Stax SR-009 Channel Imbalance Trouble / Driver Problem? - Page 2

Quote:

Originally Posted by spritzer 

Ok, that's not good at all.  Most likely scenario is an intermittent bias supply as that most often presents like that.  "Normal" channel imbalance is cause by a parasitic charge sitting on the diaphragm and not being dissipated due to the extreme resistance of the coating.  That won't cause distortion as it just diminishes the potential of the drivers so distortion would only creep in if you push the amp hard to make up for the difference. 
 

 

Nope.  Channel imbalance has been an issue with them (and every other Stax for that matter) but there is another reason for that. 
 

 

The distortion comes in when i turn the left speaker vol to high levels ( not extreme levels though). Actually there was one instance the headphone went back to normal operation but it only lasted for few seconds. Damn.. japanese quality control is supposed to be one of best around.
 

did you try discharging the phone (touching the pins with finger, then plug it back into the amp)? 

Can you elaborate if the channels are imbalanced or if one driver is defective? I read most of the posts as reports of one driver has distortion rather than both drivers are working correctly but outputting different volumes. If one side is louder, how much of a difference is there? Most of us have never heard channel imbalance and are wondering if it's 40/60 or something like 10/90.

Quote:

Originally Posted by AudioCats 

did you try discharging the phone (touching the pins with finger, then plug it back into the amp)? 

Nope it doesn't help

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sundance 

Can you elaborate if the channels are imbalanced or if one driver is defective? I read most of the posts as reports of one driver has distortion rather than both drivers are working correctly but outputting different volumes. If one side is louder, how much of a difference is there? Most of us have never heard channel imbalance and are wondering if it's 40/60 or something like 10/90.

Its more like 30/70. The vocal always seem to be more on the right side.

This is how i describe my problem to pricejapan "The left speaker of the headphone is of lower volume than the right speaker at every volume level when I turn on the amp. The left side of the headphone also has distortion especially when there is bass in the music." 

If I can make a suggestion, please report the serial numbers that you have and are affected by this issue. It'll be useful to deduce manufacture faults since the batches are so small. In addition we can identify refurbished units in the future.

Mine is 1060 and it's OK right now.  Hope it will stay that way

Quote:

Originally Posted by arnaud 

Not sure serial number has anything to do with it as my 1057 pair is ok while 1056 was reported as faulty ( hentai's?)

edited

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gu Sensei 

Ouch. This thread will not be going quietly into the night.

 

I am having troubles with my second pair. Again on the right side. I just put them on after a few hours and the right channel was down like my last pair. Playing with the cable where it enters the cup has an effect. Wiggling the cable back and forth a bit, I could hear the sound go in out. Eventually, I could get it to stick and am able to listen with no problem.

 

What a bummer. Now I am not sure what to do. Do I send these in to Stax for a repair, return them and put a new pair on order, or just return for my money back and wait a few months to buy a new pair, hopefully after they get this issue straightened out.

 

 

It may be better for STAX co to take a look into your pair. There's no guarantee the next new pair won't have such issue. we must feedback these problems to STAX's engineers and QC people
 

Judging by you impressions then this is a bias line issue but since nobody had opened one of these up yet it is hard to say what it causing it.  I sure hope they didn't do something as stupid as the dinky clip on bias contact of the SR-Omega.  When I get my set then I'll take it apart to see what's what. 

As far as I am concerned, parasitic charges would be discharged simply touching the pro-bias plug.

So, although not related with the issue you are experiencing, can you (gu sensei and hentai) describe, just for the records, how your power supply is earthed?

I mean, do your wall sockets - also known as power points, power sockets, electric receptacles, plug sockets, electrical outlets or just sockets - have phase, neutral and a third pin for earth?

It seems the third pin is called ground (earth-earth) and the second pin is called neutral (earth-neutral).

I am not an expert, so read this with a grain of salt (cum grano salis). Usually the earth net is isolated from the neutral (return) net, although both go to earth anyway. But there are some installations in which neutral and ground are combined.

It seems that both arrangements have pros and cons.

With isolated nets for ground and neutral, there would be still stray voltages (I guess these tiny voltages do not affect your amplifier).

Connecting the neutral to the equipment case provides some protection against faults/shorts, but may produce a dangerous voltage on the case if the neutral connection is broken (in this case, it is better to have a separate ground).

Eventually an electrical or electronic will shed of light on this subject.

It would be nice to know if you both are using plug adapters to cut any earth loops (i.e. your source is already connected to earth with the third pin and your XLR cable has shield soldered at both ends so that you had to let the third pin on the amplifier floating).

I am not sure if such issue is related to these questions. As I said, it is just for the records.

Quote:

Originally Posted by spritzer 

Judging by you impressions then this is a bias line issue but since nobody had opened one of these up yet it is hard to say what it causing it.  I sure hope they didn't do something as stupid as the dinky clip on bias contact of the SR-Omega.  When I get my set then I'll take it apart to see what's what. 

What i know is that my previous sr007a worked fine thoughout my 1 1/2 years of ownership of it, always fine.

One Thai Head-fi Senior member suggested that the channel imbalance can be caused by the Stax Farting,

can that be the case here?

The first Thai SR009 have the same problem and they can solve that.