[Gaven555]

Hello,

I currently own a pair of STAX L700 headphones that I power from an SRM 353 and I'm not happy with my current setup. I find it to be bright, sibilant, and unbearable for most content unless the recoding is prestine. I was hoping moving to a tube based energizer might tame the highs on this thing and the STAX 007T is what I have my eye on. Does anyone have any experience with STAX tube amps and if so, do you think it will have a more balanced sound? Thanks in advance!

 

[k2doggo]

hi gaven--yes, i've had this kind of issue with lambda series. years ago i felt i had an endgame in lambda pros driven with a dynaco tube amp (with SRD7). lately i bought another lambda pro, and found all kinds of difficulty recapturing that sound in the solid state world. the issue is glare, and it kills me. i'm actually thinking of repairing that old amp in order to find out if my ears still want that sound.

meanwhile i've had pretty good luck lately with the plain old T1s amp. even so, i had to abandon lambda pros in favor of original standard-bias lambdas, just to get the glare down. it's a simple setup and yet it remains very sensitive to where i dress the wires, whether the laptop from which the USB is sourced is plugged into AC or not, and maybe the state of the wall power at that moment. or just whim. the SB lambdas can still sound harsh on one day, and yet beautiful and liquid on another, and i've even experienced the (much preferable for soundstage) lambda pros sounding perfect. it never lasts though.

before you pop for a new amp, maybe try swapping (borrowing) different dacs, and do pay attention to the wire spaghetti. i got a pretty robust fuhrman line conditioner and it had no effect, but you might have better luck.

i hope to get some L700s one day! because despite the struggle, i know it's worth any amount of trouble when it finally works.