The Stax thread (New)

[Lloyd297]

Originally Posted by Carl

Electrostatic transducers are all pretty sonically neutral. It's the headphone housing/cable and the amp that account for most of the sound signature.

Pardon?

I've heard loads of stat phones and speakers and no two sound anywhere near identical. The FR is often a long way from flat and there are often diaphragm and housing resonances. Forget the theory and listen........

[Azure]

How are the Jecklin Floats compared to the SR-404s (or other headphones)?

[Lloyd297]

Originally Posted by Azure

How are the Jecklin Floats compared to the SR-404s (or other headphones)?

If you're talking about the Jecklin stats I owned a set for a while and I thought they sucked. The clincher was comparing them to the X-III and finding how gritty, monochromatic, and unbalanced they sounded. I sold them a few days later. The 404 is also better, with a much more musical sound.

[mirumu]

Originally Posted by Lloyd297

Pardon?

I've heard loads of stat phones and speakers and no two sound anywhere near identical. The FR is often a long way from flat and there are often diaphragm and housing resonances. Forget the theory and listen........

And all of those were in a different housing with different cables and different amps?

[smeggy]

Originally Posted by paulllaser

Smeggy,

If you would like, I have 2 pairs of Koss ESP-9's and I would be willing to send you a pair to listen to for a while. The second pair has a malfunctioning adapter which I have to repair. May ultimately need the functioning one so I don't want to sell them at this time. By the way, I recently bought a second pair of 404's from Azure that are rumored to have originated from you. The other pair I have are new from a Lambda Pro repair/upgrade. I'm interested to see the difference a few hours has on these. Let me know if you want to try the 9's.



Rob

Rob, very kind of you to offer. I'm gonna see what's what on ebay pricings to get a grip on what they are going for these days. If it's reasonable I'll probably buy some, If not, I'd be grateful to hear yours before shelling out and I'll give you a PM. Thank you

Yes the 404s were mine, I hope you enjoy them.

[Scottsmrnyc]

Is there any reason why I couldn't hook up two or three stax pro extention cables together and connect them into a stax pro amp and a stax pro headphone?

Is there any reason why I couldn't hook up two or three stax non pro extention cables togethre and connect them into a non pro stax amp?

What are the effects, if any, on the quality of the sound when one does this?

Is it a safe thing to do in terms of my equipment?

Thanks for your help? Scottsmrnyc

[JecklinStax]

Originally Posted by Lloyd297

If you're talking about the Jecklin stats I owned a set for a while and I thought they sucked. The clincher was comparing them to the X-III and finding how gritty, monochromatic, and unbalanced they sounded. I sold them a few days later. The 404 is also better, with a much more musical sound.

I totally disagree! I have the electrostatic Jecklins since 1990 or so, and kept them in good shape. I preferred them over the AKG K1000 (I sold that one) because the Jecklin has all the electrostatic finesse that I lurve so much, and the K1000 just doesn't come close to that. I use the Jecklin alongside a Stax SR-X + SRD-7. The sound of the Jecklins is of course way less upfront and much less headphone-like than the SR-X; the soundfield they produce is very spacious, something between listening to my Quad esl63's and the Stax 'phones. Very comfy too!

[John Buchanan]

Hmmmm my experience of the Jecklins vs the Stax Lambda Nova Signature:
The Jecklins had a huge dynamic range, but they were too bright and had no bottom end. Listening to deep bass on the Jecklins was equivalent to 1 minutes silence.

[audiod]

Originally Posted by mikeg

audiod - Have you had a chance to compare any of your Stax phones to a Sennheiser Orpheus HE90?

mikeg

I had the Senn HE60/HEV70 about 5 years ago. I heard the HE90 at a dealer in Flint. The HE60 had a similar sound to my low bias Lambda's but seemed limited in dynamics. The amp was surely the problem. I could not justify keeping them. The Orpheus was great but I did not have my best to directly compare. I did not think that they were worth the money . I also had the Koss ESP-950 that was also limited by the amp. I see that some people are driving them with Stax amps. I would like to try that setup. I think that if I was flush with money I would get the O2 and drive it with the new Aleph J from Pass Labs driving a SRD-7 mkII. Just a dream.

AudioD

[Duggeh]

Im amazed at the ESP9 comments. They were my first electrostats and after the Stax 2020 I never went near them again. Horrendously uncomfortable, thin sucked out sound, bright and slightly resonant treble. Initial impressions would have been of a clean clear or brigth sound but really, they just werent a capable headphone. Maybe my pair was in poor repair. The energiser eventually went wonky and i flogged them off on ebay.

As for the Float stats. If they didnt always go for the must utterly lunatic prices on ebay I'd have boguht a set by now. Im very curious to know how a pair compares to the Ergo AMT. There were at least 3 versions of the Float electrostatic headphone though, and the adapter boxes were apparently very prone to failure.

[krmathis]

Here I have been away for two days (Rally Norway). During these two days you guys have created a new Stax thread, and made it to the fourth page... Great work!

[Carl]

Originally Posted by audiod

The HE60 had a similar sound to my low bias Lambda's but seemed limited in dynamics. The amp was surely the problem. I could not justify keeping them. The Orpheus was great but I did not have my best to directly compare. I did not think that they were worth the money . I also had the Koss ESP-950 that was also limited by the amp.

Yeah, both are seriously constrained by their respective amp. Driven properly they're both very nice headphones.

[audiod]

Originally Posted by Duggeh

Im amazed at the ESP9 comments. They were my first electrostats and after the Stax 2020 I never went near them again. Horrendously uncomfortable, thin sucked out sound, bright and slightly resonant treble. Initial impressions would have been of a clean clear or brigth sound but really, they just werent a capable headphone. Maybe my pair was in poor repair. The energiser eventually went wonky and i flogged them off on ebay.

Duggeh,
For the ESP-9's to sound their best they need to make a painfully tight seal with your head. Many 9's also seem to loose some of the fluid in the earpads which make a good seal impossible. They also like to be driven by a tube amp such as a Dynaco ST-35 or 70, Marantz 8B (in triode) or ARC D-51. Because they are closed back they are not as open as a Lambda or SRX. The main reason that I don't use them much anymore is their "Head in a Vise" lack of comfort.

Audiod

[patrickamory]

Dumb question: how does the SRD-7/SB work? I don't understand how a passive device can "self-bias." Somehow it needs to extract 240V from the speaker outputs on my amp... which can only be a few volts difference from the SRD-7.

Patrick

[patrickamory]

Stax tube headphone amp comparison. Much ink has been spilled on the shortcomings of the 006t and 007t (not to mention the earlier models).

Now that there are so many fine tubed amps for electrostatics, it would be good to hear feedback from those who have heard all of them. I realize that this is likely to be a pretty small group since 2 of these models have only been out for a short time...

Singlepower ES-1
Headamp Aristaeus
Headamp Gilmore / Blue Hawaii

and what other amps am I missing here?

Patrick