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The Headcase Stax thread


thrice

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  • 2 weeks later...

I take it you've decided to go for Omega 2, Deepak? I was really tempted to get back the old setup myself (after the table sold), but there were too many other expenses I'm expecting in the next few months.

Oh, and I think you should get the new all black one, unless you're going for an used pair, of course.

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I take it you've decided to go for Omega 2, Deepak? I was really tempted to get back the old setup myself (after the table sold), but there were too many other expenses I'm expecting in the next few months.

Oh, and I think you should get the new all black one, unless you're going for an used pair, of course.

Yeah Haj I think they might be what I've been looking for in a headphone. They're the closest thing to the L3000 I've heard and I'll get back that much needed z-axis soundstage that the L3000 couldn't do.

I really wanted to buy a pair after hearing them for the second time at the November NYC meet in 2006, but ended up getting a Pass Labs amp instead. I think I'll just go for whatever color comes up on the market. The all black Omega 2 is my favorite, but a bit costly.

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Yeah, they're nice. I do regret selling my Stax system, especially since it was partially for the turntable rig that's not here anymore, and partially for the K1000 amp that's not here yet.

Funny thing is, because of the weak dollar, assuming you look around, it's cheaper to buy a new pair of Omega II in US than import a new pair from Japan - or at least close to it that the difference is no longer several hundred dollars as in the past.

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:mikey2::mikey1:

IMO I would just cancel the order at this point and ask for a refund.

That's a double-edged sword really. One the one hand Mikhail has almost certainly put in some time designing the amp and maybe building a prototype (who knows, I'm trying to see the glass half full on that one) but on the other hand you've been way more than patient and he's missed deadlines for what, over 6 months or so know? I could easily justify going either way with it if I were you, crappy position to be put in for sure. Good thing is that next weekend you'll get to hear the K1ks out of the beta since I'll have the adapter for you then and I'll also bring my iron so we can just wire up the 4-pin jack. ;D
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Okay Stax fans, here's a query:

I run my Lambda from an SRD-7/SB powered by my 840A. I've been getting lots of static electricity tonight on my legs and what not when I stand up out of my chair. While listening to my 840C with my Lambdas, I stood up to make an adjustment to my turntable, and I felt a disturbing tickling sensation in my right ear. :o It felt mildly electrical, enough of a "ah!!" feeling to jerk the cans off my head.

Any idea what this is? I ended up just putting the cans back on my head, and I'm listening as we speak.

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Okay Stax fans, here's a query:

I run my Lambda from an SRD-7/SB powered by my 840A. I've been getting lots of static electricity tonight on my legs and what not when I stand up out of my chair. While listening to my 840C with my Lambdas, I stood up to make an adjustment to my turntable, and I felt a disturbing tickling sensation in my right ear. :o It felt mildly electrical, enough of a "ah!!" feeling to jerk the cans off my head.

Any idea what this is? I ended up just putting the cans back on my head, and I'm listening as we speak.

I've had something similar with the H2. Granted I was really smashed at the time and could have hallucinated things (I certainly was hallucinating other things) but it was sharp and painful enough to make me rip off the cans faster than I thought was possible at the time. It definitely wasn't pleasant, and my hairdo might have come out of Dragonball Z when I looked in the mirror. But, that's just the thing, I do have long hair and it tends to get into headphones, and exposed wires and charged diaphragms really don't like bodily protuberances intruding into their personal space.

****

Man, ever since I've left team planar so to speak, I've been getting planar craves, and the H2 definitely doesn't satisfy enough. The HD650/Dared rig is wonderful, except in that it can't stop being a dynamic headphone, even driven by a massively overpowered push-pull speaker amp. There is still this slight grain to the sound, and it still isn't fast enough to keep up with the more insane selections among my music. I may be the only one that prefers electrostats for death metal, but when you've grown up in the audio world listening to Nile's Black Seeds of Vengeance on 'stats, dynamics just won't do. They just can't take layers of distorted guitars on top of 20 blast beats per second and resolve it all into finely detailed and perfectly separated instruments.

To make matters worse, my friend has an SRD-7 Pro that he's willing to let me borrow.

I'm so tempted by the Omega II right now I could burst. I get the O2 urge every 3 months like clockwork. I've been able to resist so far, but who knows what will happen this time. Though to be honest, I am a bit hesitant to just get the SR-007 Mk II due to the several supposedly broken pairs that head-fiers have bought in the last few months.

I'm slowly starting to come around to the idea that what I want is not so much a dynamic that has the virtues of planars, but a planar that has the virtues of a dynamic. Something that sounds very close to a seriously good balanced 650 rig especially in the weight and heft of the sound, but with the speed and microdetail of a 'stat.

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I'm so tempted by the Omega II right now I could burst. I get the O2 urge every 3 months like clockwork. I've been able to resist so far, but who knows what will happen this time. Though to be honest, I am a bit hesitant to just get the SR-007 Mk II due to the several supposedly broken pairs that head-fiers have bought in the last few months.

Me too. I think I might just jump all over the next used OIIMK1 that pops up. That last one at $1350 was a good deal.

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It's an induced current. One can also do this with dynamics, so it's not exclusive to electrostats.

sweet, thanks for clearing that up.

PJ, You have dibs, if you don't find a pair, still want them and I decide to sell. I'll decide once I hear the 1.3 in Mayberry in two weeks.

Sounds good, thanks!

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your headphones are, very rightly i think, trying to kill you.

Just to clear this up, it is impossible for the electricity to jump from the driver to the ear with such low voltages. A direct conductor is needed as the low voltages can't break down the inherent resistance of the air (100v/mil).

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Here is an electrostatic driver I threw together from some scrap materials tonight. I'm using it to test a new version of resistive coating so it wasn't built to sound good. It took 90 minutes to cobble together and most of that time was spent dealing with the damn WPI Stax plug... :rant: then I found a spare cable that could have saved me a lot of bother. >:( It's brass stators, 3um mylar and the spacers are made out of stacked pieces of double sided glue. The spacers are about 0.55mm thick so the efficiency is just about the same as a Stax pro driver and it played just fine from my SRM-Xh.

main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=1289&g2_serialNumber=2&g2_GALLERYSID=764f73d708dbcf6c2d93dcaeec9aecb2

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