[gammi]

Also glad to see continued investment in entry level and/or affordable models. Every release skewing towards TOTL just artificially inflates prices further and reduces access to more people.

Yeah, very cool we have a new cheap model to introduce people into the hobby with. This plus their new portable amp might be a fun combo for newbies.

 

[Andrew Seeley]

To those interested in a nice family photo... 009S chosen over 009 for coloration matching.

..Nice avatar photo... but can use a black background. And some speedlight, maybe two at 45°, for a good shining finish.

For color 009 included as well.

Never selling opened sets of headphones. To anyone who wondered... these are my personal use 009\S. 007 never opened. Maneana, Just doing port mod, more.

Also,
Pretty happy with 007, sleeper for sure. They're all good. My favorite Lambda is the Lambda Sig. Followed by NB Lambda, which are pretty close to similar-ish.

The sig and the 007 counterpoint well for those on a buyers budget. Finding the signature isn't easy though. The signature is a mastering tool. I view it as a headphone without more than the barest sprinkling of character, and it's more of a natural "window-" a view into the playback. I love the signature's presentation of the compositioned-compelling sound of prescence, and stage placement.

The funnest Lambda sound overall is the Nova LE, but uses the large hole stator design, so doesn't sound so good to my ears in terms of detail retrieval, or detail presentation. But if you ever find a Nova LE it is certainly worth the appealing things that it can do. Unfortunately they are usually expensive. It does a bass presentation like no lambda aside. 207 is a nice Lambda. They're all alright.

Not heard 404 le, l300le, or l700/l500. Or the new mkII Lambdas

Do have a nice NB Lambda that's available if somebody's seeking the Original. For me the signature is a poor man's 009S. They sound pretty much identical... with advantage to the 009S.

 

[Kiats]

The funnest Lambda sound overall is the Nova LE, but uses the large hole stator design, so doesn't sound so good to my ears in terms of detail retrieval, or detail presentation. But if you ever find a Nova LE it is certainly worth the appealing things that it can do. Unfortunately they are usually expensive. It does a bass presentation like no lambda aside. 207 is a nice Lambda. They're all alright.

As a matter of curiosity, which model is the Nova LE?

 

[dynavit]

Hi Mike,
funny to see my Signature on a picture from an other continent. We had more luck with sending that long way. A 404 is on the way back to me from Spain - problems with post.
So wish you a lot of fun
Tom
P.s.: Love the Nova Signature. Relaxed, balanced sound with big stage. Looking for an origina arch, because mine is brocken right in the middle.

 

[Andrew Seeley]

You have great ears and an even better mind for the hobby Tom, thanks so much for the signature and opinions about the 007 differences and your experiences with the Stax lineup. Sig is the poor man's perfectly portable-friendly 009S in my opinion, due to its carefree (comparative) pricetag. I do deeply appreciate everything Lambda Signature. Thank you very much for sending it through Dmitri! This is the best sig a man can and could ask for.

I think the Nova Signature (I thought it was an LE that I had) is the best of the open stator lambdas by many measured distances. Mine came from a collector in Russia. BiG(gest, comfortable) Lambda pads Stax ever put on a Lambda too. What a lovely sound from the Nova Signature, (I thought it was a Nova Signature LTD/LE. It has been a few years since I had mine, but it is unique, like the signature was until the 009S basically copied the Lambda Signature "Note for Note".

The NB Lambda was indeed a Milestone. I had bad luck finding a pair with good channel balance, due to purchasing such an old 'stat through eBay, so had four at the same time once... to find a great pair, which is now finally up for sale. I limit myself to 3 electrostatic headphones to be kept at a time. For the time being.

Too bad about Post issues with the 404 transaction. I wish you best and thanks for telling me about the Austrian Audio Composer.

ps the first lovely and masterful Lambda Signature drivers finally failed. It's good to be reunited with a sig in such pristine condition.

....
About Color, again...
The Lambda sig has a fairly classy color and the Nova Signature has a BEAUTIFUL color that has to be held and seen to be truly appreciated. Stax nailed the color scheme of the whole Nova Signature (or LTD, i forget if that was the model) definitely the most fun of the lambdas. If you ever want to part with one let me know.
I can probably justify keeping that one in the closet, because it had a cheer-up sort of vibe to it's presentation of it's entire spectrum.

In truth, I don't think I could justify it. But I would enjoy listening to the Nova Sig (or ltd, forgetting) every once in a while.

I would love to purchase a Nova Sig and transplant diaphragm, the electrodes with a 207 electrode. Whatever produced diaphragm material was selected for the Nova Sig, it has a truly magical quality of its own character. If I could pull more detail from that Select Nova Sig diaphragm material that would be fun.

 

[rickles]

I must say, the Shangri-La Sr + T2 + 1975 Reflektor + Philips XF3 is <chef's kiss>

The transparency, and depth added by the Reflektors is almost silly. I'm genuinely amazed by these things. I handed the headphones to my wife, and she literally made a surprised face, and closed her eyes. Afterward she said "Wow.... What did you change? I cannot believe this is the same setup." When I said I installed four tubes that I ordered directly from Russia she then looked at me like I was a crazy person, and couldn't believe that was it.

So........ For those of you that have a T2, spend the money from a legit seller on the 1975 Reflektors. Yes, they are probably somehow underrated, which god knows how that's possible.

@number1sixerfan @georgep

 

[omega1990]

Apparently there is a new entry level stax headphone that uses a circular shape. Found it in this other thread.

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/headphone-festival-mini-2024-winter-at-tokyo-japan.971715/

STAX exhibited its new entry-level model SR-X1. The price is yet to be determined, but it is likely to be around 100,000 yen for the combination with electrostatic drivers . The traditional small circular ear speaker is said to have been reconstructed with a modern design concept.
The driver is a newly designed medium-sized circular unit, which is not only smaller in size, but also has minimized the joints between parts in pursuit of accurate sound.
This is fairly lightweight and easy to use. The sound quality had a old STAXish goodness in the mid-high range, but the overall sound was subdued.

Called the sr-x1. Haven't seen stax make something like this in decades since the circular shaped stax are typically flagship series headphones these days. I think it looks pretty cool! Might just buy it and try it out when it gets released.

Edit: just realized there was a post of this on the previous page. Still excited for it though!

 

[Schelp san]

I must say, the Shangri-La Sr + T2 + 1975 Reflektor + Philips XF3 is <chef's kiss>

The transparency, and depth added by the Reflektors is almost silly. I'm genuinely amazed by these things. I handed the headphones to my wife, and she literally made a surprised face, and closed her eyes. Afterward she said "Wow.... What did you change? I cannot believe this is the same setup." When I said I installed four tubes that I ordered directly from Russia she then looked at me like I was a crazy person, and couldn't believe that was it.

So........ For those of you that have a T2, spend the money from a legit seller on the 1975 Reflektors. Yes, they are probably somehow underrated, which god knows how that's possible.

@number1sixerfan @georgep

I experienced the same huge 3D like stage on T2 with the 1974 Reflektors, these are indeed special. My '74s are trading some dynamics/engagement though, respective are on the softer side. Which input tubes did you use before the Reflektors?
I still enjoy rolling the input side, received NOS Valvo E188CC today

 

[rickles]

I experienced the same huge 3D like stage on T2 with the 1974 Reflektors, these are indeed special. My '74s are trading some dynamics/engagement though, respective are on the softer side. Which input tubes did you use before the Reflektors?
I still enjoy rolling the input side, received NOS Valvo E188CC today

That's interesting! I find the '75s to sound dynamic, and the soundstage, transparency, and focus is just ridiculous. It's not subtle at all. That said, I *really* do not understand the physics of this. How is it that the reflektors can have such a massive soundstage relative to say the CCa? I would think that tubes just need to be "in spec" to do their job. <shrugs>

Tubes used:

Siemens CCa 1965
Siemens E88CC "A frame"
Telefunken PCC88
Matsushita PCC88

 

[Schelp san]

That's interesting! I find the '75s to sound dynamic, and the soundstage, transparency, and focus is just ridiculous. It's not subtle at all. That said, I *really* do not understand the physics of this. How is it that the reflektors can have such a massive soundstage relative to say the CCa? I would think that tubes just need to be "in spec" to do their job. <shrugs>

Tubes used:

Siemens CCa 1965
Siemens E88CC "A frame"
Telefunken PCC88
Matsushita PCC88

My Siemens CCa grey shield sound indeed much more dynamic with tighter bass and better treble extension compared to the '74 Reflektors silver shields. Stage is very precise with the Siemens, but not as 3D and huge than with the Reflektors. As much as I like the Reflektors, but in most cases the CCa are the ones for me in my system.
Maybe there is really a bigger difference between the 74 and 75 Reflektors. My 74s are a NOS matched quartett and were measured with a tube tracer. They showed very equal measurements, but measured weaker compared to NOS Valvos or NOS JAN Philips. We had 2 more of NOS 74 quartetts, and all sounded very similar.
Btw., first impression of the Valvo E188CC (Heerlen) is very good, a bit like my Valvo E88CC (Heerlen) on steroids and a good complement to the CCa.

Here is a link to an article about tube rolling. This guy claims that the reason for different sound signature of tubes cannot be found with measuring static signals only, considering transient signal behaviour (what music of course is) would make the difference (beside fulfilling datasheet specs). I found this very interesting.

https://medialux.blog/2021/02/22/tube-rolling-the-big-mystery-part-1/

 

[Mach3]

That's interesting! I find the '75s to sound dynamic, and the soundstage, transparency, and focus is just ridiculous. It's not subtle at all. That said, I *really* do not understand the physics of this. How is it that the reflektors can have such a massive soundstage relative to say the CCa? I would think that tubes just need to be "in spec" to do their job. <shrugs>

Tubes used:

Siemens CCa 1965
Siemens E88CC "A frame"
Telefunken PCC88
Matsushita PCC88

Where can I purchase the 75 reflektors from a reputable seller?

 

[Schelp san]

Usually Ucrainian dealers are selling these. Shipping works surprisingly good. I can forward you a contact of the guy who sold me my Reflektors. I had to pay after a received and tested the tubes with the option to return them. But not sure if he has these in stock right now.
I'm tempted to try the '75s myself now

 

[Mach3]

Yes please doesn't hurt to ask.

 

[tjlindle]

Does anyone here have impressions of the 4070 and can compare it specifically to the 007 and 009?

The sig and the 007 counterpoint well for those on a buyers budget. Finding the signature isn't easy though. The signature is a mastering tool. I view it as a headphone without more than the barest sprinkling of character, and it's more of a natural "window-" a view into the playback. I love the signature's presentation of the compositioned-compelling sound of prescence, and stage placement.

The funnest Lambda sound overall is the Nova LE, but uses the large hole stator design, so doesn't sound so good to my ears in terms of detail retrieval, or detail presentation. But if you ever find a Nova LE it is certainly worth the appealing things that it can do. Unfortunately they are usually expensive. It does a bass presentation like no lambda aside. 207 is a nice Lambda. They're all alright.

I have noticed the Sig and especially the Nova Signature are rapidly becoming two of the hardest Lambda models to find. I will probably pick up the next good condition LNS I see just for that reason.

The Nova Classic are about equivalent to the Nova Sigs but sometimes I feel like the Classics are actually harder to find for whatever reason...lol.

Insightful post overall, but the bolded part I wanted to emphasize. At least for me, across the board the tradeoffs almost always exist when talking about more analytical/brighter headphones in comparison to warmer headphones. Each have their own correlated strengths, but as a headphone is tuned in either direction, there becomes clear tradeoffs that some won't mind and others will solely based on preference. It's annoying really, as it would be amazing if one headphone could check every single box, but I keep each kinds of these headphones to complement each other specifically for this reason. I'd never be a single headphone type of person just based on my own preferences of having contrast available.

Agreed, in all my headphone listening, that dichotomy remains undefeated...still holding out hope that maybe the original Omega is the unicorn that will manage it...

 

[oneguy]

@tjlindle The Nova Classic has been my unicorn. I’ve seen the Nova Signature more than the Classic.

Sigma mk2’s are up there as well.