[milosz]

Quote:

 
It's somewhere between the regular Atlas and the Magnum. It's a super beefed up power supply and better parts throughout. 

Ahhh  I see.  Must sound wonderful.

 

[grokit]

Is there a replacement material for the "disintegrating foam" that lined the inner earcup panel of vintage Lambdas etc.?

I know it's just cosmetic, more of an OCD thing...

Yes.  If you buy new Stax earpads, they now come with a FABRIC inner cover.

The original foam that had been used since Lambdas were first invented was a part of the earpads - i.e. they are not separate. The newer ear pads come with a separate material insert that fits underneath the new pads. It appears to be far more durable.

Yep. However, it sounds worse than the foam IMO. No free lunch...

Thanks for the replies guys. I have a new set of pads and found the included fabric liners, they fit right in and sound great -- OCD cured

But I do have a question about actually replacing the pads. I lifted one up, and there is some gooey tacky adhesive. On the box the pads come in it says I can clean the adhesive residue with alcohol, I assume of the standard rubbing variety. Or benzine, which is petroleum ether according to Wikipedia. It specifically says NOT to use solvents like paint thinner. Would the product Goo Gone be suitable? It contains petroleum distillates, and I'm not sure if that makes it a solvent like paint thinner or more like the benzine. From my limited experience with adhesive removal, I would like to use the Goo Gone for the bulk of the removal and finish up with rubbing alcohol which evaporates. Any experienced advice would be quite helpful as I don't want to endanger my old but new to me Lambdas.

 

[Don Quichotte]

Quote:

Thanks for the replies guys. I have a new set of pads and found the included fabric liners, they fit right in and sound great -- OCD cured

If you like the sound, then everything is OK.
Regarding the old glue, I removed it from the old baffle by rubbing it with my fingers (dirty job, but hey! Stax phones safety first!) and finished indeed with a cloth with a bit of alcohol - but not too much so that there's no risk of it dripping off the baffle into the headphone.

 

[grokit]

OK, its official! Used to be that the LCD-3s were my "Gladys Knight of headphones" and my HD800s and W3000s were The Pips so to speak.

Now, looks like I've got three Pips (all my dynamic cans) and the SR009s are my new Gladys Knight! This is rather a surprising finding for me as I've never been really swayed enough to pick up a Stax rig (though the SR007 MKIs did have me humming and hawing for a while).

The deep bass that I LOVE on the LCD-3s is there on my SR-009s with unbelievably better control (didn't think that was possible over the LCD-3s :blink: ). Imaging is just under the HD800s, but precision of placement within that sound stage is un-matched. And detail retrieval...no other headphone comes close to them. I heard things on the SR-009s these past few days that none of my other headphones (past or present) has ever revealed. And mostly on recordings that I've known for over 20 - 25 years!

Belated congratulations Peter, glad you found your new Gladys! I guess this was somewhat predictable though :devil_face:

Honestly now that the seed of doubt if planted you may as well just buy them 009. It'll never get out of your hear, and I can say from experience (and people telling me to) that you may as well just do it.

This is exactly the way my subconscious works... as soon as I start thinking about an upgrade, my current system begins to sound worse and worse... until I cave in, spend the $$$ and wonder how I could have possibly lived with that "other" setup for so long.

I'm on the clock.

I understand completely...

I don't think I want to hear an SR007/9 at this point, as there are still a few dynamic cans that I want to try. Namely the LCD3, PS1000, and TH900, maybe a W3000ANV. I feel so pedestrian with my lowly dynamic "flagships".

Kidding! I still enjoy the heck out of my LCD2.1, HD800 and HE6, but I'm pretty sure that these new to me Lambda Pros have displaced the K1000 in my collection, as I really don't want to be a collector. If the headphone isn't in regular rotation, it has to go!

These Lambdas are impressive to me though. I would say that they don't take a back seat to any of the aforementioned dynamics, and considering what I paid (less than any of them including the energizer and extra pads), it was a spectacular bargain.

So I'm sure an Omega would spoil all of that for me, and become the new master of my headphone universe. And I am not ready for that h34r:

Maybe sometime down the road, when the SR0011 comes out...
:veryevil:

 

[spritzer]

Quote:

Sorry if this has been asked before but I can't find it:
 
Could someone explain Pre-Heat on my SRM-T1? Do I just click it for a few minutes before I turn on the power switch or do I leave the power switch on all the time and un-click the preheat when I'm done listening to turn off the tubes? It's confusing.
 
Just had the new Toshiba matched pair biased and the unit sounds fantastic! Old tubes were distorting... was worried it was the headphone but it wasn't which was a huge relief. Next step is to get my turntable setup correctly in the new apartment to reduce the sibilance and then I'll be ready to really evaluate the Lambda Signatures.

 
This gives the heating element enough time to fully warm up and thus make the tube conductive before the high voltage is applied.  In theory this is supposed to prolong tube life by preventing cathode stripping but the voltages involved are really too low for that to happen.  Goes in the "doesn't do anything but doesn't hurt"category. 
 
If you turn off the preheat function then the amp will turn off. 
 
Quote:

One thing I don't understand is why doesn't Stax design amps w/ higher voltage output?  

 
Higher voltage isn't needed but what they do need is more current.  That means larger amps which are heavier and need more heatsink capability.  Ultimately this is all down to money and how much the market will take.  Then there is the small problem of them not making much money on the amps... 

 

[Fishfood]

Quote:

 
If you turn off the preheat function then the amp will turn off. 
 
 
 

 
I'm sorry. I'm still unclear. If I turn the preheat off with the power switch pressed on, the light on the preheat still is glowing so it doesn't seem like the amp is off. Is it? I'd like to keep the amp on all the time as I do my other equipment because in my experience, things sound a lot better that way. With tube gear, it requires a separate switch for the tubes but I'm still unclear if the preheat switch is what that is for.

 

[rgs9200m]

Quote:

 
This gives the heating element enough time to fully warm up and thus make the tube conductive before the high voltage is applied.  In theory this is supposed to prolong tube life by preventing cathode stripping but the voltages involved are really too low for that to happen.  Goes in the "doesn't do anything but doesn't hurt"category. 
 
If you turn off the preheat function then the amp will turn off. 
 
 
Higher voltage isn't needed but what they do need is more current.  That means larger amps which are heavier and need more heatsink capability.  Ultimately this is all down to money and how much the market will take.  Then there is the small problem of them not making much money on the amps... 

So spritzer, does this come down to a better, possibly external, power supply (maybe a tubed one)? I wonder what the current status of possible mods to, say, the 007t/ii is.
How complicated would using an alternate, external power supply be? Could the existing tubes handle it?

 

[kevin gilmore]

Except for the stax speaker amplifiers, and other exotic stuff, stax has never used
a regulated power supply in the electrostatic amplifiers. Not even the T2. Just
a diode bridge and a capacitor (x2). Fully regulated power supplies do make
a tremendous difference (diy T2) and take up lots of extra space. Pretty much
double the physical size.
 
OK, i take that back, the srm300 has a regulated power supply. It actually
has to because its pushing the transistors right up to their voltage rating.

 

[schorsch]

Quote:

I bet they sound incredible. I wanted to get a DA80 for my Quads. Never could find one close by that was in good enough shape. It's a great amplifier!

Yes they do. But you have need quite some time to find the right position for them
 
Regards Georg

 

[spritzer]

Quote:

 
I'm sorry. I'm still unclear. If I turn the preheat off with the power switch pressed on, the light on the preheat still is glowing so it doesn't seem like the amp is off. Is it? I'd like to keep the amp on all the time as I do my other equipment because in my experience, things sound a lot better that way. With tube gear, it requires a separate switch for the tubes but I'm still unclear if the preheat switch is what that is for.

 
Like I said, if you turn off the preheat then the amp is off.  If only the preheat is pressed then only the filaments are active.  On the modern amps this is combined into one switch. 
 
Leaving tube equipment on 24/7 is a very, very bad idea. 
 
Quote:

So spritzer, does this come down to a better, possibly external, power supply (maybe a tubed one)? I wonder what the current status of possible mods to, say, the 007t/ii is.
How complicated would using an alternate, external power supply be? Could the existing tubes handle it?

 
The existing tubes don't even work as it is so that's a crap shoot but simply replacing the PSU will not help as much as changing the tubes and how they are loaded.  Then I'd work on the PSU but nothing would fit in that chassis

 

[rgs9200m]

Thanks Kevin. Yep, a good power supply is a relatively cheaper and simpler thing to produce, and I wonder why Stax wouldn't offer one as an option,
since it would be a lot of bang for the buck.
And thanks spritzer too. Actually, since their are so many Stax amps out there, I wonder why there isn't a bigger mod market out there,
like there is for Sony, Oppo, and some other CD players.

 

[purrin]

Quote:

 
Nice thinking! 

 
 
Correction Peter, "my wallet" didn't want to hear about it. 

 I still love my LCD-3s, but these are the real deal! 

 
It's about time you got the 009s! Now you need to get a better amp. The LL is great match with the 009.

 

[carbonfet]

I remeasured the 27kOhm resistors and they all read 26.7kOhm give or take (not sure how I managed to get my earlier reading). A few other resistors seemed to measure low (R123-R126 measure ~230kOhm instead of 300kOhm). I took a few pics in case there's a list of caps/resistors/diodes for my particular version handy. What parts would be the most likely cause for the offset/balance to not adjust properly? Would it just be a good idea to replace the caps & any resistors that measure poorly?
 

 

 

 

[kevin gilmore]

you can't measure the resistors in circuit and get a real value.

 

[carbonfet]

Yea, I was thinking that would be the case since the measurements didn't really add up (it's been a while since I've done circuitry work, forgive my rustiness). In any case, is there no obvious cause for the offset & balance to be as off as they are?