Stax SR-X1 (new entry model)

May 31, 2024 at 12:51 PM Post #136 of 242
Seems more like some contamination shook loose to me. If it occurs, I can make it stop sometimes by lightly tapping on the headphone.
I haven't heard it again since last night, so I'll wait and see if perhaps the particulate has settled somewhere out of the way.
This sounds familiar to me as well, comes and goes but eventually the squealing wouldn't abate then drivers develop channel imbalance. Keep an ear out and don't hesitate on return or warranty service should your situation calls for it.

:pray:
 
May 31, 2024 at 2:07 PM Post #137 of 242
This sounds familiar to me as well, comes and goes but eventually the squealing wouldn't abate then drivers develop channel imbalance. Keep an ear out and don't hesitate on return or warranty service should your situation calls for it.

:pray:
What's the typical time frame for this type of failure? Days? Weeks? I probably should just contact HeadAmp now but I do want to see if anything happens.
 
May 31, 2024 at 2:47 PM Post #138 of 242
What's the typical time frame for this type of failure? Days? Weeks? I probably should just contact HeadAmp now but I do want to see if anything happens.
Probably varies based on use and environmental factors, and each specific unit, but for me the X9000 was over the course of a week and L700MK2 a couple months.
 
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Jun 4, 2024 at 3:37 PM Post #139 of 242
I returned the D10II over the weekend as I was just sickened by this whole experience. I had also sent the SR-X1 ind for rma last week due to the imbalance they both arrived back to Stax Audio yesterday I received the refund I was expecting for the D10II but when it came time for the refund on the Defective SR-X1 I only received a partial refund. Confused as to why that was I reached out and was informed that they had received the headphone and had tested it for several hours on both the SRM-270S and SRM-D10II with no issues which is strange because it only took a few minutes of listening when I had it for it to develop the imbalance. I can say whole heartedly I'll never buy from Stax audio again. If had my pair of minidsp ears in the truck I would have been able to provide proof they were defective. Fortunately I was able to get them while I was out on the road because if I has experienced the issue when I finally made it home over a month later after it being delivered I would have had nothing I could do about the headphone if they had decided that it was fine and had no audible issues and I couldn't return it because it was past the 20 day return window. It was an expensive lesson(I was shorted ~$100 on the refund) to never do business with shady people.
 
Jun 10, 2024 at 11:51 AM Post #140 of 242
Received my SR-X1 from Japan, and so far they have no imbalance (yay). Gave them a listen, and while they sound pretty nice there was something going on in mids and upper mids I did not particularly like. This made me take measurements sooner than I planned, and the FR kind of confirms my impressions.

Take this with a grain of salt as a) my measurement rig has a flat plate so it's not representative of actual sound in use, b) my pair seems to differ from others owned by people who I trust (@Kabeer for one). In the spoiler a few screenshots showing my sample's FR against my favourite Staxes, and the ubiquitous HD600 as a reference.

Edit: for my pair at least, some back damping would probably flatten out the 1khz hump. The same hump is on my NB Lambdas, where the rockwool behind the driver disintegrated. Similar rockwool from vintage orthos (eg NAD RP18) has a very focused effect centered around 1khz, so I think Stax knew what they were doing with the rockwool damping on the NB Lambdas.

PS - I'm putting them up for sale of course, they don't stand up to many of my other headphones for my specific tastes

X1 in red, HD600 in yellow
1718034439770.png


X1 in red, L500 in green (L500 bass suffers from the usual Lambda bad seal, it's flatter in use)
1718034499640.png


X1 in red, normal bias Lambdas in green (same considerations on bass as for L500)
1718034554593.png


X1 in red, stock Koss ESP/95X in yellow
1718034591488.png


X1 in red, SR-X mk3 in yellow (this one has original pleather pads, but my others have near identical FR)
The mk3 are my all time favourite headphones, closely followed by the L500
1718034677846.png
 
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Jun 10, 2024 at 8:14 PM Post #141 of 242
Great squiggles and impressions, thanks. Yeah that 1-2k bump is what I've been complaining about and why they have a cold tonality, but if you EQ it down that goes away. Interesting point about the damping, it makes sense they did that.

I wonder if I might not prefer a 3-5k dip since most of the stuff that doesn't sound harsh out of the gate to me has that.
 
Jun 11, 2024 at 3:50 AM Post #142 of 242
Edit: for my pair at least, some back damping would probably flatten out the 1khz hump. The same hump is on my NB Lambdas, where the rockwool behind the driver disintegrated. Similar rockwool from vintage orthos (eg NAD RP18) has a very focused effect centered around 1khz, so I think Stax knew what they were doing with the rockwool damping on the NB Lambdas.
Intuitively I suppose you'd expect the damping to make some sort of difference but it does seem like estat drivers are insensitive to it. The original Lambda Pro also has that wool in the cups and it sounds no different than later iterations which don't have the material, and all of them have the same stereotypical Stax emphasis around 1-2kHz that contributes to the legacy lambdas' upfront saturated voicing.
 
Jun 11, 2024 at 4:47 AM Post #143 of 242
Intuitively I suppose you'd expect the damping to make some sort of difference but it does seem like estat drivers are insensitive to it. The original Lambda Pro also has that wool in the cups and it sounds no different than later iterations which don't have the material, and all of them have the same stereotypical Stax emphasis around 1-2kHz that contributes to the legacy lambdas' upfront saturated voicing.

I doubt it makes no difference, acoustic damping is not magic. I can easily open, damp and measure one of my Lambdas, but I damped my ESP/95X and can show you measurements of the changes daamping introduced.
 
Jun 11, 2024 at 4:52 AM Post #144 of 242
Here you go, my ESP/95X with Yaxi pads: red is with no damping, green is with polyester wool (same material used in speakers) behind the drivers, blue with a thin polyester material used in air filtering appliances. This is light damping, a wad of rockwool would have a much more dramatic impact in the 1khz+ region (which is exactly where you would damp NB Lambdas). I tend to believe measurements, rather than abstract beliefs. :)

1718095957111.png
 
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Jun 11, 2024 at 10:24 AM Post #145 of 242
Intuitively I suppose you'd expect the damping to make some sort of difference but it does seem like estat drivers are insensitive to it. The original Lambda Pro also has that wool in the cups and it sounds no different than later iterations which don't have the material, and all of them have the same stereotypical Stax emphasis around 1-2kHz that contributes to the legacy lambdas' upfront saturated voicing.
Actually here are some rough measurements I took of my Lambda Pro shortly after I got it, before and after removing the rockwool.
1718113597807.png

I believe this was a rather mediocre flat plate I was using at the time and the measurement isn't sealed, but you can clearly see about 5db difference from 1.5-4k.
 
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Jun 11, 2024 at 2:04 PM Post #146 of 242
Here you go, my ESP/95X with Yaxi pads: red is with no damping, green is with polyester wool (same material used in speakers) behind the drivers, blue with a thin polyester material used in air filtering appliances. This is light damping, a wad of rockwool would have a much more dramatic impact in the 1khz+ region (which is exactly where you would damp NB Lambdas). I tend to believe measurements, rather than abstract beliefs. :)

1718095957111.png

Actually here are some rough measurements I took of my Lambda Pro shortly after I got it, before and after removing the rockwool.
1718113597807.png
I believe this was a rather mediocre flat plate I was using at the time and the measurement isn't sealed, but you can clearly see about 5db difference from 1.5-4k.
Interesting, I wonder how well the measured difference translates to what a human ear would hear. But obviously the damping does make a difference so likely then for Stax to have made other tweaks, perhaps to the drivers themselves, beyond removing the wool in later Lambda Pros. Good stuff, thank you both for sharing the data.
 
Jun 13, 2024 at 4:23 AM Post #147 of 242
hello..
I'm a newbie..
and I'm about to take the plunge towards this new stax, a brand that has always been a bit of a dream for me being rather a fan of acoustic music etc...
I'm a little upset to discover this genre beautiful bump placed in the middle of a very important and sensitive area...

even if a bit "gas factory", I can make a peq 10bands for fixed use on srd7 mods... but I wanted to know if approaches would be possible or this already practiced in passive corrections?
thanks
:wink:
(I believe that not having the possibility of measurements I will not buy this headphone when interresant peqs circulate (not harman in my case))
 
Jun 13, 2024 at 4:59 AM Post #148 of 242
ps
but I would like to point out that discovering unbalance problems on such expensive HDG headphones amazed me.. I associated it with the problems with the old stax from the 70s-80s due to their great age.. but new or very recent?! ? :-0
 
Jun 13, 2024 at 6:12 AM Post #149 of 242
hello..
I'm a newbie..
and I'm about to take the plunge towards this new stax, a brand that has always been a bit of a dream for me being rather a fan of acoustic music etc...
I'm a little upset to discover this genre beautiful bump placed in the middle of a very important and sensitive area...

even if a bit "gas factory", I can make a peq 10bands for fixed use on srd7 mods... but I wanted to know if approaches would be possible or this already practiced in passive corrections?
thanks
:wink:
(I believe that not having the possibility of measurements I will not buy this headphone when interresant peqs circulate (not harman in my case))
Welcome,
Every headphone has some sort of bump or dip somewhere in its freq, it depends whether it bothers your particular head/ear physiology, hearing-psychology etc.
Even if you bought the X9000 or any other multi thousand dollar headphone, it will be so.

I will say, for myself, the 'slight' bump mentioned a few posts above doesn't standout much to me, others may be more sensitive in this area. The overall sound is very smooth and not far off flat. If you are looking for perfection you will never find it in any headphones, perhaps the Sennheiser HE-1 being the closest. Then you need to remind yourself you are talking about the entry level Stax here...
Also vintage Stax can be great!

EQ will always help if its high quality eq. But only worth it for slight adjustments, otherwise its the wrong headphone for you.


For me X1 is the first Stax I am happy with without EQ, and that is saying a lot. I havent heard the X9000, but i would say, other than the sense of large soundstage, I find the X1 as good, and in many case better than most other Stax out there.

If you are near a dealer try demo it before buying. Since you love acoustic music, then this area may have sensitivities for you so you will have to judge.
 
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Jun 13, 2024 at 8:18 AM Post #150 of 242
Welcome,
Every headphone has some sort of bump or dip somewhere in its freq, it depends whether it bothers your particular head/ear physiology, hearing-psychology etc.
Even if you bought the X9000 or any other multi thousand dollar headphone, it will be so.

I will say, for myself, the 'slight' bump mentioned a few posts above doesn't standout much to me, others may be more sensitive in this area. The overall sound is very smooth and not far off flat. If you are looking for perfection you will never find it in any headphones, perhaps the Sennheiser HE-1 being the closest. Then you need to remind yourself you are talking about the entry level Stax here...
Also vintage Stax can be great!

EQ will always help if its high quality eq. But only worth it for slight adjustments, otherwise its the wrong headphone for you.


For me X1 is the first Stax I am happy with without EQ, and that is saying a lot. I havent heard the X9000, but i would say, other than the sense of large soundstage, I find the X1 as good, and in many case better than most other Stax out there.

If you are near a dealer try demo it before buying. Since you love acoustic music, then this area may have sensitivities for you so you will have to judge.
thank you very much....
I'm not really in my place here among headphone enthusiasts...
I don't use much listening to headphones, just sometimes in pro control or in reference so as not to get lost in DIY development...
I allowed myself to push the door, it's because I saw the CE SR-X1 the opportunity to upgrade to something new, break the bank...
I actually have some old 340-240 sextet (and historical DT-48) on pro sound device headphone amp..or old stax with more or less problems marked with balance..olds srxmk3 or lambda on srd7 mods... but basically I have no experiences.... the same in peq correction.. .
but I know on the other hand that these approaches of target curves determined by statistical research are more "cultural"... for example for many the notion of timbre is a very very relative notion given what they listen to etc etc..
but typically, and the few experiences that I have encountered have convinced me...this desired accepted bump zone has a heavy impact on the timbres...
this is therefore seriously discussed..I am sensitive to it...but respect those who doesn't care a bit and is looking for other things ;-)
I will follow with interest your discussions of measurements of this helmet..which I will certainly buy....having a primary affection for the mk3 more than the lambda...
thanks again, -)
 

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