[noxa]

No, I mean, what do you specifically dislike about its sound? As I said, I loved it with all music, including rap and EDM.

I think for me the main issue with EDM is it can be a little bit too bright depending on the track but these are the tracks I find a bit shrill on literally anything except some orthos, but I listened to Faithless Insomnia tonight and the sense of space and clarity really brought the song to life. As for Rap, I just think it lacks too much bass for my personal preference. I have to say the bass quality is far, far better than I was expecting perhaps it's just getting used to the lack of air movement that creates a more visceral feel.

If these were 15% darker/warmer and had 20% more bass these would be end game for me the way I'm feeling right now. I actually missed them when I went out today, that hasn't happened for a long time.

 

[Music Alchemist]

I think for me the main issue with EDM is it can be a little bit too bright depending on the track but these are the tracks I find a bit shrill on literally anything except some orthos, but I listened to Faithless Insomnia tonight and the sense of space and clarity really brought the song to life. As for Rap, I just think it lacks too much bass for my personal preference. I have to say the bass quality is far, far better than I was expecting perhaps it's just getting used to the lack of air movement that creates a more visceral feel.

If these were 15% darker/warmer and had 20% more bass these would be end game for me the way I'm feeling right now. I actually missed them when I went out today, that hasn't happened for a long time.

 
Ah, I see. Many modern recordings are pretty bright anyway. If you're willing to use a parametric equalizer (like Equalizer APO with Peace GUI), you can tweak it to your taste and even create presets for various situations. For me, though, an ideal all-rounder headphone is a neutral one, and as covered here, the SR-207 is about as neutral as it gets. I also noticed the excellent bass quality. Oddly, even though the bass is boosted a little bit, it didn't feel heavy or visceral. Of course, there's more to sound than just frequency response, so I guess the planar magnetic headphones that have the same (or even less) quantity of bass in the frequency response measure differently in other aspects of the bass measurements, accounting for the differences. I'm a full-time audiophile and part-time basshead, so my policy is to have different headphones for when I want accurate reproduction or just head-shaking bass. With the SRM-212 (same specs as SRM-252S), the SR-207 can't handle heavy bass boosts very well, since it already uses most or all of its power to get as loud as I want it...so when I boosted the bass, it just distorted badly. haha. But if you only want a bit more bass, you should be able to pull it off.

 

[Chris J]

Hi. I'm considering ordering a STAX SR-2170 system from Japan because Amazon Canada has them for $636 with free shipping. Since this amp uses a wall-wart power adapter, it should be no problem to replace it with a 12V 4W DC supply designed for 110V/120V.

I was just wondering if any of you guys knew where I could get a high quality 12V DC supply, maybe one designed for audio usage? I'm concerned that if I buy a generic 12V DC supply made for cheap appliances that it might not produce as high quality sound as it could with a properly built supply.

Apparently the iFi wall wart was designed with a lower noise floor for audio applications.

 

[Chris J]

Does anyone here have an explanation for this?

I got an iFi iPower AC wall wart. It outputs 12 V 1.1 A, which should be fine for the SRM-252S (4 W, 12 V). The iPower itself works just fine since it can power my external USB hard drive.

It also came with a polarity inverter, and that adaptor works perfectly fine with my LH Labs Linear Power Supply.


However, when I use both the iPower and polarity inverter to power the SRM-252S, the green power LED lights up for a second before fading to nothing and nothing plays through it.


I am thoroughly confused right now...

Ooops, I just noticed this.
Do you have a voltmeter?
First thing I would do is verify that the DC voltage is correct.
Do you still have the original Stax wall wart?
Does the Stax wall wart power the SRM-252S properly?

 

[miceblue]

Apparently the iFi wall wart was designed with a lower noise floor for audio applications.

I have one with me and it doesn't work with the SRM-252S for the time being. I opened a ticket with iFi but with Christmas and everything going on, things probably won't get settled until next year.

 

[Chris J]

I have one with me and it doesn't work with the SRM-252S for the time being. I opened a ticket with iFi but with Christmas and everything going on, things probably won't get settled until next year.

Sounds like you don't own a voltmeter?

Merry Christmas to all, BTW!

 

[buffalobill]

   
Ah, I see. Many modern recordings are pretty bright anyway. If you're willing to use a parametric equalizer (like Equalizer APO with Peace GUI), you can tweak it to your taste and even create presets for various situations. For me, though, an ideal all-rounder headphone is a neutral one, and as covered here, the SR-207 is about as neutral as it gets. I also noticed the excellent bass quality. Oddly, even though the bass is boosted a little bit, it didn't feel heavy or visceral. Of course, there's more to sound than just frequency response, so I guess the planar magnetic headphones that have the same (or even less) quantity of bass in the frequency response measure differently in other aspects of the bass measurements, accounting for the differences. I'm a full-time audiophile and part-time basshead, so my policy is to have different headphones for when I want accurate reproduction or just head-shaking bass. With the SRM-212 (same specs as SRM-252S), the SR-207 can't handle heavy bass boosts very well, since it already uses most or all of its power to get as loud as I want it...so when I boosted the bass, it just distorted badly. haha. But if you only want a bit more bass, you should be able to pull it off.

 
Is there more bass on the other models? like 307 or 407?

 

[Music Alchemist]

  Is there more bass on the other models? like 307 or 407?

 
You'll have to ask someone who's heard them. haha. I always read about the SR-507 having stronger bass, though.
 
Anyway, it's a really simple thing to add any extra bass you want with a parametric equalizer.

 

[Senes]

" I always read about the SR-507 having stronger bass "
 
Same
 
 
What do you think about the comfort of the SR-207 ?

 

[Music Alchemist]

What do you think about the comfort of the SR-207 ?

 
Comfort is good, but not ideal. Ultimately depends on the size and shape of your head and ears. I have smaller ears. If you have larger ears, it may be uncomfortable. Feels kinda odd compared to most headphones due to the narrow rectangular shape. This isn't a headphone you can headbang to, because they fall off when you try. haha. The Sennheiser HD 800 and Philips SHP9500 are much more comfortable.

 

[Senes]

Well, I hope it will be enough ...
I tried one for 45 minutes and it was just okay, but can't remember well and it was only for 45 minutes
 
The sennheiser HD 800 looks soooo much comfortable!
 
If it were not so hard to drive I think that I would have taken one second handed (is it even english?)

 

[Music Alchemist]

If it were not so hard to drive I think that I would have taken one second handed (is it even english?)

 
What does the second-hand amp market have to do with how hard to drive a headphone is? Anyway, I got a used SRM-212 for $150 that I used with the SR-207.
 
If you are referring to the manufacturers' country of origin, STAX is Japanese and Sennheiser is German.

 

[Senes]

Well, I think that you did not understand what i said at all ^^
 
I wanted to say that if the HD 800 were easier to drive I would have taken one HD800 second-hand
 
And the "is it even english?" was here because I thought that my sentence was not really correct ... and apparently it was not really correct ^^
I'm really sorry for my bad english :/

Anyway, it's off-topic

 

[miceblue]

Does anyone here have an explanation for this?

I got an iFi iPower AC wall wart. It outputs 12 V 1.1 A, which should be fine for the SRM-252S (4 W, 12 V). The iPower itself works just fine since it can power my external USB hard drive.

It also came with a polarity inverter, and that adaptor works perfectly fine with my LH Labs Linear Power Supply.


However, when I use both the iPower and polarity inverter to power the SRM-252S, the green power LED lights up for a second before fading to nothing and nothing plays through it.


I am thoroughly confused right now...

Ooops, I just noticed this.
Do you have a voltmeter?
First thing I would do is verify that the DC voltage is correct.
Do you still have the original Stax wall wart?
Does the STax wall wart power the SRM-252S properly?

The original wall wart is a Japanese one and with a step-down transformer it works, ignoring the humming sound.

Where would I place the probes using a multimeter?




[rule]
Related to the last couple of posts,
the HD800 is actually pretty easy to drive. 30 mW of power at 300 Ω is sufficient, and most amplifiers these days, portable or desktop, can provide that.

How good the synergy is between the amp and HD800 is irrelevant to the power requirements.

 

[Music Alchemist]

  Well, I think that you did not understand what i said at all ^^
 
I wanted to say that if the HD 800 were easier to drive I would have taken one HD800 second-hand
 
And the "is it even english?" was here because I thought that my sentence was not really correct ... and apparently it was not really correct ^^
I'm really sorry for my bad english :/

Anyway, it's off-topic

 
I see. Well...the HD 800 is not hard to drive at all. This is a myth.
 

Spoiler: off-topic: HD 800 power requirements & facts

Here are the actual power requirements for the HD 800:

 
And here is a good quote from another thread:
 

  Wow - this thread is 2 pages long already, and there's basically no science in it. The fact is, if an amp has:
 
1) inaudibly low noise
2) inaudibly low distortion at the required power and current level
3) output impedance <1/10 of headphone impedance at all frequencies
4) sufficient voltage swing to drive the headphones to an acceptable level
5) inaudibly low channel imbalance
6) a flat frequency response
7) Little or no overshoot or ringing regardless of load
8) Decent phase response
 
the amp will sound just like every other amp that meets these criteria.
 
It isn't terribly hard to meet these criteria with modern electronics either, and any competently designed amp should succeed at this. As such, any competently designed amp with sufficient power and voltage swing (and this just means enough to get the headphones fairly loud) will drive the HD800 perfectly. Note that it only takes ~160mW at 8Vrms to get to 120dB with the HD800, so the limiting factor for nearly any amp out there is going to be voltage swing, not current capability (and even the amount of voltage required to get them ridiculously loud is well within the capability of most reasonable amps). The HD800 is actually a fairly easy load, from the amp's perspective - high impedance, low current, and not hugely insensitive. Something like an LCD2 is much more challenging to the amp than the HD800 ever could be.

 
Personally, I like the SR-207 much more than the HD 800 overall.