frogmeat69
100+ Head-Fier
My iFi iCan and iESL hanging with my RME ADI-2 DAC, makes the Koss 95X sound great. Will eventually be looking for some other ES 'phones to join the family.
Nice combo
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I'm testing IESL fed from speaker taps of NAD M22 V2 speaker amp. Quick questions about operation of the IESL. Can I have both Susvara and Stax 009 plugged in at the same time without overloading the IESL?
If I need to unplug either Susvara or 009, do I need to turn the unit off. I can't seem to find any info at that. Thanks.
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I think it mainly depends on what amplifier you are going to use with the iESL.
My McIntosh MA6600 + little FX Audio tube preamp gives a better result than my 727. Same thing with my Viva Egoista 845.
I don't think I'm losing some details.
Well, my best results for my SR-007 and SR-009 are my KGSSHV Carbon CC + McIntosh C2300 tube preamp (with Tung sol 12AX7 tubes, inexpensive but wonderful), but this doesn't mean I couldn't get the same quality with the right amp + IESL.
I don't know the 353X which has quite a good reputation. But based on what I got with my 727 I think you can make a big step further with the IESL and the right amp. I love my 007 with the Viva Egoista 845 + IESL, superb midrange and soundstage. The bass is quite good too. I didn't have more details with my 727. On the contrary, things seemed more congested, especially in the highs.
Hope this will help.
I think your conclusions are wrong, Stax are driven by high voltage not current and this is biggest problem, as to play good they need peak to peak more than 1000V and very low current.Good observations. To put it extremely short - powered from a decent, ENOUGH powerful amp ( say 70+ W/ch/8 ohms/ and above ), Pro iESL is going to be an improvement in all cases ( driving electrostatics ) but with the most powerful aftermarket amps - and (maybe) latest/greatest/most$$$ Stax unit. You have correctly identified it is superior to most dedicated electrostatic amps in treble - no contest, only the most powerful aftermarket amps can hope to compete.
It takes POWER to drive ESLs in the treble - as they are essentially electrically a capacitive load, and the impedance falling proportionaly with the frequency. Meaning, sooner or later, in real world ANY amp will be running out of current with which to charge/discharge the load. Once even rather far removed from this "brickwall", audible distortion starts to set in. Stax amps ( used to ? ) have in their specs maximum frequency at which they are still capable of delivering full amplitude output into the load. None of the Stax units ( with the possible exception of the latesat/greatest/most $$$ I am not familiar with ) can not reproduce 20 kHz at full output - SRM1MK2/Lambda Pro can do it only to 4 kHz, for example. SRM1MK2 has power consumption below 40 W, meaning its output per channel must be below 20 W - even if assuming 100% efficiency, which Class A amp ( all ESL amps operate, by default, in Class A ) of course does not have. In theory, Class A efficiency is 50 % at best, meaning SRM1MK2 can put out below 10W into headphones proper.
A transformer has (almost) 100 % efficiency - and if well made as in Pro iESL, can actually deliver 70+ W/channel into headphones - provided the amplifier is up to the task. The deviation from totally linear response Pro iESL does introduce with various settings are, although ultimately audible, for all practical purposes without consequence. But once treble not limited by low power is heard, it is hard to go back from Pro iESL to a direct drive electrostatic amp not belonging to the most powerful group of very few indeed.
All it takes is a good recording from a decent soprano - not to mention large mixed choir.
I think your conclusions are wrong, Stax are driven by high voltage not current and this is biggest problem, as to play good they need peak to peak more than 1000V and very low current.
IESL use step transformers to drive Stax, what is needed is very fast amp, you don’t need high power.
I've often read that going through other Energizers theres a trade off compared to using a dedicated stax amp. A great dac/amp through an Energizer will have better dynamics but less detail than a Stax amp. Is that still true here?
I'm getting a stax srm 353x, but I'm wondering if my next upgrade might be an IESL. Can anyone comment on whether or not I would lose any detail, if I use balanced connections?
I was wondering what was the output power of the XLR 4 pins output of the IESL (don't know if this applies for estats) ?
On most of the headphone amplifiers, we know what is the power of the headphone output (often something like a fraction of a watt, sometimes several watts).
Is this power always the same, and doesn't depend on the amplifier that is connected to the IESL, or does it depend on the amplifier?
I often use my IESL with my McIntosh MA6600 which provides 2x200 watts (and it works wonderfully). I like very much to listen to my Audeze LCD-4 or my JPS Labs Abyss through this system.
But I guess the IESL doesn't give an output of 200 watts to my headphones...