The Stax Thread III

[Dinan]

Sonically speaking, I had both the 007 Mk1 and Mk2 back in the later 2000s. I had the port mod on my Mk2 and actually preferred them to my Mk1 but I don't recall exactly why as that was a long time ago.

Fast forward to 2023 and I bought a new 007 Mk2 (the current 2.9 version) and absolutely love them. I have been listening to these a lot as they make it a pleasure to listen to just about any type of material while my X9000 will shine with only the best. I will venture to say that the newest Mk2 is a world apart from what I remember from 14 years ago but I do not have any of the older versions to compare. Amplification options have also come a LONG way so that accounts for much of the improvement but not all of it as I used some of the best of the day back then.

 

[Chefguru]

why is there such a big price difference between stax 007 mk1 and mk2? is there a significant difference between them?
I'm thinking about purchasing 007 because this is the most easy way to try stax omega series , but I can’t decide which 007 to buy

The mk2 was structurally modified to allow for a port that prevented the headphone from having a seal (aka Stax fart) & also improved the cable entry (which was a weak point and over time needs fixing on mk1). The issue is that the port also created a mid-bass hump to the EQ. separately, the mk2 drivers are tuned to sound more forward as Stax tweaked them to come closer to the sound of their current line up. There is more like 4 or 5 versions of the drivers;

7xxxx serial numbers mk1 - smoothest and most balance sounding
Sz1 serial number mk1 - structurally the same but more forward sounding drivers

Sz2 early mk2 - new structure to pad hook and port
Sz2 late mk2 - worst of the group by most opinion , “mk2.5”
Sz3 , modern mk2 - improvement from earlier mk2s, sound closer to sz1

Birgir from Mjolnir Audio created a mod where you can fill the port with blu tack and it works to cancel some of the changes between mk1/mk2, but you can not completely make them sound the same because of the driver tuning differences.

The newest 007mk2 after the port mod is a very good headphone and more reliable than the mk1 - so unless you’re going to hunt down a very old and rare 7xxxx (like I am currently !) which could die on you, it’s probably not worth it.

As other have said here, the 007 is very difficult to drive headphone - so while the upfront cost of the headphone is seemingly affordable, they require at minimum a KGSSHV and really need a carbon , GG , Megatron or T2 to sound competitive to their omega series brethren.

 

[rizena]

This is Spritzer's Woo audio 3es review.

link

I'm speechless. It's a 14k amplifier..

 

[buzzlulu]

When I started my Stax journey 6 years ago I skimmed Headcase and followed some of the Woo "love" over there. I vowed never to consider their amplifiers. My wallet, and my home owners insurance company, are both happy

 

[paradoxper]

This is Spritzer's Woo audio 3es review.

It's even more terrible than I would imagine and embarrassing for the price.

 

[mulveling]

So basically, anyone who wants the 3ES amp should instead buy a Manley NeoClassic 300B plus a D10 - then they'll get a great dynamic amp, preamp, AND portable ability out of the bargain too? Maybe just splurge and add a 400S for upgraded home use too

 

[kevin gilmore]

the manley is not balanced, but otherwise exactly correct. and the d10 has less voltage swing than the 3es.
can save a bunch of money and build it yourself.
https://www.transcendentsound.com/masterpiece.html $699 plus tubes + chinese d10 clone

evidently a 6sn7 driving a 300b as a cathode follower is a thing now.
same as a singlepower extreme with a much more expensive output tube.

 

[Chefguru]

Technically this might be considered felony level consumer fraud given the monetary amount.

 

[bigjako]

I know some of you here are on the lookout for a NB Lambda, and here's a smoking deal considering it comes with a SRD-7SB: https://www.usaudiomart.com/details/649947252-stax-sr-lambda-headphones-with-srd-7sb-adapter/

I would be all over it, but I have 2 NB's already. They're a special ear speaker.

 

[Chefguru]

I know some of you here are on the lookout for a NB Lambda, and here's a smoking deal considering it comes with a SRD-7SB: https://www.usaudiomart.com/details/649947252-stax-sr-lambda-headphones-with-srd-7sb-adapter/

I would be all over it, but I have 2 NB's already. They're a special ear speaker.

I bought them

 

[Ciggavelli]

Full disclosure, I have a 3ES Elite. I don’t know enough about engineering to understand that review, but there was no mention of how it sounded.

 

[Chefguru]

Full disclosure, I have a 3ES Elite. I don’t know enough about engineering to understand that review, but there was no mention of how it sounded.

let’s pretend… the two most highly regarded experts in the industry … tell you that your amp is actually the lowest tier Stax amp plugged into a pre-amp - wouldn’t you want some kind of refund from the company that sold it to you as a world beater for 14x the price inside a fancy facade ?

 

[ESL-1]

I know some of you here are on the lookout for a NB Lambda, and here's a smoking deal considering it comes with a SRD-7SB: https://www.usaudiomart.com/details/649947252-stax-sr-lambda-headphones-with-srd-7sb-adapter/

I would be all over it, but I have 2 NB's already. They're a special ear speaker.

Totally agree with Big Jake. I have a dozen Stax electrostatic phones and last night I played first my “New SR3” (New is part of the model name) which happens to be the oldest Stax vintage headphone in my collection. I stayed with that for two hours followed by two hours of continued bliss with the SR-Lambda. Great natural sound from both of these oldies. They are as is the low bias SR-X mk3 classic near ancient but deliver great reality, not high fidelity.

SPOILER ALERT: you risk never going back.

 

[rizena]

전체 공개, 3ES Elite가 있습니다. 나는 그 리뷰를 이해할 만큼 공학에 대해 충분히 알지 못하지만, 그것이 어떻게 들렸는지에 대한 언급은 없었다.

You're using an electrostatic energizer for wa33. It's 14k.

 

[SolarCetacean]

Regarding the 3ES, I found this on the Woo Audio webpage for it.

The 3ES employs two 6SN7 driver tubes pushing four 300B power tubes as the output stage and one rectifier tube in the center of the amp.

I'm not that familiar with the nitty-gritty of amp design, but when I read that statement, I thought it meant that the 300B tubes were the output stage to the headphones. In reality, it seems to be just the output of the pre-amplifier. I would be sorely disappointed if I had bought a $9K amp (the blinged-out edition is $14K) from a shop specializing in tube gear thinking it used 300Bs to directly drive the headphones when in fact it was only working as the pre-amp. I think the wording is ambiguous enough that it verges on misleading advertising.

Is there a way to drive both electrostatic headphones and a pre-amp from 300Bs? I can kind of see why this sort of architecture was used, as the 3ES has pre-amp outputs, not just loop outputs, and Woo probably wanted both the headphones and the pre-amp to go through the 300Bs. If the tubes were directly used for output, the pre-amp would basically be in parallel with the headphone output and would probably need a transformer of some sort. Or have two sets of tubes, one set for the pre-amp (as it is now), and that feeds a separate headphone output stage with its own complement of tubes (300B, EL34, or whatever).

Full disclosure, I have a 3ES Elite. I don’t know enough about engineering to understand that review, but there was no mention of how it sounded.

In your opinion, regardless of any technical merits or demerits, how does it sound?