[Degru]

Couldn't resist, ordered myself one. Will take GRAS 45CA measurements as soon as I can bring it in to work

 

[CannedWheat]

Well I do believe Ill probably be returning both the SR-X1 and the SRM-D10II pending on what Stax Audio will say/do.... I was doing a bit of late night music listening and the center image seemed to be drifting and me having poor hearing chocked it up to my sinuses being funny with the weather. but alas no such luck i flipped the headphones around on my head and to my astonishment I could barely hear the left channel when it was on my right ear. So while I'm used to having a slightly shifted center image with headphones its normally to the left, so when it was to the right I was confused that's when I decided to look into it. When I flipped the headphones around and heard the imbalance the first thing I did was swap the cables to see if it was the amp. It was not... my SR-X1 with less than 24 hrs of use on it already has a bad channel. The abysmal channel matching and QC of modern Stax seems to be near on par of Hi-fi man I guess. I can count myself lucky that my SR-X9000 didn't immediately fail like reports were saying some owners were experiencing. So unless things turn around I don't know if I'll ever buy another Stax product. First the 12v power adapter for my SRM-270s is DOA now shortly after using them for the 3rd time since buying them the left channel just gives out. Either I'm just extremely unlucky or this is a trend..........

 

[Kabeer]

Well I do believe Ill probably be returning both the SR-X1 and the SRM-D10II pending on what Stax Audio will say/do.... I was doing a bit of late night music listening and the center image seemed to be drifting and me having poor hearing chocked it up to my sinuses being funny with the weather. but alas no such luck i flipped the headphones around on my head and to my astonishment I could barely hear the left channel when it was on my right ear. So while I'm used to having a slightly shifted center image with headphones its normally to the left, so when it was to the right I was confused that's when I decided to look into it. When I flipped the headphones around and heard the imbalance the first thing I did was swap the cables to see if it was the amp. It was not... my SR-X1 with less than 24 hrs of use on it already has a bad channel. The abysmal channel matching and QC of modern Stax seems to be near on par of Hi-fi man I guess. I can count myself lucky that my SR-X9000 didn't immediately fail like reports were saying some owners were experiencing. So unless things turn around I don't know if I'll ever buy another Stax product. First the 12v power adapter for my SRM-270s is DOA now shortly after using them for the 3rd time since buying them the left channel just gives out. Either I'm just extremely unlucky or this is a trend..........

did you try the SR-X1 with another stax amp to establish whether it was the SRM-D10ii or SR-X1 at fault?

 

[CannedWheat]

did you try the SR-X1 with another stax amp to establish whether it was the SRM-D10ii or SR-X1 at fault?

I swapped the channels on the cable and the imbalance didn't move

 

[Philimon]

I swapped the channels on the cable and the imbalance didn't move

“Did you try another amp?”

 

[Philimon]

I swapped the channels on the cable and the imbalance didn't move

I think I misunderstood. Youre saying you swapped L/R at headphone. I misread and thought you meant source to amp. Im an idiot. I guess then in that case the headphone is responsible. Still would be nice to try another amp please to rule out amp complication completely.

 

[bagwell359]

The abysmal channel matching and QC of modern Stax seems to be near on par of Hi-fi man I guess.

HFM is guilty of a lot that's not good but reviews and my experience owning 12 of them says the channel matching is not among them.

 

[catscratch]

Channel balance issues with Stax are sadly a thing. I think it has something to do with the electrically conductive coating they use. I was rather hoping we'd be past this, but I guess not. The good news is that when they happen, they usually happen early on, so if your set is stable for a few months it should be good to go from that point. The D10/D50 afaik are made in China and not Japan, but the rest of their stuff should be made in-house.

@Kabeer No, my ears don't fully fit inside the earcup. It's partially supra-aural. The other issue is that the correct headband adjustment isn't quite fine-grained enough and it's right in between where I'd like it to be, so I have a choice of too short or too long. Pressing on the earcups does increase the bass a little bit but shortening the driver/ear distance also reduces sense of space.

I haven't been able to make them sound bass-heavy, but it's probably due to a combination of fit, system (007t is hardly great for bass) and preference - I'm treble allergic enough to use a downslope on the HD650, so stuff that sounds too thin to me is probably way too warm to others. I hear the 007 mk1 as pretty neutral, for instance, so that should give some idea.

The X1 is still roughly in the ballpark of neutral and with a bit of EQ tweaking I'm sure I'll get it fully dialed in, but it takes time to develop profiles that sound normal to you. But if I can make the L700 sound normal, anything is possible.

 

[CannedWheat]

HFM is guilty of a lot that's not good but reviews and my experience owning 12 of them says the channel matching is not among them.

Yeah probably should have worded the sentence a bit better. I meant that the QC of Stax and HFM are on par but the channel matching is stax's own issue

 

[MousoMachineGun]

Yeah probably should have worded the sentence a bit better. I meant that the QC of Stax and HFM are on par but the channel matching is stax's own issue

Unfortunately I also had the same issue. The balance on my X1 shifted to the right after a few days of use. I even went to the store and had the staff tried it themselves to make sure it wasn't an issue on my chain.
I was hoping to get a replacement unit but since it's sold out everywhere I just returned it.

Since this seems to be potentially a more widespread issue, thought I have to chime in..

 

[CannedWheat]

Unfortunately I also had the same issue. The balance on my X1 shifted to the right after a few days of use. I even went to the store and had the staff tried it themselves to make sure it wasn't an issue on my chain.
I was hoping to get a replacement unit but since it's sold out everywhere I just returned it.

Since this seems to be potentially a more widespread issue, thought I have to chime in..

Yeah Im an over the road driver and I just managed to get lucky with regards to the fact I managed to get my pair sent to a facility of my company while on the road. It's gonna be a major pain to try to get this defective pair shipped back to Stax Audio I need to find a suitable box.

 

[Degru]

Unfortunate to see two such cases. I wonder if it is a mechanical (wiring) issue or coating...
Either of you try, er, "percussive maintenance" (giving it a firm smack)?

Haven't heard about Stax pro bias sets commonly developing imbalance before, but maybe I haven't looked much.
As far as I'm aware coating problems are mostly NB issue..

 

[GREQ]

Yeah probably should have worded the sentence a bit better. I meant that the QC of Stax and HFM are on par but the channel matching is stax's own issue

Actually channel matching is historically a smaller problem with HFM.
Some sets have suddenly gone out of balance by a few dB, even years after purchase.
But nowhere near as common as STAX.

 

[ludoo]

Well, now you're all making me worried for the pair I have ordered in Japan and waiting for...

TBH I have had probably 20 Staxes and the only ones with channel imbalance are the Nova Basic and L207 I have with torn dust covers, all the others including the very old SR-3s have good channel matching (and several have handwritten markings on drivers which I assume were matched at the factory).

It's worrying that they start having this issue from new.

 

[Brandfuchs]

Unfortunately I also had the same issue. The balance on my X1 shifted to the right after a few days of use. I even went to the store and had the staff tried it themselves to make sure it wasn't an issue on my chain.
I was hoping to get a replacement unit but since it's sold out everywhere I just returned it.

Since this seems to be potentially a more widespread issue, thought I have to chime in..

My L300LTD also developed channel imbalance issues. However, considering that's a product from 2019 and that I live in a humid tropical region, it’s not surprising that after prolonged use, dust accumulation and high humidity might have caused the coating's conductive efficiency to decrease, leading to the imbalance. But it’s indeed strange that the X1 developed channel imbalance just a few days after use..