The Stax thread (New) - Page 64

Personally I think the interest in them is here to stay. The old STAX thread was full of talk about them as well.

So when a channel starts making "sticky" sounds and the music sounds like its being sucked into a vacuum, it isn't really the membrane sticking to the stator? :O (membranes were still perfectly intact last time I checked, and that wasn't too long ago.)

Maybe the protection you're referring to are in fact present in my headphones. After all both the gamma pro and SR-5NB stayed in production until the death of old stax.

Oh and someone asked about channel imbalance in the SR-X being terminal... well in mine and evil-zen's experience, temporary channel imbalances seem to be quite common with stax's vintage line, and opening up the drivers to re-adjust the membranes always seems to fix the problem unless you have 4 huge holes in each membrane like my SR-X...

It should sound exactly like when you remove the plastic film from a piece of metal. This happens only to my He90 when I press them hard against my head and never in normal use

Normal practice is to paint or powder cote the stators so if the mylar hits the stators it's insulated against direct contact. Stax has never done this because they are only running at max 60% bias voltage so this should not happen. Then there is a resistor or a viac crossing the stators that offers extra protection just in case.

All I know is that there is something seriously wrong with these headphones. If you could post some pics of the disassembled drivers next time you open them up I might be able to give you some answers.

Only 4 burned holes? Thats nothing! My Micro Seiki had 3 and 4 burn marks in each driver on top of the fact that the diaphragm was in tiny bits but they still made sound.

If you have channel impalance go over all contacts and rotate the diaphragm inside the driver of a new contact. Some are terminal though, like one of my SR-3 New sets and need new diaphragms. It is relatively easy to put new diaphragms into these phones so don't throw them away. You could even make them better by using a thinner film.

I know of a T2 in Italy that has been for sale for at least 5 years and the price is just insane.

I was thinking about it some 3 years ago but I went with the Blue Hawaii instead. Didn't want to be stuck with an amp that has know faults and Stax maybe not willing or able to repair it. I still want one though but it should have had at least one normal bias output. Then it would have been perfect.

Yes, Tachikoma, it was me asking about channel imbalance. I've opened up my SR-Xs to the point where I could solder the connections (to good effect), instead of the crimpers Stax used, but I don't know what you mean here: "opening up the drivers to re-adjust the membranes". Can you elaborate, please?

Spritzer, I'm sorry I don't understand this: "rotate the diaphragm inside the driver of a new contact". Can you also please elaborate?

Also, I'm intrigued by your second option(s): how do I put in new diaphragms, and from where do is source them? Ditto for the thinner diaphragm idea, from where do I get these?

I would dearly love to get these SR-Xs going again, as they're just sitting round in a box at the moment. Incidentally, there were occasions when I was using them that the imbalance seemed to reduce as I listened through them, but it could easily have been my mind adjusting to the imbalance. Certainly when I last tried them, the problem seemed worse...

On a related note I've got a pair of Sr-X/MK III whose right driver takes about 3 minutes to charge. When I first plug them in I get no sound from the right driver and full sound from the left. After 3 min. I get full sound from the right driver. There is no overall channel imbalance that I can hear, just that initial charge-up time.

Any ideas what's wrong and if it can be fixed?

Thanks.

The diaphragm is fitted to a metal ring and the the bias is connected to it with a spring. This is the only contact and something might have happened to it i.e. corrosion so if you rotate the diaphragm there will be a fresh contact point.

You can get 6um and 3um Mylar easily in small quantities from sites that specialize in Quad ESL repair but if you want to go any thinner you'll have to speak directly to DuPont and order some 750 meters of it. Then you need a resistive coating and good glue (no epoxy). Then you have to control the tension of the diaphragm and glue it to the metal rings. Once the glue is dried you cut the excess mylar away (very gently) and apply the coating either with sponge or airbrush it on.

This is just the big points and you WILL fail the first few times so this isn't a beginners project. You might even have to do a few test runs to get the exact tensioning Stax used because if you get that wrong they will sound very odd. Same goes for how resistive the coating has to be and there is no room for error because the mylar is very fragile and then you have to start again. This is also a very slow process. The glue I use takes 48 hours to fully cure and the coating is finally dry after about 3 days and then you have to break in the drivers to see if they are ok. It isn't simple in practice but if you are good with your hands it should be relatively easy.

You should always let old phones charge for 24 hours with music playing and see if that fixes the problem. it has done so for me in the past.

There is probably a corroded contact somewhere that slows the voltage buildup. Try to open up the driver to make new pressure contacts. It might work.

What are those gray boxes?

What are those big gray boxes with the Stax logo on them in the photos posted on Carl's message 940? Thank you.

Oh my God! Stax DMA-X1s!

Freaking crazy.

Spritzer: thanks for this. I shall give the first step a go, but I didn't realise when you wrote originally, "new diapharagms", that you meant DIY ones! I assumed you knew of some far-off place (probably in Japan) that could sell me new ones...

It seems as though you're well versed in this black art, and have by now worked out what's good and what isn't: why don't you think about making them for others? (Although I suppose from what you've written, it's one of those things that takes so long, nobody would be prepared to pay for you for the time involved -- a bit like me knocking up a fancy DIN to Phono connecting lead, about 2 or 3 hours fiddling!)

And thanks, too, to Carl for the tip about dis-assembling the SR-Xs just that little bit further than I've been prepared to go so far!

There is maybe about an hour or two that is invested in each membrane stretched over 5 days so it isn't that much work. The main obstacle is the Icelandic customs. Nothing gets past them without getting a 50% tax and handling fees added to it so it simply isn't cost effective. There are ways past this but I'm in enough trouble with them already...

If somebody has a broken SR-Omega I'll fix them though