[aokman]

Tuning anyone out is a useless baseless immature attitude.
That is one of the worst habit, a human trait a person can have! Period.

I seen, read and heard a person with a HE1, Hifiman SR, and top tier gear say some of the most amateur schiit ever. Absolute newbs, with expensive items.

if you disagree, just call them out and debate in a civil way.

If you didn’t tune people out, you would literally buy nothing in the estat market. Everyone is contradicting each other, claiming one amp is better than another and most of the conclusions are subjective opinions that just go around in circles. About the only agreements that seem to be reached are around the 007s etc…

It’s one of the reasons I see so many avoid buying into estats, because everyone claims unless you buy a BHSE or the like, you’ve failed before you even got started with all the elitist garbage.

Try gear with your own ears and get what works for you. I’m glad I got started with the humble SRM-1 despite everyones claims it wasn’t worth even considering…

 

[KDS315]

Catharsis I guess just happens here. It was long overdue…

 

[number1sixerfan]

If you didn’t tune people out, you would literally buy nothing in the estat market. Everyone is contradicting each other, claiming one amp is better than another and most of the conclusions are subjective opinions that just go around in circles. About the only agreements that seem to be reached are around the 007s etc…

It’s one of the reasons I see so many avoid buying into estats, because everyone claims unless you buy a BHSE or the like, you’ve failed before you even got started with all the elitist garbage.

Try gear with your own ears and get what works for you. I’m glad I got started with the humble SRM-1 despite everyones claims it wasn’t worth even considering…

Start your journey where you need to. We all have. And the contradictory aspect is just normal for such a subjective hobby.

But often, experienced people are sharing more direct feedback about what works best because they've seen the majority of people give up on stats entirely, prematurely, because they're using gear that doesn't best power/support it.

I enjoyed the HE60 out of the HEV70 and other stats with cheaper stax amps from the very (my) beginning. But stats are just harder to power and that's a fact. It just is what it is. Try not to take it so personal and be open to improvements you'll see along the way when trying more capable amps.

 

[aokman]

Start your journey where you need to. We all have. And the contradictory aspect is just normal for such a subjective hobby.

But often, experienced people are sharing more direct feedback about what works best because they've seen the majority of people give up on stats entirely, prematurely, because they're using gear that doesn't best power/support it.

I enjoyed the HE60 out of the HEV70 and other stats with cheaper stax amps from the very (my) beginning. But stats are just harder to power and that's a fact. It just is what it is. Try not to take it so personal and be open to improvements you'll see along the way when trying more capable amps.

I don’t take it personally, just sad to see this market segment stagnated so much with the fallacy you need to spend stupid money to get started when more people should experience this stuff.

Don’t get me wrong I really really appreciate everyones experience who have been doing this for a long time but I think it just needs to be taken down a couple notches and reflect on people wanting to try estats without spending 6k on an amplifier

For me, transformers are my end game I think anyways, I could not hear any deficiencies over high end direct drive amps with the Lundahls but I shall continue my testing and refining.

 

[gammi]

Anyone have any experience under/overdriving bias on the X9000? Thinking of making bias adjustable on my transformer box.
Curious what effects you all have seen.

 

[protoss]

Stax really need to change up their game and start releasing more efficient headphones. Not only start but permanently having all their gear efficient for the modern world.

Stax 007MK3 (super efficient version)
Stax 009SMK2 (super efficient version)
Stax X9000MK2 (super efficient version)
Stax L700MK3 (super efficient version)

edited: *(Audeze LCD4Z, revamp the whole line up like the 4z).

I will quote myself. Got some hidden gems everywhere.

No one really needs high end amplifiers. I blame the amateur rich person who steers the conversation towards 10K amplifiers. And other amateurs gets excited and thinks these expensive gear are truth and must be superior. Lies. Less than 2K beautiful flavorful amps can be had.

717
313
T1W
SRD-7
T1S cc mod
727 cc mod
007T cc mod
006II cc mod

For headphones,

L700, 009 and 007 are all equal. They are all unique, equal and good. The 009 is not better than L700. It's all just flavors.

 

[number1sixerfan]

I don’t take it personally, just sad to see this market segment stagnated so much with the fallacy you need to spend stupid money to get started when more people should experience this stuff.

Don’t get me wrong I really really appreciate everyones experience who have been doing this for a long time but I think it just needs to be taken down a couple notches and reflect on people wanting to try estats without spending 6k on an amplifier

For me, transformers are my end game I think anyways, I could not hear any deficiencies over high end direct drive amps with the Lundahls but I shall continue my testing and refining.

My point was, it's equally if not more stagnated by people underwhelmed by hearing headphones on lesser chains. It's a balance between those two perspectives. We also have to keep in mind that stats in general are a niche market, and will never be as adopted as a market segment as non-stats.

But, I actually totally hear you and know that it gets a bit too overly critical on the other end of things. I also think a good transformer is absolutely viable, you don't need a familiar brand name amp or chain solution, rather something that's going to drive them properly. You're clearly open to continuing to test, try and refine things, which is really cool. Good luck!

 

[aokman]

Anyone have any experience under/overdriving bias on the X9000? Thinking of making bias adjustable on my transformer box.
Curious what effects you all have seen.

I drove my custom bias setup to 630v so far and the volume got louder and I suspect dynamic range increased. That is on relatively affordable L700mk2’s though. I would be quite scared to screw with X9000s except maybe for a brief period lol.

I can push the current DC-DC bias setup to 700v if I remove all the safeties.

That said I tried asking Dan Clark about bias on his but never got an answer as I doubt every estat performs at its peak at 580v bang on but just because thats what the standardised bias happens to be…

 

[oneguy]

My first love was the L700/007tA combo. Bought it for $1800 back in 2017 and rocked it for a good while. You can be happy without spending a truckload.

 

[mulveling]

I think it would help a lot to uniformly promote Lambdas as the best entry point to Stax. And sometimes, the final destination too. This eases the amp requirements - not completely, but by a whole lot. Even though 009 are just as sensitive as Lambdas, they don't seem to get on as well with cheap amps; their overall balance is not generally palatable until you get to the really good stuff.

Guys who are coming from 2K+ dynamics & planars will be inclined to jump right into the "best" 'stats, and will quite often choose 007 over the (admittedly) cheap plasticky looking Lambdas. But man, that 007 is going to be a bad time with most amps for most listeners. We gotta stop pushing 007 and 009 etc to newbies lol. The only problem with Lambdas is the confusion over models produced over the decades. There are "bright" lambdas and warm ones. Fortunately the current L series is fantastic!

Maybe a better, modern transformer box (as per @aokman ) is also another vector to open up this world of 'stats to the greater market. I'd like to see that. I have some great speaker amps lying around, and I've wondered how they would sound with a proper step-up. I'm not clear on whether tube amps are discouraged for this (a step down transformer driving a step up transformer) but I also have a nice Danish (Phison) Solid State amp that should be great.

I think it's pretty clear Topping / China is not going to solve the "cheap, giant killer stat amp" problem for us anytime soon

 

[protoss]

it would help a lot to uniformly promote Lambdas as the best entry point to Stax. And sometimes, the final destination too.

Totally agree

 

[aokman]

I think it would help a lot to uniformly promote Lambdas as the best entry point to Stax. And sometimes, the final destination too. This eases the amp requirements - not completely, but by a whole lot. Even though 009 are just as sensitive as Lambdas, they don't seem to get on as well with cheap amps; their overall balance is not generally palatable until you get to the really good stuff.

Guys who are coming from 2K+ dynamics & planars will be inclined to jump right into the "best" 'stats, and will quite often choose 007 over the (admittedly) cheap plasticky looking Lambdas. But man, that 007 is going to be a bad time with most amps for most listeners. We gotta stop pushing 007 and 009 etc to newbies lol. The only problem with Lambdas is the confusion over models produced over the decades. There are "bright" lambdas and warm ones. Fortunately the current L series is fantastic!

Maybe a better, modern transformer box (as per @aokman ) is also another vector to open up this world of 'stats to the greater market. I'd like to see that. I have some great speaker amps lying around, and I've wondered how they would sound with a proper step-up. I'm not clear on whether tube amps are discouraged for this (a step down transformer driving a step up transformer) but I also have a nice Danish (Phison) Solid State amp that should be great.

I think it's pretty clear Topping / China is not going to solve the "cheap, giant killer stat amp" problem for us anytime soon

I purposely dropped in a tube amp on the comparison earlier in the thread, the Encel CSM-40 is an 18wpc EL84 based tube amp. Compared to solid state on a graph, it’s pretty garbage to be honest if you are focusing on boring neutral sound signature.

That said I think most tube amps would be similar due to the limited bandwidth of their OT transformers. A lot of people don’t realise “tube sound” isn’t the tubes themselves or at least a combination of many factors…

All that said, I enjoy using it still, it washes over the sound signature and chills everything out but the noise floor of old amps really comes out in estats. I’m working on converting the Encel CSM-40 to DC based tube heaters to bring down the background noise and changing some coupling caps.

From what I saw in the FR, any decent 60wpc solid state will perform basically identical on the Lundahls and the Luxman amps I have are tube / MOSFET hybrids. The exception to this is the Topping LA90s class leading noise floor which creates so much darkness to the background. Im working on testing a 33kg Sansui soon though which is the best of the best stereo amps. Not expecting anything though.

 

[simmconn]

The tube amp needs to be properly loaded when driving an estat thru a step-up transformer. Consider a dummy load resistor. Also the output level alone is less meaningful without being associated with certain distortion limit, say 0.01% for estat. And good luck doing the sweep with your 334A

 

[aokman]

The tube amp needs to be properly loaded when driving an estat thru a step-up transformer. Consider a dummy load resistor. Also the output level alone is less meaningful without being associated with certain distortion limit, say 0.01% for estat. And good luck doing the sweep with your 334A

Was already loaded with an 8 ohm after trying a few options. The 334A is mostly for my amplifier restorations though I will try a few random things with it.

Vintage tube amps aren’t clean enough anyway for the analytical estat experience. Noise floor, tube rush etc ruin the experience.

 

[timb5881]

I can tell you this, I use a SRD-7 Pro. I currently have 2 amps I use with it. A Cary Rocket 88 and an Aragon 8008. The Aragon has tighter bass while the Cary has great bass extension just not as tight. The tubes offer great detail as does the Aragon. It is the midrange where they differ if you will, the tubes adding that golden glow.