[svyr]

Going to receive a pair of SR-404 Signature soon, with SRM-300. Last time in Japan, I listened to the SR-404LE through a SRM-727 and totally loved it. Any majar difference from 404 Sig to 404 LE, save the earpads, colour and cables. I can't excately afford a 727/717 right away, any noticeable upgrades for the SRM-300 or leave it as it is? One more thing, I heard many of you have taken that foam on the back off, will dust and other stuff be a problem?

leave the foam on (bright enough as is + protect drivers from dust).
You can ask spritzer about the 404 vs LE, but I think the drivers are different as well. (the sound is more neutral, with better bass extension. 404 is 'a bit crazy' but still enjoyable for a lot of people.)
Get an SRM-1/mk2. It's relatively affordable, and that's what I went up to from SMR-300 that was relatively underpowered for my liking.

IIRC, it is actually your old set. :rolleyes:

Thinking of getting some 507/404LE earpads for them first. From my experience, changing earpads can greatly affect the sound, AD1000PRM/AD2000 difference and a few more.

It is. (upgraded the amp to SRM-1mk2 then Transistorampv3, and HP to 507, hence sold the 300/404)
It took a while to adjust to the 507 sound after 404. I found it too dark for a couple of weeks, even 2 months or so. (but 404 was bright enough to use with a NOS DAC and was fairly unbearable on DAC1/ D100 )

Pads certainly seem to alter the sound significantly. More so than cables and have actual 'wear-in'

 

[jaycalgary]

I am pretty shocked to hear that the 507's are dark now. It did not seem like there were lots of reviews on here. Something like hearing that they are dark compared to 404's and taking months to adjust?
Does everything have to get sugar coated for the 1st year? Seems like the same thing with the 009.

 

[svyr]

I am pretty shocked to hear that the 507's are dark now. It did not seem like there were lots of reviews on here. Something like hearing that they are dark compared to 404's and taking months to adjust?
Does everything have to get sugar coated for the 1st year? Seems like the same thing with the 009.

I think after a year of SR-404 and EX700 I needed some serious bright HP rehab

 

[arnaud]

Quote:

Does everything have to get sugar coated for the 1st year? Seems like the same thing with the 009.

 
Not sure how you could get to this conclusion about the 009? As far as I can read, absolutely all the impressions posted to date, including my early ones have been saying the exact same thing (brighter than Omega 2, improved soundstage, not as friendly toward average recordings, and so on...). What has happened since the early impressions is that a few more people had their hands on it and could use their own system as reference / sample a much larger library which made the characteristics of the headphone the more clear. However, nothing has fundamentally changed from the release impressions. Else, please correct me, I may have missed some posts!
 
arnaud 
 

 

[spritzer]

Quote:

so YOURE the one who destroyed all those beautiful gamma pros!?   
 


 

Yup, quite a few of them too.  Plenty of Alpha units as well and some extremely rare Alpha Pro Excellent's. 


Quote:

I am pretty shocked to hear that the 507's are dark now. It did not seem like there were lots of reviews on here. Something like hearing that they are dark compared to 404's and taking months to adjust?
Does everything have to get sugar coated for the 1st year? Seems like the same thing with the 009.

I would never call the 507 dark...  very, very bright is more like it...
 

 

[jaycalgary]

Very confused that that the 507's could be called dark compared to 404's and could take months to adjust. I will find out soon enough though I have a pair of 407's in the mail.
It's been about 3 months so far though. Sent then sent back then sent to one address and sent from there to my address. To top it all off they were scheduled to be delivered
today but Canada Post is on strike.  I was hoping to have them for a Calgary meet this weekend but that is looking unlikely. I am am going to bring the homemade sigmas and
hopefully get an opinion from others how they sound.  They have so much more space between instruments and depth compared to my lambda signatures from what I can tell.
I think some will find it interesting to hear because I suspect that most have not heard anything even similar in a headphone. They are not insulated the same as sigmas. I had
insulated the same for a period of time but as soon as I change the shape to like a hump then open in the back it does wow me.

 

[svyr]

Yup, quite a few of them too.  Plenty of Alpha units as well and some extremely rare Alpha Pro Excellent's. 



I would never call the 507 dark...  very, very bright is more like it...
 

compared to LCD-2 maybe, but not 404

 

[Jodet]

I have a question about hooking up my 323S amp.    Since the 323S has it's own volume control, can I feed it with a fixed 'line out' from, say a Peachtree iNova?   Or would that not offer enough gain?  
 
I'm running it now off the pre-out from a dac, which is obviously a variable output.
 
Thanks for any comments.  
 
 
PS:  Yes, I know the iNova has a variable pre-out, but that will be used with a sub.  And I don't want to do the goofy y-adapter thing.   I've never had happy results with splitting a pre-amp signal.  
 
 
 

 

[HeadphoneAddict]

My son likes my APS V3 cabled HD600 with his Millett SSH amp, so I traded them for his LNS and I'm really happy with them.  I'm pretty sure I prefer the Lambda Nova Signature over my previous Lambda Pro and Lambda Signature that I sold a while back, being the closest to what I recall my old 404LE sounding like (also gone).  I thought that my old Lambda Pro had recessed mids, and the Signature were too bright with some upper midrange etch, but the LNS seem to be just right in that regard (closer to the normal bias Lambda).  
 
They are a bit more forward sounding than the O2, with a smaller and more intimate soundstage, but out of the WES the bass may actually be more balanced and snappier than my O2 (and stronger than the bass from my normal bias Lambda).  I haven't had time to compare to my HE-60 or Smegma Pro yet (woodied Gamma Pro).  With my eXStatA amp the LNS sound a bit dull, bland and lifeless, even though that amp does a nice job with my SR-5 Gold, SR-Lambda and SR-003.  So, I'm going to leave the LNS down in the basement rig to use only with the WES because it just has a lot better synergy in that rig. 
 
Has anyone compared the LNS directly to the 404LE or the newer 407/507 models?  Out of curiosity, what would you say the similarities and differences are (and with what amp)?

 

[EddieE]

Has anyone who owned or still owns the 404LE and also owns a 404 tried putting the leather Lambda pads on them and compared?

 

[ACDOAN]

I need some help from head-fi veterans. I am fairly new here at headphones. My journey with head-fi has been quite a good learning experience. As a result. I have my fair share of cans collection. The variety of my collection provides me a tremendous pleasure from a low end cans to a mid-end cans. I use them for different occasions and at different time/ moods and mostly with different genre of music.
 
To make it short, I have been a die hard fan of the old school Martin Logan. My fav are the SL3 and the Aerius I. I am looking for a similar type of sound in a pair of headphone. I have owned Plannar/ribbon but the Electrostatic ML suit my ear the most.
 
Would the Electrostatic Stax Omega give me the fast transient, deep tight bass, deep soundstage as with the ML?
Will the Orthos ( Hifiman, Audeze consider as same as the sound signature of the Appogee, Magnapans which is slow and less attack?
 
I do not need a be-all end all cans but the journey has led me to this point. I need to be enlightned.

 

[dukja]

Those who are interested in the new Lambda's SQ such as 407 may want to read some impression at HE-6 thread.  I think it is very interesting and well said.
 
http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/493214/hifiman-he-6-planar-magnetic-headphone/3870#post_7542973

 

[Michgelsen]

Yes, it's best to use a fixed line output. A line output is fixed at the maximum and will therefore provide maximum gain and maximum (thus optimal) S/N ratio. If you find the gain too high, you can always switch back to the variable output.
 
Quote:

I have a question about hooking up my 323S amp.    Since the 323S has it's own volume control, can I feed it with a fixed 'line out' from, say a Peachtree iNova?   Or would that not offer enough gain?  
 
I'm running it now off the pre-out from a dac, which is obviously a variable output.
 
Thanks for any comments.  
 
 
PS:  Yes, I know the iNova has a variable pre-out, but that will be used with a sub.  And I don't want to do the goofy y-adapter thing.   I've never had happy results with splitting a pre-amp signal.  
 
 
 

 

 

[edstrelow]

Quote:

Going to receive a pair of SR-404 Signature soon, with SRM-300. Last time in Japan, I listened to the SR-404LE through a SRM-727 and totally loved it. Any majar difference from 404 Sig to 404 LE, save the earpads, colour and cables. I can't excately afford a 727/717 right away, any noticeable upgrades for the SRM-300 or leave it as it is? One more thing, I heard many of you have taken that foam on the back off, will dust and other stuff be a problem?

 


Quote:

The 404LE is generally preferred to the 404 and I'd leave the foam in but you can always try it both ways.  Enjoy the new rig!

 


Quote:

Quote:

Going to receive a pair of SR-404 Signature soon, with SRM-300. Last time in Japan, I listened to the SR-404LE through a SRM-727 and totally loved it. Any majar difference from 404 Sig to 404 LE, save the earpads, colour and cables. I can't excately afford a 727/717 right away, any noticeable upgrades for the SRM-300 or leave it as it is? One more thing, I heard many of you have taken that foam on the back off, will dust and other stuff be a problem?

leave the foam on (bright enough as is + protect drivers from dust, or rather small lose objects entering the earcup).
You can ask spritzer about the 404 vs LE, but I think the drivers are different as well. (the sound is more neutral, with better bass extension. 404 is 'a bit crazy'

but still enjoyable for a lot of people.)
Get an SRM-1/mk2. It's relatively affordable, and that's what I went up to from SMR-300 that was relatively underpowered for my liking.

I am one of the proponents of removing the back foam from the Lambdas and have done so on my LNS and 404.  This does not make the phones brighter in my opion but rather gets rid of some the squawky upper mid-range/lower treble sound.  As well there is an expansion of the sound stage. 
 
I came to this conclusion after I  replaced the foam in my LNS foam obtained from the dealer.  I found that I couldn't stand the  sound compared to what I had been hearing  with no or deteriorated foam backing, so I yanked it out.  My guess is that the replacement foam was less acoustically transparent than the original, so there could be some sweet spot with the use of backing.
 
At any rate it is not hard to remove the foam on the old Lambdas, just peel back the earpads at the corners unscrew the baffle, pull it out a bit and pull the foam off.  I am not sure about the xx7 series.  If the sound doesn't work for you, put it back.  
 

 

[jaycalgary]

I was just looking on ebay for Stax  stuff just for the fun of it when I saw another Srm-1/Mrk-2. That part that strikes me is that I am using the same one and mine is 4 numbers higher in the serial number but
there is a good amount of differences.
http://cgi.ebay.com/stax-srm-1-professional-stereo-headphone-amp-amplifier-/180682896393?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2a118a3409
 
The power light is green mine is red, looks like it has extra feet and silver screws instead of black ones. The rca's say in and out but they are wired together on the inside Just brought it up because it seems odd.
I have 2 all ready so not really needed but if his lambda pro's go reasonable they would make a good start at another pair of sigmas. This is ebay we are talking about though lol