spritzer

Pictures don't really do it justice though but the SR-? is still the looker of the gang. It is the HPS-1 and as you can see, two different versions of it. There are at least four individual ones but the changes are minor and the basic design is always the same.

Your wish is my command. The group shot is a little blurry but the other ones are quite good for my crappy lighting. More bass presence yes but the Mk1 goes a bit deeper. It's been getting better as the BH warms up and now it doesn't bother me as much as before but the excess bloom is still there. As a point of reference I have tuned my SR-007 to have very little bass bloom compared to something like a Lambda but reach even deeper as a side effect. That may be coloring my opinions a bit but this is still a bass heavy headphone compared to the mk1.

With the Blue Hawaii and DAS-R1 still warming up the bass bloat is still there even though the bass is much better controlled. I'm going to try bending the arc a bit now to try and tame it.

When I press the earpieces closer to the head the bass is more controlled and like the Mk1 bass so there could be some tweaking involved here to tame the bass. It is impressive at first, similar to the HE90 bass in fact though not as bad, but gets tiring after a while. There are plenty of Mk1's out there so finding one shouldn't be too hard.

So DHL finally got off their ass and delivered the SR-007A to me about an hour or so ago. First impressions are that I don't really like the new earpads as they are far too loose on the headphones. That would explain the total lack of a Stax fart though and the more enthusiastic bass response. They don't grip the head as well so an improvement for some but not for me. So me of the other tweaks are nice though as stronger elastic to hold the headband in place and the real leather used under the headband. A nice salute to the old SR-? which was clearly the inspiration for the earpads and the new cable entry. I like the new silver color and those that have seen pictures of my Blue Hawaii know why... Since the APL has a broken wire in the output stage and I still haven't received word on where it is supposed to go I'm listening to them out of my computer setup. That's for now a Corda Aria acting as a DAC feeding a SRM-1 Mk2 P.P amp with what ever music I have stored on my server, mp3, FLAC etc. Hardly cutting edge but it will have to do for now. First impressions are of the bass mostly which is very much larger then life and has way too much presence. This is in part due to the amp used but the larger air cavity of the new earpads is the major culprit. There were complaints from many Mk1 owners that the earpads were not deep enough so Stax changed the sound spring inside the they are pushed further away from the base plate. There is some midrange coloration but I can't quite put my finger on it yet but the rest is all good so far.

It can be tough to see it but reflowing (heating it up so the solder melts and resets) the joint is an easy fix and won't harm anything. I would only do something like this after having tested the amp in a few different systems with different wiring, power supplies and in different parts of the house on separate breakers.

It's most likely the amp. They are pretty easy to open up with only 4 screws on the bottom but sliding the shell off can be problematic due to the plastic sheet stuck to it. I'd suspect the pot as they were a known issue with these amps but it could be a bad solder joint on the RCA sockets as well.

Have you tried different interconnects and some other source? It could also be a loose connection on the pot that is shorting into the case.

Very cool!!!

The plug fits into a Stax socket on this one so that's an improvement...

Ahh... that puts a small snag on the whole thing. You could just replace the diodes and check the input voltage into the bias circuit to see if it is up to spec.

Is it mil-spec?

Very nice!!!

It is. They've also come up with larger diameter now so they can also be used for the power wiring.

That must cost extra then...

No way dude!!!??!!

If it is the Jupiter wire then it is very good indeed.

Blah... find the Stax F-81 with the amp busting sensitivity of 78dB/W/1m. The stators were also uninsulated so the diaphragm just arced if you drove them too hard.

There is definitely something wrong with the bias circuit so I'd send the amp back.

Sound Lab?? Stunning speakers to say the least...

It's the standard Headamp "Hybrid PSU" board used in both the old BH and the KGSS. The amp board is also from Headamp so I'm guessing Justin sold them to him.

With the amp set to RCA the - side of the amp is grounded.

Me too by a huge margin. A lot of them yes...

The circuit board is held by two screws on each side but there are lots of things that could have been done better. Sound is good but I don't have any bass now for some peculiar reason as it was there initially... \