Stax 404/006TII and Earmax/HD650

[rmaurin]

Hello All,

First post. Totally new to headphones. Owned a pair of Koss Pro4/AAA in high school with a Kenwood integrated amplifier and Technics table. Pink Floyd sounded great as I remember

I would like a nice headphone setup to connect to my Accuphase 100/101 transport and DAC. I am considering the Stax 404/006TII and the Earmax with the Sennheiser HD650. The Stax is $1500 and the Earmax/HD650 is about $950.

I have not listened to either of them and will not have the opportunity to do so. Planning to buy from online retailers.

For anyone that has listened to either setup, can they describe the difference in the sound of the 2 setups? I prefer an airy spacious sound. Colorful and vivid. No grain, edge, or glare to the highs. I like a liquid involving sound.

Thank you,
Rich

 

[MaloS]

Quote:

Originally Posted by rmaurin For anyone that has listened to either setup, can they describe the difference in the sound of the 2 setups? I prefer an airy spacious sound. Colorful and vivid. No grain, edge, or glare to the highs. I like a liquid involving sound.

Welcome to head-fi, sorry about your wallet, and may Stax be with you. My friend uses 007tii with sr404 and his impressions are very positive. I personally liked sr-404 out of all the amps I tried them with, although tubes were best for those desiring liquid sound.

 

[patrickamory]

I love the SR-404 with the 006tII. I'm sure better combinations are available if you can afford them, but I really like this combo - see the 6moons review. I'm listening to CCR 'Willie and the Poor Boys' right now from the HDCD issue and it sounds fantastic.

I own the HD-600 and have used them with a huge variety of quality amps. I have owned MG Head DT, Audio Valve RKV Mk II, Headamp Gilmore V2-SE, Grace M901 and Singlepower MPX3 SLAM SE. All tube amps with many different NOS tubes of different types.

I know the HD-600 are not the HD-650, but I think they're close enough. For what I value in music - transparency, naturalness, organic flow... the SR-404 / 006tII blows away every Senn/amp combo listed above.

(The SR-X Mk III through a Stax energizer and a Pass Aleph 3 is even better, but that may have to do with the source and preamp used

)

Good luck!

Patrick

 

[rmaurin]

Hi Patrick,

Thanks!

The Aleph 3 is a fantastic amplifier. I had one in my system for 4 years. I loved it.

What is the SRD-7/SB? Does it just pass the output of the Aleph 3 through to the headphones while powering the stats? Sounds interesting. I guess you use the volume control on the Monbrison?

I think you are right that part of the reason you prefer this setup is because of the awesome front end you are using!!

Rich

 

[patrickamory]

Quote:

Originally Posted by rmaurin /img/forum/go_quote.gif The Aleph 3 is a fantastic amplifier. I had one in my system for 4 years. I loved it.

Me too, and I no longer own speakers it can drive. I held onto it anyway, and then I heard that Stax and the Aleph were synergistic - and they most definitely are.

Quote:

What is the SRD-7/SB? Does it just pass the output of the Aleph 3 through to the headphones while powering the stats? Sounds interesting. I guess you use the volume control on the Monbrison?

That's precisely right... the SB stands for self-biasing; unlike most Stax transformers, this one doesn't need to be plugged in and draws the bias voltage from the preamp.

Quote:

I think you are right that part of the reason you prefer this setup is because of the awesome front end you are using!!

I think you may be right. A sizeable number of posters prefer a dedicated headphone amp.... and the source on mine is the 3950. I still *really* enjoy that setup though... I'm rediscovering my CDs.

If you want to go deep, I recommend the Stax Thread and the (current) Stax Thread 2.

Good luck!

Patrick