[Tubebabe]

Hi , I just acquired a Stax SR3 and SRD-5 on eBay so I'm joining the Head-Fi club now.   Unfortunately the "works great" e-Bay headphones do so only for the first 3 minutes or so and then the left ear starts slowing fading down in volume until the balance control on my preamp needs to eventually end at full rotation after about 10-15 minutes.
 
I've tried pumping high volume pink noise through it overnight and that only made it sound distorted when I first tried it in the morning and then it faded out again.
 
Is this a common problem?  I'll likely change out the capacitors in the SRD-5 but I suspect the fading is from the SR3's.
 
Any suggestions from the vintage Stax guru's?
 
Thanks,

 

[Tubebabe]

Update with more accurate info:  The fading out of the left earspeaker starts within 30 seconds of listening.
 
I tried unplugging the SR3's and shorting all the pins to discharge residyal charges and then plugged them back in; still weak on left ear.
 
If I leave it for a few hours and come back, balance is now good and then starts to fade again as music is played.
 
The one minute of music does sound great though!  If I follow the fading with the balance control on my preamp, I can get a full song and I am happy with the performance.
 
If I need to open up the SR3, does anyone know of any instructions on the web on how to do this properly and safely?
 
Thanks in advance for any help you can give.

 

[nick n]

might be best to go to the dedicated Stax thread here. http://www.head-fi.org/t/223263/the-stax-thread-new
I think there was also a repairing vintage stax thread somewhere also not sure where.oh here:http://www.head-fi.org/t/588716/vintage-stax-repair-and-maintenance
It's in the Summit-fi High End Audio section for future reference when browsing .
 
hope it helps and you can resolve it, what a maddening thing to have happen.
 
between the two threads you should hopefully figure something out
 
and WELCOME to HEAD-FI !   I always wanted to hear an SR-3 my first Stax was the SR-5.

 

[Tubebabe]

Thanks a lot Nick.  Wow, that is quite the Stax thread!  I'll keep digging through it but while imbalance is common, the fading out issue still looks unique to me.  I'll wait a bit and then report into the Stax thread.  I'm senstive to multi-posting spam so I'll wait to see if I get replies here first.
 
It is nice that the first reply I got is from the Great White North.  I live in Seattle now but I'm a Canuck too.
 
Rock on,
ME

 

[nick n]

could even be something as simple as a bad capacitor in the adapter box  . I have heard of this sort of thing before just forgot what exactly it ended up being. Too bad you didn't have another adapter box to try on. Might even be a diode(?) I think there was one of those in each earcup as well.
 
Seattle hey, I'm just across the water here on the island. It's a nice region.

 

[gz00]

Hi
 
I have SR5 earspeakers & SRD6SB amp and have a similar problem.  I don't have a solution I'm afraid so will be interested if you find one.
Cheers
gz00

 

[Tubebabe]

I will try to ask on the Stax thread to see if anyone there can help.  If I discover anything then I will let you know gz00.