Smeggy

I'd bet the Sony ECR-500 transformer could drive the O2 (with external bias feed) it has much higher output than the Stax boxes.

Happy Burfday Purk!

Sweet, another lucky bastard O2 owner. As jealous as I may be, I hope you enjoy them. ...bastard

Roast chicky followed by a Ice cream cone.

Hmmm, well bugger! I'd like some deep and angled pads for them. I stuffed some foam at the back of the SR-5 pads which helped but I like full ear clearance. It's surprisingly hard to locate good pads that don't cost a fortune. If anyone has suggestions, I'm all ears.

I made the cups a fairly compatible size of about 95mm so many pads will fit either over the lip or on the face. I've been thinking about the Beyerdynamic gel pads for room and super sealing, O2 pads would also fit but that's getting spendy again. I'd hate to spend more on stupid earpads than I did for the phones, nice as they are.

Cheers Reks Comfort is surprisingly good, not stax strap good but very good all the same. The padding is soft and they have ample overall contact so it doesn't get sore. Much better than that shitty Stax SR-X headband. Also better than Senn 600/650, 701 and many others. I do need better earpads, the SR-5s are a bit shallow and sweaty. I looked at a pic of the originals and feel that my set looks way more seksy, but then, I am biased.. unlike these electrets. hehe. http://www.linaeum.com/images/sony_ecr500/ecr500_1_small.jpg Wood makes stuff pretty.

I'm still trying to figure out how people find time to read books, watch films, tv shows, listen to music, do DIY, work, commute, do chores and all the rest.... no time. I need a 30 hour day!

Mine came with the mounting block that screws onto the spindle like the one in this pic.. http://tool-corral.com/shopsite_sc/store/html/media/W1752.jpg Woodcrafters sells them. It's a quick way to do cups.

Heh, I'd want to bypass all the cmoy stuff and delve right into a Blue Hawaii and likely kill myself

Awesome! You guys make some really cool stuff. I wish I had the brains/skills to make neat amps 'n stuff.

Thanks Pars. Steve and me both just bought new lathes, so, er, yes

No chuck. It's a disk of rock maple screwed to the lathe block and I mount my working wood with turners tape so I can cut right through it The drill holes in the blanks and mount are so I can center the blanks easily.

The Sony transformer is really simple inside and only has two bridging components per channel aside from the transformers.

I did some more surgery tonight and stripped out all the excess switch crap from the Sony transformer, replaced the input wire and took the easy way out connection-wise by just welding some banana sockets to the outputs and bananas on the headphone cable. Simple but effective. Going to make a nice box for the transfo seeing as I have to look at it. The Sony transformers look about 50% bigger than the Stax ones. After re-attaching it the bass was back. So it seems they definitely do something different. On top of that, the mods have recovered that recessed treble and they sound much better balanced overall and closer to the Staxe highs with more bass while retaining that sweet mid section. I'm very pleased so far.

Thanks Birgir, They sound great as-is, so long as there isn't huge bass going on which many of my records have, then it farts and gives up unless you turn it down, then the bass comes back out. They play merry havoc with weak amps and Stax transfos. They are far and away the biggest pig to drive of anything I've owned. No weedy amps for these bad boys

Yeah, The sony needs way more juice than the Stax box can deliver. I did wire the + earside, I don't know which of the Stax 6 pins are the + and -. I'm assuming the middle and top pis are bias, is that right? I'll probably bypass the speaker switch too to keep the signal path simple and clean while I'm in there.

Thanks all. They do sound nice and I'm listening to them now with the hafler. One problem though, the Stax transformers don't seem to have the windings/guts of the Sony. There's distortions going on in the lowest registers so I may need to go back to the Sony transformer with a Stax socket fitted. They are significantly different inside and the Stax box isn't doing it. More soldering tonight as I have a spare SRD-6 to steal a socket from Spritzer, do you know what 4 Stax Gamma plug pins correspond to the Sony plug pins so I don't wire it wrong? I don't have a test meter. For those uufamiliar with the ECR, here's a pic of unmodded ones. http://www.linaeum.com/images/sony_ecr500/ecr500_1_small.jpg

Soon my friend, soon. I need some quality time with them first.

Bwahaha

Mine, all mine.. mwahahaha! I won't know for a little bit what sonic changes there are as my Firestone 'Big Joe' isn't big enough and runs out of steam and distorts before it reaches normal listening levels. They need big-ass Hafler power to work well but that's at work in my office. At least it looks

Cool, I'm glad you're liking them. I'm one of those who prefers the old SR-lambda to the 404 but it's just a personal preference. I like the rehoused Gamma Pro best of all. Just spectacular to my ears... but I have strange ears.

I got a set Sony ECR-500 Electrets from Fungi recently and decided to have a play Insides of ECR. Stripped and cleaned. Getting ready to whittle Whittled! Testing for fit. Parts for assembly. Cable in and felt lining. All assembled. Last shot. Fun little project for the weekend and sounds great.

Thanks Birgir, as I suspected, thanks for the confirmation. Modding underway. I may start a wee photo diary of my progress in the DIY forum.

I need help from our technical Staxies. I'm going to replace the ECR-500 cable with a Stax Gamma cable and need to know which of the Gamma leads is + and - so I don't blow up the Sony electrets I'm going to run the Sony ECR from a Stax transformer. Pics... ECR-500 Stax Gamma I'm off to make new cups for them shortly and hope to be all done this weekend, so any help would be appreciated. I think I know but want to make sure