Bengineer Posted March 27, 2022 Posted March 27, 2022 5 minutes ago, CryptiK said: You're a bit phat pluck What? What Yo mumma drop something when you were born and it wasn't the bass 2
Mach3 Posted June 12, 2022 Posted June 12, 2022 On 08/06/2021 at 10:38 AM, Astrolug said: Its supra-aural design is hardly where interest lies these days, and Stax quickly went circumaural after this model, but in its time SR-X Mk3 Pro was top of the tree, and today it still carries a hefty reputation in sonic terms. Antonio Scozzaro described its performance glowingly in his 2012 soundbsessive review, and Sorrodje published a series of response charts in superbestaudiofriends in 2016 based on a fine rare specimen loaned to him by Ali-Pacha. Of all the Stax ear speaker I own, the 2x 007 Mk1 has the most impactful bass of the bunch. SR-1, SR-3, SR-5, SR-5 Gold, SR-Sigma, SR-Sigma Pro, SR-202, SR-207 Ultramod, SR-507, SR-L300, SR-L300 Limited, SR-Ω, SR-007, MK1 Carbon Case, SR-007 MKI SZ1 Serie, SR-009BK I wonder how the Stax SR-X Mk3 Pro compare to them.
Mach3 Posted June 12, 2022 Posted June 12, 2022 Hi Falcon can you send me the info too pls. Need to do my 007t too.
Ehrmantraut Posted June 16, 2022 Posted June 16, 2022 So an update: My original CRBN proved to be faulty and were kindly replaced by the retailer. Back in my system (see signature), they expressed the same liveliness and impact I remembered. The X9K continue to be my jazz standard for jazz standards! Gorgeous, spacious timbre and such a lovely tonality. Probably the best piano reproduction I’ve heard on a HP. Bass is still taut and has enough slam, quantity and impact for a lot of genres. I do think they’ve loosened up a bit if that can be a thing with estats. They feel like a lighter, more airy Susvara, a HP I think has some of the best tonality out there but bested here. CRBN is the mainstay of the stable. Handles all genres very well, more bass impact and quantity than X9K and more mid forward. Such a clean and lively sound. A more recent addition was the 007MK2. I felt the other two HPs weren’t quite cutting it for the 70-80’s rock I still love. Think Doobies, Eagles, Steely Dan, ELO etc. I know, lame MOR or West Coast Rock. I blame my youth. The 007s might be a little bit recessed in the mids but add some deep bass heft and overall warmth to these genres which stop them sounding slightly shrill on the others. Not always a “go to” HP but useful to have in the background. Previously, my setup was SR1a, Susvara and 1266. In many ways, you can see the parallels with my current setup. Is one better than the other, yes and no? Running the ribbon/planars off some exy power amps gave all of the HP depth, bass, mids and tone you could want. All genres covered. Susvara the “go to”, SR1a for detail and 1266 for dramatic, biblical bass. However, the journey has now taken me to even more detail, speed and the “crispness” that Estats bring. Clarity is my thing and going back to ZMF/Meze/std Audeze is fine but just a little “muddy”. I see a little exploration with perhaps Shanghai-La Jr, I tried the Voce and found them to be fairly typical of Dan’s damping. And maybe some other amps. The Mjolnir Carbon, LTA Z10e or Woo 3ES are all candidates but up there in $$ with the BHSE. I’d like a different signature with these existing HPs but so hard without demo. All other components seem settled. Unless I go Oladra or some fancy new DAC. The journey has slowed…….time to listen! 4
TonyW Posted June 19, 2022 Posted June 19, 2022 Really appreciate your detailed thoughts… I’m still at the Utopia/1266 stage of the journey… and very much enjoying it. My question relates to how sensitive you find the synergy of the electro stats you have tried to other components. You mentioned amps, what about DACs. I was frankly surprised at how the headphones I had scaled up with a terminator over a tt2 or a Hugo 2, I’d loved those DACs for a long time. cheers, T ps I’m also all for air and transparency in my sound but a lush mid range is also a thing of beauty! 1
Ehrmantraut Posted June 19, 2022 Posted June 19, 2022 Hi T, I've only used the Mola Mola Tambaqui (MMT) with these HPs. Prior to the Estats I had a Holo May KTE with the planars/ribbons. The MMT is a more resolving, more "alive" sounding DAC to me than the May and yet with the highly detailed Estats, it's not tiring. I'd be interested to demo other DACs that are in the same ballpark as the MMT, like the CH precision, Rockna Wavedream Sig and Aqua Formula but no chance up here in sunny Brissie. I have heard DAVE but again, not in this setup, so there's another option. There are always options, just not enough funds! And yes, the "lush" thing can be just the best on a cool Sunday arvo..... N 1
Ehrmantraut Posted June 19, 2022 Posted June 19, 2022 9 hours ago, TonyW said: I think I just have to try the Mola Mola! T Terry @GC HiFi is your man! 1
walker1000 Posted September 29, 2022 Posted September 29, 2022 Hi all, I have owned a pair of the original standard bias Lamba headphones since new ( about 40 years) but recently bought an adapter and phones form japan. They are the srs-3050 which comprises the SR303 headphones and the SRM323a energiser. When I compare the sound to my Lambas the treble is much reduced and the bass is weaker. I know that some Stax phones can be "bright" in the high end and I think my Lambas are because the SR303 sound the same as my speakers ( Focal electra 1038be) in the mid and treble. I can live with this but not the weak bass. If I turn up the volume and bass control there is no distortion from the SR303 so I don't think the drivers are faulty. They sound the same if plugged into my SRD7/SB so the energiser is ok. The only thing I notice is that my lambas fit square on my head and the foam pads are firm where as the SR303 tilt down and are soft and not as comfortable. I tried squeezing them against my head but it made no difference. Are the SR303 just weak in the bass or would it be worth buying new foam pads? Thanks, Dean
davm Posted September 29, 2022 Posted September 29, 2022 If you have the capacity to apply equalisation to your headphones, take a look at the following: https://github.com/jaakkopasanen/AutoEq/tree/master/results/innerfidelity/innerfidelity_harman_in-ear_2019v2/Stax SR-003 SA-1993 This provides an equalisation curve for the Stax 303 headphones to apply the Harman curve (I think). I've used the measurements for some other Stax headphones and found them to work well.
walker1000 Posted September 30, 2022 Posted September 30, 2022 Hi Davm, Thanks for the reply, unfortunately this is just in a normal hifi, no PC involved. I can use the bass control but its still not great. May try some newer Stax in the near future, I have listened to the SR007 quite a few times and loved them but not with music I know, but price wise its probably a bridge too far! I plan on disassembling the SR003 to have a look, Stax apparently did maintenance on these a few years ago ( bought from HIFIDO) and they had that info.
snavedivad Posted September 30, 2022 Posted September 30, 2022 Hi Dean, I’m in Perth and have a couple of Stax amps as well as some SR 407 and ES Sigmas if you’d like to compare/troubleshoot? cheers Dave 1
walker1000 Posted October 4, 2022 Posted October 4, 2022 Just a final update, I took Dave up on his generous offer and went to his place to compare my SR303 with his Sr407. As soon as I started to listen through his Stax amp I knew the problem wasn't the headphones, the bass was now as I hoped it would be . We then listened through his other amp the SRM323s which is similar to my SRM323a and they sounded great through that. Up until now I had assumed the head phones were the problem as they were cheap and 16 years old with a lot of wear on the earpads. I now started thinking about my system setup and realised my mistake. My preamp has two outputs, one feeds the power amp and the other feeds my subwoofer. I had connected the SRM323a into the rca outputs from the sub assuming they were "pass through". Of course they weren't, even with the sub in standby it was filtering the bass from this output! A quick rewire feeding the preamp to the Stax which does have a pass through and that to the sub has fixed it. 3
Gabehcuod Posted November 6, 2022 Posted November 6, 2022 Glad you found the problem. Honestly, I wouldn't bother with modern stax, they're depressing in comparison. Your original lambdas will beat the SR007s. If you're interested in an upgrade, It would be best to buy a speaker to electrostat adapter, like a Woo Audio Wee or an original Stax SRD7mk2. Then you can run them off a high end amplifier. 2
SEAN S. Posted January 24, 2023 Posted January 24, 2023 Let's talk about upgrade/reconstructing & trouble shooting STAX CA-X! Any Idea ? My Warm regards as anew member to all. -Sean S.
Doctor Faustus Posted April 9, 2023 Posted April 9, 2023 (edited) must say I much prefer my original lambda(normal nor pro bias) to the more modern stax I have had Edited April 9, 2023 by Doctor Faustus
walker1000 Posted April 9, 2023 Posted April 9, 2023 57 minutes ago, Doctor Faustus said: must say I much prefer my original lambda(normal nor pro bias) to the more modern stax I have had I did go back after a few months with the SR303 and compare them with my normal bias Lambda and to be honest I much prefer the SR303. I always looked at the Lambda as having so much detail but I believe that is from a very raised upper frequency response. I can listen with no fatigue with the Sr303 at high levels. The low bass is also somewhat better to me.
Gabehcuod Posted April 9, 2023 Posted April 9, 2023 Pro bias is definitely better than normal bias for detail but anything pre edifer is better than the current offerings.
Gabehcuod Posted August 31, 2023 Posted August 31, 2023 Man, I feel like my world has been turned upside down when it comes to headphones. I've been in constant awe after trying out the Stax Sigma Professional for the past week. They stage unlike anything that you can imagine, truly a spectacular experience. 1
xtn Posted September 20, 2023 Posted September 20, 2023 Yewww! I own the Omegas (MK2) and drive it with the SRM-D50 since last year. So far am enjoying it but I feel that the D50 is a bottleneck here. I've been trying to dispose the D50 but haven't been successful recently. I've been thinking about severely dropping the price, or buy an LR700-MK2, demo it for a bit and then decide afterwards if I like it better and dispose the omegas, or sell the Lambda and D50 as a bundle which I think has a better chance of getting sold and a bit of money back. What'd you guys think? is this a bit of a daft idea to try and sell it as a bundle? I feel that the Lambda is going to be a step back that I would be desperate enough to sell the D50 low enough. Looking forward to replace it with either SRM-400S or go bullish with SRM-700S and call it endgame from here
Ehrmantraut Posted September 20, 2023 Posted September 20, 2023 The bottleneck for me is that all Stax energisers hold back the performance of their earspeakers. I’ve not found a Stax energiser yet that can unleash the SQ that many other amp/energisers from other suppliers can. Put the word out on WTB with offers to trade or purchase. I’ve not heard the Omegas but I gather they need plenty of voltage swing. It’s worth demoing other Stax models if you can. They are all different. Also, try DCA and Audeze too.
Gabehcuod Posted March 3, 2024 Posted March 3, 2024 Not strictly headphones related, but I've had this Stax DAC for a bit but it's missing the battery charger for the battery power supply. I've also tried opening up the unit but with my very rudimentary EE knowledge, I couldn't figure out what DC power supply it would need. Looking online, I can't find a service manual or schematic for it. Any suggestions for how I could get this thing up and running?
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