Incredible ESL headphone experience (Was: Incredibly stupid question...)

Hi,

I just lucked out (I think, anyway).

At one of the charity shops near where I work, they had some funky 1970's looking headphones.

What caught my eye - they came with a electronic looking box to go with them. So I had a closer butchers inside, turned out these were made by Micro Seiki Japan and claim to be electrostatic headphones. Could not test them, 30 squid "sold as seen", I could not resist (I spend more on my lunch before I walked past there).

Turns out to be a Micro MX-1 set. Found the manual on line.  I first had to muck out the battery compartment, where a battery had died and leaked, but the connections were ok. So I got a 9V Battery from Stores (don't tattle on me please) and plugged it in. There is a cable on the box, that is supposed to to be connected to an amplifier. So I borrowed a Carrot One Amp of Gazza and it seems all to work.

Despite the warnings about bad diaphragms and all, these play quite nice. They are clearly stats, you can hear that instantly, love the airiness... But I'm missing the sound I get from my iCAN with 3D Sound. I did drive the Carot One amp from the iCAN it helped, but still sounded not so great, very electronic.

Gazza suggested we just put a 6.3mm Plug on the amplifier cable from the box and plug the bad boy Micro Seiki box into the iCAN.

Now Gazza is proper loonie, so I don't trust him on that. Can we actually do this? And do I run a risk blowing up the iCAN Amp? Or the headphones?

Grateful for any comments.

Cheers Rich

Electrostats need a special energizer.  Do not try to run them off a regular amp,

Hi,
Quote:

bedlam inside said:

Gazza suggested we just put a 6.3mm Plug on the amplifier cable from the box and plug the bad boy Micro Seiki box into the iCAN.

Now Gazza is proper loonie, so I don't trust him on that. Can we actually do this? And do I run a risk blowing up the iCAN Amp? Or the headphones?

Click to expand...

 
I e-mailed iFi about this yesterday, just had the answer, pretty decent customer service, if I may say. Here is what they said:

 

Dear Rich,
 
Thank you for your kind enquiry.
 
We can confirm that the iCAN is able to drive even the most demanding of headphones, such as the magnetic planar types.
 
Feel free to try your Micro-Seki MX-1 headphones (which we believe were made by Stax).
 
We have spoken to the boffins at Abbingdon Music Research – the iCAN will not suffer any damage. 
 
However, please be aware that the same may not be true for an older headphone especially one that is an electrostatic type. So go easy on the volume control.
 
Please let us know how you get on and if you have any other questions, please do not hesitate to ask.
 
Best regards
 
Vincent Luke - Markets
ifi-audio.com

Click to expand...

 

Seems they think their headphone amp can work... So I'll let Gazza do his stuff, should have the box back tomorrow.

Cheerio Rich

Hi,
Quote:

hodgjy said:

Electrostats need a special energizer.  Do not try to run them off a regular amp,

Click to expand...

Well, the ones I have have this Box with it. They are like this:


 
It plugs into the Amplifier (a normal one, for driving speakers) and takes a 9V Battery. Is this the "Energiser" you talk about?

I have used the Carrot One Ernestolo Amp (little dinky Amp from Italy with a tube sticking out of the top - see here: http://www.head-fi.org/t/528501/carot-one-ernestolo-class-d-tube-amplifier ) to drive this box and the headphones. This worked okay, but the Amp is not mine and does not sound that good (also not on my other headphones).

This is why I want to use my iCAN Headphone Amp.

http://www.ifi-audio.com/en/iCAN.html

As you can see above, iFi seem to think it has the ooomph to drive this. I will see tomorrow.

Cheers Rich

Hi,
Quote:

bedlam inside said:

I want to use my iCAN Headphone Amp.
 

Click to expand...

I have to admit being totally gobsmacked.

I am using my iCAN to drive the Micro Seiki ESL Headphones via the Box that comes with them and boy this is fun...



 

After the reply from iFi saying "go ahead, but don't blow up the headphones" I green lighted Gazza and he took the headphones, Box and iCan away.

He was back a while later after lunch and had promptly bodged a Neutrik 6.3mm Plug on the cable and rooted around in the box as well. He removed some parts (he said "these load the amp, not needed" I guess that is nerdish for "it will sound better") and disconnected the switch for the speaker leads. He sez "You are not going to use them with a Speaker Amp after you hear what the iCAN does, so you might as well get the best sound".

Anyway, we set it all up and I played some tunes. Cor blimey. It does work. And not just works!  The iCAN and these headphones get on like house on fire!

Okay, I do have to turn up the volume a bit more than on any of the other headphones I tried (detailed in my review thread: http://www.head-fi.org/t/648968/a-headphone-shootout-from-a-speaker-listener-testing-eight-headphones-from-80-to-1-200 - I will be adding the Micro Seikis soon). 

But I can easily get quite loud, the very uncoloured, clean nature of these headphones makes you turn it up way more than normal! I have now been listening yesterdays afternoon and most of today and I find me constantly pulling quite demanding stuff out to see how this combo does, lots of it audiophile stuff. I normally don't do that, just listen to stuff as it takes my fancy musically, but this setup made me dig around and often jump off an album after one or two tracks, a case of audiophilia nervosa?

There is a review of some refurbished ones (mine appear original AND 100% working) here:

http://www.head-fi.org/t/498095/review-refurbished-micro-seiki-mx-1-electrostatic-headphones-ms-2-headphones-mp-1-amplifier

And I can only say "what he said", plus the iCAN's XBass helps significantly to give these 'cans a fulsome, solid bass AND the 3D sound thingey does help to take the sound out of your head.

Off the bat the result with XBass maxed out reminds a lot of the Sennie HD800, but without the occasional "bite" and AKG K701's with their flat tonal balance but with the mids and treble lightness of the HiFiman HE-500. Okay, the iCAN's XBass turns the K701's into bass and "scale" monsters like nothing I heard from any other headphone and even the HiFiman HE500 does a bit better bass and the HD800's doe even more 3D, but each of these is less believable and has obvious flaws, that the Micro/iFi combo simply does not have! And it is even a fairly portable setup. I think I'm in lurve.

I am turning up the wick a lot more than with other headphones, I can tell that my ears start shutting down a little at the maximum levels and give me temporarily harder hearing (it wears off over lunch as I found out), so I have to watch it.

This system is addictive - it MAY be the best I have heard from Headphones yet!

So thanks to hodgjy for replying, to Vince from iFi for telling me to do it, Gazza for the work, next shout at the pub is mine mate and I guess to Micro Seiki and iFi for making incredible gear.

Cheers Rich

the thing is, that an electromagnetic headphone needs tonnes of voltage but very little current. Therefore the box.