quarter of the whole surface area. I'd also like to see a detailed comparison of all the Omegas (including the Omega/007 hybrid) but we need more then an FR graph. What won't show up an a simple FR graph is how the chassis handles high volume so a waterfall is also needed. An impedance vs. FQ would also be nice.

Most P-P amps are built so that everything is fixed to the top plate and the bottom plate can be removed for service.

It's grave news indeed and now people are dragging humidity into this which certainly isn't the problem. The bias voltage is far too low for that ever to be a problem.

If you like the normal bias then you have to try a SR-X Pro. I've always found the normal bias Mk3 to be a bit blah so while it does some things well the SR-Lambda is a far better headphone all round. The Pro changed all of this as they do everything better and even have a respectable amount of bass. On another Jade related matter, it appears that the diaphragm coating has nothing to do with the static problems people are having. After a few PM's and a detailed study of Jade pictures it appears that Mr. He fucked up yet again and it's just plain old dust stuck inside the drivers. Now we all know that dust and ESP's don't mix so there has to be something to stop the dust entering the drivers. There are only two choices here, solid PVC or Mylar sheets lining the drivers or very fine woven nylon (different types available though). I've seen some other materials over the years but they've also been used for damping at the same time and not only as dust covers (the sheet at the back of the ESP/950 for instance). Stax has used and still uses both methods, usually a PVC film on the + side of the drivers and then several layers of nylon on the back. There were often glass wool damping layers on the back as well so nothing could get past it even on my nearly 50 year old SR-1. When the drivers are operating in open air (like the Omegas and SR-001/3) Stax puts solid PVC sheets on both sides of the drivers to make sure dust will never enter them. It appears though that the Jade is using a very coarse nylon mesh on the drivers which is far from sufficient to protect the drivers for their entire lifetime. Some may be lucky and never have any issues but others won't be so fortunate. I'll know more once I get a set here but this doesn't look good for a lifetime of service and it is so easy to change with minimal effect on the sound.

The Trends UD-10.1 also has AES/EBU along with RCA, BNC and Toslink.

Throw some led's underneath them and I'm sold!!!

I think it is just for looks alone to reflect the light off the tubes through the glass. I really don't get why they have all the preamp circuitry at the front and the PSU stuck in between. Color me crazy but I like short signal paths.

I'm more then ready for a new Senn HE but I'm not optimistic though...

Cool. Many have used Gamma headbands with the SR-X to make them comfortable but I'm all for Alex offering an alternative. Do you know if he'll be doing custom earpads too as there are some of use crazy enough for that. I'd love some real leather pads for my SR-Omegas.

He's also using Speakcon connectors for the umbilicals which aren't designed for these voltages. They can take them though but there are so many other options which are probably cheaper too. On the KGSS amps I built a few years ago I used the Powercon connectors which are very similar but one was blue and the other one gray with the sockets to match. Today I'd use the same connectors as Justin is using on the BHSE. He's referring to KG (probably due to my pulled thread listing the ES issues and KG's offer to repair a few amps) and it was KG who told me. I wasn't claiming that there wasn't anybody willing or able to repair SP amps out there as I was merely pointing out that KG wasn't willing to do so without dragging his name into it all. I should have included his name in the first place to eliminate all confusion but the fact is that no one has stepped forward and said, "I'll repair SP amps". You may very well find somebody to do so locally but not everybody is that resourceful. As for why this issue of unrepaired amps matters, well many have been sent in for repairs and Mikhail has done nothing. Kane's was probably the worst case, shipping the amp all the way from Africa, having the amp held hostage by Mikhail for months on end and then sending it back without fixing a single thing. If somebody did that to your car then you would probably sue them but the amp can cost more then a car and is many orders of magnitude less complicated.

Did he put any padding in the headband while he was at it? The SR-X is a great design but comfort is... uhhh... lacking.

The parts would be here in a month the earliest so I'm letting it cook for now.

In the post he pointed to the individual being a respected designer so while the guy that sorted the amp out of Purk is willing to do repairs, he wasn't referring to him. Any competent repair guy that knows about tubes can fix SP amps as the basic schematics are all out there. As for those 13 stepping forward, you know damn well why that will never happen. I've asked most of the individuals that contact me about issues with any component to come forward and tell others about it but they all fear retaliation. The best way for those people is to offer them a way out by posting the contact information of somebody willing to repair their amps. Btw. JP, your post is spot on

It did a bit better running overnight but it's still thin. I'm letting it cook now on my Shigaclone but I opened it up again and there are only 4 BG's in this unit. I'm thinking about swapping all the other caps for Elna Silmics.

While it certainly isn't a secret what transistors Justin is using now I'm not really sure why he would release the schematics.

There isn't a list of broken amps somewhere but I'll tell you the back story of those 13 I mentioned. There is an ES-1 for sale over on HF and in the listing the seller says he knows of an individual in the US that will repair SP amps. There is no truth to this but it's not hard to work out who he's talking about and last I heard there were 13 owners that had asked for help with their units.

I'm not talking about the Benchmark DAC1 but the AudioZone Dac1... I know, get creative with the names people!!! That is a very mellow NOS dac but with excellent bass for its simple design and a surprising amount of detail.