I'm thinking about purchasing MrSpeakers VOCE electrostatic headphones.
Motivated by the reviews reporting VOCE's great sound quality.
However, I have a couple of concerns.
1. I understand that MrSpeakers uses Mylar diaphragms.
Having previously owned failed electrostatic speakers (including Sound Labs model A3), I am wary about electrostatic driver Mylar plastic diaphragms losing tension over time, resulting in noise when diaphragm hits, or even sticks, to the stators.
If an electrostatic driver's diaphragm loses its tension, the driver eventually stops working.
I have several pair of STAX electrostatic headphones which, so far, have been mostly reliable (presumably due to STAX's proprietary 'engineered plastic' driver diaphragms and stator construction.
2. I am puzzled why MrSpeakers apparently doesn't use so-called "engineered plastics" diaphragm material reportedly not as susceptible to stretching compared to Mylar -- like STAX has been using for many years now. Is there a new version of thin Mylar material or a treatment process that maintains diaphragm tension --- maintains tension as well as the proprietary thin plastic membrane used by STAX?
Perhaps MrSpeakers' VOCE maintains diaphragm tension, indefinitely, by using some kind of 'secret sauce' (such as a clever tensioning mechanism to continuously pull on the circular edge of the VOCE Mylar diaphragm
- so that there's no reason to worry about VOCE driver longevity?
Hopefully, a customer should have no concern about loosing tension of the large VOCE 88mm diaphragm for many years, or even for decades?
What is the MrSpeakers VOCE headphone warranty concerning the possibility of VOCE driver diaphragm failure?
After MrSpeakers VOCE headphone warranty expires, what would be the charge to the customer to replace/repair or re-tension VOCE drivers?
I hope MrSpeakers can assure me that I should not be overly concerned about VOCE reliability (?)
BTW, I have the Ether headphones and they appear to be well built.
Thanks,
Bill