dogrelata
New Head-Fier
- Joined
- Oct 3, 2015
- Posts
- 28
- Likes
- 41
Hi,
I’ve been stalking Head-Fi for some months now and am neither an audiophile nor techie, so feel a bit guilty about finally joining, as I have nothing to contribute in terms of knowledge or expertise. I am a respectably good runner, though; so may be able to offer some tips in return for the advice I’m about to seek
I’m a long time Lamba Pro owner, having bought them way back in 1990. About 12 or 13 years they went out of commission and I only started using them again about 3 years ago, by which time I’d stopped listening to vinyl and become another victim of the ‘sitting at my computer with itunes shuffle running in the background’ brigade. As a non-audiophile I make no excuses for that and can say I’m enjoying listening to music as much as I ever have. To compound matters, there are no hi-res files lurking on my hard drive; only CD rips and MP3s.
I am currently running the following kit. A 10-year-old PC, Chordette Qute DAC, Ion Nexus SP1 per-amp along with X-Pak 2 power supply, SRD-X pro energizer and the Lambda pros. The SRD-X has a dodgy volume control so it is now set to full and the Nexus controls volume.
In the most part I’m really happy with the sound, listening mostly to the broad genre that is rock/indie. But I’m getting to that age where my hearing is starting to deteriorate and find that if I want to turn the volume up on occasion, ‘chasing the detail and dynamics’ on a darker, denser rock track, the sound can become too harsh, with some of the (digital?) glare I’ve read about on some posts. As a point of reference, the Nexus volume control is stepped to 30. I generally listen at around 5, maybe going as high as 8 if my ears can stand it.
Aside from the PC and itunes, I imagine the weakest link in the chain is the SRD-X. I was wondering if an SRM-323S would be worth considering. I live in the Scottish Highlands, hundreds of miles from any ‘proper’ hi-fi dealers so any purchase I decide to make will almost certainly be made ‘blind’. I should also say I have an irrational aversion to anything tube – all heat and hassle to my uninitiated mind.
I should also have mentioned I’ve never really had any issues with the frequently referred to e-stat ‘deficiencies’ – brightness and lack of bass weight. I do have a set of HD-650, which are decent phones, but for me they are no match for the Lambdas. Incidentally, I note from reading parts of this thread there doesn’t appear to be an awful lot of love for these old Lambdas, even among the ‘Stax community’, so maybe I’m easy to please in that respect
My non-techie thoughts were that the additional power offered by the 323S might eke out more detail, especially at lower listening levels with the darker/denser sounds mentioned earlier. Might that be the case?
Whilst the above is my first upgrade option, I have to ask myself if I should be spending any money at all on a pair of 25 year old cans. The alternative is to look at the Mr Speakers Ethers, which are just about affordable. If it’s not heresy to mention non-Stax, does anyone have any thoughts about these as a possible replacement?
Thanks in advance for anyone who wishes to offer any thoughts.