The Stax thread (New) - Page 76

It's always nice to know your not alone...

Can the transformer be configured for other primary voltages?

The stepdown could be seen as extra protection if something goes wrong. It will burst into flames long before anything else.

Some initial (big grain 'o salt) impressions on the Lambda Woody:

Bass: more pronounced than stock, definitely punchier

Mids: More forward, less smooth, but seems like more texture

Highs: Not rolled off, more like less accentuation, sparkle still there though

headstage: less expansive than stock, but still wide, separation is a bit more pronounced

These are just impressions from about 2 hours listening and will change a great deal I imagine. When I first put them on I was a bit dissapointed, but after warming them up and extended listening they quickly changed my mind. I'm not ready to sell the stock pair or the signature I have, but these are quite good and I'll probably bring them to the MD crew this weekend to get some outside opinions.

Omega II, with "Buy It Now" on eBay. If anyone are interested...

Looking great!
I have been planning to make woodies for my Lambda Pro's for several months now. I have a second pair on the way, so hopefully I will find some time soon...

Great to hear that the woodies make no major effect to the sound signature.
Enjoy!

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Not sure what you think is the correct price for a pair of Lambda Pro's.
Yesterday I won an eBay auction for a pair of Lambda Pro's, which seems to be in good condition (even the foam seems to be intact). I got them for $270, which I think is a pretty good deal.

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Wow, this I just don't understand. To my ears, the only viable comparison to the Lambda Pro's are the 404's. As I've said before, in my system the Lambda Pro/SRD-7 Pro combination blew away the SRM-313/SR-303 setup, so much so that I just happily sold the latter for exactly what I paid for the former. I've never heard the 202, but nothing I've read would lead me to believe that they could compete with the 404 or Lambda Pro's. Considering the current market, $270 plus shipping is a great price for the LP's. While it's all well and good for some people to keep posting about how cheap the vintage stuff was a year or two ago, that's entirely irrelevant today when someone's just trying to build a system that will give them the best sound for the buck.

There have been quite a few posts recently in this and other threads about how over-priced the Lambda Pro's and/or pro energiser boxes are. Frankly, I just don't get it the logic, because those same posters say that given the right amp, the SRD-7 Pro will blow away the SRM-313. They then go on to say that a reasonable price for the SRD-7 Pro is less than $100. Clearly there's something wonky about that. "Group think" works both ways, the only reasonable thing for someone to do is just let their own ears dictate what the appropriate amount would be to spend on the gear that wows them.

It doesn't matter to me at all whether the gear is over 20 years old or brand new. I hope that headfier's are experienced enough to just spend their money on whether gives them the best sound, without relying on other people's value judgments about what the "proper" prices should be.

People are suffering from a bad case of group thinking but there is also personal preference. The SR-Lambda and Lambda Pro differ from the newer models in only one really significant way and that is their partially covered backwave. Membrane thickness has an effect but this has been hyped out of all proportions by Stax over the years as an easy way to sell models. "Their thinner so they must be better" has worked wonders. Stax abandoned the wool with the Lambda Signature because it does tamper with the ultimate clarity of the phones. Some like the slightly euphonic sound of the older models but it's more down to personal preference. Those that love the Pro's should hear the original normal bias unit. They take the even handed nature of the Pro's to another level. There is a reason why they were in production all those years after the Pro's were introduced.

Personally I prefer to leave the phones open and the SR-X Mk3 go from being good phones to excellent ones just by removing the wool. It does reveal the boxed in midrange and the tunneling effect of the enclosure but I'm a detail freak and that's where they deliver.

Times have also changed in the audio industry and the source components have gotten better along with the wiring and the amps. Old headphones couldn't be too revealing because then the owners would blame them for the bad sound but not the rest of the chain. When the Signature came out in '87 audio had changed quite a bit from 1982 so Stax upped the resolution ante. People complained about treble etching and a plastic feel to the sound and this is true out of the SRM-T1 but these artifacts are strangely missing with the Blue Hawaii.

It's normal audiophile tradition to blame the transducer if something sounds off and not look at other components. Some members here go through phones like there is no tomorrow but never change the amp, source or cables. Personal preference is a big issue but so is system matching. If you do not like some of the phones try another set of cables and see what a huge difference that can make.

That may be true, but having compared the Lambda Pro to the 202 I'd take the Lambda Pro every day of the week and thrice on Sunday.

Plus you're comparing the top of the line headphone at it's time (Lambda Pro) to the current entry level model. Yes there is 20 years difference, but there was also a change in ownership as well. The current company called Stax isn't what it was in the 80s.

As far as market prices go...the phones are selling for what people are willing to pay. There are deals available if you look hard and troll the various sites for them. While the group mentality may drive prices up initially, the consistent praise for some of these older headphones proves their worth (IMHO).

I'd take a pair of Lambda Pros at $400 over any other electrostatic or dynamic headphone under $500 any day (thrice on Sunday )

Going by market price that Head-fi has set isn't the best idea. This Stax fad will blow over like it has done in the past and then people are stuck with stuff they can't sell. You have to remember this happened on Headwize before there was even Head-fi and then the prices lowered and Stax was and an obscure brand for crazy people that didn't believe Sennheiser did in fact create the sun. The problem is with the people that buy Stax, because 90% of the are so happy with their systems that they leave the forums. It is not for be to stop people for paying what they think this stuff is worth but I urge people not to pay to much because they will loose the difference if they don't like what they bought. The SRD-7 with a good amp will beat the 313 in some areas and that's fine but I can't see the reason with paying 200$ for just the adapter because you might like the cleaner cut sound of the direct drive amp more.

Buying 20 year old equipment is never a good idea unless you know how to fix it if something goes wrong. Stax has made some horrible design blunders over the years but there are very few in the Lambda line and those are mostly on the arc assembly and how it connects with the earcup. If your 500$ vintage Pro's break and you can't fix it, it will cost a huge sum to repair and you will get the new drivers so unless you really like the old headband design it wasn't the smartest buy you've ever made. I don't want this to happen to anyone but it has happened and it will happen to some of you. Hell it has happened to me enough times...

You are right that the SR-202 can be bought new for the same money as a 20 years old Lambda Pro. But most of us don't rank the SR-202 to be on par with the Lambda Pro anyway, so it is not an alternative...

I say it all comes down to personal preference.
Some like vintage headphones, with some wear and tear, but with their own sound signature. While other ones like to buy their headphones new.
The same goes to amplifiers and energizers.

While it is an economic reality that all bubbles eventually burst, what a lot of headfier's don't realize is that a significant number of music aficionados are not gear-geeks who buy far more equipment than they ever listen to. For many of us, buying and selling gear is not an endless road. Once you find the sound that makes you happy, you sell off all of the excess gear that you've auditioned along the way. The current Stax prices may not last or they may continue going up, in either case, I couldn't care less since I've got the gear I want already. That thinking applies to all markets: the rise and fall of the housing market is irrelevant for anyone who simply lives in their house. This approach however, is likely not to be common on a site like headfi that clearly caters to those who continue to spend loads of money to acheive relatively minor improvements.

You've made some very good points, however, including the particularly important one that newbies shouldn't pay high prices for something they haven't heard. Some will prefer the 313, others will prefer the power amp/SRD-7 pro combination -- I just find that putting arbitrary dollar values on it simply due to age or some fear of "group-think" is absurd. The same folks who say $200 is too much to spend on an SRD-7 Pro box will then turn around and advise someone to spend thousands on dedicated headphone amps (including some that are notoriously unreliable even when brand new). Where's the consistency?

Your points relating to potential reliability issues are well taken, but there are many Lambda Pro users here that haven't had any problems thus far (knock on wood). Ultimately, you pays your money and you takes your chances.