the ecstacy continues!
Well, this has become a trilogy without ever being meant that way ^_^
Anyway, this morning I got a call from the audio shop to tell me they were able to find a pair of new (or unused, it’s how you look at it) pair of electrostatic units for my headphones earspeakers! Well, to be honest, I didn’t expect them to find anything at all. When I was over there to discuss the whole issue, we both somehow agreed that it was pretty hopeless to find parts for this… (if you think I’m exaggerating, go have a look on eBay and you can hardly find these headphones as a total, let alone the parts…) In the mean time I’ve been busy with a lot of things, so I didn’t really have time to feel sorry for the loss or whatever, but boy am I glad that this is now fixed! They did ask/expect me to pay for a part of the cost they’ve been making to fix this and I think that’s fair. It’s been my mistake to start soldering on the unit without even letting them know it was malfunctioning. They could’ve told me I was on my own and that would be fair too I guess. But, none of that!
yeah yeah! they’re back! ^_^
click to enlarge
I’m still quite thrilled that they’ve been able to locate a matching and unused pair of electrostatic units for my earspeakers. They told me somehow, somewhere, in some stock of some old STAX-importer, they were able to locate a pair (and there was only one pair too!) I now also have to burn them in, just like new ones. Although I won’t do much burning I guess, the whole situation did make me a little more cautious (only a little ^_^), so I will gently use and enjoy them ^_^
on the left and in front, the old units. on the right, a couple of CDs I bought to celebrate
click to enlarge
Well, I never would’ve imagined I would go into this amount of detail on a pair of headphones, not in general and not on my site, but well, that’s how it went. Next to that I never would’ve imagined I would spend this amount of money (I’m gonna skip my own birthday present now I guess) on something like this, but this is the best possible ending after all that happened and long after the price is forgotten I now truly hope to be still enjoying these marvelous earspeakers.
soooooo…..
*^_^*
earlier on this site:
short-lived ecstasy
ecstatic about electrostatic earspeakers
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Kiek uns eemn.
Glad to read this.
Happy happy joy joy!
How much did you wind up paying after everything was said and done?
*ahem* *hachoo* well… originally, the set was 175 euro, which seemed like a fair price for a used Stax. But this unit is optically totally as new… but, now, with the new electrostatic units placed inside, we agreed on an extra 125, so in total this has cost me *hachoo* 300 euro
Which is way too much compared to the few SR5s you can find online (although you still have to wait and see how good those are), but with how things went, I thought I lost a complete 175 on nothing, next to that, these sets retailed new for around 1000 guilders (not euros), without inflation and such that was 450 and my set is optically as new and the electrostatic units I’ve got now are new/unused, so it’s 2/3 of the price when these were new .
So, well, it’s a lot of money but I guess I can live with it. (I guess I have to! ;-))
I guess I now understand why some people say you shouldn't buy second hand electrostats. Luckily this happened on a pair of headphones and not on full blown(...) speakers ;-)
(and it still feels okay that I totally resoldered the unit, which makes it truly mine I guess ^_^)
Congrats on finding the parts…not so much on how much it ended up costing.
That’s wonderful that they found a new set of speakers for you.
Electrostatic speakers are such wonderful things. Most of my friends ask me if they are speakers since they are so thin and you can see right through them.
Then they’re blown away by the clarity, since there are so many subtle tones, that you might not notice on normal speakers.
Queens of the Stone Age AND Aphex Twin! Great choice of albums :)
I’m sure you’ll like the ending of QOTSA’s Misfit Love over your headphones >)