The Stax Thread III

[davidsh]

Short the pins with your fingers and the diaphragm should discharge.

 

[Pier Paolo]

long story short!
TKS

 

[milosz]

I've also heard that electrostatic 'phones take 'hours' to charge up properly.  Mine seems to charge up just about immediately, but maybe after an hour they sound better?  I can't tell, they sound good right away and sound good later on, too. My time machine is in the shop for repair, otherwise I could do an A/B comparison of the sound of short charge time vs long charge time....
 
I know my Quad ESL's take a while to charge.  For at least the first hour or two they are quiet sounding and I am reluctant to play them.  Slow charge migration due to a high resistance coating is supposed to be one of the keys to good sound from an ESL, not sure if the same is true of electrostatic 'phones but I would guess they too need to control charge movement on the diaphragm otherwise the charge would all move to the point of the diaphragm closest to the stator, typically the center of the diaphragm when the diaphragm is vibrating....  freely motile charge would lead to non-linear transduction.

 

[spritzer]

That long charge up myth comes from the QUAD ESL57 with its nylon coating and rather insane surface resistance.  Couple that with a very weak bias supply and they will take a long time to charge up. 
 
For Stax headphones the charge will take a few milliseconds to reach full level if they are working properly. 

 

[Pier Paolo]

Very interesting, milosz.

 

[SoupRKnowva]

Yatta! Today my Sr-009s came in!!!!!
 
Thanks Justin for getting these to me so fast

 

[MacedonianHero]

  Yatta! Today my Sr-009s came in!!!!!
 
Thanks Justin for getting these to me so fast

 
Congrats Chase! Long wait, but well worth it IMO. You should be rocking now with your KGSSHV!

 

[jeffreyfranz]

  Yatta! Today my Sr-009s came in!!!!!
 
Thanks Justin for getting these to me so fast

At the LA Headphone Meet last July, this was the only HP I heard that literally seemed magical, took my breath away (on Justin's BHSE). I liked other things very much (e.g., SR-007 Mk. 1; HD-800), but the 009 was mind-boggling. Good for you; happy for you.

 

[nemomec]

Hello,
 
i have here now a SRM T1S (lastest series) and i will do the ECC99 mod to get a better performance.
 

 
First step i have changed the old cups on my T1S. What things I need for the using of ECC99 tubes? I have read from recabling the tube connectors and new resistors. Where I can find more information?
 
Which type of ECC99 tubes are good? I have found this ones:
 
http://www.ebay.de/itm/2-Stk-ECC99-JJ-Tube-Rohrenverstarker-Rohre-HighEnd-12BH7-matched-Paar-NEU-/200983941981?pt=R%C3%B6hren&hash=item2ecb93935d
 
Thanks! 

 

[AManAnd88Keys]

  Hello,
 
i have here now a SRM T1S (last series) and i will do the ECC99 mod to get a better performance. First step i have changed the old cups on my T1S. What things I need for the using of ECC99 tubes? I have read from recabling the tube connectors and new resistors. Where I can find more information?
 
Which type of ECC99 tubes are good? I have found this ones:
 
http://www.ebay.de/itm/2-Stk-ECC99-JJ-Tube-Rohrenverstarker-Rohre-HighEnd-12BH7-matched-Paar-NEU-/200983941981?pt=R%C3%B6hren&hash=item2ecb93935d
 
Thanks! 

There's only one manufacturer of the ECC99 as far as I know, so you can either choose the JJ standard label or gold ones. The gold plated pins are the only real difference it seems.

 

[spritzer]

12BH7 and 6n6pi are close relatives to the ECC99 but as of yet untested. 

 

[nemomec]

Ok Thanks!
 
I have now ordered a pair of ECC99 JJ tubes and 30K 2W resistors.
 
Now I need only a guide how to recabling the tube connectors?
 
Thanks! 

 

[AManAnd88Keys]

A question for Stax historians: Why did Stax discontinue the Gamma / Alpha line after a few years? Where they not succesful enough, or too similar to the Lambdas?

 

[3X0]

According to the Wiki, sales did not meet expectations as the price difference between those lines and the Lambdas was too small to justify settling for the lesser models.
 
I'm no Stax historian though.

 

[arnaud]

That matches what we were told during the interview at stax last a year ago.