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Input on possible new rig - Stax + S:flo 2

post #1 of 12
10/16/10 at 4:13pm
Thread Starter 

First post here!

 

I'm currently looking to buy a decent portable rig.

 

So far I'm pretty sure I'll get the Stax SR-001MK2 iems. They're within budget and the reviews I've seen here, sound promising. I'm not really interested in anything else than iems as I don't like wearing headphones outside. Even though I enjoyed the great sound isolation from my Shure SE210, I think I'm willing to sacrifice that for the SQ of the sr001s.

 

Now, where I haven't made up my mind is on the audio player. My budget doesn't really allow me to go any higher than that of the iPod Classic 160gb.

- I would prefer .flac-possibilities, but other lossless formats will do, I guess.

- UI is not very important. I've read that the S:flo 2 is bad, but firmware updates can take care of that.

- I would like the player to have radio, but that's not crucial.

- The player should have 32GB storage or more. microSHDC slots is a big plus.

 

I'm considering:

- iPod Classic 160gb vanilla.

- iPod 5.5 vanilla

- iPod Classic 160gb with lod (don't need amp as the Stax have it)

- Sansa Fuze with or without lod

- S:flo 2 (preorder from mp4nation)

 

Any thoughts on other good matches to the Stax is also appreciated!

 

Also, if someone could guide to a recipe for a solid DIY minijack-minijack (the Stax amp has the minijack connector on the side, and I will need a L-shaped plug, so it doesn't protrude out on he side. It has to fit in my jacket pocket.

 

 

 

Thanks!


Edited by vidsan - 10/16/10 at 4:34pm
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post #2 of 12
10/17/10 at 6:12am
Thread Starter 

bump

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post #3 of 12
10/17/10 at 1:46pm

Hi, the s:flo 2 works well with my SR-003 earphones, the line out is very powerful so you don't need too much volume on the amp to make them sing (good point for the battery life). The sound quality is good but i'm not fond of the s:flo with the Staxen in general, i think it's too airy and lacks bottom end compared to my CD player. It's not too bad with the SR-003 which are pretty laid-back, but i think it's a kind of coloration. Therefore i rather use my old Vaio Pocket. I don't know about the other DAPs you mentionned but i think you'll need a LOD with the Sansa. The Clip doesn't work too well with the SR-003.

Also you should be aware that the Stax earphones don't isolate whatsoever.

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post #4 of 12
10/17/10 at 4:20pm
Thread Starter 

Thanks! 

 

Hmmm, maybe I'll check out the iPod classic with LOD then...

 

Regarding Stax isolation: Are they worthless for carrying around town? Trams, and cars and sirens and all -- will I be able to hear the music at all?

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post #5 of 12
10/17/10 at 7:16pm

Well the classic with an lod is still inferior to the Sflo2 with line out.

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post #6 of 12
10/18/10 at 12:59am

You'll hear the music but you'll hear the rest as well The Stax don't isolate more than regular earbuds. They're perfect for work as they don't leak at all, but not so much for outside. Plus you don't want to use them under the rain

So I'd rather get some better IEMs if i were you, balanced armature drivers are not too far from electrostatics anyway.

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post #7 of 12
10/18/10 at 11:01am
Thread Starter 

Ok, I just came home with the Stax smily_headphones1.gif The musical qualitites I've read about goes before everything else. I'll have to be really carefull is all.

 

They're burning in now. Do people recommend I burn a cd with pink noise or is it just as well using music? Should I have the volume really loud?

 

Also, it seems that my Nokia E72 is not a very good audio source...

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post #8 of 12
10/18/10 at 12:10pm

Congrats! In my experience i'd rather stay away from pink noise. You don't want to play loud music either, people usually recommend to let music play at safe volume for about 30 hours. I've not seen any mention of that recommendation in the Stax user guides though...

If you're on budget the s:flo is OK, you probably won't find anything better anyway unless you go Hifiman. It's just a bit overrated for what it is imo.

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post #9 of 12
10/18/10 at 12:40pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by mobbaddict View Post

Congrats! In my experience i'd rather stay away from pink noise. You don't want to play loud music either, people usually recommend to let music play at safe volume for about 30 hours.


x2.  If I were you I would just listen to your music as long as you avoid listening too loud for the next few days.

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post #10 of 12
10/18/10 at 2:12pm
Thread Starter 

Ok, thanks for advice. I will only play it music then smily_headphones1.gif

 

So, I guess some first impressions are in order:

Of course a little underwhelmed, but I guess that's to be expected when they're brand new out of the box. The sound's quite constricted and tinny, and the highs roll off just where people said they would. The bass is deep, and as someone wrote here somewhere, you can almost feel it in your chest. After three hours I think I can hear the sound opening up a little, but it still has quite a way to go. I have two weeks before I have to return them to the store, so if they don't open up by then, I'll return them and go for something else -- unless I can only get store credit: they only have Stax headphones.

 

The batteries that came with lasted about half an hour (no surprise) and I'm currently running them on Duracell Ultras, until I figure out how to make the battery bay parallell, so I can use a pair of  nice 3,5V for longer play. I also have to find a 4,5V socket plug (wall wart? (I'm Norwegian...)).

 

BTW, last winter was really, really cold here in Oslo. Can I just give up trying to use them when it's freezing?

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post #11 of 12
10/18/10 at 2:45pm

Delete


Edited by labrat - 9/15/11 at 2:45pm
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post #12 of 12
3/24/11 at 4:26am
Thread Starter 

Just a small note: I used the baby stax outdoors this winter in Oslo, and  regardless how cold it got, they did not seem to suffer the least.

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