The Stax Thread III

[florence]

looking forward to your impressions, but when you say its an improved version of Carbon, that is a huge claim, did you base the claim on specs and how it was made and components used, or just by reading what others say bout its sound. Then comes its driving capability, if it can not drive the 007 as the carbon, then how would that be an improved version over the carbon

New mjölnir audio KGSSHV drives my 007mk2 easily. Can't go beyond 12 o'clock.

 

[Whitigir]

finally a Carbon killer

There is only 1 carbon killer

And it comes from the 1 and only Legendary KG

The KG-T2

Everything else is a hype

KG-T2 lights the room in the dark of night, lighting your moods with it legendary performances, and keeping you warm during cold day. The one and only

 

[Ojisan]

There is only 1 carbon killer

And it comes from the 1 and only Legendary KG

The KG-T2

Everything else is a hype

KG-T2 lights the room in the dark of night, lighting your moods with it legendary performances, and keeping you warm during cold day. The one and only

DX220 that good to fully utilize T2? Or just having fun and you have other desktop source?

 

[Whitigir]

DX220 that good to fully utilize T2? Or just having fun and you have other desktop source?

What about this ? =/ but I do have more lol!

 

[Ojisan]

What about this ? =/ but I do have more lol!

Nice portable rig!

Just realized you have LKS listed in your sig, doh.

 

[Whitigir]

Nice portable rig!

Just realized you have LKS listed in your sig, doh.

Lol, if one day you don’t see me posting anymore, my wife probably realized my secrets hahaha

 

[Ojisan]

Lol, if one day you don’t see me posting anymore, my wife probably realized my secrets hahaha

Haha, that or that Sony thing or T2 rolled over on top of you when you are out and about! Careful not to trip over!

 

[staticdynamo]

So you go back to the expensive amplifiers. Are they needed? No serious discussions. I am satisfied with current STAX amplifiers.
Looking back to 80's, STAX earspeakers have far more powerful and solid sound never imagined at that age. Through STAX
amplifiers, of course it can be listenable. Anyway STAX knows about the sound quality deeper.
STAX cares about the big size of amplifiers for Japanese houses? No! Basically STAX made audio products (not only headphones) .
They made big amplifiers for their speakers in 1990s. Is SRM-T2 the cause of STAX's bankrupt? I think it would not be.
Japanese page of conpany history contains more information than English pages. https://stax.co.jp/company/product_history86-95/
And I know the products STAX used to make.

 

[astromaddie]

I apologise if this has been covered before, I've been searching the thread, but 1200 pages is a lot of research
I've demoed some Stax and am convinced I want to get one. I was only able to demo the L300, L700, and 007, and of those, I liked the L700 the most. I'm looking secondhand, and am down to two choices:

• L300LTD (which I've heard is similar to L700) + 007tII
• L700 + T1S (plus a bonus SR-3)

I'm leaning towards the L700, I suspect it's the better overall headphone, and the extra power of the L700 probably isn't necessary, plus I like the idea of the additional legacy port for flexibility. Am I off-base here? Or am I overthinking this?

 

[thinker]

Those are Perun, russian electrostatic headphones. Unfortunately their reputation isn't very high.

I have some friends who have switched over from SR-009 to Perun including me.Where you have heard Perun to make such a statement

 

[thinker]

There is only 1 carbon killer

And it comes from the 1 and only Legendary KG

The KG-T2

Everything else is a hype

KG-T2 lights the room in the dark of night, lighting your moods with it legendary performances, and keeping you warm during cold day. The one and only

tube amps for electrostatic headphones are made only for reason to adjust your personal musical preferences.Tube amps work better for dynamic and planar headphones.

 

[arielext]

353x XLR vs KGSS(HV) or KGST, knowing I'm not going above '2' (= 9 'o clock).
from a consumer point of view: are either KG amps worth it? I'm pairing the amp with the sr-007mk2(.9) headphones with which I am very impressed. Based on reviews I think I prefer the 007 over the 009. I like laid-back, dark but detailed and never fatiguing. I am really wondering if a 2k euro amp will change enough, except the hype it brings. Some claim a 323/353 is a kgss or as near as possible. the 323 doesn't sport the XLR inputs and I can confirm those change the sound signature quite a lot.

I found a KGSShv which arrived today and had plugged it in ~ 4 hours ago.
Holographic, life like, disappearing and a bass that keeps impressing me. Those are the words that come to mind.
It's the same music, the same DAC, the same headphone but a completely new experience.
I'm still in the honeymoon period of course but this might just be a marriage for life.

 

[JimL11]

tube amps for electrostatic headphones are made only for reason to adjust your personal musical preferences.Tube amps work better for dynamic and planar headphones.

I have a different opinion. Tubes are naturally high voltage low current devices, as are electrostatic headphones. Dynamic and planar headphones are by comparison relatively low voltage and high current, which fits solid state better. And I prefer the sound of tube electronics for electrostatic headphones.

 

[Currawong]

Man, kickstarter etc are incredible. Well over half a million USD raised for a HP campaign filled with nonsense, pseudo-science, buzzwords , and intentionally misleading statements. I wish I lacked a conscience so I could start promoting.

I'm not even going to go over how much BS is on their page, but I'd like to at least comment on what you guys are talking about: A single-atom layer sheet of graphene is not practical for estat diaphragm applications. It is extremely conductive, so a layer of insulation would need to be bound to it (reducing mass advantages) and the graphene would need to be insulated from the bias line completely which would be very hard at that scale. An electrostat with a conductive diaphragm (they exist) exhibits orders of magnitude more distortion than traditional stats, and stat fans naturally hate distortion - that's like half the point of using stats. It has been done before for a PhD thesis, but their only goal was to be the first to do it, not to actually reach X levels of quality. Additionally, it is very brittle, and simply dropping the HP a few inches would be enough to shatter the diaphragm.

Graphene and family have great promise for audio, but these are still underdeveloped industries, and incorporating them into our products would require a complete overhaul of current build standards at the very minimum.

Actual carbon drivers that I've seen used woven carbon fibres. Supposedly they are going to appear in speakers soon, if they haven't already.

 

[tabness]

I apologise if this has been covered before, I've been searching the thread, but 1200 pages is a lot of research
I've demoed some Stax and am convinced I want to get one. I was only able to demo the L300, L700, and 007, and of those, I liked the L700 the most. I'm looking secondhand, and am down to two choices:

• L300LTD (which I've heard is similar to L700) + 007tII
• L700 + T1S (plus a bonus SR-3)

I'm leaning towards the L700, I suspect it's the better overall headphone, and the extra power of the L700 probably isn't necessary, plus I like the idea of the additional legacy port for flexibility. Am I off-base here? Or am I overthinking this?

The T1S is generally considered good for Lambdas even by many of those who swear by the more powerful energizer theory (I think the harder to drive 009S sounds just fine on the T1S with none of the sonic issues some say would happen on energizers of its power class). Also the 007tII is supposed to be very similar in terms of circuit design as the 006t/T1 energizers. You can also get a solid state energizer for cheaper (353X or 252S) and those will probably have more of a difference in sound than between the T1S/007tII. The only issue with getting a used T1S is that it may be time to replace the capacitors and (probably less likely) tubes. However, I haven't had that done that with my third hand T1S and it seems to be holding up fine so far. The legacy (non Pro) port on the T1S wouldn't really be necessary unless you are getting into real old school Stax (most/all of the models since the late eighties use the Pro port).

No experience on the Lambdas myself unfortunately but you should check out the dedicated thread to see what others think of the difference between the L300 Limited Edition and the L700 (from what I have read it seems minor). These seem to have the same driver so the differences are in the build quality and pads (L500 pads on the L300 Limited Edition) and the housing. You can put L700 pads on an L300 Limited Edition although the pads are expensive ($130ish).

Good luck, I'm also really looking into a cheaper Stax myself since I like the sound sometimes but the electrostatic sound isn't doing it for me to be my main headphone (in the places it is better it isn't that much better than some of the dynamics I have had though to be fair I have/had some great dynamics and there is a slight bit of artificial "plastic" as some describe it in some sounds that dynamics do better for the stuff I listen to and also the only instruments I have had experience with are guitars which don't sound as real on the 009S as on some of my dynamics... though piano is where the 009S probably does a bit better to get to reality).