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Airbow SR-SC21 STAX SR-507
Oct 7, 2012 at 6:36 AM Thread Starter Post #1 of 28
Seamaster

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Headphoneus Supremus
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Anyone here own or tried Airbow SR-SC21? It is basically a modded Stax SR-507 by a shop at Osaka Japan. I found some review is Japanese, but google translation does not make senses sometimes. Can someone tell me how they sound and tonal signature? Thanks.

 
Here is the link  too: http://www.ippinkan.com/stax_sr-009_sr-007.htm
 
Oct 7, 2012 at 7:47 AM Post #2 of 28
The Yen is way to strong to buy these on a whim but I've had a couple of the previous SR-SC1 and it was a drastic improvement over the lackluster SR-404.  I don't buy the cryo BS though as Stax clearly altered the drivers for Airbow.  The only SR-404 I kept has these drivers and sound exactly the same as the SC1 and the 404 Limited Edition sounded very similar. 
 
Oct 7, 2012 at 12:12 PM Post #3 of 28
" drastic improvement ", I love to hear that. I heard original SR-404, which had some grain and unnaturalness over vocal, but excellent in other areas. I don't believe cryo can make that much of improvement, but I will take it as a freebie and piece of mind
 
Oct 7, 2012 at 1:57 PM Post #5 of 28
How do you propose Stax alters the drivers? improved coating on the diapgram or some such?
 
Which inevitably leads one to wonder why would they offer a better sounding product for a 3rd party rather than their own. Wasn't it the other way around in the past when Stax OEMed for Magnavox?
 
Oct 7, 2012 at 3:22 PM Post #8 of 28
Quote:
amarphael said:
How do you propose Stax alters the drivers? improved coating on the diapgram or some such?
 
Which inevitably leads one to wonder why would they offer a better sounding product for a 3rd party rather than their own. Wasn't it the other way around in the past when Stax OEMed for Magnavox?
Click to expand...

 
They just alter the tension on the diaphragm by a tiny bit and the tonal balance changes completely.  This is where the black art of ESL design really comes into its own as you have to balance a number of factors. 
 
Stax did OEM work for a lot of companies and some were better built than others.  It all came down to price though and the drivers were almost always the same so the real changes were how they were treated and the housings and their construction.  None of them matched the SR-3 build quality but they were also a lot more expensive.  With the Airbow it is a very limited product sold at a much higher price than any of the Stax offerings so I guess it's a win-win for both companies. 
 
Oct 7, 2012 at 4:07 PM Post #9 of 28
Boutique de la boutique, got it.
tongue_smile.gif

 
Oct 7, 2012 at 5:23 PM Post #10 of 28
spritzer, what do you think about Woo Audio Wee? I know it is no where near as good as a dedicated amp, which financially  undo able for me right now. I am planning to pair with Mcintosh MA6900 for nice clean warm sound. I just recently sold off pretty much everything I have to reconfigure my system.
 
Oct 8, 2012 at 2:06 PM Post #12 of 28
Quote:
seamaster said:
spritzer, what do you think about Woo Audio Wee? I know it is no where near as good as a dedicated amp, which financially  undo able for me right now. I am planning to pair with Mcintosh MA6900 for nice clean warm sound. I just recently sold off pretty much everything I have to reconfigure my system.
Click to expand...

 
I'd say stay far away from the WEE.  I've had to fix two brand new units now and the transformers are worse than those found in the Stax units.  
 
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