[Canuck57]

I recently found Stax new SR-3 "earpspeakers" with the SRD-5 adapter in the local classifieds. I cleaned them up and they're in pretty good condition, considering they were sold cira 1971.

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d170/Canuck57/019.jpg

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d170/Canuck57/018.jpg

When I first hooked them up to my Marantz 2235b receiver there was no sound coming from the left channel at all. After an hour or so, sound started to come out of the left channel and progressively got louder over the next couple hours. The left channel is till weaker, do the Stax experts think it will get any louder if I leave it hooked up to the adapter? Do I need to actually have the receiver on as well playing music?

Is there any internal adjustment inside the adapter for the channel imbalance or is it just that there's something wrong with the left driver of the headphones? Or is it a problem with the adapter?

By the way, I made sure that the left & right channels are in balance in speaker mode!

I'm impressed with the sound. I was expecting that the headphones would be bass shy, but I find there's considerable bass. The mids and highs are nice & clear and detailed.

 

[mypasswordis]

Since the SRD-5 runs off mains power I'm pretty sure you just need to leave it on and keep the SR-3 plugged in. It may take several hours to several days to get back to normal, being extremely old headphones that probably haven't built up bias in a long time. So yes, I'd say leave it plugged in for a few days and it should get better.

 

[scompton]

I don't know if you have to have music playing. I have every time I had to charge up a pair of stats. I'm sure you have to have the SRD-5 plugged into the wall.

I thought I had a channel imbalance in my Marantz SR-3 clone after playing music though them for about 18 hours, but it ended up being a bad connection to one of the speaker terminals on the amp. After I fixed the connection, everything was fine.

Now that I think about it, it seems to me that you don't need to play music to charge them up.

If your connections are good and you've charged them overnight and the the channel imbalance is still there, you need to adjust the balance at the amp. The SRD-5 doesn't have any adjustments.

 

[mypasswordis]

You need to play music to charge headphones up while plugged into self-biasing transformer boxes because they are powered by the power amp they are plugged into, not mains power through a wall socket.

 

[scompton]

I don't think the SRD-5 is self biasing though. I don't know because mine has a loud ground hum and I've only used it for about 30 seconds before putting it away to fix it later.

 

[mypasswordis]

Er, I thought the same as well. Don't you need to plug the SRD-5 into the wall for it to work?

I think the self-biasing units are explicitly stated as such, ie SRD-6/SB and SRD-7/SB.

 

[Canuck57]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mypasswordis /img/forum/go_quote.gif Er, I thought the same as well. Don't you need to plug the SRD-5 into the wall for it to work? I think the self-biasing units are explicitly stated as such, ie SRD-6/SB and SRD-7/SB.

Actually I tried listening to the headphones with the SRD-5 NOT plugged in and with it plugged in and the SQ seems the same???

The channel imbalance seems to be improving with each hour. I'll keep the music playing/receiver on just in case, and see how they are after a few more hours.

Thanks for taking the time to reply....

Question - Are the SR-X MK3 headphones superior to the new SR3s and how would the bass response compare to the SR3s?

 

[scompton]

I've read that the SR-X MK3 have weak bass. Of the three I own, SR-3, SR-5, and SR-Gamma, the Gamma is the best and it's 100% the housing because it has the same driver as the SR-5. It's the same driver in the SR-X too.

 

[mypasswordis]

The SR-3s hold some amount of charge on their stators and can play for a bit without being hooked up to a bias generator. See if it gets quieter after a while of playing music.

The SR-X Mk3 is a supraaural monitor headphone, so it has a different purpose than the SR-3 which is for music playback. It is definitely technically the superior headphone, but I read that it a bit light in the bass and somewhat analytical, as it should be, being a monitor headphone.

 

[mypasswordis]

Quote:

Originally Posted by scompton /img/forum/go_quote.gif I've read that the SR-X MK3 have weak bass. Of the three I own, SR-3, SR-5, and SR-Gamma, the Gamma is the best and it's 100% the housing because it has the same driver as the SR-5. It's the same driver in the SR-X too.

The SR-X Mk3 and the SR-5NB share the same drivers, which are different than the SR-5 drivers. Not sure about the Gamma.

 

[ericj]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mypasswordis /img/forum/go_quote.gif The SR-3s hold some amount of charge on their stators and can play for a bit without being hooked up to a bias generator. See if it gets quieter after a while of playing music. The SR-X Mk3 is a supraaural monitor headphone, so it has a different purpose than the SR-3 which is for music playback. It is definitely technically the superior headphone, but I read that it a bit light in the bass and somewhat analytical, as it should be, being a monitor headphone.

The SR-X III has the same driver as the SR-5N, but in a very small, damped enclosure. Transient response is way fast, frequency response is way flat . . . . except for the bass.

IIRC the Gamma is the same driver as well, but don't quote me on that.

 

[mypasswordis]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ericj /img/forum/go_quote.gif The SR-X III has the same driver as the SR-5N, but in a very small, damped enclosure. Transient response is way fast, frequency response is way flat . . . . except for the bass. IIRC the Gamma is the same driver as well, but don't quote me on that.

Strangely enough, you kind of make me want one (SR-X Mk3). But I highly doubt it will sound better than the SR-3/5 Pro I'm going to be building, and it certainly won't be as comfy. Yeah, I think I would expect the Gamma to have the newer drivers as well.

 

[scompton]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mypasswordis /img/forum/go_quote.gif Strangely enough, you kind of make me want one (SR-X Mk3). But I highly doubt it will sound better than the SR-3/5 Pro I'm going to be building, and it certainly won't be as comfy. Yeah, I think I would expect the Gamma to have the newer drivers as well.

I know the Gamma has the same drivers as the SR-X MkIII. I didn't know what version if the SR-5 had the same driver. Actually, I thought the only difference in the SR-5 versions was the housing, but then I've never even seen an SR-5NB.

 

[mypasswordis]

It looks like the SR-5 but is in black and gold; quite good looking if you ask me. The Gamma then does indeed have different drivers compared to your SR-5; most would say superior.

 

[mbd2884]

That is definitely awesome. Good find!