Quote:
Originally Posted by Kraps 
Fair enough. Then how do we know if mk1 sounds supposedly better than mk2 if there is actually no "mk1" or "mk2 sound", but rather "japanese", "american" , "german", etc. sound
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The sound of the Mk1 is well established and I've compared phones from Japan, Europe and the US with no difference in sound. The Mk2 should be viewed as a work in progress since Stax almost always makes some changes after the phones have entered production, they changed the cable on the Sigma and the damping, there was a new earpad design for the Lambda, the SR-Omega went through a few changes and the 4070 was redesigned with new cups after a tragic design flaw. The German market may only be the first to get redesigned Mk2's and others might follow suit.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Victor Chew 
Sorry, I made the humidity sound so bad. It is not as bad as I have made it out to be. Spritzer your fault as well that we have frightened others! Ha! Ha!  Stax speakerphones are not that fragile. As Spritzer said, the voltage for stax at the speaker end is not that high. Arcing and burning holes in the speakers is only when it is really humid and you push the phones really hard. This is more so with home rigs in humid climate when people crank up the voulme really loud. After every listening session, wipe off the mositure from the phones pads with a dry piece of cloth and hang the phones on the speaker stands to air for a while (ie. 1 hour should be more than enough). Thereafter, I just use a piece of light towel to cover over it to prevent excess dust. You can use a dry cabinet as jigster suggested but I am a bit of a lazy person in this aspect. Further, when amps continue to charge the phones even when off you will need to have a hole in the dry cabinet for the wires to be connected. I believe the BH continues to keep the phones charged even when it is off; but I stand corrected. Spritzer will be more knowledgeable in this aspect.
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Some of the old BH (and KGSS) amps have an "always on bias supply" which continues to supply bias after the amp is turned off but this fad has mostly died out now. There was no need for it in the first place since the phones charge up in an instant (unless they have a parasitic charge stuck on the diaphragm which is rare) but the amp takes a few hours to warm up. This change was blamed on the phones charging up which isn't the case.