astrostar59

I didn't. My KGSShv has a server so I am thinking it would be balanced (no DC). I thought about testing the bias but didn't know which pad to pick that up on. Have you heard of issues with over voltage in a KGSShv?

A surgical blade and slicing it off like a wood planer, works best i think. Then when you are only left with a smear, wipe that off with a damp cloth with your thinners on, that way keep it tight and not allow liquid to drift into the drivers. By using a releasing chemical on that much glue will end up with a dangerous sticky blob. By taking 97% of it off with a blade, you are only left with a thin film.

Hi Arnaud I am sorry to hear your BHSE has gone wrong again. Will you sent it back to Justin this time, as I think last time you replaced the IEC yourself? I am glad you seem ok now with the slow blow. Wonder of your mains wavers around out of spec? I live in a modern apartment and mine did so I got a PS Audio P10. I can set it now at rock solid 220v and 0.1 distortion. Right out of the wall it can be anywhere between 220v - 258v and distortion of 2.8% on busy periods of the day.

I have no idea how or if frequency response measurements are accurate or can be trusted to be 'real world' results. But IMO the listening experience between those models is vast, so I would say ignore those measurements.

Interesting. I was looking at this as a project using the Soekris board. But looks like the guy has stopped making them. There are a few newbies on the block developing this right now. A nice tube line stage would make a very nice unit indeed. TotalDAC watch out.....

Oops, do they produce anything in Australian? I though they got it all off a boat... Only kidding. Hey New Zealand have Plinius.

Copyright theft in China is on an altogether higher level. It is country wide and almost encouraged. Did you know there are clone Apple Centres in China that have staff dressed in 'official' Apple uniforms and selling 'Apple' products which are clones. Apple has struggled with the Chinese government to close them down as there are strong regional laws in each province that allow this kind of behaviour. What is bizarre is Apple assembles the iPads and iPhone at a tech city in China, thus the 'designed in California' sticker, avoiding the made in China tag. Many well off Chinese travel to London just to buy genuine products. It is a joke. There are many badly made products not fit for purpose, the Chinese are polluting their own cities and turning the world into a landfill site i.e. products made to last lest than 12 months and discarded. They even made childrens milk that was poisoning kids in the name of profit. It is down to commercial corruption. Many Chinese don't trust their own government, it is effectively a dictatorship not a democracy. The made in China sticker makes me want to run away TBH, just like the flood of dangerous toys made for kids in HK in the 80's. They killed so many Tibetans and destroyed the buildings, then realised it was a tourist attraction, so began 'protecting' the region. Then they ate Panda's and realised that was a tourist attraction as well. It is all about money rant rant. So where is the best place to make audio products I wonder? USA and the UK come to mind, and Iceland of course.

Get the current production 007A, it is the best 007 I have heard, really close to the MK1. The MK1 is now too old IMO to make a sensible purchase as a main phone.

I don't think that is correct. There is copyright protection and there is general plagiarism. It that amp was shown to steal 95% of the original it could indeed be fought in the courts. Russia and China seem to expect to get away with these things, but companies that pursue this usually get results (compensation and sales blocking).

Ok, that is good news then.

Hi All Anyone heard this commercial KGBH? Looks nice but no idea how good it is built. http://www.fluxlab-acoustics.com/Products/18

Most capacitors have 1000 hours at either 85°C or 105°C unless they are for special applications. I wonder what the temperature at the capacitor on the power supply of a Carbon (for example) sit at in normal operation. The heat sinks would be say 20°C above ambient, so maybe 45°C but the capacitor sat on a PCB some distance away would be much lower I suspect, maybe 35°C. Thus a long life should of 10,000 hours be pretty much expect. The life of any electrical component is not just the heat in operation, there is the cooling down and warming up when switched on and off and the 'thermal shock'. Plus a surge of electricity on switch on. It is possibly why some amplifier manufacturers recommend leaving it on 24/7?

The addition of the HDPlex 12V DC supply to the Ma Mini with the MMK Uptone Audio kit was remarkable. It took it to another level, more dynamics, better bass, quieter background and smooth treble. The soundstage also increased. It has left spinning CDs in the dust TBH, and illustrates to me how good USB audio can be. I also use an M2Tech USB/SPDIF convertor and the TotalDAC USB cable / filter. But the power supply to the Mac `mini made the biggest difference. I would strongly recommend it.

I use a glass bell jar as you may have seen.The complication with storing / protecting headphones is the moisture and humidity. I got some white mold haze growing on my old 007s which I put down to storing them too quickly in the ali case after use. So IMO a protection needs to be provided that has a degree of escape for the air inside. This ironically then can allow dust in. I cut 6 small holes in the top of my bell jar for the air flow to rebalance with the outside. It seems to work. After my 009s broke last week, I am to have a rethink. I really want the old drivers taken apart to see what happened, to demonstrate wether the failure was dust, static charge or something else. I will try and get the repair shop to give m,e the broken driver, though they may insist it goes back to Stax. I'll keep you guys posted for those with concerns over the 009 imbalance issue.

Cool Dave. Would you take it off when the amp is in use?

I understand. So basically nobody other than Stax tech can repair / save a problem driver. I was thinking that may be the case. The Carbon does indeed sound the amplifier for me then, thanks Spritzer.

So they can be taken apart like a Lambda more or less spritzer? If they break beyond my warranty I may have to try that.... But unless it is dust or ants, I can't see what can be fixed i.e. cleaning duties only. BYW while I have your attention, do you still think the Carbon is the best SS amp for the 009s? Even better than the Sanyo KGSShv (which is warm sounding).

Interesting points on here. I wonder if the 009 drivers (out of warranty of course) are user repairable? I spotted an old thread on the ealier Stax drivers and they seemed to come part ok. My thought on this failure rate on the 009s. Could it be something as obvious and simple as the fact the very nice looking aluminium frames and driver surrounds are conductive to static. Maybe they are lacquered but any edge or bare aluminium on there will grab any static from the user and transfer that straight to the drivers. The old and current Lambdas have plastic frames and supports for the drivers, and the 007 is painted and / or material covered. Moving on from this theory (paranoia) I have ordered a humidifier to reduce my dry climate house....

I run a Mac Mini tweaked up. The biggest upgrade I did to it was fitting the Uptone Audio MMK board, so I can run it on 12V DC from an external Linear Power Supply. I use the HDPlex 150 Watt unit. I would recommend this setup to anyone wanting a Mac based server. I use Audirvana+ which can now be controlled by an iPad if required. I use ethernet to screen share with it, and turn everything else off that is not used inc Bluetooth and system software not critical. It is way better now than my CEC CDP unit. The other thing on the USB subject, I use the TotalDAC D1 USB Filter which cleaned up the treble a lot, it sounds very noon digital now (better) yet is still as transparent. Last tweak I can think of on this subject, a good USB/SPDIF convertor can sometimes surpass the built in USB input on many DACs unless they are very well designed and at a certain budget level. It proved to me that USB audio can sound as good or better than spinning the silver discs. I have no experience with DSD or PCM streaming, my DAC doesn't support that, but I have heard a Lampizator 6 which was very nice, very similar in sound to my DAC.

Good point guys. I am sold, switch of when time for bed! I like the joke about Audio Note repairs Ha Ha. Having said that, I had an M3 pre-amplifier by Audio Note that blew after my house got struck by lightning. They replaced the whole amp, no question asked....

Interesting points on here. I wonder if the 009 drivers (out of warranty of course) are user repairable? I spotted an old thread on the earlier Stax drivers and they seemed to come part ok. It is on page 409 of this thread.

Thanks guys, I will from now on start switching off overnight. My reason for leaving gear on was the user manual from Plinius say leave their power amplifier on all the time. Also other manufacturers say the same such as Audio Note. I think the idea is thermal shock and power surge on switch on does more damage than sat there ticking away. My Plinius is Class A/B as default and pull low current and is barely warm. Obviously this does not apply to amplifiers of DACs using tubes.

Hi Guys I run a KGSShv that take about an hour to warm up and sound 100% performance. Because of that I tend to leave it on all the time unless I am going away for a few days. My question, is it ok to do that and leave the headphones plugged in, or is it best to power down? The headphones would i guess get a 580v bias but no music signal during this time.

Hmm might have spoken too soon. The volume on the left side is still down about 5-8% I estimate. Enough to make me feel like I am falling over to the right side. The right frames vibrated more than the left on bassy tracks as well so I not imagining it. I will need to send them in for a warranty claim I think. No sense in hoping it resolves itself. I have 6 weeks of warranty left luckily. I hope the Stax service are on board with it. Lets face it, they are 3K headphones, makes no sense to accept an imbalance this big. OK it's not 50% out to a failure, but kinda ruins the stereo image.

Hell you are THE DUDE, I just smacked my 009s on the left frame and it seems to have worked. My goodness!!!!!!! My hand still hurts though. I showed it who's boss alright, smack that bitch up. Now to run them overnight and see if it is all ok. You know, this could be the reasons why many are getting the imbalance and get 'fixed' on the flight back to Japan? All the pressurisation and slowly reducing to normal atmospheric (plain lands). Well my plain has landed, nice, no go grab me a Rammstien track and turn it up. Oh life is worth living isn't it?