[Senes]

380$ for a SRM-3 is a good price (capacitors has been changed by Spritzer around 2013 i'd said) ?
To drive my SR-507
I saw it on the F/S forum and thought it was a bit more reasonable than an SRM-T1 for 550€ ^^ (tube changed)

 

[alies]

Hey guys, been lurking for a while and decided to get into Stax recently. Probably going with an amp directly from Stax USA since I read in this thread that those come with proper US compatible power supplies, can anybody share how long they usually take to process and ship an order? Wondering if they directly import from Japan before locally shipping like some sellers rather than keep stock on hand.

 

[rx79ez08]

The ESP950 does not have good dust covers around the drivers, so it can develop dust issues, which you will hear as very quiet whistling or hissing sounds. This can be distracting. It does have a lifetime warranty, so you can get it replaced when it happens, but it won't happen with the Stax, because its drivers are sealed well. Just something I thought you should know.

Stax can have dust problem as well. I have a new pair of L700 which lasted for less than a month before it started buzzing, and ultimately developed into volume imbalance. It is currently in Japan for repair.
With electronics it is sometime luck of the draw.

 

[georgelai57]

Anyone use a Woo Audio Wee with their SR-507 and what would be a good affordable integrated amp below $1,000 to go with it? The amp doesn't need fancy features other than a couple of RCA input; no DAC, phono input etc. One single pair of speaker outputs is sufficient. Thanks.

 

[Tinkerer]

You're better off getting an SRD-7 pro or any SRD unit with a pro mod. The Wee damages the diaphragms of the phones over time. Though if you already have a Wee, you could always put together a protection circuit for it with a proper ballast resistor to fix the issue. KG or Spritzer over on the other site could probably help you with figuring out how to do that.
 
And just get a quality old receiver that's still in good shape. You don't need a ton of watts per channel to drive a transformer box. I'd definitely get something sub-$100 like an old Denon/Pioneer/Yamaha/etc. to start and have that to compare to the more expensive units you might upgrade to. Price/performance difference might turn out not to be as much as you think.

 

[davidsh]

How does the wee damage headphones? Is the bias supply resistor very low value or something?

 

[Tinkerer]

  How does the wee damage headphones? Is the bias supply resistor very low value or something?

 
Yeah, but it depends on the model. Apparently, some don't even have them at all. I would imagine you could test it easily by measuring bias at the jack. With the proper parts, I think it would be between 320 and 360vdc IIRC? Then of course 580vdc ahead of the ballast resistor. Goofy thing is, it's a $10 or less fix if it's borked.
 
I think that's only one of the issues people like spritzer have with the design though.

 

[davidsh]

 

  How does the wee damage headphones? Is the bias supply resistor very low value or something?

 
Yeah, but it depends on the model. Apparently, some don't even have them at all. I would imagine you could test it easily by measuring bias at the jack. With the proper parts, I think it would be between 320 and 360vdc IIRC? Then of course 580vdc ahead of the ballast resistor. Goofy thing is, it's a $10 or less fix if it's borked.
 
I think that's only one of the issues people like spritzer have with the design though.

That is very unprofessional and quite shocking IMO. I hope they have handled the problem accordingly, though.
 
It should be quite easy to measure whether there's an appropriate resistor on the bias output if you know some basic electronics theory, however. And the specs of your DMM

 

[Sechtdamon]

  Woah! Thanks for the info. It's price is higher than the srs2170 and there's zero impression since it's not yet out. Maybe it's better for me to wait for a little longer to make any decision. 

Birgir advices not to buy a stax just after they released. What he said actually:
 
"Haven’t tried the new Lambdas yet but I will once the early production issues have been settled.  I’ve been doing this for long enough to know not to touch a new Stax headphone right after release."

 

[Zimmermann]

 
Birgir advices not to buy a stax just after they released. What he said actually:
 
"Haven’t tried the new Lambdas yet but I will once the early production issues have been settled.  I’ve been doing this for long enough to know not to touch a new Stax headphone right after release."

 
That's probably good advice and can you tell me what are the usual early production issues that Stax' phones had before? I haven't heard much issues from the L500 and L700 owners so far, except from the one who posted earlier in this thread. 

 

[Sechtdamon]

I really don't know, sorry about it. I only know he is the don of... Erm very old and experienced stats user, and knows so much stuff. And i took his advice, (was thinking to buy L-500 and Srm-353x) and gave up on upgrade. Well i'll do an upgrade anyway.
 
But i can tell you this. Srs-2170 is extremely good for its price, compared to same price range dynamics and some orthos (i listen q701 and he400s and sr-207 beats the crap out of them in every aspect). It has extremely natural voice. Except a bump in upper mid range, its pretty flat. And it gets better with small upgrades:
 
I get ep-507 pads. Bass freqs reaches deeper into subbass. Got more punch too. Trebles are less harsh (wasn't really harsh), i mean more forgiver now. Also you can get a low noise linear power supply for blacker background and more headroom.
 
System trully shines if gets good source. I'm using mine now with Mhdt Lab Atlantis. System has really good potential if you can feed them from a good source.

 

[Zimmermann]

  I really don't know, sorry about it. I only know he is the don of... Erm very old and experienced stats user, and knows so much stuff. And i took his advice, (was thinking to buy L-500 and Srm-353x) and gave up on upgrade. Well i'll do an upgrade anyway.
 
But i can tell you this. Srs-2170 is extremely good for its price, compared to same price range dynamics and some orthos (i listen q701 and he400s and sr-207 beats the crap out of them in every aspect). It has extremely natural voice. Except a bump in upper mid range, its pretty flat. And it gets better with small upgrades:
 
I get ep-507 pads. Bass freqs reaches deeper into subbass. Got more punch too. Trebles are less harsh (wasn't really harsh), i mean more forgiver now. Also you can get a low noise linear power supply for blacker background and more headroom.
 
System trully shines if gets good source. I'm using mine now with Mhdt Lab Atlantis. System has really good potential if you can feed them from a good source.

 
Thanks for the impression! I appreciate it. I just really want to own a Stax system just cause of the ethereal and grainless sound quality that I have heard from the higher models. I can't audition them though, but I am optimistic that the srs2170 or the new srs3100 will be good enough for me. I'm still thinking about getting the srs2170 since once the new cans all out, the old ones might be discontinued and may go down further in price (not really counting on this) and will be a novelty to own. 

 

[Sechtdamon]

To be honest, i'd not counting on the price discount. Nearly half year passed since L500 and L700 came out but no price discount happened on Sr-507's price. And i havent owned any other Stax earspeaker other than mine but as i see from forum members, as they get older they become more reliable. I mean models age well. Most people think best lambda is lambda nova signature. And as i remember reading this statement on head-fi 207 is the closest sounding to lns.
 
But i have to warn you, i tried some entry level dacs (HRT Ms II+: has very harsh treble and powerless bass with srs-2170, and Smsl M8, some not very clear mids, metalic sounding upper mids, again powerless bass and little distant, unrealistic sounding mid bass) and some rca cables, i can say System is hugely source dependent. You have to have a good source to squeeze their performance.

 

[Zimmermann]

  To be honest, i'd not counting on the price discount. Nearly half year passed since L500 and L700 came out but no price discount happened on Sr-507's price. And i havent owned any other Stax earspeaker other than mine but as i see from forum members, as they get older they become more reliable. I mean models age well. Most people think best lambda is lambda nova signature. And as i remember reading this statement on head-fi 207 is the closest sounding to lns.
 
But i have to warn you, i tried some entry level dacs (HRT Ms II+: has very harsh treble and powerless bass with srs-2170, and Smsl M8, some not very clear mids, metalic sounding upper mids, again powerless bass and little distant, unrealistic sounding mid bass) and some rca cables, i can say System is hugely source dependent. You have to have a good source to squeeze their performance.

Yeah, about the source, for now I only have a Fiio X5 and if that's the case I may really need to get a proper desktop DAC. I have lots of options here that I can demo so I can pick whichever will be suitable for my budget. 

 

[Sechtdamon]

@Zimmermann don't get me wrong. The dacs i used were not bad dacs, but as i heard, they are all have some tradeoffs to sound good on other areas. If you wanna get a budget dac or any source, you really have to check it's synergy with system. Btw, check especially for good treble performance, cuz system brings all grains.