pagan
Been here a while!
Posts: 512
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Post by pagan on Mar 6, 2013 8:45:22 GMT
I don't think the filter is built in to the Stax amps:-) maybe a valve in some amps for harmonic pleasure.
Stax have improved there low end, but the Ortho did have better bass.
I paid aus $820.00 for mine from a price japan company, that was landed to door in 4 days, The HE500's were aus $720.00 local. The other Ortho's are approx $1200.00 and up
The Stat's have to have a dedicated amp or transformer box off an amp output. The Ortho's theoretically will run of any amp, but a dedicated amp is a plus.
So anyway you go niether are cheap.
I am thinking about the T50's...... they are cheap and may have possibilites. I'll never know untill I try.
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Post by Rabbit on Mar 6, 2013 9:08:44 GMT
Allan, imo, you may not find it up to what you have but it is very close. The mods are a must though as well, again imo.
The filter idea, while I know the problems, is the easiest way out of the under-extended treble and I kind of regard it as an 'energiser' if I'm honest. The nice thing is that poor recordings - when they sound bad - switch it off and you hear less nasties like distortion in the top end!!
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Crispy
500+
"Done me wrong," it's the same old song" - forever
Posts: 631
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Post by Crispy on Mar 6, 2013 10:02:48 GMT
Oh, then I recommend something from Singapore. At one time was rated the best beer in the world by an independent "judge". Here, cheers to you from Singapore ............... Chong try and get hold of some Robinsons Old Tom, it has also been voted the Best Ale in the world. At 8.5% alcohol you don't need many to start seeing Bigfoot
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pagan
Been here a while!
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Post by pagan on Mar 6, 2013 10:35:29 GMT
Ian What I would like to know about the T50's (or other ortho's) is about the upper peak. Whether it's a resonante peak due to cone/plate breakup.. similar to cone speaker drivers/diapham have resonant or cone breakup frequencies.
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Post by Rabbit on Mar 6, 2013 11:08:20 GMT
Allan it's a 6db dip, not a peak. It's at 3KHz and is made worse by the pads. Changing them makes that dip slightly worse which is why Frans came up with a solution using an active filter. It also extends much further into the treble than those Stax headphones with a filter and it stays pretty flat. However, the treble is in no way strident (like you can get from electrostats). It's a very smooth 'ortho' sound.
In fact, my T40 measures quite flat from 10Hz to 21KHz (approx) and it possibly goes deeper with a little drop off. The monitoring mics run out of steam down there.
It's quite a different sound to what I remember as a 'typical' electrostat.
The other funny thing about them is that when you hear them as a stock headphone, you are left very much as Mike feels; underwhelmed and not convinced that they can sound so good!! It's really quite weird.
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XTRProf
Fully Modded
Pssst ! Got any spare capacitors ?
Posts: 5,689
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Post by XTRProf on Mar 7, 2013 3:05:15 GMT
Ok. Sorry, I thought we were discussing the flatness of the Stax SR-507. I'm getting lost. Actually, like I had written, this thread is for the "higher tech" HPs and what they can do, whether moded or not. We may buy a cheap HP of the tech here and mode it to beyond what a top expensive one can sound and do. There is not barrier but just the results attainable form these tech HPs. I may change the Subject to Ribbon too when that is available. Is there another one available around £100? Actually it should be under £150 if you make a filter with the T40. Or do what the Stax do and have a dedicated amplifier with filter already fitted? Only the Electret can. I always like no boundary like the Americans in terms of what is possible. Who are making Electrets? Again, I'm guessing - are they electrostats with a circuit built in to a dedicated amp? Electret microphones are just powered mics and so more sensitive. Not any more unless the used market. I just don't know why as queried above. Yup, same as the Electret Mic. So you are lucky. You can "try an Electret HP" with reverse inputs to 2 Electret Mics with the studio engineers or boss not looking. You will need a headband though. Grado? Modding headphones is no worry. It's just doing something that perhaps the manufacturer should have done in the first place. However, if they did, they might charge a lot more for the headphone because of the resulting sound. They'll charge whatever they can get away with. It is sad that an expensive headphone, doesn't always guarantee that it's going to sound good. The Stax above looks nice and smooth though and should be worth hearing. That's what this hobby is all about. If the manufacturers don't do it, we will. Luckily they left something for us so called audiofools to mode to enjoy the hobby. Yeah, even to the extent of claiming the Audio Guru status and better than the manufacturers or designers. Else Mike will be out of biz and job. Maybe Frans too. Expensive or not, that doesn't matter. It's still what can be done by the various technologies, moded or not. I remember a fully moded RX7 trounced a Porsche Turbo any time in drag racing.
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XTRProf
Fully Modded
Pssst ! Got any spare capacitors ?
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Post by XTRProf on Mar 7, 2013 5:19:36 GMT
Chris,
See whether I can find old Tom locally. Hope he is still alive.
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Post by Rabbit on Mar 7, 2013 7:29:55 GMT
I don't think the filter is built in to the Stax amps:-) maybe a valve in some amps for harmonic pleasure. That's quite funny. In all seriousness, I don't think there is a filtering system but the idea of adding harmonics kind of tickled me. I love amps with tubes, but I also love the way that 'purists' like the Stax as well!!! There's something contradictory there. ;-)
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Mar 7, 2013 9:07:35 GMT
I don't think the filter is built in to the Stax amps:-) maybe a valve in some amps for harmonic pleasure. That's quite funny. In all seriousness, I don't think there is a filtering system but the idea of adding harmonics kind of tickled me. I love amps, but I also love the way that 'purists' like the Stax as well!!! There's something contradictory there. ;-) Allan and Ian There is no conflict here. Stax headphone amplifiers do not have inbuilt frequency tailoring, and they don't deliberately add even order harmonics either . The earlier Stax, and some recent expensive models too, use vacuum tubes because of the high polarising voltage needed, and the high voltage drive requirements. Some cheaper drivers from Stax used transistors that became cheap and in plentiful supply due to the high voltage requirements mainly in now superseded PC monitors, where they were used for horizontal and vertical deflection circuits.Now that LCD monitors use LED backlighting technology, they are becoming scarce again. There are also Transformers for driving Stax from a conventional power amplifier.These rectify the incoming signal using voltage doubling style techniques , and the transformer also steps up the audio which is already at a higher level due to coming from a power amplifier.( the 15W Class A drives the transformer very nicely) Some solid state power amplifiers, such as from Aspen Audio in Melbourne ( Hugh Dean (AKSA) from DIYAudio ,(A.K.A. as Houdini after a recent brush with death due to an aortic aneurism where he didn't regain conscious for almost a month. A very interesting story from Hugh , try to keep the vacuum tube brigade happy by deliberately tailoring harmonic distortion to give a heavy weighting in favour of even order harmonics. Regards Alex
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XTRProf
Fully Modded
Pssst ! Got any spare capacitors ?
Posts: 5,689
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Post by XTRProf on Mar 8, 2013 3:45:01 GMT
Alright, something to check out of an older Stax model Lambda SB.................. Cheaper? That I haven't find out. Cheaper Electrostatic HP of the Koss ESP950 kind and still current if I'm not wrong. Again haven't check price yet. Now the King of all Electrostatic, the Stax SR-009, as deeemd by many into this HP hobby (Not me, btw, as I'm still firmly a speakerfi guy for obvious reason ) and meaning this system will be able to buy a very good speakerfi system or you go rob a bank or try your luck at the nearest casino or lottery or you fast like a Muslim for several months or mortgage your car or property or you go Skyfall without any parachute and never come back to trouble your wife or even yourself or go to take a marksmanship test and you volunteer to be the moving target to still give yourslef a 2nd chance. Anything is possible but only limited by your dated "computer" at the top and not like Alex's new sparkling Win 8 PC. This I don't think I need to give you as it's the known default price. Woah, all show a very familiar graph at the end, right? No bass? I don't think so for a wide price range for Electro HPs. Ah, the LCD! Need to sing the bell song again? Nah, I wouldn't bore you again. But I hope your "bulb" is working. Audeze LCD3 Rev 2 to give you a clue if "bulb" is not working. All look the same at the backside, right. So definitely has improved for all those membrane gangs.
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pjc68
Been here a while!
You dissin me?
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Post by pjc68 on Apr 8, 2013 20:07:30 GMT
Guess I'm back to martini's shaken not stirred. Heineken? Been drinking that since high school. Oh, I mean college. I will suggest an American beer from my home state of California. Sierra Nevada Bigfoot (barleywine style) Ale.) Drink more than two and you think you see Big Foot. Now back on topic. I would love to have a Stax 009 if I could afford it. If you can afford two, please drink three Bigfoots or four martini's and send me one as a gift. Oh, then I recommend something from Singapore. At one time was rated the best beer in the world by an independent "judge". Again get the Special Brew if you can find it in the States. I remember when I was in a college in Kansas, we use to sneek crates of beers into our dorm under operation "Nighfall" and hiccup all the way into the night with fellow dorm nuts. Have you try the cowboy moonshine? Here, cheers to you from Singapore ............... It was local until bought over by Heineken, I think, recently. Ah, going into oscillation already after .................... Obviously, no singing as she already buried alive in the blues under grass (drugs) forever literally. Eh, 009? I thought James Bond is 007? Anyway, back on topic, get the 009 in Japan is much cheaper than you get it in the States or even for me in Singapore if I'm not wrong. Chong Tiger beer is the best lager i have tasted, close second is krusovice i had in prague (czech republic) a couple of years ago I told the waiter it was "dobry pivo" (good beer) paddy
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