The Stax thread - Page 88  

Unfortunately there aren't a lot of high quality 4-gang volume pots out there. Alps probably makes one in the blue velvet line, but I don't know where you'd get it.

With balanced amps it's easier to go with stepped attenuators than find a four gang volume pot....although Welbourne labs has a remote control stepped attenuator that does balanced and is somewhat reasonably priced.

They do show up on occasions and aren't that expensive, I certainly wouldn't get into a bidding war over them. Took me a while to find my SRD-7 MK2 but it cost me about $75 and that was on the higher side.

I came close but accidentally killed the zener diode in my SRD-7 with a circuit mistake. When I get around to picking up some spare zeners for it I'll try to pick up where I left off. Should be easier now I have a SRD-7 MK2 to reverse engineer.

Thanks, derekbmn, that was exactly what I needed -- funny how I was missing such an obvious solution! I was reasonably happy with my 404/313, fed directly from my sources through a Quintete, but recently got to hear a normal bias SRD-7/Lambda combo though my power amp. I was blown away by how much more visceral impact I got with that set up. I knew immediately that the 313 wasn't providing enough juice, but for some reason I fixated on an SRD-7 Pro as the solution (headfi upgraditis at work...or is it downgraditis in this case?).

After reading your response, I rerouted my system and am now feeding the 313 some pure-Class-A circuit goodness through a Sugden Headmaster -- what a huge difference! All the juice I was looking for and more...drums now have the attack that I had heard through the SRD-7/Lambda, but the overall sound retains the more refined presentation of the SR-404. Everything is what I was hoping to accomplish with the SRD-7 mkII/Pro -- I'm really pleased now, particularly since I can just listen instead of thinking about switching equipment.

Thanks to all for the discussion on prices and availability -- I was being a bit facetitious with my earlier comment on a bidding war, but with some of the recent high prices that some stuff has ended at, you never know. It's pretty amusing seeing a lot of the same bidders on various eBay auctions...but it's also clear that these threads unfortunately wind up jacking up the price on auction sites. It's good to see though that most long-time headfi members tend not to overbid. (Glad to see that I'm not the only one who thought the price on that audiogon Sigma Pro was on the high side -- I put in an early offer, but someone clearly met the seller's price...oh well, que sera sera.)

The more material I play through the SR-X/MK3s, the more I am absolutely in love with this setup... I can't like it because of how cheap and old it is, so I must buy more newer electrostatic cans.

That's the definition of an audiophile right there...

If only this had more bass extension, it would be PERFECT.

Right now it's Luther Vandross' "'I've Been Working". Yeah yeah, I know... but Marcus Miller's slap work on his Jazz bass sounds exactly like it would if I were standing in front of his amp in the studio... I don't just hear the sound of a bass guitar, I hear the air being pushed by the drivers in his speaker cabinet...

edit: I play bass guitar, and am an absolute gear slut. I don't own much, but I know what it all sounds like... every nuance... and I find these subtleties of the bass guitar get lost on most systems. What I am listening to now is the best I have ever heard, and it's still sorely lacking due to no bottom end extension...

edit2: god there is a lot of information on red book audio CDs...

edit3: ...and I'm 80% of the way to convincing myself to sell my two sets of Grado cans and RA1. If I haven't been listening to the SR-X/MK3s, the Grados have great deep tight bass, and the bass is my favourite thing about the Grados I have, particularly the SR325s. But if I slap on the Grados after calibrating to the Staxs, it's all flubber. I can't believe I didn't get on finding this setup for so long. It's been quite a few years since I borrowed a friend's identical setup, but then it was with such inferior gear behind them that I couldn't have possibly appreciated what these cans are capable of...

Getting back to Spritzer's idea, can anyone think of ways other than 64 9V batteries I could supply 580V bias to my soon-to-come SR-404s, using my SRD-7 for the audio signal? I guess I have to mimic or design the PS from scratch...?

who is your link-daddy?

seriously, click it! safe for work and all that good stuff.

it may work to add another stage to get it upto 600V, and considering that you should put HUGE HUGE HUGE resistors between that thing and your head....

perhaps a better link, from the bottom of the wikpedia page.

Can it be............yet ANOTHER satisfied SRX-III user?

I agree entirely that this can was prematurely dumped because it was old and because it didn't sound good unless you had some great gear feeding it. I actually owned them for years before I realized how good they were. Before that I was just running them off mediocre electronics and thinking they were bland. How wrong I was.

i have gama pros which are supposedly srx-III drivers in a more ergonomic enclosure.

I run mine through a computer setup and in MediaMonkey I add...
2db @ 125Hz
3db @ 63Hz
2db @ 31Hz
...and they sound fantastic! Test tones show they do go below 30Hz, but not by much before they roll into oblivion. Low enough for me not to feel I'm missing too much. They sound full bodied, warm and oh so eargasmic. I ordered some nice walnut burl, new pads and I'm going to make my dream FrankenStax using the Gamma headband and maybe cable too. I love the sound of the SR-X/3 and I'll probably be getting another set as backup, or at least a Gamma Pro.

..and I want them!

Yes, the SR-X mk3 housing is fine by me. Pro bias drivers in them could be very interesting indeed. I would really like some closed Pro bias headphones for work without having to splurge on the 4070. I have though been tossing around the idea of making a custom housing much like a "Sigma" around some drivers.

Woodworking isn't that hard, it's something I've done a bit of in days gone by, but lathes, etc tend to be expensive. I don't have any woodworking tools around these days myself.

I don't have a lathe, it's gonna be hand carved, filed, sanded etc. I don't know if my lessthanl337 skillz are upto the job but I'll have fun trying

I ordered enough wood for a few tries

Now, where to get soem Gamma pros/Alfas...