spritzer

The older Lambdas don't have drivers anywhere near as good as the new ones do so the housing is what is bad. Just listen to the 4070 as it is the exact same headphone in a different housing.

They are much more musical (effortless) and transparent (thus ruthlessly revealing) then dynamics though the bass is much drier and mot with much slam unless you use an amp from team boat anchor. Despite that they can (the good ones that is) show much more bass information then any dynamic while having plenty of bass bloom. What you really must get used to is the SR-007 ripping your system a new one and exposing every flaw and taunting you to fix them. They are also cheaper then dynamics to get into as a 2050 system costs about 500$ and that is about the same as a HD650 with some crappy cable and no amp. That being said not all 'stats fall under this "rule" so phones like the He90 sound like a dynamic with all the bass problems they have and the electrets were often so badly made that they sounded like a bad dynamic.

Yup they are recabled with the old Stax PC-OCC cable used on the Lambda Signature and Sigma Pro. There was some channel imbalance but it seems to have subsided but using the ESP950 with a Stax Pro bias supply is just nuts. They simply sound like crap compared to the E/90 bias supply while being driven by a Stax amp. No more bloated bass and a generally recessed sound signature. I also got some old electrets made by Phillips, Phillips N6325 and Aristona EK400, which have the transformers in a small hub on the cable so they use a normal headphone connector (TRS and DIN). This is the same headphone at the core but the Aristona has a channel imbalance while the Philips has the lovely 5-pin DIN plug and I have no adapter.

Time for a bump. I got a care package from Switzerland today and it contained two headphones I've been waiting for, Koss ESP950 (recabled by APS) and Aurex HR-1000, a vintage Toshiba with very unique electret drivers. I've left the Koss to charge overnight so the Aurex gets center stage. It was athe TOTL model in a very extensive range of headphones that are mostly forgotten now. It comes with a solid aluminum block that houses the transformers while the phones them selfs are very lightweight and quite comfortable despite being supra aurals. The sound is much like the Stax SR-X line, very midrange centric, but the bass is loose, flabby and rolled off while the treble is a bit rolled off as well. They can't reach the detail level of the little Stax. They are also a bit claustrophobic but the backwave is highly damped so I might need to open them up and change the stuffing. The midrange is stunning though and certainly on par with the Fostex T-50 and Stax SR-X. Here you can see some pics of them as I'll have to wait until tomorrow to snap some. You can also see the price so at 35kYen they were around the same price as a SR-Lambda so high-end indeed.

I didn't compare them directly but I did compare them against a known reference and I preferred the 717. I found the 727 to be too warm and slow for my liking.

Yeah the SR-001/3 cable is much too small in diameter. A nice 18AWG Jena Labs is a necessary upgrade, it's so cool looking and easy to manage.

He could make a cable for the SR-Omega though...

It should be a linear process but there are many other factors then burn in that can affect the sound. If the AC line drops by a few volts the sound completely changes and also if some other gear is contaminating the AC. It is a bit sad to think about it when I started this hobby burn in and cables were accepted but still debated but now we have this uber acceptance of them when they are even though to cure cancer and transform your crappy ipod into a high end source. Then we have some idiots that think burn in can make the components worse...

I dunno. I should just have said I paid 2$ for it and it would be here now. In their eyes everybody is a criminal and getting something without paying for it is something that doesn't happen... except on Christmas when I never have to pay anything.

I wouldn't dare to say that the new Single Power, tube powered cable, won't beat everything under the sun. I don't know how we could do without it. We also all know that the ES-2 is the best amp ever made and it is so pretty too...

He looks happy but looks can be deceiving... I just got a nice confirmation that cables make or break an Omega system. I hadn't used the Blue Hawaii for a while so I turned it on and started to listen to some old best of disc that was in the drive and I though the Mullards were giving up the ghost or there was something wrong with the SR-Omega as there was no low level bass detail and it just sounded odd. The tubes were fine but I had replaced my own DIY cables with Kimber Silver Streaks some time ago and forgot about it so I swap them out, rewind the last minute of the song and there is my low level detail and smooth highs. Who says cables don't matter and this is with my temporary source, a 1987 DAC...

Mine has arrived but is stuck with customs. I should get it soon though.

Fostex T-50 Mk1 FTW!!!! It's the only ortho I've heard so far but it is supposed to be a good start. I did do something very unusual for an ortho, I removed the stock damping and run them open. It's most direct competitor is the SR-X mk3 (normal or pro) and the T-50 can't quite match the speed of the 'stat but more then make up for it with increased dynamics. The SR-X Pro is pretty much neck and neck with the ortho though and has much better detail retrieval, larger soundstage and more comfort. I should get my Aurex HR-1000 soon so I can add a Uni-electret supra aural to the stable and see how it compares to the other supra aurals.

Ok....quite a bit... Happy now...? :'(

Well I am a bit nuts...

They need to be on adapters well clear of the PCB so they will be standing proud out of the top of the amp.

Me too. It's also good 1cm wider then the socket and heavy (87gr) for such a small tube.

I'll find some more for you since well... I need some more...

You know it all already. I'm not going to fight any more for tubes then I have to... Edit: Btw. Did you get my email?

What a wise thing to do. I really wished I could do that instead of having 20 odd projects on the back burner.

It's simply brilliant. Gotta love stop motion animation.

Wuss!!

I think your post count (4070) is telling you to use those sockets for a Blue Hawaii...

We are keeping it off the forums for now.

That's exactly the problem. I've looked at Lundahl and Sowter (check out their 4342 transformer) and they will push the price close to 1k$ in an instant. It would be much cheaper to buy an older SRD-7 and build a new bias supply for it. I have the SRD-7 Mk2 schematic somewhere around here if you need it. That will never make the SRD-7 trafos a good match to the SR-007 as they simply can't deliver the power needed but are still a good budget way to come close to the holy grail.