It's almost 1 year since I bought 3100 system, so I would like to share some impressions and problems that I've encountered with L300. This is not a review, but more like observations from someone who is not an audiophile, but more of a music lover and someone who jumped from Koss Porta Pro & Grado SR60e straight into Stax 3100 system (I actually had Hifiman 400S for a week, but did not like sound much and they had broken cable - so I returned them). And I also listen at lower volumes - I certainly don't blast music into my ears.
Alright, I actually heard Stax 407 in shop demo before I bought L300. And I must say, I wasn't all that impressed - in fact, I think I liked Sennheiser 598 more. I also liked NAD VISO HP50 - so smooth and easy sound, but the worst comfort - I had to hold cups with both hands to get them on my ears and to sound good.
Still, I decided to buy 3100 system - influenced by Zeos, but also by other reviews saying how effortless electrostats sound. I had experience with various DSP (SRS WOW HD, DFX sound enhancer etc.) - so I could always EQ them if I don't like them stock, and 407 demo showed me that there wasn't anything terribly wrong with sound that I could detect.
When 3100 system arrived, I started to listen - wasn't bad - but I wasn't blown away. Reading about burn in and various warm up time - I decided to let them play during night. I soon discovered that they can go REALLY LOUD - I did not want sound to be heard from other rooms, so I put L300 on my bed and put many layers of pillow, sheets etc. on them to tame volume. Still - it was quite loud.
And that's when I started to hear beautiful melodies coming from L300s. It was night, I remember lying on the bed, being curled up and listening to the sound that was coming from them, despite being buried under those bed pillows and other stuff - and that's when I was blown away - I was like:
so, that's what music is SUPPOSED to sound like.
Then I was blasting them as speakers when nobody was at home - it felt like whole room was filled with beautiful sound. Good memories.
Problem was when I put them on head and started to using them as headphones, which is their primary function - they felt kind of dull and lifeless to me. I was wondering - why can't they sound like they do when I use them as speakers?
A bit fast forward, I tried various EQ and DSP to make them sound better for me (I found out I generally like V-shape - perhaps due to
Fletcher–Munson curve). Sometimes I felt they sound really good - when I was completely absorbed by music (and sometimes thinking: so THIS is why Stax is being so praised - I was having blast
). Then the next day I could not get the same feeling like I did yesterday - which drove me nuts - why they sometimes sound so damn good and sometimes they do not? Is it power? DAC? Amplifier? Mood? I think found out - keep reading.
When I was putting them on I managed to break headband - you can see my
struggle with the damn metal tube. I bought replacement from local Stax distributor - so now I am using L300 with 207 headband. While I was waiting for new headband, I was using them with broken headband - I had to hold one side with hand but otherwise they sounded good. Very good - in fact I felt I could consistently get this good sound from them, which I then kind of lost when I installed new headband (again - sometimes they sounded good, sometimes not so good)
I also realized that they don't sound as good as I remembered them as speakers - the bass was clipping and they did not sound as loud.
You can see my post about this here. I tried dehumidifier - which helped, but did not get rid of this. So 1 month ago I finally sent them to warranty service - and both drivers got exchanged. Buying from local dealer rather from Japan paid off in this case.
I was also looking for a way to improve comfort - 407 I tried in shop felt better than L300. I found out that putting some cloth on headpad, which effectively increases my head size - quite helped. I decided to buy ZMF Pilot pad to replace ugly blue cloth and L700 pads to see what will happen. I felt that with L700 pads L300 lost some of the sub bass (but if u push cups with your hands you get sub bass like with L300 pads) but soundstage seemed to increase - anyway I did not have much time testing it because that's when I sent them to warranty repair.
When L300 with new drivers came, I thought I hear more details than before - but it could also by affected by different EQ & different input for DAC (optical now).
Now, to the important part - I think I have finally discovered why sometimes L300 sounds so damn good and other time I can't get them to sound that good:
For me, it seems like L300 has sweet spot that needs to be matched otherwise they lose their magic! For me, it's in the top corner - see picture:
(Left cup, yellow ellipse is imprint from glasses, if you look closely)
When you google Stax 507 measurement, you will find this picture:
Yellow one is bad seal, red one is good seal. As you can see, there is huge null in 8,5kHz area - this exactly what I hear in frequency sweep when I'm not in sweet spot. According to others, this happens you don't have perfect seal - however, even when I push cups really hard to my head (which should create better seal) and I am not in sweet spot, I still get this null. If I am in sweet spot, this null is greatly reduced (it's still detectable, but it's much much better). Problem was that I have small head - so I always had ears in bottom part or mid part, not in top part. When I broke that headband, I was actually having ears in top part corner - that's why I was probably getting good sound. Now with
ZMF Pilot pad, which increases my head size, I get my ears to top part easily, I don't even use L700 at the moment.
Here is picture of some of my old EQ when I did not have pilot pad:
You can see 20db peak at 8,5Khz to compensate for this - and it still wasn't perfect. Null was still there. But it helped a bit so I did not worry about it that much. Btw, when you put hands before drivers, it seems like null is lifted – but you can’t listen like that, of course.
Now, some picture of L300 with ZMF Pilot pad:
I guess that's it. Right now I use combination of EQ Peace APO and DSP "Hear" by Prosoft. And I am happy.
So, in conclusion, I love my L300, but it was quite a long journey. I am glad I discovered this sweet spot - I can now consistently get good sound from them. I hope this helps someone, who is perhaps having similar problem.
Couple of other things I'd like to mention:
- iFi iPower works with 252S amp and it increased clarity compared to stock 230V brick that came with in here in EU. Overall I recommend it.
- I bought Stax 003 mk1 in-ear while I was waiting for L300 repair. They do not not have 8,5kHz null, they are quite comfortable for my ears and I think they were more of a thing I was looking for (at first) rather than L300 - more similar to Koss Porta Pro, in sense of more intimate sound rather than bigger L300. Less troublesome than L300, I got them sounding good (again with EQ) much quicker than L300. I feel that for some songs 003 is better than L300 and L300 is better for others songs.
- if you google “Calculate EQ settings to transform frequency response of one headphone into another!” you can find tool which transform FR of your headphone into another, based on Innerfidelity graphs. It doesn’t work well, but’s fun to play with.
