Driftwood
100+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Feb 21, 2002
- Posts
- 488
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- 12
I think you (or rather Darth Nut) might have to eat those words after listening to the C32. To these ears, the C32 sounds brighter than the 007A (driven by 727A) with a wider soundstage while at the same loosing nothing in the imaging department (e.g. pin-point placement of instruments). I am not sure how Stax achieved this. Well, actually, I don't think that headphone voicing is the only parameter influencing perception of width and depth (but it is an important one hence the proponents of diffuse field vs. free field equalization curves?).
Oh and also: while I haven't heard the BHSE, it is so hard for me to imagine that my 727A sucks like is being implied by many on this board. It's bizarre: I am reading this thread while listening to my rig and it just sounds sublime, I don't even recall the 007A flaws that I noticed during A/Bing with C32. I guess you don't know what you're missing until you hear it . I mean, compared to all the dynamic gear I've owned, it's like a totally different ball game. The even stranger thing is that it took me close to 10 years to become a Stax addict, I used to diss the Omega 2 / 717 because I somehow was never impressed by its sounds when doing quick listenings in stores / at meets. I guess this is part of the education process and learning how to appreciate natural sounding gear over initially impressive but fatally flawed one-trick-pony headphones...
I certainly hope so -- I don't think that great imaging like that of the SR-007 necessitates a small "headstage," simply that this was the means by which Stax accomplished this end. I'm not sure why they changed their strategy following the SR-Omega, but I am hopeful that the C32 will blend the best attributes of both with their new three-layer manufacturing process.