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The Headcase Stax thread


thrice

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9 hours ago, JimL said:

Hopefully not with the unit turned on - peeing on a high voltage amp could be....interesting.

or rather would be a Golden Reference ... 

2 hours ago, spritzer said:

When tweaking we have to take risks!!  Next step is submerging it in molten lava!! 

You do number two on those amps as well??

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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....

Edited by astrostar59
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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).

Edited by astrostar59
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As an outsider, if the Carbon is using the Cree SiC transistor from the link 3 posts above, or similar, then probably it is the best SS amp for any Stax, including the 009 and the 007 too. The technical characteristics of that device are amazing, except perhaps for input capacitance, but it's transistor and not a tube, and it's nevertheless perfectly capable of driving any Stax stat to the owners' deafness with very high fidelity, more so than any other amp (this side of the T2).

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1 hour ago, astrostar59 said:

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).

Well the old Lambdas you can't take apart really as they will never go back again.  At least not properly. 

The new ones follow the same design logic as the original Omega, the drivers are stacked in a container of sorts so they are easy to open.  That said, one wrong move and the drivers are FUBAR. 

I wouldn't call the KGSSHV in any variation warm because it simply isn't.  The Carbon though is an improvement over every other amp we've ever done so yeah, it is the best SS amp out there.  It is a little bit my baby so i spent a lot of time tweaking the circuit which is why my amps are so different from the version we released. 

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4 hours ago, spritzer said:

I wouldn't call the KGSSHV in any variation warm because it simply isn't.  The Carbon though is an improvement over every other amp we've ever done so yeah, it is the best SS amp out there.  It is a little bit my baby so i spent a lot of time tweaking the circuit which is why my amps are so different from the version we released. 

I am building carbon now. Could you give us some hint of how to tweak the circuit? 

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6 hours ago, spritzer said:

Well the old Lambdas you can't take apart really as they will never go back again.  At least not properly. 

The new ones follow the same design logic as the original Omega, the drivers are stacked in a container of sorts so they are easy to open.  That said, one wrong move and the drivers are FUBAR. 

I wouldn't call the KGSSHV in any variation warm because it simply isn't.  The Carbon though is an improvement over every other amp we've ever done so yeah, it is the best SS amp out there.  It is a little bit my baby so i spent a lot of time tweaking the circuit which is why my amps are so different from the version we released. 

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.

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Well the case with Lambda drivers they are held down by a very strong resin which hardens over time when dried, one of the Stax repair distributors I have been in contact with also told me that older Stax Lambda drivers are replaced if damaged rather then physically repaired. When not in stock and the client allows, they will replace with a different but modern in production driver.

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10 hours ago, luvdunhill said:

It's alright, you can use the word "voicing". :)

Nope, that is evil!!!  :)  There is so much stigma and BS associated with that word where it is mostly "hey we used fancy parts" with no thought behind it. 

6 hours ago, joehpj said:

I am building carbon now. Could you give us some hint of how to tweak the circuit? 

Sorry, nothing you can do on those circuit boards.  Just build it as it is. 

28 minutes ago, DefQon said:

Well the case with Lambda drivers they are held down by a very strong resin which hardens over time when dried, one of the Stax repair distributors I have been in contact with also told me that older Stax Lambda drivers are replaced if damaged rather then physically repaired. When not in stock and the client allows, they will replace with a different but modern in production driver.

Stax will never, ever, never repair drivers.  They will always exchange with what ever that fits in there so SR-Omega will get SR-007Mk2 drivers etc. 

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8 hours ago, spritzer said:

Funny enough I just got an email from the deputy service I used warning me about electronics from China

Birgir,

What did it say?. Anything from China that is mains supplied definitely needs to be checked. Just opened up

a steel cased laminator to find tthe Lazy Basterds just cut the earth off the mains cable so a disaster waiting to happen.

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