Got them! (Entry into Stax Electrostats for <200$ possible?)

[shomie911]

Originally Posted by Jo-Vo

Hi!

OK. Until now I haven't heard any farts so it seems that it doesn't happen too often.

There are two questions left:
What does "Team Stax" in some of your signatures mean?
Why would somebody who comes from a mid-end dynamic headphone to vintage Stax don't like them? I understand that somebody could miss bass but I could easily compensate that with my amp's EQ. Hm, Audiophiles don't use EQ, right?

Regards,
Jonas

Team Stax is just a way of saying that you like Stax and/or own Stax gear.

[Tachikoma]

Originally Posted by Jo-Vo

Hello!

One hour ago the delivery women rang the doorbell and brought my Stax SR-5 and SRD-6/SB that I got from ebay. After setting up some connections which are

• Sony D-33
• Technics SU-600 (Class A power amp)
• Stax SRD-6/SB
• Stax SR-5

I was really blown away by the details I could hear. Great! For the moment I just tested it with Porcupine Tree. I missed a bit of bass so I turned the amp's bass knob to +2 and now it's really "wow". I'm not sure if the "bass shyness" derives from the Stax phones or the amp or the source. But I guess I should upgrade the source anyway.
The Sony discman looks really funny on top of the big amp (maybe I should take a picture?) but on the other side of the hand I would consider this to be a great home budget setup. All together it was maybe 170 € from ebay!

There is one thing left that scares me: The inner side of the earspeakers is a white area with holes and I can see a shiny metal surface under them. Sorry, it's hard to describe for me in English... I'm just wondering whether there is voltage on that surface or it's some kind of a protection surface because I have quite long hair and...

So thank you for taking my fear of "extremely expensive Stax gear". Seems like the HD595 will be dropped of ebay (or the FS forum here). I'm out for listening to some Massive Attack or Phil Collins Big Band stuff...
Oh and I'm sorry for ruining the prices of vintage Stax...

Cheers,
Jonas

The bass problem is most likely the SRD-6SB's fault. Get an SRD-7 when you can, they're cheap but they're still much better than the SRD-6SB.

There's a dust cover on top of the stator that will protect you from any possibility of getting shocked by the high voltages inside the driver, so don't worry about that. At any rate, I've been shocked by my stat drivers before (when I opened them up and forgot to unplug them first ), but as you can see I'm still alive and kicking

[Volta]

Originally Posted by Jo-Vo

Hi!
Hm, Audiophiles don't use EQ, right?

If it sounds good, do it.

[Jo-Vo]

Originally Posted by Tachikoma

The bass problem is most likely the SRD-6SB's fault. Get an SRD-7 when you can, they're cheap but they're still much better than the SRD-6SB.

Oh lord, I didn't want upgraditis to hit me that fast! ;-)

Originally Posted by Volta

If it sounds good, do it.

Yes, that seems to be the best approach for me at the moment.

Edit:

Originally Posted by shomie911

Team Stax is just a way of saying that you like Stax and/or own Stax gear.

Ah OK. And what about Team Sturzhelm? Is it the group of people wearing headphones while riding a bike?

Thank you guys!

Jonas

[Duggeh]

Sturzhelm is the German for crash helmet I believe. Thats why it was picked out as the go-to team name for those of us with headphones based on the Float design. Its the successor of Team: Swiss Crash Helmets.

[scompton]

Click on the Sturzhelm link in Duggeh's sig and you'll see the classic Sturzhelm pic.

[facelvega]

Originally Posted by Tachikoma

Get an SRD-7 when you can, they're cheap but they're still much better than the SRD-6SB.

I beg to differ. I've had an SRD-6sb, SRD-7sb, and SRD-7, and they all sounded different. In the end I preferred and kept the SRD-7sb over the 7. The differences seem to be not so much between the sb models and the mains-power ones, but rather from year to year as Stax kept on changing the innards, producing different signatures along the way. Generally I think the earlier ones are darker/warmer, and the later ones more detailed. One last thing: I've read that cleaning the terminals and switch and checking over the parts inside can also dramatically change the sound of an SRD box, so that would probably be a good place to start if one felt that one's SRD wasn't quite up to snuff. But then again, as Tachikoma says, all the normal-bias energizers are cheap, and it might even be worth keeping a couple of different ones around.

[Tachikoma]

Originally Posted by facelvega

I beg to differ. I've had an SRD-6sb, SRD-7sb, and SRD-7, and they all sounded different. In the end I preferred and kept the SRD-7sb over the 7. The differences seem to be not so much between the sb models and the mains-power ones, but rather from year to year as Stax kept on changing the innards, producing different signatures along the way. Generally I think the earlier ones are darker/warmer, and the later ones more detailed. One last thing: I've read that cleaning the terminals and switch and checking over the parts inside can also dramatically change the sound of an SRD box, so that would probably be a good place to start if one felt that one's SRD wasn't quite up to snuff. But then again, as Tachikoma says, all the normal-bias energizers are cheap, and it might even be worth keeping a couple of different ones around.

I'm recommending the SRD-7 over the SRD-6SB mainly because the SRD-6SB is a piece-of-**** of a traffo box, not because SBs are inherently worse off than mains powered ones, so you aren't actually disagreeing with me =P

I have a SRD-7mk2SB and and a mains powered SRD-7mk2, and they don't sound very different from each other to be honest. The mains powered unit is more convenient though, since you can keep the phones charged up even without turning on the music.

[smeggy]

Congrats on the new (old) phones Jonas and welcome to team 'stat. I really need to get an SR-5 Gold one day.

[facelvega]

Originally Posted by Tachikoma

I'm recommending the SRD-7 over the SRD-6SB mainly because the SRD-6SB is a piece-of-**** of a traffo box, not because SBs are inherently worse off than mains powered ones, so you aren't actually disagreeing with me =P

I have a SRD-7mk2SB and and a mains powered SRD-7mk2, and they don't sound very different from each other to be honest. The mains powered unit is more convenient though, since you can keep the phones charged up even without turning on the music.

Well, the SB ones are convenient if you sometimes move back and forth from places with different power plugs. Of course I should just get an SRD for either side, but it hasn't happened yet.

I won't argue with your points here, as I can't speak with any authority, just reiterate that old SRD boxes sound different from new ones. I didn't mind the sound of my SRD-6sb up against my very old SRD-7, but I preferred the newer 7sb to either.