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The Headcase Stax thread


thrice

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What are the amp plans? Don't keep us in the dark :sadcat:

For now I hope to track down a Stax transformer box and drive them with the balanced mono blocks that I'm building. Not sure if a KGSS is in my future or not. It'll largely depend on if these sound as good as I've been lead to believe. :)

Just remember to always cover the drivers with cardboard or something solid when soldering near ESP drivers as a stray drop of flux can destroy them.

Thanks for the advice, I'm half temped to have someone do the recable for me so that I don't have to worry about it.
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For now I hope to track down a Stax transformer box and drive them with the balanced mono blocks that I'm building. Not sure if a KGSS is in my future or not. It'll largely depend on if these sound as good as I've been lead to believe. :)

they do sound great at 620v bias. Please plan accordingly. The luvdunhill one-stop-'stat-shop is in its busy season but might be able to squeeze you in :)

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For now I hope to track down a Stax transformer box and drive them with the balanced mono blocks that I'm building. Not sure if a KGSS is in my future or not. It'll largely depend on if these sound as good as I've been lead to believe. :)Thanks for the advice, I'm half temped to have someone do the recable for me so that I don't have to worry about it.

I've recabled two pairs of SR-007 and two ESP-950s. It's not hard at all, I say for for it. Alex's recommendation of using a desoldering pump is a very good one.

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I never knew the ESP/950 was a portable.

The amp is battery powered, I suppose that's what they meant. But it'd be like carrying a camera bag around with you which to me is more transportable than really portable.

they do sound great at 620v bias. Please plan accordingly. The luvdunhill one-stop-'stat-shop is in its busy season but might be able to squeeze you in :)

I'll send you a PM later tonight. ;D

What's funny is that I wasn't really even looking when I found these. I was goofing off and happened upon a hometheater site where the guy had these listed. They'd sat for sale for over two months with no interest. He had all of the original accessories, box, manual, warranty card, etc., and was really easy to deal with so I decided that rules were made to be broken. And at 1/6 the going rate of HE60s (w/o an amp) it felt like a good deal.

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Recabling is dead easy as the connectors are at the bottom of the cup and with Stax it's the center wire to the bias, the one with the marking goes to the stator closest to the ear and the third wire goes to the back stator. Broken line is right and solid is left. Easy as making a cake (which is very easy... :D) but it's more trouble to squeeze the Wide PC-OCC cable in there then the SR-303 cable.

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I've got some flak as well for being moderately sceptical, mostly via PM.Seems you don't have to worry that much about long term durability when quite a few of these thingies are defective after a few hours of use or right out of the box.

$1000 for the privilege of being a beta tester is probably not what most of the customers are looking for.I guess the FOTM craze is over.

Makes me glad I came to my senses just in time.

I'm sure these are just growing pains, and it is more or less inevitable in a one-man-show company trying to create a SOTA product. You don't have time to debug every possible scenario, so your customers end up doing a lot of the debugging for you.

But, it sure isn't fun to be one of the first few customers to have to shell out a serious batch for a beta-testing product (*cough*H2*cough*).

I hope they stick with it though, and get all the issues worked out. We really do need more 'stats on the market, and we do need something to get Stax off their "if it sells don't fix it" perch and motivate them to do something about that outdated Lambda housing, or about their new line of overpriced shitty amps.

I think I'll mess around with the O2 as soon as it's financially viable, but who knows... team 'stats in 08 here we come.

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What would be considered a reasonable price for a used O2?

They can be had for as little as 800$ in Japan if you are lucky. The normal price over there is about 1000$

Makes me glad I came to my senses just in time.

I'm sure these are just growing pains, and it is more or less inevitable in a one-man-show company trying to create a SOTA product. You don't have time to debug every possible scenario, so your customers end up doing a lot of the debugging for you.

But, it sure isn't fun to be one of the first few customers to have to shell out a serious batch for a beta-testing product (*cough*H2*cough*).

I hope they stick with it though, and get all the issues worked out. We really do need more 'stats on the market, and we do need something to get Stax off their "if it sells don't fix it" perch and motivate them to do something about that outdated Lambda housing, or about their new line of overpriced shitty amps.

I think I'll mess around with the O2 as soon as it's financially viable, but who knows... team 'stats in 08 here we come.

What I don't get is why the hell did he change the coating so something so conductive. It even sounds like he used pure carbon and that is simply idiotic as it absorbs moisture from the air and becomes even more conductive. The goal is to hold a charge or you will just end up with something like the old Koss designs.

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That's not true, the lowest I ever saw them in Japan was the equivalent of about $1350

I of course meant used since the SR-007 isn't avaialble any more unless some dealer has a few in stock. Even one of our own got one for about 1k$... Some go higher then 100kYen bu that's what you would expect of auctions. It's still nice to see the Japanese market is still sane as the SR-? still hasn't sold for 300kYen.

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You need a deputy service and have to pay them a fee as well. There are plenty to choose from so Google is you friend.

Even though auction in japan is safe but there are several fraudulent items as well, so be careful. The deputy service will not help out when come to fraud. You bid at your own risk as they are only after the fees.

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