The Stax Thread III

[Taizo]

 
Sterile in my vocabulary means somewhat thinner than neutral, both in mids and bass. The HD800 can be sterile at times. The K812 is not. The 009 is not. 
Dry for me means no extra warmth in the sound, but otherwise neutral, and may be a good thing.
My adjective ranking about tonality and the amplitudes of Fourier transform in general (or should I say harmonic composition) is something like this:
sterile < dry < neutral < musical < warm < dark.
 
The 507 is dry and ethereal, but its midbass bump and 30 Hz bump makes it out of sterile zone. However, it sounds a bit harder in the upper mids and treble than the 007 and the 009. Tonally it is closer to the 009, but it is not neutral. It has a slight coloration in the upper mids which makes the 007 more relaxed sounding. The HD800 is both more dry and more neutral than the 507, otherwise they sound very similar, although the 507 is more ethereal.

Perhaps I was incorrect in my choice of adjective. I used the word "sterile" as to mean neutral. I don't have a ranking for adjectives, I just picked the first word that came to mind. I should create a ranking as you've done for describing audio equipment.
I'm also relatively new to the whole high end headphone thing so my interpretations are based on the smaller, (and accordingly) more far-flung sample of headphones that I've owned and auditioned. I'm probably a little out of my league to be making critical statements in this thread 

 
I do appreciate your description of the 507 as being "ethereal". I sought out the 507 over the 407, et al. based on peoples' descriptions of it as being tonally similar to the 009 ("out of the sterile zone"). To my misfortune there are no Stax dealers in my location so I was out of luck as far as an audition was concerned while I was 'on the hunt.' In the end I had to choose based on folks' reviews and descriptions online to make a decision. 

 

[Jodet]

Sure would be nice if we could have a new threat dedicated to the SR-L700, 500 instead of having to wade through EVERYTHING Stax. 

 

[crazychile]

  Sure would be nice if we could have a new threat dedicated to the SR-L700, 500 instead of having to wade through EVERYTHING Stax. 

 
Done.
http://www.head-fi.org/t/785949/the-stax-sr-l500-and-sr-l700-impressions-thread

 

[Music Alchemist]

  Thats doesn't sound too good to me being I love the Grado sound-signature and they are much less expensive than the SR-009.
Well, I'm waiting for a KGSSHV to arrive so I could listen for myself.

 
You've undoubtedly read my posts about how I think electrostats sound more realistic to me than other headphone types, to the point that I've lost interest in all but a few non-electrostats.
 
The tonal balance of most Grados is much further away from neutral than other audiophile-oriented headphones, so I never gave them the time of day. I always read about some of 'em being great for rock and metal, though, so perhaps I'll try them eventually.
 
I had a feeling you'd cave in and get another amp sooner!
 

  BTW the 009 subjectively seems to have a "lit up" midrange in the 4-6 kHz region, at least compared to most headphones (well, likely the other way around, most headphones have a dip there)
 
By n3rdling's description, the L700 may hit a perfect balance.
 
I just wonder when the 009 update will come - perhaps next year? Stax definitely seems to know what they are doing, as things seem to go the right direction, and price didn't change.
Will it be called the Omega 900?

 
It's the latter.
 

 
(The graph is mislabeled, but just use the green line as your reference.)
 
Don't you mean arnaud's description?

 
If the SR-009 successor is significantly better than the original, many people (especially those who purchased the SR-009 shortly before the hypothetical update) are going to be angry. (Whereas crazy loons such as myself would be inclined to simply buy both.)
 

  Done.
http://www.head-fi.org/t/785949/the-stax-sr-l500-and-sr-l700-impressions-thread

 
I thought there was an unwritten rule: "Discuss STAX here." There aren't many other STAX threads, and I think that's for a reason.

 

[zolkis]

  Perhaps I was incorrect in my choice of adjective. I used the word "sterile" as to mean neutral. I don't have a ranking for adjectives, I just picked the first word that came to mind. I should create a ranking as you've done for describing audio equipment.
I'm also relatively new to the whole high end headphone thing so my interpretations are based on the smaller, (and accordingly) more far-flung sample of headphones that I've owned and auditioned. I'm probably a little out of my league to be making critical statements in this thread 

 
Sorry I didn't mean to be corrective or paternal with these terms, and probably my terms could be further refined, and may need corrections here and there. It's true that a lot of discussions on this forum come from different usage of words and the feeling of having to chime in with some correction, or shedding some new light on things. It's business as usual, happens everywhere. Especially with music, where one's preferred genres and live musical experiences influence a lot the taste. But sooner or later usually a consensus seems to form about things, and that is good. What amazes me, a speaker guy, is the level of involvement and spark of life on these headphone forums . Speakers sound very, very different from each other, but nowhere near I see this level of discernment as on these HP forums .

 

[joseph69]

   
You've undoubtedly read my posts about how I think electrostats sound more realistic to me than other headphone types, to the point that I've lost interest in all but a few non-electrostats.
The tonal balance of most Grados is much further away from neutral than other audiophile-oriented headphones, so I never gave them the time of day. I always read about some of 'em being great for rock and metal, though, so perhaps I'll try them eventually.
 
I had a feeling you'd cave in and get another amp sooner!

Well only time will tell how I like the stats…I personally haven't heard a HP that I prefer over Grado and I've heard/had many highly regarded HP's, but while I had them I kept reaching for my Grado's. The reason I'm getting into the stats is because I'm just looking for something different for a change, with the hope of enjoying them so much that I could down size my Grado HP's…I have too many as far as I'm concerned. "Caved in" isn't even the word! It took a little over 1-day from receiving the 009 to look for a temporary amp after saying I had no problem waiting for the BHSE and I was in no rush…yea right...I'm dying to hear the 009!!! 

 

[Music Alchemist]

Spoiler: More photos of the SR-L700

 
Is the housing plastic this time around? I know the SR-507 was metal.

 

[labrat]

 
 

 

[Music Alchemist]

  How would you know?
Have you ever touched it?
The housing of the SR-507 is plastics, not metal.
The case-holder is metal.
You have had the entry-level model , yet you throw around all your "experience" and parroting anything you find on the net, from here or anywhere!

 
I would have sworn I read that it was made of metal. So the rectangular frame is plastic while the yoke (or baffle or whatever it's called) is metal?
 
On this link:
 
http://adairacoustic.tumblr.com/post/68477245766/one-mans-journey-through-the-stax-range-part2
 
It says this:
 

The other instantly noticeable change is that the grills are now made from metal as opposed to plastic.

 

[mangler]

Thanks for sharing the pics of the L700 Music Alchemist it's been a while since I owned them, but if I recall correctly the housing of the 507 is indeed plastic.

 

[labrat]

 

[Music Alchemist]

  The housing of the SR-507 is injection molded plastics.
The grills between the sound elements and your ears are some fiber reinforced , rubberized cloth; soft to touch and very transparent.

 
Thanks for clearing that up. Not sure why people I talked to who used it said the housing was made of metal...or why that reviewer thought the same thing.

 

[labrat]

 

[AnakChan]

Actually I put on the 007A (forgot the amp driving it) very briefly and it sounded quite dark (not what I remember from my SZ3) and totally underpowered (slow).
@anakchan has spent more time checking out the noew stax gear so I think you can trust his impressions more than mine... His issue now is probably recovering from the outings with @jude, @currawong et al lol .

Arnaud

 
I'm gonna have to echo 's impressions. Tonally to me they felt more balanced than the 009s & 007s granted that each of those headphones were paired with different amps - and the way they layed out the cables too tucking it under the amp, it wasn't as simple as just unplugging it and plugging it into your desired amp and each setup rig had a seat, so it would have been intrusive to the listener next to you.
 

 
Anyway, back to the to the L700, as Arnaud had expressed about the highs, I'd like to further add on that I personally felt it had a deeper extension to the bass to and (to me) tighter than my 007Mk1' at least. To me tonally it fit between the 009s and 007s. I've never picked up a Lambda before therefore I can't say if this is the typical Lambda signature or not but I like it quite a lot.

If there was anything i'd nitpick, sonically my sentiments is the SR-series still has a slight edge over the L700 in terms of resolution but I'd probably need to be able to listen in a more controlled environment to be sure (like in the comfort of my home with my other rig). Also another nitpick would be the housing, it did feel rather plasticky & somewhat cheap. But I have no complaints about the weight of the headphone naturally.

 

[Music Alchemist]

  I'm gonna have to echo 's impressions. Tonally to me they felt more balanced than the 009s & 007s granted that each of those headphones were paired with different amps - and the way they layed out the cables too tucking it under the amp, it wasn't as simple as just unplugging it and plugging it into your desired amp and each setup rig had a seat, so it would have been intrusive to the listener next to you.
 
Anyway, back to the to the L700, as Arnaud had expressed about the highs, I'd like to further add on that I personally felt it had a deeper extension to the bass to and (to me) tighter than my 007Mk1' at least. To me tonally it fit between the 009s and 007s. I've never picked up a Lambda before therefore I can't say if this is the typical Lambda signature or not but I like it quite a lot.

If there was anything i'd nitpick, sonically my sentiments is the SR-series still has a slight edge over the L700 in terms of resolution but I'd probably need to be able to listen in a more controlled environment to be sure (like in the comfort of my home with my other rig). Also another nitpick would be the housing, it did feel rather plasticky & somewhat cheap. But I have no complaints about the weight of the headphone naturally.

 
So although the SR-L700 sounded more balanced to you than the SR-009 and SR-007 from those particular STAX amps, would you say that the SR-L700 from the STAX amp(s) sounded better to you in any way than the SR-009 and SR-007 from the best amps? (I don't recall which ones you've used.) As far as tonal balance goes, this isn't as much of an issue for me, due to the fact that a parametric equalizer will do more to achieve an accurate frequency response than anything else. I prefer to focus on aspects you can't tweak with EQ.