Enjoying my new Stax 2020 Basic

[jacksonc]

I bought a Stax 2020 basic setup used. I've lusted after some Stax for a while now, I heard Martin Logan speakers at a frineds house and was very impressed with their clarity and I wanted something to upgrade from my Grados. I haven't owned as many headphones as a lot of you, I've heard Grado 60-80-125, Sennheiser HD-25sp, and Koss pro4AA. The first thing I noticed comming from my SR-60's was where did the guitar go? But after I got used to the new tone I am very happy with my new phones. The detail is amazing I have heard some things in recordings that I have previously missed before with other headphones. You can always hear the individual instruments. Some of the things that made my leery of getting a pair were the people that said Stax have no bass, the plastic creaks, no good for rock and roll etc. I have to say that these have extreamly deep bass, it does have less impact than dynamic drivers but overall its very nice and way better than my 60's. Headband and driver housings do not make any sounds at all for me. The headband adjusters do push into my head some, carefully placement is necessary and sometimes I have to take a break because of it, I may try to modifiy them in the future. Rock and Roll is my main interest and with most recordings I set the tone controls on my receiver (Pioneer SX-1250) to either +2db at 100hz or -2db at 10khz. I find I really enjoy them with some good vinyl. I think Stax are a great deal because many folks buy some 200-400 dollar headphones then have to buy an amp to drive them. Well Stax come with their own amp !

You can listen at lower volumes and still hear everything due to the clairity, and I can listen for several hours with no listening fatigue. Two albums on lesser phones and I was done, 4 on the Stax and I could still go for another. Also I hope this simple review might help somebody to chose whether or not to go with some Stax earspearkers.

 

[catscratch]

Thanks for the impressions. I think that using tone controls with the less expensive Stax models is a very good idea, as long as they're quality tone controls. The SR-2020 system is said to lack midbass and have a bright overall tonal balance. Assuming that the SR-202 is similar to the SR-404, I found that the SR-404 responds very well to different component matching, and excessively warm components in the signal path will make the headphone tonally neutral and bring out the bass. I would expect the 2020 to behave in a similar manner. It would also be a lot more financially sensible to use tone controls instead of using an expensive tube preamp. Giving the system a slight mibass boost, and dropping out the upper midrange/lower treble would make it much more balanced.

I've often thought of using this setup at work, but I know the noise leakage would bother my co-workers (and the jet engine noise of our server would bother me in return).

[Edit: Welcome to head-fi, sorry about your wallet

Given that you're into Stax already, I think that it's a wee bit too late for such warnings...]

 

[smeggy]

Glad you're enjoying them.
I have to close my office door so the noise from my Stax doesn't bother anyone else around me. I love mine to bits and find they work really nicely with rock and metal (as well as everything else I throw their way). I tried some Grado 125's and while they did have more thump, they were too lacking in too many other areas to compete with the Stax. Coming from Ety's, the Sax really aren't lacking much bass at all and it does go really deep down. I personally like the sound balance and I enjoy listening to them all day long. I even tried a little LF EQ but it didn't sound right so I went back to natural and all feels better now.

 

[jacksonc]

Quote:

Originally Posted by catscratch Thanks for the impressions. I think that using tone controls with the less expensive Stax models is a very good idea, as long as they're quality tone controls. [Edit: Welcome to head-fi, sorry about your wallet Given that you're into Stax already, I think that it's a wee bit too late for such warnings...]

I use tone controls often. Recordings sound different depending on who did it and the equpiment used, compensating for that seems a pretty normal thing to do imo. Don't feel bad about the wallet, new headphones have been the plan for a while now, throw xmas money into the mix and I decided to go all out.

Quote:

Originally Posted by smeggy I love mine to bits and find they work really nicely with rock and metal (as well as everything else I throw their way). the Sax really aren't lacking much bass at all and it does go really deep down. I personally like the sound balance and I enjoy listening to them all day long. I even tried a little LF EQ but it didn't sound right so I went back to natural and all feels better now.

I played Megadeth Youthanasia and it sound good. Played Jimi Hendrix Axis LP and the bass seemed bottomless and you could pick out all of the notes, very cool. I've played my 3 mfsl cd's ,2 nirvana and 1 g&r, but I haven't played my two DCC metallica cd's yet.