[richard51]

Today i  have receive my first order of 70 duro, and i put 4 pieces  on the  powered subwoofer of my monsoon  press on with some load , and i put some under the feet of my amp (a flat square pieces and that is better than the hemispheric pieces for stability, hence i can put them directly under the feet and this is better for damping ), and i confirm the impressions of Ed , that makes a difference ,  to my ears A BIG DIFFERENCE,  immediately better all across the board  listening from my  speakers and from my headphone...I will  put some other pieces in a week  on the headband  of the Stax and directly on my  planars speakers.... I cannot wait to see the impact....thanks Ed 

 
 
 
Applying sorbothane is an experiment in progress, the results were already  good in the beginning, but with the sharing of experience here, and with more experience, the results was always better for me once to another, and yesterday i was not expecting too big results after all that i have done already... Guess what ? today the results was  audibly way better than all past results... even more real 3-d sound, better impact of bass, better imaging, even more natural timbre  like in all my other posts... Why ? because sorbothane is so good damping product that it works all time, even in less optimal application (wrong duro, wrong or not so right thickness, not the right pressure etc ) but discovering and fine tuning  the optimal application requires many experiments...thanks to all here...

 

 

[richard51]

Today i receive my other pieces of sorb 1/4 inches duro 70 self adhesive.... Wow the 6 squares pieces  glued and clip in place with my paper metal clip on the headband are better that the other pieces of duro 30 and 40 1/8 inches, so much better that this was audible immediately ( you are right Ed!) .... I listen to them now... It is an" habitus" of mine to thanks Edstrelow, but you will understand that the total cost of this upgrade is 11 dollars, what is better than that ?

So good out of the box, the sorb. gluing process takes sometime to set in place firmly and that will be better in the next days... it is already  much better though than the other duro  wow! the mids are organically fluid, bass more definite, the rendering the musical timbre more natural, the most important thing for me...
 
After 2 hours i can say that the duro 70 change is startling and impressively better...
 
Perhaps tomorrow i will switch to the 70 duro for my speakers, i had 30 duro now, i cannot wait!...
 
I already think that when possible duro 70 is the way to go, my headphone , the subwoofer, the amp, are better sounding, tomorrow i  will do the planars speakers for sure!

 

[scotsstax]

hi mate , sorry for late reply computer was going wonky!!, yes i used the blu tak just like per you do sorb, as blu tak is cheaper, and is good at dampening, i put it on the baffles and pushed it in to the edge of where the driver is then i put more on the edge, where it says stax japsn and serial no, it added quite a lot of weight to the phones, but the difference was jawdropping...really i was not prepared for such a leap in quality, i had 404 signatures, which i liked better!! they were more natural i thought the 507 have bass lots of bass!!! adding thr b tak increased the definition and made bass notes stop and start more rapidly the mids smoothed out and treble tamed down and was more extended,..but i wont stop here11 i will get some sorb, think it may have better properties, thanks edstrelow for the idea,ps i also added b tak to the top of the drive units  i mean on the top edge not top as on top !!one question guys can anyone tell me the voltages that a stax srm3 transformer secondary puts out???as i have a srm3 with blown tranny and  the stax repair guy uk is an utter *******, he patronised me and said that unit is ancient and not worth fixing i disagree, i found it nice after a recap so can anyone help its the secondary voltages i need NOT primary thanks guys!! i mean the raw tranny out put not after rectification... cheers again!! ps i currentl use the new 353x its nice runs red hot though!! must be class a..

 

[scotsstax]

hi what staxes do you have mate???

 

[scotsstax]

  Today i receive my other pieces of sorb 1/4 inches duro 70 self adhesive.... Wow the 6 squares pieces  glued and clip in place with my paper metal clip on the headband are better that the other pieces of duro 30 and 40 1/8 inches, so much better that this was audible immediately ( you are right Ed!) .... I listen to them now... It is an" habitus" of mine to thanks Edstrelow, but you will understand that the total cost of this upgrade is 11 dollars, what is better than that ?

So good out of the box, the sorb. gluing process takes sometime to set in place firmly and that will be better in the next days... it is already  much better though than the other duro  wow! the mids are organically fluid, bass more definite, the rendering the musical timbre more natural, the most important thing for me...
 
Perhaps tomorrow i will switch to the 70 duro for my speakers, i had 30 duro now, i cannot wait!...
 
I already think that when possible duro 70 is the way to go, my headphone , the subwoofer, the amp, are better sounding, tomorrow i  will do the planars speakers for sure!

hi rich did you get a new cable as i have a high bias 404 cable from my broken ones damm the 404s were lovely....  can u solder??? 15 quid and you pay post and u can have it mate...

 

[richard51]

i have a Stax lambda basic nova and a stax sr-5.... I want the cable and i will adapt it to the stax sr-5...i know someone who can solder...

 

[richard51]

  hi mate , sorry for late reply computer was going wonky!!, yes i used the blu tak just like per you do sorb, as blu tak is cheaper, and is good at dampening, i put it on the baffles and pushed it in to the edge of where the driver is then i put more on the edge, where it says stax japsn and serial no, it added quite a lot of weight to the phones, but the difference was jawdropping...really i was not prepared for such a leap in quality, i had 404 signatures, which i liked better!! they were more natural i thought the 507 have bass lots of bass!!! adding thr b tak increased the definition and made bass notes stop and start more rapidly the mids smoothed out and treble tamed down and was more extended,..but i wont stop here11 i will get some sorb, think it may have better properties, thanks edstrelow for the idea,ps i also added b tak to the top of the drive units  i mean on the top edge not top as on top !!one question guys can anyone tell me the voltages that a stax srm3 transformer secondary puts out???as i have a srm3 with blown tranny and  the stax repair guy uk is an utter *******, he patronised me and said that unit is ancient and not worth fixing i disagree, i found it nice after a recap so can anyone help its the secondary voltages i need NOT primary thanks guys!! i mean the raw tranny out put not after rectification... cheers again!! ps i currentl use the new 353x its nice runs red hot though!! must be class a..

i think Ed will be competent to give you the information...

 
I am sure that it will be good deal to fix it tough... 

 

[edstrelow]

hi mate , sorry for late reply computer was going wonky!!, yes i used the blu tak just like per you do sorb, as blu tak is cheaper, and is good at dampening, i put it on the baffles and pushed it in to the edge of where the driver is then i put more on the edge, where it says stax japsn and serial no, it added quite a lot of weight to the phones, but the difference was jawdropping...really i was not prepared for such a leap in quality, i had 404 signatures, which i liked better!! they were more natural i thought the 507 have bass lots of bass!!! adding thr b tak increased the definition and made bass notes stop and start more rapidly the mids smoothed out and treble tamed down and was more extended,..but i wont stop here11 i will get some sorb, think it may have better properties, thanks edstrelow for the idea,ps i also added b tak to the top of the drive units  i mean on the top edge not top as on top !!one question guys can anyone tell me the voltages that a stax srm3 transformer secondary puts out???as i have a srm3 with blown tranny and  the stax repair guy uk is an utter *******, he patronised me and said that unit is ancient and not worth fixing i disagree, i found it nice after a recap so can anyone help its the secondary voltages i need NOT primary thanks guys!! i mean the raw tranny out put not after rectification... cheers again!! ps i currentl use the new 353x its nice runs red hot though!! must be class a..

While I also have an SRM3 I don't know much about its transformer. However I did pull up a bunch of pictures of circuit diagrams just by googling "Stax srm3 circuit diagram."

It sounds as if you put quite a bit of blutack on your Lambdas if the phones seem heavier now. That is one phone where there is almost no place to put sorbothane unless you open them up. Whereas, you can jam blutack into a lot of different nooks and crannies.

As you can see going back a few pages I have been doing comparisons on a set of SRXIII's where I can just stick sorb and blutack on the outer case. I found that with comparable amounts of blutack and 70 duro sorb, the sorb was a more effective damping material although the blutack still worked.

However just adding mass to the earcups is likely to improve their sound too because I suspect the extra mass dissipates the mechanical energy. Sorbothane is supposed to work by transforming mechanical energy into heat. I am curious about just adding lead slugs. The downside obviously is making the phones uncomfortably heavy. That said, I have an old set of Koss ESP 6 phones, that weigh 2 lb, and sound much less harsh than any Stax phone, some of which I think is due to their mass.

I have been very happy with the sound of my Stax404 and LNS putting small sorb pieces on the back of their baffle boards. Most recently I have used 30 duro 1/4 inch. Soon I will be trying 70 duro.

Also, following the suggestion of richard 51, I have been putting damping materials on the underside of the plastic headband of these Lambdas. This is not as striking as applying it to the baffles but it definitely adds sonic quality.

 

[scotsstax]

cheers ed maybe spritzer or chinasettawong know its sitting here doing nothing and i liked it,... could do with fixing it and selling my 353x which i also like but in diff areas 353x has way more power it properly drives them too high ouput, but, i kinda liked my srm3, with the 404 signatures it was smooth lovelt midband not great bass but very fat agie texturally i might sell my sr507s and go bk to the 404 srm3 combo but need a new cd player  currently using my laptop and it is dire.... anyway cheers ed all the bet..rr rob..

 

[richard51]

I put 8 pieces of  70 duro sorb.1/4 inches  on each of  the planar speakers.... Guess what?  more and more better .... I think duro 70 is the way to go ,if possible with audio application, my speakers has never sound so good!....thanks Edstrelow

 
 
By the way the time necessary to my evaluation was 5 seconds... I think that i have a good memory for sound music ...

 
I am joking! but it is very evident .... on my speakers now it is like my old jazz cd are new one with a greater clarity more natural timbre than before, and  more impact with less on the  volume pot ...

And last but not least, the speakers now sound at the same level than my stax for the natural timbre...
 
Frankly if i had not stumble on  this damn thread of edstrelow almost a year ago , i would have been obsess to upgrade with thousand dollars here and another one there, because my sound was not so great i think at this time  with my gear, the same gear is now so extraordinary that i will wait years before investing  big money  ....the sorb. mod was for me a true liberation and revelation ... By the way my gear was in truth at this time  really great, it is that there is really a vibration plague on all audio world and nobody are conscious of the real extension and effect of it... I know that many people put some damping product  under their speakers etc but the problem is way more extensive and negative than people imagine ( all pieces of gear are linked and all must be damped)... I know that because before i read this thread i had try to damp my sub and amp, but my method were not the right one, and i was happy with them all the same , because i has never realize the real impact of a real  good damping method before damping my headphone ... Sorbothane permit that...  edstrelow had not exagerated one bit when he say in the beginning  that sorb. transform  often some ordinary headphone in an extraordinary one, but you must learn to apply it rightly...thanks

 

[scotsstax]

lambda nova basic is a well underestimated electrostatic phone, imo, i had one and the same driver unit circa 98 and loved it!!!!, is the 5 good rich i am tempted too try and find one!!!

 

[Jaab]

Hi Richard,
I saw a sr5 headphone to sell here:
http://yahoo.aleado.com/lot?auctionID=e183458459
I saw it ending and nobody bid on it and has been relisted, because is a local auction (Japan)
You have to use the service of this cie: https://www.fromjapan.co.jp/ to be able to bid.
I used it 2 times and works fine

 

[richard51]

i just try to take off the 6 paper metal clip that press on the 1/4 inches duro 70 sorb. glued on  my headband... The sound was more muffled without them pressing the sorb.... Hence my impression that compression of the sorb. if possible is way better is verified anew...
 
 In another experiment, i put some 6 others pieces 1/10 70 duro on the other side of the headband under the paper metal clip, and the result was immediately better also , hence i have now 6 pieces of 70 duro 1/4 inches and  6 pieces 1/10 inches under compression  between the jaw of the paper metal clips, on each side of the headband, that act like a  better filter for resonance between the cups  ... The sound is  so full bodied and the imaging  so good that i will not dare to try to put more  sorb. near the driver for the  immediate future.... i am glad with my Stax  nova basic... For sure they dont sound like the top Stax model i have never hear, but i  still cannot think nevertheless that they are  not so far neither so less good and just that is an extraordinary feat to credit to the sorbothane mod.   ... salutations to all of you 

 

 

[edstrelow]

i just try to take off the 6 paper metal clip that press on the 1/4 inches duro 70 sorb. on  my headband... The sound was more muffled without them pressing the sorb.... Hence my impression that compression of the sorb. if possible is way better is verified anew...

 In another experiment, i put some 6 others pieces 1/10 70 duro on the other side of the headband under the paper metal clip, and the result was immediately better also , hence i have now 6 pieces of 70 duro 1/4 inches and  6 pieces 1/10 inches under compression  between the jaw of the paper metal clips, on each side of the headband, that act like a  better filter for resonance between the cups  ... The sound is  so full bodied and so good that i will not dare to try to put more  sorb. near the driver for the  immediate future.... i am glad with my Stax  nova basic... salutations to all of you   

I have been doing something similar with the SR007 by adjusting the clamping force on its headband. Similarly I am using 70 duro sorb. The increased pressure seems to clarify the bass/midbass which tends to be somewhat muddy on these phones. You can see the clamp in the picture. Pressure is adjusted by tightening a nut on a,bolt that holds the twi pieces of plastic together.

 

[richard51]

sckeptics beware!

 
in my feverished quest to sorbothanize all my gear , i decide to put 6 pieces glued on my "plastic control puck" of the Monsoon hybrid powered speakers... It is no more stupid than putting some on the power conditioner after all... GUESS WHAT :  a subtle but nevertheless change for a better clarity....If someone say to me that i hallucinate, perhaps i will think that he is right, i will re-listen to all that , and i will not put off the sorb. it is my 13 th sorbothanization of all the pieces in the chain....Some change are spectacular, some are more subtle, all are cumulative, toward cleanliness in the end...