The Stax thread (New) - Page 292

Couldn't have said it better. The O2's deserve all the best you can get them and while the KGSS is far from perfect it is a step in the right direction.

On the Jecklin front I've nailed down why they sound like they do and what to do about it. Like oh so many electrostatic headphones from that era the drivers aren't properly coupled to frame. The frame is nothing to shout about but a proper mounting system would maximize its potential. It's still the fit that bothers me the most and that has sent my noggin into overdrive to think up ways to fully utilize the excelent PS2 drivers. It would be best to encase the drivers in a wooden shell, mounted to a headband similar to the Lambda units and with square shaped leather earpads similar to the PMB1000 design. I could

I've also thought about a K1000 design with the drivers on a 45° swivel axis but the sacrifice would be far to great as the drivers are huge and a single point mount would have to be very strong and it would still wobble a bit. I'm going to try and find a cheap ugly looking PS2 to do some prototyping...

I will try to make one. the plug itself will be the most difficult (maybe a ISA slot of an old pc motherboard).
Anybody knows the the layout of the large Stax plug and the layout of the srm-001 plug?

I wanted to try Sigma/K1000 the drivers, or a re-housing. But really there was no way I was ever going to do it while still at uni. I look forward to the fruits of your efforts.

I have a picture of the Stax socket but with the photo.head-fi.or service still down I'd have to find it again. Some old PC socket should work great for the SR-001 adapter.

The only problem is that I don't want to mess with this particular set unless it's something that preserves their external appearance. Its here where the crazy collector nonsense comes into play....

What I have to do is to test how far away from the ears I can take them and if the drivers will like a sealed baffle. I would really like to use a Lambda arc assembly since i have a few kicking around but I don't know if it can handle the weight...

I doubt it, given the larger sizes involved. If you could get ahold of a 4070 headband though that'd certainly be made of tougher stuff. What's really needed is for those panels to be clamped on each side, you could use wood to screw a frame together around them and then to whatever headband mechanism you devise. The difficulty of trying to seal them to the head like a Stax phone is just the sheer size. 16 square inches. You'd need some monstrous pads and they wouldn't work for all head sizes and shapes.

I'd like to have a better housing for the AMT drivers as well. The Ergo headphones have awful housings. And not just from an aesthetic point of view. I replaced the headband on the AMT the other day. If its going to be that stupidly difficult they simply shouldn't sell the headbands separately at all. The AMT drivers in the headphone are 1 or 2 millimetres too large to be fitted into a Lambda housing. Although that'd hardly be an improvement anyway.

The 4070 band would be ideal but I'd have to scrap the forks and make up some new ones. I'll ask Koji next time I buy something from him to check and see what Stax wants for one of those. The only problem really is that they don't swivel like the Lambda/Sigma arcs so the fit could be a problem.

The pads are tricky to pull off but there is a is small leather company here in Reykjavik that could make them for me. The PMB designs looks to be ideal with mostly thin pads but a large piece that goes behind the ears.

The housing would be in two or three parts all screwed together and with the pads hiding the screws. The cable would be routed HE90 style for a dual entry setup.

The AMT could certainly be put into a new housing as well and would benefit greatly from it. The technology behind them is sound so a botter housing could make them a real player in the high end realm.

I spy mk2s in Afrikane's sig. Is it here yet?

I know there was some talk off a SR-007A while back...

I suspect they might want a surprisingly pretty penny. What are the differences in the driver housing attachment from the Lambda plastic headband anyway. Could you stick a 4070 headband on a Lambda? It looks to me to be the exact same mechanism as the O2 headband and that self-adjusting system is just wonderful.

That would be what you want, except that the changes in thickness you need would be much bigger than even the PMB pads because the side of the head rolls away more and more at the back and the Jecklin panel is large enough to need that size.

Dual entry is so much better than one sided. As I have discovered with the AMT. Although I was stupid enough to have to make two holes in the right driver housing because I accidently held the plastic back to front at first. Itll make for an easy re-rewire to have the cables exit at the front like the K1000 if I want though.

They are basically glued with sticky pad to the inside grille and theres a little rubbery plastic on the forward side (the drivers are not centrally mounted, but toward the rear slightly). Theres this same rubbery stuff on the back of the driver (although im not sure if it'd make any difference turning them around) against which the outside of the housing presses a little. The headband arc is clamped in between these two halfs and you have to leave a little slack in the top two screws if you want to be able to adjust the headband. The four screws themselves are small, easily burred and the plastic threads into which they screw are also easily de-threaded. All in all, its a design which manages to do precious little right except maintain its aesthetic link to the Float chassis.

I've toyed with selling them several times since I got them, but the new pads and headband have brought some life back into them that I didnt know I had been missing, and the Aleph is the only amp I've tried so far that has them performing like they perhaps should. Theres a little hum in the right channel thats annoying, though I'm not sure whats causing it.

I have both SRM-717 and KGSS with a number of headphones. After extnensive comparison I must say that in my opinion KGSS is a clear step up. SRM-717 sounds more laid back and diffused and I see how some people can prefer that. At the same time my KGSS has Black Gate WKZ power supply caps, so it is different from the one audiod had.

In terms of headphones, I like SR-007 the most followed by Lambda Signature and HE60

I recently got a SR-007 headband from EIFL for $100.

You mean just the elasticated portion or the metal bands too? AFAIK the metal bands are a contiguous part of the housing of the earcups. I didnt think they were user replaceable.

Metal bands and the elastic pad - if you remove the 2 screws per side the bands will come off. The driver housing is a separate part.

I liked my old Jecklins, I had two, one silver and one black. No obvious sound difference between them. I got rid of them cheap because of reliability issues, especially connectors coming off the stators.