The Headcase Stax thread

[spritzer]

Licron is not available here and shipping anything under pressure is a no-go.  

The Comfort was available at my local store so I'll give it a go.  Nice consistency too and dirt cheap.  

[ludoo]

17 minutes ago, spritzer said:

Licron is not available here and shipping anything under pressure is a no-go.  

The Comfort was available at my local store so I'll give it a go.  Nice consistency too and dirt cheap.  

Share a pic please, once you verify it works. BTW I bought Licron from Farnell, they had no trouble shipping it to an EU country.

[chinsettawong]

5 hours ago, spritzer said:

Interesting, I'll see if I can find that locally.  Do you apply it with an airbrush or a sponge?  

Aumkar suggested to apply it with an airbrush, but I simply put a little on microfiber cloth and wipe it on the diaphragm.  After it dries, I buff it off.  It’s dirt cheap and working very well.  
 

Edited July 21 by chinsettawong

[spritzer]

2 hours ago, ludoo said:

Share a pic please, once you verify it works. BTW I bought Licron from Farnell, they had no trouble shipping it to an EU country.

We aren't in the EU and that muddles everything.  

1 hour ago, chinsettawong said:

Aumkar suggested to apply it with an airbrush, but I simply put a little on microfiber cloth and wipe it on the diaphragm.  After it dries, I buff it off.  It’s dirt cheap and working very well.  
 

I'll try that plus I should have some airbrush equipment somewhere.  I just made some new stators for my Senn HD6x0 design that I want to try out.  

[Pirx]

7 hours ago, chinsettawong said:

Aumkar suggested to apply it with an airbrush, but I simply put a little on microfiber cloth and wipe it on the diaphragm.  After it dries, I buff it off.  It’s dirt cheap and working very well.  
 

But what about humidity? It doesn't seems to be immune for it.

[chinsettawong]

4 hours ago, Pirx said:

But what about humidity? It doesn't seems to be immune for it.

Humidity is always a problem.  We'll just have to try and see.

[Timb5881]

Hey Spritzer, would static- guard anti static spray work?

[spritzer]

Probably, never tried it and it always a question how long the coating would last but well worth a try.  

[Kung]

Try an ATO alcohol solution with a concentration below 10% and add 1-2% volume of AEO7. This is the conductive coating I use now. It can make a transparent coating with a stable surface resistance of 10^8Ω

[judo]

My weakness I do not know these code words: ATO, AE07. I learned chemistry in a few decades ago if not in English.

....

I googled some Fatty Alcohol Polyoxyethylene Ether  and antimony doped tin-oxid. Where can you get these for kitchen tuning?

Edited Wednesday at 04:25 PM by judo

[spritzer]

Kevin warned me about that stuff as it is toxic if I remember correctly.  I have a rule of thumb, if Kevin says something is nasty stuff then I keep well clear.  

[Craig Sawyers]

Antimony compounds are no joke. Highly toxic.

[judo]

This can be a bit more complicated for example HCl is toxic in a short term NaCl is maybe in a long term  Antimony is in some solders and it can react in the real world so it depends.

Afaik AOT is not toxic. I think you can not solve directly the powder in alcohol you have to make a colloide with very little particles. So I thought that solution may be available. I am only curious I do not need this in the minute and I do not want your "secrets"  I asked about kitchen tuning because @Kung's highly pro achievements what I admire are definitely not available for me.

 

Edited Thursday at 10:44 AM by judo

[Kabeer]

On 7/20/2025 at 1:38 PM, spritzer said:

Yeah, pretty much.  

I was clearing up and found the broken X1's so time to do some tinkering.  Sure enough, one driver started failing after an hour or so it's trash at this point... time for something drastic.  I opened them up and nothing looks wrong so I just added some coating to the diaphragm, just a tiny bit.  It's been an hour now and they sound pretty much balanced so this might have worked but it adds another issue, are Stax having coating issues 65 years in?  

Another thing about the X1, the drivers are wired out of phase as in the + signal goes to the back stator.  Might be worth adding a cheater plug to these to reverse the phase to try out and the earpads on the X1 are clearly made by the same company as the 007S pads.  

Are most of the modern failures (X9000 etc) attributed to the driver coating too?

 

RE X1: interesting it's wired out of phrase from the factory! i did feel my X1, whilst sounding good, had a strange soundstage - it was like two walls of sound - and quite different than the other Stax I had. 
Did you try swapping these connections and did you notice the headphone sounded better?

[spritzer]

No idea as I've never had a broken set here to experiment on.  Based on this set the coating is definitely helping and I'm about 85% balanced now.  

The plan is to rewire them and see how much that changes.  I'm not a fan headphones being out of phase in general, I always reverse it on HE60's when I work on them as they are also wired out of phase from the factory.  

Edited Sunday at 10:15 PM by spritzer

[Hi-Fi-Anatomia]

I'm really thinking that they "gimped" the 007s design on purpose.... They moved away from the gold plated fiberglass electrodes to what appears as aluminum electrodes just like 009 and Lambdas. The outer area that was solid on the previous iterations of the 007 have also been reduced probably to reduce capacitance, but this decreases the damping on the membrane. I'm sure that the new 007 probably presents with a degree more of that midrange "rising response" that we see on nearly all the other STAX using similar design philosophy and brighter treble. The pads now resemble the dimensions of the 009 especially with the uniform opening. I think that a big part of the 007 sound was the D shaped pads which would distribute front volume modes better than a uniform circle.... 

The 007 was a distinct tuning in the line-up and they for reasons only known to god put it in line with the rest... Some sorta 009 lite design. I can't say I really like STAX sacrificing the engineering of their older models for "easier to drive" alternatives that don't sound as good....

 

Edited 12 hours ago by Hi-Fi-Anatomia

[Hi-Fi-Anatomia]

On 7/23/2025 at 4:45 AM, Kung said:

Try an ATO alcohol solution with a concentration below 10% and add 1-2% volume of AEO7. This is the conductive coating I use now. It can make a transparent coating with a stable surface resistance of 10^8Ω

Sorry for the double post, everyone.

I was curious how one sources AEO-7. Here in the US it seems very hard to get since most chemical manufacturers will only ship to industrial buildings and labs. It's not like I'm trying to buy a 1 ton drum of the stuff but alas..... 

[LostHisMarbles]

Long post, ADHD warning, am old school. With respect to the usual suspects and in danger of disrupting the circle-jerking? Which, by all means, keep at;

 

The 007 variants were as non STAX as they could possibly get.

 

- Certain people that would have found nirvana(tm) decades ago if only they'd bought a certain Sony, or specific Fostex/Audeze/Rosson headphones?

They elected not to. Went the hard way (read: "i ride the different rain", read: i just must spend more, read: i feel so refined), when all they'd have had to do was find the chain that would be best for said type of headphone; and between interface/transport, DAC, pre-amp, amp and cabling, it does exist and in infinite variations.

Only of course, they do not "believe" in chains, or do not "believe" in the need of a pre-amp, or do not "believe" in cabling, or, reasons. And instead, we're.. here. For nigh two decades now, congratulations One headphone gave them something they'd not heard before; but only because they were clueless, blame's on them for sheer ignorance.

Put differently if it helps, not sure when people needing anything (insert adjective) low end pronounced or focused went for STAX? I mean, since when exactly?

That's right, since never, not until that accursed thing came out.

And sadly it sold well rather than flopping; sadly, because it showed, even to STAX, where the curve is.

And i do blame each and every one for re-inforcing said conclusion (be it due to ignorance or monetary gain mind, yeah?). Find a few people with big pockets, there you go with the trend shifting, just like that. There were, are and shall remain many, many headphones for those folks, but.. they're not niche now are they. Where's the class, the individuality if you will.... if only you knew how many times i've seen this. Four+ decades and three continents over by now.

 

- Contrary to elitist, individualistic, circle-jerking-focused belief?

The world does not revolve around you. Sorry to break it to you.

Head phones requiring significant power, ergo headphones that require significant investment in amplification, are headphones most folk cannot buy, not if they know what they're doing (and folks usually don't, not even here; i do read). The money involved to do it right is just prohibitive.

You can have a halo product or two, as it drives sales all the way down, but you need a realistic approach.

What you're wishing for would close STAX down, not help it grow back up; may not seem so in this glass bubble of a virtual corner, but out there, that's where it'd lead. Competition in what you're after is beyond fierce and they're too old to play the social media hype game.

 

Entering the rest of the issues STAX faces, because those exist, yes.. nothing to do with 007 however, nothing at all.

Kindly keep it real and differentiate your bloated self-want from the expansive reality governing one entire ecosystem. Kindly.

 

Just because someone needed to say it. I mean we read your posts, if once in a while you get to read ours, yeah? 

[John Buchanan]

41 minutes ago, LostHisMarbles said:

Long post, ADHD warning, am old school. With respect to the usual suspects and in danger of disrupting the circle-jerking? Which, by all means, keep at;

 

The 007 variants were as non STAX as they could possibly get.

 

- Certain people that would have found nirvana(tm) decades ago if only they'd bought a certain Sony, or specific Fostex/Audeze/Rosson headphones?

They elected not to. Went the hard way (read: "i ride the different rain", read: i just must spend more, read: i feel so refined), when all they'd have had to do was find the chain that would be best for said type of headphone; and between interface/transport, DAC, pre-amp, amp and cabling, it does exist and in infinite variations.

Only of course, they do not "believe" in chains, or do not "believe" in the need of a pre-amp, or do not "believe" in cabling, or, reasons. And instead, we're.. here. For nigh two decades now, congratulations One headphone gave them something they'd not heard before; but only because they were clueless, blame's on them for sheer ignorance.

Put differently if it helps, not sure when people needing anything (insert adjective) low end pronounced or focused went for STAX? I mean, since when exactly?

That's right, since never, not until that accursed thing came out.

And sadly it sold well rather than flopping; sadly, because it showed, even to STAX, where the curve is.

And i do blame each and every one for re-inforcing said conclusion (be it due to ignorance or monetary gain mind, yeah?). Find a few people with big pockets, there you go with the trend shifting, just like that. There were, are and shall remain many, many headphones for those folks, but.. they're not niche now are they. Where's the class, the individuality if you will.... if only you knew how many times i've seen this. Four+ decades and three continents over by now.

 

- Contrary to elitist, individualistic, circle-jerking-focused belief?

The world does not revolve around you. Sorry to break it to you.

Head phones requiring significant power, ergo headphones that require significant investment in amplification, are headphones most folk cannot buy, not if they know what they're doing (and folks usually don't, not even here; i do read). The money involved to do it right is just prohibitive.

You can have a halo product or two, as it drives sales all the way down, but you need a realistic approach.

What you're wishing for would close STAX down, not help it grow back up; may not seem so in this glass bubble of a virtual corner, but out there, that's where it'd lead. Competition in what you're after is beyond fierce and they're too old to play the social media hype game.

 

Entering the rest of the issues STAX faces, because those exist, yes.. nothing to do with 007 however, nothing at all.

Kindly keep it real and differentiate your bloated self-want from the expansive reality governing one entire ecosystem. Kindly.

 

Just because someone needed to say it. I mean we read your posts, if once in a while you get to read ours, yeah? 

Are you OK?

That tirade would have to be the least intelligible one I've ever read. Maybe a giant and calm edit would improve it so I (and probably many others) could understand what your point is.