The Stax thread (New) - Page 20

I have been doing the same thing to the Koss Esp 950 amp with comparable improvements in sound. As a minor tweak, I followed a suggestion by the Mapleshade people, to split the cables from a power suppy or transformer to the amplifier. ( I.E., the normal power cable is just 2 wires running parrallel to each other) and keeping them some distance apart for as long as you can. That plus checking the orientation of the power supply, (you can do this with an outboard power supply but not with a wall-mounted transformer) gives a clean-up of the sound. The explanation seems to be given in the very interesting site referenced above about noise in cables.

http://www.dself.dsl.pipex.com/ampin...d/balanced.htm

I thought you had a 404 and SRXIII, not a Sigma and you still haven't indicated what you are driving your stat phones with. All of the stats mirror what is done to them and are only as good as what they are driven with and with and in most cases how they are tweaked.

I will agree somewhat regarding the Sigmas, though. I have three sets, low bias, pro and a pro rebuilt with 404 drivers and cable.

http://www.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?t=177715

The low bias has lower dynamics but increased ambience. The pro is the opposite of the low bias. Both have a rolled-off treble and somewhat excessive mid-bass. The 404 mod is a souped-up pro, with more detail, warmth and treble, otherwise fairly similar.

All of these designs attempt to create an out-of-head experince, so it does not surprise me that you would call them distant. The mid bass-hump seems to go away somwhat wth warm-up. It is in my opinion at least a fairly euphonic defect and I find that the Sigma's sound good with probably a wider range of music than just about any other phone I have heard to date.

Does this not apply to you in equal measure? Or, are you somehow exempt from this failing?

I agree that most super-expensive audiophile speakers do not touch the sound of a live snare but that doesn't mean ALL speakers have the same failing. My point is that powered monitors can actually do a pretty good job of it AND at a much lower price as well.

For years, I've heard live drums and thought my system gave a very weak impression of the explosive transients and speed the live drums provided. But now I can listen to them and feel I'm getting a fair proportion of their liveness, thanks to the 6328's capabilities.

Well, I'd strongly disagree with your generalization. While the vast majority of speakers DO have a prosaic sound (I'm a noted speaker curmudgeon), it's not true for all. I'm a timbre guy and I listen to ancient recordings (often mono) so I'm hardly a sound-divorced-from-music player and I think the 6328's overall do a better job of transmitting the soul and magic of music than my stats. In fact, I was amazed at how music I thought of as tepid and bland came to life through them. And I love my X-III's when driven by a good amp. They have a liquidity and sweetness that conveys the beauty of music extraordinarily well. In this, they may slightly outshine the 6328's although it's a clos-run thing. But as for the 404's, they're not in the same ballpark as the 6328's for tone-colour beauty and differentiation so stats don't necessarily do it better.

Well, I guess there is room in this world for two Neil Peart's.....

Which is why I keep a variety of different equipment to keep me on the straight and narrow.
As soon as I get comfortable with one piece of gear and stop noticing its colourations then it's time to go the other way.

May I repeat for the umpteenth time that I have a Stax 006t amp to drive the stats with as well as a SRD7 transformer driven by a variety of pre/power amp combos.

And yes, the stats do reflect to some extent whatever is driving them but they still have their own sound-signature. If they didn't they'd sound exactly the same when driven by identical equipment.

I just received my lambda pros and srm1/mk2 !

a few quick questions, for some reason very occasionally, on my right earspeaker depending on how i move around i can hear like very high frequency pulses, like morse code almost so but then i moved my head and it went away, i thought it might be my hair poking inside but i swapped ears and also held it away from my head, and it still makes the noise sometimes, i also tried to clean up as much of the detereorated foam and i think that helped

but sometimes just a good shake seems to fix it....

is there anything i can do to check or perhaps confirm what's happening, i thought it might be a loose cable or something or source or grounding issue bit i dont think it's that...

also is it normal for the volume to drop ever so slightly when i touch the SRM1/MK2's case???

i'm all new to this and would like to make sure the stuff didn't arrive faulty... thanks

an EXCELLENT speaker.......

A bit off topic, but this company makes some great speakers that don't cost an arm and a leg..they use a ribbons.....some of the best sound I have heard from a speaker.

www.vmpsaudio.com

This seems to be a slightly different point than you made originally, which is what I was responding to:

If you stated your preference was for powered monitor speakers, especially regarding the sense of liveness they give you, than I probably wouldn't have responded - I've heard many a powered monitor that sounded great and they do lend themselves to more of a room/slam sound than a small pair of headphones provides.

That notwithstanding, all of these choices are going to have failings in one area or another if you are going for the live experience, so you just gotta pick your poison. Stating that one of the alternatives is ludicrous because you prefer another is a bit extreme though, but maybe I'm reading more into it than you meant - If you meant ludicrous for you, given your preferences, then in that case, I can't fault your reasoning for the choices you've made.

I'd have to say I enjoy a good speaker rig as much as headphones, but for different reasons. And headphones are far more practical for me, and at this point I sway more for the detail and presentation I get from them then with speakers. I worked in a studio with some awesome JBL powered monitors hung from the ceiling that really had impact, and loved them. I was using Mackies for a while as well (now gathering dust for the most part until I get a place with more room).

At some point I'll be venturing back into the speaker realm some more (right now I have PSB Stratus Golds, which have slam for days, but I have been seduced by a good pair of full range drivers with a subwoofer as well). For now, though, it is my headphone collection that gets my mojo running the most, and the K1000s, coupled with my vivid imagination are what gets me immersed in music the most right now. (The 4070s are actually my pick at the moment, but I have to admit they sound like a miniature band floating around my head, where the K1000s have more presence and slam and "liveness" to the drums).

-- Gordie

I want two pints of whatever he's been drinking.

It's always nice to see people that are open about their excessive drug use...