Lloyd297
100+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Aug 20, 2005
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Quote:
1. Yep, I think it'll be difficult to get any faulty X-III's repaired but they seem to be extremely hardy and resilient. Another thing is that they're not that expensive. It's not as if you're paying over a grand so even the small chance of them going wrong is IMO worth taking a chance on.
2. I haven't compared the 303 to the 404 but will say I don't find the 404 has the amazing qualities of the X-III in the areas of timbre, balance, or snap/slam. It does have, however, an extra half-octave of bass, a little more HF extension and a very palatable and enjoyable sound.
3. I completely agree with your remarks about the 006t. It seems to have the qualities of bad tubes without compensating virtues. And my experience is that it never becomes good. IMO what people call burn-in is just them becoming accustomed to the sound. When I bought my 404/006t I was disappointed at first but grew to like it after further listening and assumed that the combo had broken in. It was only when I compared it to the X-III that I realized it still had all the old flaws. I love the sound of my X-III's with the Golden Tube SE40 so a good tube amp works very well with Stax phones. If you have to go for a Stax amp I'd probably go for the solid-state. But, to be honest, if I were you I'd get an X-III with transformer. They're not that hard to find. My only caveat is that you might find them a little up-front. If you dislike "in your face" immediacy it might be better to go for the 404/303.
Originally Posted by Paul L May I ask two or three questions all related on-topic I hope: 1. Lloyd makes the SRX-III Pro sound mighty appealing but I thought they were 20+ years old now and I also thought that Stax had a change of ownership around 1996 with support of older products not necessarily being their main priority? If you buy a pair of these and they go wrong (and leaving aside arguments about reliability) are they basically dead i.e. no longer repairable? 2. Assuming it's all green lights on question 1, assuming you want to silently wait for a week or year or three for the right SRX to come along and in the meantime, you still want to start your Stax journey is it worth getting the SR-404 over the SR-303 or is there little in it? 3. I borrowed an SR-404 (but have not heard the SR-303) with the SRM-313 and intensely disliked the brightness but it calmed down after a couple of days and during the 10-day stay seemed to get better and better. I then borrowed the SRM-006T but only had 3 days as I would be away and I could not get into the amp enough. Too soft and details masked, it seemed to lack the speed, bite and dynamics of the SRM-313 and I am a tube afficianado so it's not an inherent inability on my part to enjoy tube gear when it's done well (IMHO of course). Given the price differential I was really surprised but it has now been suggested to me that I will not have heard the 006T properly as it also takes 7 to 10 days to really come alive. Is this true? So, now I'm confused as to: - whether to take the best value package of SRS-3030 to get me going, whether to hold out for SR-404 speakers and whether to take advantage of the discontinued SR-4040 with MK-I 006T amps dealers are now offering at deal prices - whether I basically came to the right conclusions already - whether to bypass it all and wait only a little time for an SRX set-up of suitable condition/vintage |
1. Yep, I think it'll be difficult to get any faulty X-III's repaired but they seem to be extremely hardy and resilient. Another thing is that they're not that expensive. It's not as if you're paying over a grand so even the small chance of them going wrong is IMO worth taking a chance on.
2. I haven't compared the 303 to the 404 but will say I don't find the 404 has the amazing qualities of the X-III in the areas of timbre, balance, or snap/slam. It does have, however, an extra half-octave of bass, a little more HF extension and a very palatable and enjoyable sound.
3. I completely agree with your remarks about the 006t. It seems to have the qualities of bad tubes without compensating virtues. And my experience is that it never becomes good. IMO what people call burn-in is just them becoming accustomed to the sound. When I bought my 404/006t I was disappointed at first but grew to like it after further listening and assumed that the combo had broken in. It was only when I compared it to the X-III that I realized it still had all the old flaws. I love the sound of my X-III's with the Golden Tube SE40 so a good tube amp works very well with Stax phones. If you have to go for a Stax amp I'd probably go for the solid-state. But, to be honest, if I were you I'd get an X-III with transformer. They're not that hard to find. My only caveat is that you might find them a little up-front. If you dislike "in your face" immediacy it might be better to go for the 404/303.