[audionut]

I've got a set of 404LE's that are a little less than a year old. Last night, I went to listen to them, and noticed the left channel was noticeably lower in volume than the right.

It's as if you had taken a balance control and lowered the left channel several steps. All the music is there, but just not as loud, especially the bass like a kick drum for instance. They have worked perfectly until last night, and it's happening with both my stat amps (see sig). I got them from Elusive Disc, and looks like the warranty repairs are done by a company called Yama's Enterprises out in California. Anyone ever had any dealings with them for warranty repair on their Stax phones? Also, anyone care to speculate on what might be causing this? Just curious and will hopefully be shipping them off after I talk to them. They are on West Coast time and haven't opened yet.
 
Thanks, Tommy 

 

[spritzer]

It's probably the nasty electret effect kicking in so leave the phones plugged in and playing music for a day or so and see if that makes a difference. 

 

[audionut]

Well crap, I already sent them off to Yama since they're under warranty. I'll wait and see what they say. I'd never heard of the electret effect as I'm somewhat new to stats. These are my second pair, and I've already been through the dreaded squealing effect with my previous Koss 950's. Never did get them sorted out completely and had sent them to Koss several times. If this electret effect turns out to be the cause of the left volume being lower, is this normal for Stax stats to have this happen? If so, I don't mind leaving them playing for a day if this corrects the problem. Just trying to understand if this is to be expected from Stax or stats in general. Thanks for the reply.
 
Quote:

It's probably the nasty electret effect kicking in so leave the phones plugged in and playing music for a day or so and see if that makes a difference. 

 

[edstrelow]

 There may be a defect such as a wiring problem on one channel or even a bad driver.   Let us know how YAMAS handles this.  It is  often quite difficult to get them to reply to messages so I will be interested to see if they are on the ball on warranty repairs.
 
I have had Stax phones for donkey's years without any such problem other than those caused by severe physical misuse.  They just keep on playing. I fear mine will outlive me.
 
The Koss 950 was notorious for the squeal.  I fixed mine after Koss couldn't work it out.  There was a small leakage of charge from one of the electrodes to the outside of a cable because the cable was almost touching the electrode.  There just wasn't quite enough room at that one point in the earcups. You could actually see the trail of sparks in the dark.  Of course few people open up their stats in the dark.

 

[audionut]

Yes, I will let you know how it goes with regard to Yamas and their warranty service. Could not reach them by phone, but they promtly responded to my email request. I actually thought it could be wiring problem, too, and that it almost sounded like it had lost bias to the left channel. I accidently forgot to hook up bias once on my Koss stats, and while I still got sound, it was very weak.
 
I took my Koss 950's apart many times, but could never get them resolved. My squealing was very intermitten, and it would never do it with the stock E90. It would only do it with my KGSS and eXStata. So obviously, Koss would never be able to duplicate it when I sent it in multiple times. Sadly, I don't think Koss's lifetime warranty is what it used to be. I had actually PM'd you last year asking about your problem and resolution. I completely rewired my 950's and checked for the arcing yours had (couldn't see any in mine). They still did it from time to time. Will post back as soon as I hear something from Yama on my Stax problem.
Quote:

 There may be a defect such as a wiring problem on one channel or even a bad driver.   Let us know how YAMAS handles this.  It is  often quite difficult to get them to reply to messages so I will be interested to see if they are on the ball on warranty repairs.
 
I have had Stax phones for donkey's years without any such problem other than those caused by severe physical misuse.  They just keep on playing. I fear mine will outlive me.
 
The Koss 950 was notorious for the squeal.  I fixed mine after Koss couldn't work it out.  There was a small leakage of charge from one of the electrodes to the outside of a cable because the cable was almost touching the electrode.  There just wasn't quite enough room at that one point in the earcups. You could actually see the trail of sparks in the dark.  Of course few people open up their stats in the dark.