[basb]

Just received the stax 001 and yes, the sound is amazing. Maybe I end up prefering them over my DT990, which I think are great phones - besides the distant midrange.

There is one problem though: whenever I move the left earpiece to take it out or twist it in position it produces a horrible noise - hard for me to describe because my english isn't perfect - it sounds like distortion, a very loud cracking noise as if the diaphragm is ripped to pieces. very weird because it still sounds fine

The right earpiece - I can put it in, out, twist it, do whatever I like - is quiet all the time.
Does anybody know what's wrong with it, affraid I have to sent them back to japan

In addition I have a few questions i hope you guys can answer because the manual only comes in Japanese, I UTS but couldn't find -
- what are the two leds on the front of the amp for?
- how to detach the earpieces from the headband
- is the english manual somewhere online?

Hope you can help me, thanks!

 

[Duggeh]

Sounds to me like its just the Stax "fart". Its caused by air pressure making the material in the earpieces move in a rapid clappign motion as the air pressure equalises. Stax cover it in their product documentation and say that its harmless.

no manual, but heres the product info in english, hope that helps.

http://www.stax.co.jp/Pdf/ENG/001MK2S.pdf

 

[catscratch]

My SR-003 does the same thing, and so did the SR-001. It's probably the membrane hitting the stators and arcing, caused by sudden changes in pressure as you move the earpieces in and out. Given that we're dealing with 580V bias voltage and very low current, it's nothing to worry about.

To detach the earpieces, simply pull them sideways off the headband; they're only held on by pressure from the plastic joint. The cables are detachable too, though I don't recommend yanking them off all the time. The LED's on the amp are battery level indicators - green means the battery's fine; red means that it needs replacement.

 

[nelda]

Welcome to the club.
OT but still related. I use ac adaptor with this and sometime the unit switch off by itself. Anyone experienced this before?

 

[basb]

Thanks for the reply's!
Today I was listening again and got really annoyed by the noise, worrying about
the earspeaker, as well as my left ear, it was that loud!
It was mentioned that the cause of the noise is a change in air pressure when you move the headphone.
So I put the small earpads on the stax and the noise decreased slightly (in quantity, not in decibels). Then I took the large pad and cut a little hole in it to decrease the seal: again the noise decreased. After some more cutting (see pics) the noise is totally gone!
Comfort hasn't changed (still horrible, but the sound makes up for it

), the sound changed neither I think, maybe a very slight change in bass response,
the only drawback is that it can't be used without headband anymore, but thats ok. I have a few spare earpads so i'm going to experiment a little with the size and the place/orientation of the cutting.

That leaves one big problem, how am I going to afford the OmegaII's?

nelda: I used an adaptor today, 8 hours straight and it didn't turn off once...

 

[hembergler]

Good to know it's working out. And your english is certainly not bad.

 

[Andrew Pielet]

My Stax have been broken for about a year, and finally i found someone in Chicago to fix the amp. I always thought the sound was my hair touching the panels,

 

[basb]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Andrew Pielet My Stax have been broken for about a year, and finally i found someone in Chicago to fix the amp. I always thought the sound was my hair touching the panels,

Nothing to do with hair, i'm bald

[edit] BTW, the more I listen to it, the more I like the baby stax. Most of the time I slightly prefer it to the hd600 in my setup.