skibjr
Super Member
Had an interesting experience with these that may be useful knowledge to other novice electrostatic headphone users.
I've always been curious about the sound quality of electrostatic vs. dynamic headphones, and when I saw a good deal on a pair of Marantz SE-1's, I went ahead and dove in. When they arrived, I hooked them up and and sat down to do some critical listening.
It became immediately apparent that there was a big problem. I could barely hear any sound at all, and what I could hear was all warbly and distorted. I was kinda ticked because the seller had made the point that the the phones were "untested", which I find usually translates to "they don't work, but I don't want to come right out and say that". I tried both headphone ports, and since the deal included a second (spare) energizer, I tried it as well - and, of course, it didn't work either. :gigglemad
So, I went to work trying to find out all I could about how electrostatic headphones work, and Googled away for at least a few hours, looking for service manuals, schematics, folks with similar issues, etc. I finally found something intriguing - this post from our very own wualta a few years back. Wualta advised that due to a huge current limiting resistor in the typical energizer circuit, it could take up to three days for a set of electrostatic phones to build up a proper charge in order to be used! This was nowhere in any of the published literature, nor in the original SE-1 manual, nor did I find this information anywhere else on the 'Net except in this one post!
Sure enough, after only a few hours of charging time, I tried the phones, and they sounded GREAT!
And to think I almost tossed them in the garbage! 
I've always been curious about the sound quality of electrostatic vs. dynamic headphones, and when I saw a good deal on a pair of Marantz SE-1's, I went ahead and dove in. When they arrived, I hooked them up and and sat down to do some critical listening.
It became immediately apparent that there was a big problem. I could barely hear any sound at all, and what I could hear was all warbly and distorted. I was kinda ticked because the seller had made the point that the the phones were "untested", which I find usually translates to "they don't work, but I don't want to come right out and say that". I tried both headphone ports, and since the deal included a second (spare) energizer, I tried it as well - and, of course, it didn't work either. :gigglemad
So, I went to work trying to find out all I could about how electrostatic headphones work, and Googled away for at least a few hours, looking for service manuals, schematics, folks with similar issues, etc. I finally found something intriguing - this post from our very own wualta a few years back. Wualta advised that due to a huge current limiting resistor in the typical energizer circuit, it could take up to three days for a set of electrostatic phones to build up a proper charge in order to be used! This was nowhere in any of the published literature, nor in the original SE-1 manual, nor did I find this information anywhere else on the 'Net except in this one post!
Sure enough, after only a few hours of charging time, I tried the phones, and they sounded GREAT!
And to think I almost tossed them in the garbage!
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