The Stax thread (New)

[[AK]Zip]

Got my ES-1 today. I definatly am enjoying my new setup. Source will be done in about a week and I will be in a whole new level of audio.

-Alex-

[Lloyd297]

Originally Posted by mirumu

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

Identical amps and cables and as housing is something you can't do anything about (unless you want to DIY) you have to treat it as a constant. I repeat: stats are far from necessarily being sonically neutral........there is as much variation with them as with dynamics.

[Downrange]

Originally Posted by Andre Jute

What does the 202 sounds like with the 007t?

Andre Jute
Visit Jute on Amps at http://members.lycos.co.uk/fiultra/
"wonderfully well written and reasoned information
for the tube audio constructor"
John Broskie TubeCAD & GlassWare
"an unbelievably comprehensive web site
containing vital gems of wisdom"
Stuart Perry Hi-Fi News & Record Review

Better than they have ANY right to!

More later - gotta rest these ears...

[Lloyd297]

Originally Posted by JecklinStax

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!

You didn't notice any difference in liquidity, balance, and coherence between the Jecklin and the SR-X?

Here's my take. I ordered mine unheard around 1998 because I'd read a bunch of glowing reports (better than the Lambda Pro!) and loved the idea of drivers sitting slightly away from the ear rather than enclosing it. And I really tried to like them but honestly, they sounded artificial and unrealistic from go to whoa. They sounded odd, with this thin, reedy, and pinched midrange and highs coupled with a phasey "spread" bass. Timbres were all wrong, balance was wrong, and they sounded gritty to boot. There's a possibility that the transformer may have been partially responsible but I got rid of them after a few months amnd I've never regretted it. Both the X-III and the 404 are far better IMO.

[Lloyd297]

Originally Posted by JecklinStax

I bought the Jecklins in 1990 after comparing them carefully against the Lambda (don't know which version was in the shops then), driven by some sort of solid state Stax amp. I chose the Jecklin because of the large sound and sound stage, and for its potential to go loud without stress. I found the Lambda's thin and bloodless, with a narrow, sort of cramped sound stage. I've been happy with the Jecklins ever since. Three ýears or so back I compared them again against a Lambda (don't remember which one) via a Stax 303. Same result. Can't say the Lambda bass was any better. I do remember listening to a SR-X in 1977 or so. I coveted those, but couldn't afford them then, and in 1990 they were nowhere to be seen any more.

Sorry. I'm a bit confused. Didn't you say you used the Jecklin alongside the SR-X?

[jigster]

Originally Posted by [AK]Zip

Got my ES-1 today. I definatly am enjoying my new setup. Source will be done in about a week and I will be in a whole new level of audio.

-Alex-

Envi....ous! Did you order it from Mikhail? Basic or suped-up version?

[Andre Jute]

Originally Posted by Downrange

Better than they have ANY right to!
.

Thanks. I'm not surprised to hear your opinion. I formed the opinion that the two meaningfully differentiated sets in the Stax range are the 2050 (202/252) and the O2/007t almost as soon as I heard the 202, which I bought only as a stand-in while I developed a tube amp dedicated to driving electrostatic headphones, not wanting to blow up something more expensive. My original idea was to upgrade to a 404 later, when my new amp is proven, but I've given that up after discovering how close the 202 is to the 404. The only significant upgrade would be to O2, and that needs a fair bit of justification; you can buy a fair number of discs for the price difference (not that I need any more -- I have 6000CDs already!).

Playing Handel's Chandos Anthems in the complete version by my favourite choir, The Sixteen under Harry Christophers.

Andre Jute
Visit Jute on Amps at http://members.lycos.co.uk/fiultra/
"wonderfully well written and reasoned information
for the tube audio constructor"
John Broskie TubeCAD & GlassWare
"an unbelievably comprehensive web site
containing vital gems of wisdom"
Stuart Perry Hi-Fi News & Record Review

[Downrange]

Gawd, these things are addicting... just the thought of those filaments cooking alone downstairs, I'm up and back at the desk. Broke out a dual-media disk I picked up recently of Steely Dan Gaucho.
I must've heard "Hey Nineteen" eleventy-million times by now, but I think I may have just heard it for the first time. The thing about these Omegas is I'm having to re-educate myself about how to listen. The Lambdas are just so forward in comparison. There is something of "letting the sound happen" that I'm having to learn to do here.
Gaucho is one of those planned studio albums that has been carefully mixed together to yield certain effects. The Omegas dissect that planning with a fine edged scalpel. It's almost like three or four different albums going on at the same time in this headspace. You've got Fagen pulling solo duties in this sort of center spotlight down under me (picture being up in the lighting scaffolding, maybe thirty feet above Donald). Then the chorus is surrounding me left and right almost beside me up here. Over to the left, the rhythm guitar is maintaining an harmonic counterpoint that's somehow divorced from the whole soundstage and in its own space, really.
"The Cuervo Gold, the fine Columbian..."

[Afrikane]

Originally Posted by [AK]Zip

Got my ES-1 today. I definatly am enjoying my new setup. Source will be done in about a week and I will be in a whole new level of audio.

-Alex-

Congratulations Alex. Omega I/ES-1 rig, now that is something I would like to hear.

[smeggy]

Originally Posted by Downrange

Gawd, these things are addicting... just the thought of those filaments cooking alone downstairs, I'm up and back at the desk. Broke out a dual-media disk I picked up recently of Steely Dan Gaucho.
I must've heard "Hey Nineteen" eleventy-million times by now, but I think I may have just heard it for the first time. The thing about these Omegas is I'm having to re-educate myself about how to listen. The Lambdas are just so forward in comparison. There is something of "letting the sound happen" that I'm having to learn to do here.
Gaucho is one of those planned studio albums that has been carefully mixed together to yield certain effects. The Omegas dissect that planning with a fine edged scalpel. It's almost like three or four different albums going on at the same time in this headspace. You've got Fagen pulling solo duties in this sort of center spotlight down under me (picture being up in the lighting scaffolding, maybe thirty feet above Donald). Then the chorus is surrounding me left and right almost beside me up here. Over to the left, the rhythm guitar is maintaining an harmonic counterpoint that's somehow divorced from the whole soundstage and in its own space, really.
"The Cuervo Gold, the fine Columbian..."

It sounds like pure bliss, I'm glad you're enjoying them so much.

[smeggy]

Originally Posted by [AK]Zip

Got my ES-1 today. I definatly am enjoying my new setup. Source will be done in about a week and I will be in a whole new level of audio.

-Alex-

I hope you're going to give us a good report on how it sounds once you have it all together. I love hearing about all the cool toys and how they sound.

[Carl]

Originally Posted by Lloyd297

Identical amps and cables and as housing is something you can't do anything about (unless you want to DIY) you have to treat it as a constant. I repeat: stats are far from necessarily being sonically neutral........there is as much variation with them as with dynamics.

I wasn't saying stats are sonically neutral. I was saying the things that make then not sonically neutral has very little to do with the driver.

Here's a little experiment to try. Fiddle around with an equalizer (borrow one if you don't have one), and try to EQ one electrostatic mirror the FR of a different electrostatic headphone. While you can't fully get rid of bass roll-offs and the like, you can get them pretty impressively close in sound. You can't make a dynamic headphone sound like a 'stat with EQ, though.

Originally Posted by smeggy

I hope you're going to give us a good report on how it sounds once you have it all together. I love hearing about all the cool toys and how they sound.

Having both an ES-1 and a Blue Hawaii surely can't be legal in Texas. You better move up to Utah, Alex.

[Snacks]

Originally Posted by Downrange

Gawd, these things are addicting... just the thought of those filaments cooking alone downstairs, I'm up and back at the desk.

Congratulations!
Lol -- You'd better get some rest or you're going to burn yourself out.
Either way, I like what I'm reading and cannot wait to get acquainted with my set.

[[AK]Zip]

Originally Posted by Carl

Having both an ES-1 and a Blue Hawaii surely can't be legal in Texas. You better move up to Utah, Alex.

Your probably right.

-Alex-

[Carl]

I just won an auction for something very cool. More information to follow.