The Stax thread (New) - Page 23

thanks spritzer,

I will do that tomorrow. the ear pads look like they're stuck on to the housing with some glue, i'm so scared of tearing/damaging the pads they're in immaculate condition for such old things. i will also try to pop open the hood of the unit and take some shots, it looks so clean inside from what i can see...

i'm relieved that the membrane having wrinkles in it is normal

however I'm beginning to think it may be something of a grounding issue. The reason I say this is when I run my hand along the unit, I sort of feel tiny zaps sometimes in the earspeakers as well and soon after i hear strange noises, and also, depending on where I touch the volume dials (front, sides or both) affects noise. the clincher was when i moved it into the laundry, where i KNOW that is it separate from the devices in my room and it was quiet, no zaps, no static nothing.

actually discovered by accident, i was fumbling around behind my computer and noticed that touching the power supply on my computer made the sound alter, volume dropped - similar to when i touched the case of the amp the volume dropped. also, if i sat in my chair and lifted my feet off the floor the noise disappeared.

so i have a question, what do i do with the grounding post on the back there? i've never had such a thing on any of my other gear i am unsure what i am supposed to attach to it or do with it, it unscrews...

THANKS!

DENON
It's quite common for stat headphones and speakers to make noises on their own. If you can create a alternating negative and positive pressure on the element this will move the diaphragm between the stators. This will usually dislodge any particles that may be trapped. The easiest way to do this is put the headphones on your head and push/pull the affected channel against your head at about a 4 cycles per second rate. Start with a gentle motion. If that doesn’t work try a little harder. Each try should only be for a few seconds. I would do this with the phones completely discharged (about an hour) and disconnected from your energizer. If the particle is stuck between the stator and diaphragm it may be permanently trapped and your noise may become a reoccurring problem.

AudioD

Mine's got lots of disintegrated foamies in between the driver and the mesh. Took off the pads and unscrewed the driver from the casing. But can't seemed to see how to remove the mesh to clean out the particles. The driver seems to be stuck onto the plate. Anyone opened it up before? How do I do it?

A small keyboard vacuum seems to do a nice job of cleaning out bits of foam from older electrostatic headphones without having to disassemble them.

SC1

Seen on the web some Lambda Signatures with SC1 labelled on the connector. Are they the same as the run of the mill kind? Or is it some kind of regional product differentiation for different countries like they do cars?

They are cryo'd 404's . I don't think anyone has heard them here.
Some info from the old STAX thread
http://www.head-fi.org/forums/showth...191438&page=90

Lloyd - I really appreciate your comparisons of near field speakers to electrostatic headphones. After listening to several really high cost speaker systems, I've been terribly disappointed by what I heard. In terms of intimacy, clarity, and especially in terms of inner detail of orchestral classical music, my electrostatic headphones are much better. It's thanks to your discussion of near field monitors that I'm now interested in hearing a pair of them. So again, thanks for discussing these speakers on this thread.

The pads are tough and it's easy to get replacements for every model except the SR-Lambda Signature. The dark brown pads they use are not available.

You do most definitely have a grounding issue. The signal ground might be connected to the case somewhere causing a ground loop. Open both the amp and the phones up and take pics and the we can if anything is obviously wrong.

The grounding post is there because in Japan there isn't a ground in the power system so it has to be separate. If something should happen to the amp or the phones it is sure nice to have some other pathway for the electricity then through the user...

IMO speaker discussion should be it's own thread in its own forum. This thread is meant a resource for those interested in Stax and has nothing to do with near field monitoring.

Into the mineshaft of the ego

For the record, an encomium is a testimonial, best if unsolicited, but I'm sure you knew that already.

I agree with you that a deep, long discussion about nearfield monitors v. electrostatic earphones should go into a new thread. But it's a practical matter of the navigability and utility of this already diverse and long thread, not a fundamental difference of philosophy.

Lloyd is right about the dangers of the "chorus of Hosanna". Stax earphones and amps are not above criticism; nothing is. But that doesn't mean we all want to take detours to give a somewhat tenuously related topic a miss in a thread primarily concerned with what we *are* interested in. Again, it is a matter of practicality.

It's only a hobby, fellows, not a religious crusade.

Andre Jute
Impedance is futile, you will be simulated into the triode of the Borg. -- Robert Casey

Well said Andre, I'm in full agreement.

On an unrelated note, I'm currently wondering about the experiences of those driving Stax headphones (or others) via the transformer boxes. I'm aware some here are using nice solid state amplifiers with plenty of power behind them. I'm wondering if anyone has tried tubes be they hybrids, DHTs, SET designs, etc with their Stax? What were your impressions? How much wattage do you find is needed?

I'm currently driving my O2s via a cheap kit-based 100wpc solid state amplifier and as far as impact and volume goes it provides more than I need but without tubes somewhere in the signal path it sounds coarse, unmusical and generally boring. The transformer box is on my long term plan for upgrade but I'm thinking upgrading the amplifier itself is what will provide the best results. I realize there are infinitely better solid state amplifiers than what I have but preferably I'd like move to tubes as I have generally found them more to my tastes. I've been looking at amplifiers powered by 300Bs, 2A3s, 45s and numerous others but the low wattage ratings of many such amplifiers is somewhat concerning to me. 845s and GM70s seem to offer more wattage although the price seems to go up significantly as well. I'm not against the direct drive options either, but the options are limited and opinions of them are easily found around these boards.

Perhaps this is better suited to the amplification forum but I'm talking purely from the perspective of driving Stax earspeakers.

mirumu
I’ve found that tube amps work good driving the Stax phones. The Stax energizer/transformer box presents a reactive load to the amplifier (dropping impedance with frequency) and matching a tube amp can be tricky. Amps with a reputation for a certain character can sound completely different on the Stax. There seems to be a reaction with the tube amps output transformer and the step up transformer in the Stax. Good amps like the Dynaco ST-70, early ARC cross-coupled designs and the Music Reference RM-9 all had a upper midrange brightness that didn’t show up when driving conventional speakers. Amps like the Dynaco ST-35, Marantz 8B (in triode), Atma-Sphere MA-30 OTL and Conrad-Johnson Premiere 11a sounded great. I would take your phones to a good audio dealer and audition different amps. The best sounding solid state amps were the Threshold SA3, Pass Aleph 3 & 5, Coda 2.5 and Classe DR-3b (All pure Class A designs). For good dynamics I would want no less than 20 wpc.

Audiod

Audiod, many thanks, that's exactly the kind of information I was hoping for. Opens up new avenues for research.

I'll be interested to see what sort of dynamic range we can get out of my friend's Antique Audio Labs Wave 8, about 8 w/ch, what with a tube amp's ability to soft-clip and sound bigger than it is, and compare this (if practical) with the roughly 50 w/ch digital amp in the Panasonic XR25 receiver. I'll be using a Lambda Pro with an SRD-7 Pro box.

Wow, those look amazing for the price. It'll be interesting to see what you find. Could make a good back end for a low volume office system I'd suspect.