[Michgelsen]

That's nothing to worry about. The adhesive may have lost some of its force. You can usually press the pads back in place and they will stick again, or use double-sided tape to fasten them further. New pads are always an option as well, but not needed if they are otherwise still in good condition.

 

[dukja]

Thank you so much for the quick reply. 
 
An extended question: some of the pad show "crease" or slight "valley" on the surface.  Are those any concern for provide good sealing?  Or those are natural there?
 
Thanks again!
 
Quote:

That's nothing to worry about. The adhesive may have lost some of its force. You can usually press the pads back in place and they will stick again, or use double-sided tape to fasten them further. New pads are always an option as well, but not needed if they are otherwise still in good condition.

 

 

[treal512]

Anyone able to say how the SRM-313 and 323 compare? I have the SR-303, but I'm half considering the 507.

 

[vrln]

Welcome to the Stax world cascode That happened to me to, except I was that impressed with a "lowly" 404 Signature already compared to the HD 800 I had at home. To be honest, Stax restored my faith in headphone technology. To me they are the only thing in the headphone world that can compete against speakers. Oh and I ended up with that SR-507/SRM-600 combo - loving it every day!  No need to browse the headphones forum anymore, just the portable one. As for your amp question, the 323 amp is great value, with those prices I´d go for that instead. 
 
Quote:

Blew my mind, and consequently I'm currently auctioning all my current headphones, amps and some other gear so I can go the Stax route.  I can't afford the SR-007 headphones (which I also listened to), but that's OK as I really liked the sound of the SR-507, so they are a definite.
 

 

[MrGreen]

Quote:

Thank you so much for the quick reply. 
 
An extended question: some of the pad show "crease" or slight "valley" on the surface.  Are those any concern for provide good sealing?  Or those are natural there?
 
Thanks again!
 


 

Mine have a small gap between the pad and the plastic on one side- I believe it may be part of the design, as they are otherwise in nigh-perfect condition. Otherwise, it's an adhesive issue and has no meaningful impact on sound in my experience (just pushing them down).
 
If you are talking about one side of the pad being smaller/more shallow than the other, that is intentional. I believe it is why they call it the "semi-panorama" or something along those lines. The idea is that the stax use a free field curve, so the headphones are tilted slightly infront of you (as a flat speaker making the free-field sound is infront of you).
 

 

[cascode]

Quote:

... Stax restored my faith in headphone technology. To me they are the only thing in the headphone world that can compete against speakers. Oh and I ended up with that SR-507/SRM-600 combo - loving it every day!  No need to browse the headphones forum anymore ...
 

One of the thing that most impressed me with Stax is how relaxed and effortless the music is, regardless of scale or whether it is intimate jazz or powerful rock.  A friend and I went over to the shop to have another listen two days after I first heard them (he was not familiar with Stax either) and his immediate comment was "I could listen to these all day and not get tired".  I thought that summed it up pretty well.
 

 

[cascode]

I've just placed an order with PriceJapan for the SR-507 headphones, so now I have to wait impatiently .  I'm still uncertain about the amp, but there is a hi-fi club in Sydney so I'll go along to their next meeting and see if any of the guys (funny how audio is such a guy thing, isn't it?) also have Stax and would let me have a listen to their amps.  A friend has the 2050 package and said he'd loan me his amp for a week or so until I get something else, so at least I can hear the now toy!
 
Regarding energisers, is there any sort of limit to the level of amp with which they can be used?  My speaker amp puts out 100W into 8 ohms - would it be too big?  Most comments I've read have been from people using them on lower powered amps.  Also, given that the speaker output is subject to volume attenuation, how do you use the amp for an energiser but not have the speakers working - what am I missing here?
 

 

 

[paaj]

Normally the energiser has a switch: headphones or speakers. 
A 100W amp does not just deliver 100W everytime, that would probably also blow up your speakers, you can control the volume  
 
I can see how a lower powered amp could bring the power more delicate which is beneficial for headphones since they are much more revealing to the signal.

 

[MrGreen]

Quote:

funny how audio is such a guy thing, isn't it?
 

No

 

[BoogieWoogie]

So I grabed an O2 with a SRD-7mk2 being powered by an Audiolab 8000 and I notice that the bass is kinda sloppy and pretty much all vocals extend the 'sss that are sharp as a razor blade... Is this a characteristic from O2 or is this a signal of inappropriate amping ?

 

[DaveBSC]

Quote:

So I grabed an O2 with a SRD-7mk2 being powered by an Audiolab 8000 and I notice that the bass is kinda sloppy and pretty much all vocals extend the 'sss that are sharp as a razor blade... Is this a characteristic from O2 or is this a signal of inappropriate amping ?

The SRD-7 is not appropriate to drive the O2, at all. If you want to use a speaker amp, you need a much bigger transformer.
 

 

[trevorlane]

.

 

[BoilermakerFan]

Picked up the tips from the Audiologist.  There must have been a communication breakdown... again.  They are hell bent of putting a tiny opening and making the end s like IEMs...  But the good news is, it was easily corrected with a trusty, sharp X-acto knife!  I have to bring them back to be smoothed, buffed, and polished, but I think these tips will do the trick!  The comfort of this second pair is stellar and they hold much, much better too.  Pics later...

 

[Ikarios]

I'm currently comparing my SR-202 with a friend's old Lambda Pro he picked up recently. Without going into too much detail I'll say that I like the SR-202 a little more overall. It has a smoother response and pretty punchy sub-bass for what is there. The Lambda Pros have bass, but it's more midbass, and isn't quite as punchy. My main issue is that the Lambda Pro has a little bit of stridency in the treble, right on the attack of crash cymbals. Due to this it sounds like the treble is etched. Besides the stridency in the treble they are actually quite close to my ears, although I'm not the best at discerning differences in small details between headphones. The next thing I'll have to do is compare my SRM-252 to his SRM-1 mk2, but this will be harder since I'll have to match volumes and switch RCA cables as well as headphone cables.
 
One thing I did notice is that the pads on the SR-202 are much softer (real imitation leather

) whereas the pads on the Lambda Pros are more plasticky and vinyl, like vintage AKG K240 pads (shiny, somewhat hard, etc). I do find that the SR-202 pads get hot very quickly (within 5-10 minutes), which is the main cause of my pad discomfort - my ears begin to sweat after less than an hour. So far I'm not getting this issue with the Lambda Pros. I doubt anyone can answer this question but what were the pads originally like on the Lambda Pros when they were new? Is this a difference in pad material or pad age?
TIA

 

[cosmopragma]

Quote:

So I grabed an O2 with a SRD-7mk2 being powered by an Audiolab 8000 and I notice that the bass is kinda sloppy and pretty much all vocals extend the 'sss that are sharp as a razor blade... Is this a characteristic from O2 or is this a signal of inappropriate amping ?

The O2 is one of the smoothest headphones without weird upper mids/lower treble peaks/dips, and a SRD7Pro is quite good (in case the zinc coated connectors aren't corroded and the ~30 years old transformer gear isn't defective and the speaker amp is quite good).A good speaker amp/SRD7Pro combo is in its special way competitive to good dedicated headphone amps.The sloppy bass might be partly due to the transformer.Most of it is characteristic for the O2 though.The bloated O2 bass isn't that great even with very expensive amps IMO, but again : there must be something wrong with your amp or the SRD.The O2 doesn't emphasize sibilants at all.
 
Quote:

The SRD-7 is not appropriate to drive the O2, at all

This seems to be a minority orinion.Lots of members did and do utilize the old transformers and do like it better than mediocre direct drive amps.Maybe it's a question of perspective.What exactly is appropriate then? If the answer is T2 or even rarer/more expensive amps the SRDPro varieties  are not appropriate at all ......