The Stax thread (New) - Page 366

Definitely so...I am full of envy right now
Have fun with it and if you have the time: I would love to see a writeup on the capabilities of this great rig!

The other half of that cost providing the joy of isolation (which is kind of important on public transport where the additional bliss of the SR-001 is swamped by external noise ).

Need a portable isolated electrostatic IEM...and a SuperFatCat modded amp of course.

Thats one way to do it.
Or just put them on your head and enjoy some nice music...
My experience is that they need at least 30 minutes of warming up before they show their full potential. Perhaps even more if the 'phones have been fully discharged.

Thats pretty much my dream as well.
A closed back ear-canal (custom mold?) version of the S-001MK2, matched up with an amplifier that release their full potential.

These are 2 of the most different sounding phones you can get from the same maker.

The SRXIII has a very detailed midrange and treble with a somewhat weak bass. The 001/003 has a roll-off from upper mid to treble. The SRX' real strength is that it shows an amazing amount of detail in the mid and upper frequencies. However it can be somewhat harsh. On the other hand it was a popular monitoring phone, probably because of its ability to show details.

The 001/003 is high bias but runs just about as well on low bias. The SRX is a low bias phone althought there is a pro model as well but which is as scarce as the proverbial hen's teeth. Many people like the 001/003 for how plucked instruments sound. I would say it is more euphonic and listenable than the SRXIII.

Some people have tried mods to improve the SRXIII including recabling and using different earpads.

How much isolation do you want?
You can get isolation and better bass by putting on a nice pair of close phones (like the Beyer 770, not plugged in of course), when listening to the baby stax?
The closed housing provides the isolation, while the well designed Beyer driver diaphragm and rear chamber form a resonace chamber giving you strong clean bass..... kind of like marrying the Beyer and Stax together. And, since the Beyers will prevent the Baby stax from falling out, the 001/003 don't have to be pushed in as hard, there will be a lot less fatigue on the ear canals. Try it and you will like it
The best part: it won't degrade sound any more than using the stax head band.....

stax are sweet and i was lead here because i am a big classical music lover and heard these were good...
one question-is there any adaptor you can buy to hook these up to a portable unit? okay, more than one question--what's the deal with the amp? do you have to use an amp? or if an adaptor is found could it be used without the amp? thanks.

Thanks for the reply. I think I'm craving something more full sized than the SR-001 but with a similar dark sound. So with that in mind I'll probably have to purchase a more recent Stax model as I've heard they are mostly darker now days.

You can get an old SRD-X transformer box with 1/4" headphone plug as the input, and connect it to your source via the headphone plug, and then connect your full size STAX to the normal bias output, all running on 8 c-cell batteries. The box will act as the amp, and has it's own volume control. And, you can power it with a 12v 500-100ma wall wart (negative tip) to save batteries when not portable. You could even run the mini in-ear SR-003 with one if you had to.

I bought an SRD-X for myself and one for my son to use with the SR-5 I gave him, and they work fairly well.

The other option is the portable SR-001 Mk2 system that we've been discussing.

Lost of questions, but I will try to answer al of them.
The S-001MK2 earphones comes with a portable amplifier (SRM-001), which can be used with portable players. In-The-Ear type Earspeaker system

There are also the vintage SRD-X and SRD-X Pro, which allow full size Stax 'phones to be used on the move.

There are no in-production solution for full size Stax though.

What deal?
You talk about the need of an amplifier maybe? Electrostatic 'phones work totally different to dynamic ones, and need a specialized amplifier (or energizer) to work.
1. Because they need a high voltage audio signal.
2. Because they need bias voltage.

Yes, an amplifier in some form are needed.
Either a dedicated electrostatic amplifier, or a regular speaker amplifier with an energizer like the SRD-7.

They can't be used without an amplifier. As mentioned above.

You're welcome!

The entire Lambda series sounds nothing like the SR-001/003 series! The Lambda series is noted for a forward, bright, lively, punchy sound. The tonal balance of the Lambda is more like a SR-X with bass. The phone that has the closest tonal balance is the SR-007. I don't mean to say that the 001/003 are in the same league but the balance is closer to the SR-007 compared to the Lambda series.

Though I agree with edstrelow's characterization of the difference between the two, I'd also add that the simple answer to your question is that YES, the SR-X does generally outperform the SR-001. It's not as fun, it doesn't have the bass quantity, but otherwise there is no contest IMO.

Well, if the SR-007 is a little rich for your blood, how about a Koss ESP-950? If that's still too much, then you could still do very well with an SR-5 or even a 3, which are darker and fuller than the X with a smidge less detail resolution, and are among the cheapest Stax you can possibly find.

If you like SR-001 I doubt you will like SR-X as much, they are very different and SR-001 does many things better and but does not have that level of refinement and precision. The total balance it also different. I actually like SR-001 better in that regard. I think SR-001 is a better headphone than SR-X in some respects, so for me there is a lot of contest, if Stax SR-5 sounds close to Magnavox stat I had (Stax OEM SR-5) than SR-001 is very competitive with SR-5 and 3 and is better in many ways. But hey, I also think my Lambdas are awesome and lots of folks who like SR-X don't like them. All this talk is making think I got to try SR-007, just to see what I am missing.

thanks headphone addict and krmathis.
i can't believe the price for the
SR-001 MKII System. (259.99 us dollars at audiocubesII) (can't believe it, as in 1)too good to be true OR 2)they aren't that great)
how are these?
i like a warm sound with good bass. (although i listen to mostly classical, i don't like phones or monitors that have too much mid and highs)
currently listening with ue supef-fi 5 pros and some old sennheisers.
HEADPHONE ADDICT---you said that this compares to livewires with a small amp?!?!? really?!!
and what is a super fat cat mod?

It's a good system for the money. I wouldn't call it an amazing system overall, but it's certainly nice. It can hold its own against full-size cans in the price range, and here you're getting cans and an amp for the same price.

The sound is pretty much what you want - warm, with a tight but prominent bass. Deep bass isn't really its forte and upper treble is basically AWOL, but what's there is quite nice. The real strength of this system is the midrange - it's liquid, detailed, forward, and generally awesome. You have to pay a whole lot more, on average, to get this kind of midrange in a full-size headphone, much less a portable one.

More importantly, you're getting electrostatic sound on the move. There's something very unique about the electrostatic presentation, and having it in portable format is worth the price of the unit alone, if this is the sound that you're after.

has somebody experimented with running pro lambda's on a non-pro socket?
I find it can make an modern Lambda sound more mellow and easy on the ears (of course at a penalty ;less dynamics, less detail)