Noob Stax research - Page 8

My first SR-Lambda/SRD-X came from Plaidplatypus for $230 and I can sell it for $300 today if I was willing to part with it, so I consider even $300 a good entry level price for something that 85% of head-fiers will like.

I bought a second SR-Lambda for my Son for $230 from Fitz without an energizer a few months later, and I found an SRD-X for under $100. An SRD-6 can be had for $30-40, and with a good speaker amp will beat an SRD-X for sound. This is not a lot of money for this high level of sound. And this level of sound if good enough that one could stop searching for better if they could simply pull the plug on head-fi and ignore all of us "enablers" that let them know it can be even better.

I have over $4000 invested in a maxed Woo GES and SR-007 Mk2, that is better than SR-Lambda from an SRD-7SB and NuForce Icon

Finally pulled the trigger on the Omegas, eh Larry? I'm excited to hear them.

Did I forget to mention that I'm charging admission now?

There's a pro version of the SRD-7 that you should look out for.

Nice! I am quite sure you wont regret it...

SB are short for Self Bias. Meaning that it take power from the speaker level signal, instead of mains, to add bias voltage for the 'phones.

Advantage/Disadvantage correspondingly.

Ok, let me explain more...

The SRD-6 and SRD-6SB (like the SRD-7 variants) are energizers, not amplifiers. Meaning that you need a regular speaker amplifier to drive them. They will not accept signal level (RCA).
* The SRD-6 hook up to a speaker amplifier (speaker level signal), and plug into the wall (110v, 230v, .. mains power). The bias are drawn from the mains
* The SRD-6SB hook up to a speaker amplifier (speaker level signal) only. The bias are drawn (or rather converted) from the speaker level signal.

The benefit of using an SB unit are that it can be completely off the grid. Or even portable if you want..

You're most welcome!
Its quite different from how you usually hook up headphones, so I understand how it can be a bit hard to understand.

You energizer need some signal strength on input, for then to be able to drive a Stax in the other end. How much is needed I really don't know.
It may, or may not work. Depending the amplifier used..

That, good sir, is nigh impossible without an EXTREMELY powerful headphone amp. Think whole watts. You're looking at thousands of dollars.

If that's the route you're interested in, you'd do better to get an integrated amplifier with a decent headphone out -- there are quite a few of them. It would drive your Stax energizer through the speaker outputs, and drive your dynamic headphones through the headphone out.

Some popular models around here are made by Travagans and Glow.

Well, hundreds anyway.

Stax transformer boxes need at least a few whole watts. Most of them seem to be rated for a maximum continuous power handling of 5 to 7 watts.

This means that only the more badass of solid-state headphone amps can be configured to do the job.

A maxed out M3 should be able to do the job - it will do 6 watts RMS into 8 ohms with a big enough power supply according to AMB. This can be built for $200-$350 depending on how frugal you are.

A B22 with a similar 3.5 amp or so power supply should also do a fine job, and will cost a lot more than an M3 because it's a lot more complex of a build.

Some people do drive their stax transformer boxes with a Super T-Amp, which works, but probably not as well as a good speaker amp.

On the whole i have to agree with Sherwood that the ideal low-cost solution is a vintage integrated amp, or perhaps a vintage power amp driven by your favorite headphone amp (used as a preamp)

The actual power requirements aren't very high. The SRD-X is literally a transformer box driven internally by a pair of car radio chip amps that aren't even heatsinked. It's powered by 8 C-cells. It works just fine, but a T-Amp + SRD probably sounds better.

Another suggestion - a JVC "executive" office/bedroom stereo. Or a more modern version of that sort of thing. I have a Philips MCD708 mini-system that drives an SRD-7 in a pretty ok fashion and includes a dvd player, am/fm tuner, and pretty reasonable speakers for under $100 all over ebay recently (mostly refurbished units). No headphone jack, though. I'm still investigating whether an external headphone pad hooked up to the speaker amp is likely to work well (can only safely be done on single-ended amps).

There are several dencent and affordable headphone amps with speaker outputs to feed an SRD-6 or 7. Travagans Red or Green, Nuforce Icon, Dated MP-5 to name a few. I'm using the first three mentioned and they do a great job.