[jaycalgary]

The reason I had more bass on one side was the sound card I was using Musiland O2 and I have short diy silver rca cables that came with the amp. The wire broke inside from wear and tear. There was 1 wire ground and 2 to the positive in the monster cable connector. The Musiland 02 had a whole lot of bass authority with the O2's. It may have been boomy but my new W4S Dac2 does not seem to have nearly as much. There was a big bass contrast between using the O2's and diy 407/sigmas. Now it is not as much of a difference. I do have new life for the sigma project though because of the new sound quality. Before when I added enough mineral in the diy sigmas to get decent bass the midrange would sound veiled and just bad. Now with the much better W4S Dac2 I can add more mineral wool and have ok bass and midrange.

 

[Sharklordy]

Quote:

It is definitely your amp that needs updating.  I have the Srm-1/Mk-2 also, but is only useful for lower end Stax phones.  I am currently using a SRM T1 which is still way underpowered, especially for the Baby Orpheus I have coming in.
You should be looking for a SRM 727A ($1600+) at the very least for your O2s, and possibly the KGSS ($1500+) or BHSE ($4500+) to get the best out of your O2's

Sadly the KGSS has been discontinued

 

[jjinh]

Quote:

Sadly the KGSS has been discontinued

 
???
 
It's still available for order:
 

 

 

[milosz]

Here is a tip for Stax Lambda owners.  Probably applies to Sigmas, too.
 
When replacing the earpads....
 
After you peel off the old earpads, you will be left with adhesive stuck on the face of the headphone'r outer ring, the area where you will mount your new earpads.  I've found that using a solvent available at most hardware stores / Home Depot / Lowe's  etc works really well for this.  It's called "Goof Off" and is not terribly expensive.  I use a rag made damp with some "Goof Off'  to rub away the old adhesive.  I think you'd want to avoid getting any of this solvent on the drivers themselves, which is why I just " apply it sparingly to the rag so it doesn't drip off the rag and into the headphone where it might do something bad to the driver's dust cover or diaphragm.

 

[crumpler]

Quote:

 
???
 
It's still available for order:
 
 

I did the exact same thing. 

 

[jjinh]

Quote:

Here is a tip for Stax Lambda owners.  Probably applies to Sigmas, too.
 
When replacing the earpads....
 
After you peel off the old earpads, you will be left with adhesive stuck on the face of the headphone'r outer ring, the area where you will mount your new earpads.  I've found that using a solvent available at most hardware stores / Home Depot / Lowe's  etc works really well for this.  It's called "Goof Off" and is not terribly expensive.  I use a rag made damp with some "Goof Off'  to rub away the old adhesive.  I think you'd want to avoid getting any of this solvent on the drivers themselves, which is why I just " apply it sparingly to the rag so it doesn't drip off the rag and into the headphone where it might do something bad to the driver's dust cover or diaphragm.

 
I've found that the alcohol wipes you get at supermarkets do reasonable job of removing the goo when replacing the earpads (also good for the removing sticky residue left from adhesive labels and the like).

 

[milosz]

Quote:

 
I've found that the alcohol wipes you get at supermarkets do reasonable job of removing the goo when replacing the earpads (also good for the removing sticky residue left from adhesive labels and the like).

Try the Goof Off, it makes the job much easier. I tried isopropyl, ethyl and methyl alcohols but Goof Off worked much better.
 

 

[jaycalgary]

That's basically varsol.

 

[Ikarios]

I once used Ronsonol (lighter fluid, for Zippos and stuff) to clean off left-over sticker adhesive residue that was on the outside of a shot glass and had been there for months. It's probably cheaper than Goof-Off too. Regular lighter fluid (like for a grill) may also work, I've never tried it.

 

[DaveBSC]

Quote:

BTW, outside of component changes, in my experience, I have found the single biggest difference in sound quality to be found in power cords, one of the most aggressively attacked upgrades, not only from the you-can't-hear-the-difference crowd, but also from a number of electronics designers with whom I have spoken (vanity might have something to do with the latter: an amp designer I knew once revealingly said to me that saying a power cord/conditioner could improve his amps was a great insult because it was like saying he did not know how to design a proper power supply... I wanted to respond that that might well be the case and, apparently, he was not alone in this failing, but discretion being the better part of valor and all that...).

Power cords can indeed make incredible differences, despite the usual arguments of "how can the last few feet of power wire possibly make any difference" and "a properly designed power supply can deal with any AC noise problem". I was quite surprised at how huge the differences were between the cords I tried between the wall and my (now sold) PS Power Plant Premier. The PS is an AC regenerator, and the cord connecting it to the wall in theory shouldn't matter, but it does, BIG TIME.
 
Certain power supplies such as the switching units in ICEpower amps seem to ignore power cords, and some of the very best components with price tags well into 5 figures also seem to not need help with AC. For a typical component with a linear supply though, conditioning and cords matter.
 

 

[DaveBSC]

Quote:

 
???
 
It's still available for order:
 

 

IIRC Justin said the last of his KGSS units had recently been sold. Spritzer did mention talks about a commercial KGSSHV, but Headamp was not confirmed as the manufacturer. In any case, I've used the SRM-1 with the O2 and that combination does work. Of course a superior amp would be an improvement, but it's not an absolute requirement. The SRM-1 has 370V on tap which is more than any of the Stax tube amps.

 

[edstrelow]

Quote:

Power cords can indeed make incredible differences, despite the usual arguments of "how can the last few feet of power wire possibly make any difference" and "a properly designed power supply can deal with any AC noise problem". I was quite surprised at how huge the differences were between the cords I tried between the wall and my (now sold) PS Power Plant Premier. The PS is an AC regenerator, and the cord connecting it to the wall in theory shouldn't matter, but it does, BIG TIME.
 
Certain power supplies such as the switching units in ICEpower amps seem to ignore power cords, and some of the very best components with price tags well into 5 figures also seem to not need help with AC. For a typical component with a linear supply though, conditioning and cords matter.
 

You will get no disagreement from me about the value of good power cords. 
 

 

[Sharklordy]

Quote:

 
???
 
It's still available for order:
 

 

I wanted to order one but Justin said he has sold out and discontinued the KGSS.
 

 

[justin w.]

i'll be removing that, it is sold out.

 

[wink]

Does that mean you'll replace it with the KGSSHV..???