The Stax thread (New)

[smeggy]

Damn Jason, you have the coolest toys. Who can blame you for playing, I would

How do the K1000s sound from the DARED? (if I can go OT for just a second)

[jjcha]

Originally Posted by smeggy

Damn Jason, you have the coolest toys. Who can blame you for playing, I would

How do the K1000s sound from the DARED? (if I can go OT for just a second)

It sounds "okay". What you would expect from a $200 amp. I had to do a lot to make it sound decent - and you need to be real careful as to your source and cables. At the end of the day, I'd say it's a bit better (though largely different) from a good T-Amp, but doesn't compare to things like that $500 integrated amp from Original or a Nelson Pass design...

I find your comments on the Gamma interesting - when I first heard Nikongod's Gamma Pro, my thought was that it was somewhere between the SR-X mk3 and the original Lambdas. I didn't think it had quite the air of the Lambdas, but had a lot of the upfront punch of the SR-X - that it really was somewhere in the middle. Honestly, given I like both other cans a lot, I was intrigued by the Gammas... Plus they're comfy to boot!

I do need to try the O2 pad mod on the SR-X... been meaning to, but I love the sound from them so much I'm afraid of changing it.

Best,

-Jason

[wualta]

Originally Posted by jjcha

Just FYI - there is a silver face version of the SRD-7/mk2 - it's the one in the photo.

That's not silver, that's.. champagne! And why not!

The SRD-7 goes all the way back to 1971, according to the Stax site. I'm sure the transformers inside it were not state of the art, but it was built to a price, after all.

Now, the question arises, has anyone tried a transformer box using small toroidal transformers? Supposedly better HF response and all that.

[Lloyd297]

Originally Posted by Carl

To a point this is true. The difference in sound from a cheaper pair of electrostatics like a SR-5 compared to one of the big five electrostatics driven off the same amp isn't as large as one might expect..

This is music to the ears of all "$300 is enough to pay for a goddam headphone" adherents!

[Lloyd297]

Neil Peart?

The name rang a distant bell somewhere in the interstices of my cranium so I googled it and VOILA!

Could Head-Fi Stax-fan Neil be the Neil Peart who drummed for the famous rock band, Rush?

I keep on running into people who recommend that I listen to Rush, who I regret to say I have never heard. This generally occurs in the context of discussions about the cult 70's band, Pavlov's Dog, who I adore (Get their first two albums forthwith!) Anyway, apparently the singer for Rush sounds a lot like the male castrato (ersatz, of course) singer of Pavolov's Dog. So I must make an effort to hear Rush sometime.....

[smeggy]

Originally Posted by jjcha

It sounds "okay". What you would expect from a $200 amp. I had to do a lot to make it sound decent - and you need to be real careful as to your source and cables. At the end of the day, I'd say it's a bit better (though largely different) from a good T-Amp, but doesn't compare to things like that $500 integrated amp from Original or a Nelson Pass design...

I find your comments on the Gamma interesting - when I first heard Nikongod's Gamma Pro, my thought was that it was somewhere between the SR-X mk3 and the original Lambdas. I didn't think it had quite the air of the Lambdas, but had a lot of the upfront punch of the SR-X - that it really was somewhere in the middle. Honestly, given I like both other cans a lot, I was intrigued by the Gammas... Plus they're comfy to boot!

I do need to try the O2 pad mod on the SR-X... been meaning to, but I love the sound from them so much I'm afraid of changing it.

Best,

-Jason

Well mine are the normally aspirated Gmmas which, I'd imagine, are not as good as the Pros. On the SR-X pad mod, I'm not sure what the Omega pads would do to the sound but with the SR-5 pads over the SR-X pads (they just slip over the lip) it doesn't change the signature at all, just give them better bass and body while keeping the rest intact so I feel it's $25 well spent.

I'd like to hear the Gamma pro to see how they compare as I do like the Gamma, I like the SR-X more. Mebbe the Pro would change my view

[wualta]

Originally Posted by Lloyd297

I keep on running into people who recommend that I listen to Rush, who I regret to say I have never heard.

Ever heard the old comedy album Great White North?

[smeggy]

Originally Posted by Lloyd297

Neil Peart?

The name rang a distant bell somewhere in the interstices of my cranium so I googled it and VOILA!

Could Head-Fi Stax-fan Neil be the Neil Peart who drummed for the famous rock band, Rush?

I keep on running into people who recommend that I listen to Rush, who I regret to say I have never heard. This generally occurs in the context of discussions about the cult 70's band, Pavlov's Dog, who I adore (Get their first two albums forthwith!) Anyway, apparently the singer for Rush sounds a lot like the male castrato (ersatz, of course) singer of Pavolov's Dog. So I must make an effort to hear Rush sometime.....

I find it hard to believe anyone could have made it thus far and not heard Rush, they are all pervasive

[Carl]

Originally Posted by Lloyd297

This is music to the ears of all "$300 is enough to pay for a goddam headphone" adherents!

Yeah.

Beyond a point you start mainly paying for nuance, not any paradigm shifts. That said, I like nuance.

[edstrelow]

Interesting to see some discussion of the Jecklin Floats, Koss ESP9 and Stax SRX MkIII. I once had all of these at one time. In fact I had 2 pairs of Floats, one black and one silver.

While none was supremely better than the other, they all sounded quite different. I preferred the Floats most, the ESP9 next and the SRXIII third. I probably listened to the 9's most because, I liked their isolation and they had better bass than the others. I sold the SRXIII's eventually, after I first heard the Stax Sigma at a dealer. I regret that somewhat, since I would like to hear them on the Stax SRA 12S amp, which I originally bought for the Sigmas and still have.

The Jecklins unfortunately kind of fell apart. The wire to the one of the stators came off and I couldn't solder it back one without melting the diaphrgam. The other one wasn't working either, for reasons I don't recall. I finally sold both pairs for about $40.00 to a guy who said he thought he could fix them. He called them "head Quads."

I still have the Koss ESP9's though. Sound is hard to assess since I ill-advisedly gave them to an engineer who complained about a high frequency emphasis circuit, which he then ripped out. Unfortunately it made them sound somewhat dull afterwards.

I have tried to get the ESP 9' s to run off a Stax SRA 12S amp, without success and I can't see why since they still run off the transformer.

Odd but I just got a new copy of Stereophile in which the editor talks about the richness of offerings in high end audio compared to 25 years ago. Of course this is not so in regard to electrostatic headphones, where we are forced to ramble on about the phones of our youth and see these designs go for increasingly high prices on Ebay.

[evil-zen]

Originally Posted by smeggy

Can't explain it but there it is. The gamma sounds off and hollow/boxy.

Have you tried opening them up? Some pairs have a layer of foam at the back of the enclosure while some doesn't. I feel that if you remove the foam, the sound becomes airier and closer to the lambdas.

Originally Posted by smeggy

I'd like to hear the Gamma pro to see how they compare as I do like the Gamma, I like the SR-X more. Mebbe the Pro would change my view

Once a upon a time, I had a Gamma but they went to heaven and later i bought a Gamma Pro. To my ears, the two sound very much alike. The biggest difference might be the pads in which the Gamma Pro is much superior and comfortable.

I have also tried placing the Gamma drivers in a SR-X enclosure. They indeed sound like SR-X. So no matter how similar they look, the Stax round drivers are actually the same.

[spritzer]

Originally Posted by Duggeh

http://www.thismanwillkillyou.com/bu...i/DSC00035.JPG


Thats the only one I have uploaded to hand, although I appreciate it may not be useful. Ill have a look through my files for more, but I suspect I never took any detailed pictures of the interior.

Thanks a lot for the pic. My unit is very different from your's since there are no transformers on the top of the main pcb but instead there is the bias pcb.

Originally Posted by wualta

Yes. There are four flavors of SRD-7 that I'm aware of. Small photos available on the Stax Brand History page.

1) the first version, silver face, two jacks fed 230V of bias-- ie, the original, standard, non-Pro bias voltage. Bias circuit runs on mains power, 100--240v, 50/60 Hz.

2) the SRD-7SB. Same as above, but black/grey face. Rectifies and stores up 230V of bias from the audio signal itself. No need for mains power, can be used anywhere in the world. I've never owned the Stax version, but Koss and Superex made self-biasing transformer boxes. My inexpensive Superex PEP-79 would occasionally run out of juice if I listened to quiet classical stuff over a long period and I'd have to crank the volume up momentarily to restore proper bias levels. Listeners to hypercompressed pop shouldn't have a problem.

3) SRD-7 Mk 2. This is more or less the same box as the 7 (investigations and comparisons pending), but with a black face and a classic voltage multiplier circuit (looks like a bridge truss) added to give 580V from one jack and the normal 230V from the other. Mains power.

4) SRD-7 Pro. Same as above but with two Pro-bias jacks.

There was also a SRD-7 Mk2 SB and the Mk2's had a better case made out of aluminum and better wiring.

Originally Posted by Carl

Yeah.

Beyond a point you start mainly paying for nuance, not any paradigm shifts. That said, I like nuance.

You are right that the old but well designed phones stand up to the new models today but there are a lot of very bad designs out there.

Originally Posted by edstrelow

Interesting to see some discussion of the Jecklin Floats, Koss ESP9 and Stax SRX MkIII. I once had all of these at one time. In fact I had 2 pairs of Floats, one black and one silver.

While none was supremely better than the other, they all sounded quite different. I preferred the Floats most, the ESP9 next and the SRXIII third. I probably listened to the 9's most because, I liked their isolation and they had better bass than the others. I sold the SRXIII's eventually, after I first heard the Stax Sigma at a dealer. I regret that somewhat, since I would like to hear them on the Stax SRA 12S amp, which I originally bought for the Sigmas and still have.

The Jecklins unfortunately kind of fell apart. The wire to the one of the stators came off and I couldn't solder it back one without melting the diaphrgam. The other one wasn't working either, for reasons I don't recall. I finally sold both pairs for about $40.00 to a guy who said he thought he could fix them. He called them "head Quads."

I still have the Koss ESP9's though. Sound is hard to assess since I ill-advisedly gave them to an engineer who complained about a high frequency emphasis circuit, which he then ripped out. Unfortunately it made them sound somewhat dull afterwards.

I have tried to get the ESP 9' s to run off a Stax SRA 12S amp, without success and I can't see why since they still run off the transformer.

Odd but I just got a new copy of Stereophile in which the editor talks about the richness of offerings in high end audio compared to 25 years ago. Of course this is not so in regard to electrostatic headphones, where we are forced to ramble on about the phones of our youth and see these designs go for increasingly high prices on Ebay.

The Koss plug is the same as Stax uses but it isn't pin compatible. There is a lot of cuircutry inside the E.9 and I don't know how it affects the ESP9 and there is still more inside the cups.

[spritzer]

I've been studying the ESP9 this morning and there doesn't seem to be an easy way to Staxify them while allowing them to work with the E.9. The bias is fed to the front stator and the + and - to the diaphragm and the back stator. When I connect them up to the Stax standard I get huge amounts of distortion so a simple cable adapter is out of the picture. I did these experiments with the SRD-7 MK2 using the normal socket and it is clear they use a higher bias then 230v because the sound wasn't very loud but I didn't want to risk 580v on them. It would be easy to rewire them and bypass all of the electronics but since this set is in very good condition so I'm going to let them be. If anyone has a broken set that they want to Staxify, PM me if you have any questions.

Below is the pinout from the adapter side.

  R+    L+
 R-       L-
    BIAS

The speaker input isn't marked on the back but it is the following:

White = R+
Green = L+
Red and Black are both - and can be connected to either channel.

[Stereoholic]

I'm dropping out of the "speaker" realm and going back to headphones. Used to have the Stax Lambda Pro and it's amp. Liked the Stax sound a lot but got obsessed with horn speakers and left it behind. Now selling off horns system and returning to something more reasonable.

Planning on immediate purchase of Stax Omega II and SRM-007tA. Only other candidate that I've consider is the Sennheiser HE90 but I'm not finding any available and don't have the patience to wait for a "used" paid. Plus, I have always liked the Stax products.

Questions:
1. Find prices from Japan dramatically better BUT they are 100 volt units verse USA standard (I'm in Atlanta, GA area).
Advice on best way to address this issue would be appreciated.
I noted one dealer included a device to correct for the voltage difference.

Is there any sonic difference with an adapter verse paying the USA importers their MUCH higher price for the 120 volt versions (finding system for about $3,000 in Japan)?

Best Japan dealer?

Best prices USA dealer, if such a beast exists?

2. I've been obsessed with tube gear and found with my current system rolling tubes in the Audiopax 88 amp made a dramatic difference.

Any tube rolling suggestions for the 007tA?

FYI: I'm planning on using the Alesis Master Link as my source and taking balanced signal out of it via Nordost Valhalla XLR balanced interconnects to the 007tA. (If you have not played with the Alesis it's is definately worth a listen. I use it to "remaster" store bought CD's. Import purchased CD into Alesis the burn a new "master" to a cyrogenically treated blank CD. Sonic improvement is dramatic! If you want more info, just ask me.)
To view my speaker based system go to:
http://cls.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls....ull&1176644109

Also considering as an alternative to the Stax the Audio-Technica ATH L-3000 if I can find a new pair or as new used. Suggestions?

Your suggestions are appreciated.
Jack

[audiod]

Originally Posted by smeggy

The X is vastly better even though I thought they shared driver, now I'm not so certain even though they look the same.

Can't explain it but there it is. The gamma sounds off and hollow/boxy.

smeggy,
My SR-5's have SRXIII elements in them and they don't sound like my SRXIII at all. They have that same more hollow sound you decribe the Gamma's as having. Some phones like the Yamaha HP-1, Koss ESP-9, SRXIII put the element in very close direct contact with your ear's. Phones like the Lambda, AKG 701, Senn 650 create a large cavity around your ears. Sometimes (but not allways) I think the direct sound is truer to the original signal. Kinda like cuddling up to a pair of Quad 57's compared to listening to the ELS-63's in a larger room.

Audiod