[Double F]

I purchased a pair of Stax Lambda Professionals with the SRM-t1 tube energizer off Audiogon last week. Price was $800 for both. I believe this combo is about 25 years old.  Was not expecting much  but all I can say is Wow!!  Surprisingly good sound.  The phones are extremely light and comfortable.  The sound is open and airy without any top end grain.  Bass is there but the open nature of these cans do not give me the over pressure feeling between the ears like orthos and planars .  At this point they are right up with any of the current equipment I've used.   
 
I cannot say where this may lead.  I am enjoying the sound and listen in amazement that these were available during my college days.

 

[crumpler]

As they say, all roads lead to stats! 

 

[paaj]

Ha, that's how I got started in Stax, the Lambda (Signature) that came with my SRM-T1 had holes in it and still sounded better than many things I had heard earlier...

 

[tyoung8]

Quote:

I purchased a pair of Stax Lambda Professionals with the SRM-t1 tube energizer off Audiogon last week. Price was $800 for both. I believe this combo is about 25 years old.  Was not expection much  but all I can say is Wow!!  Surprisingly good sound.  The phones are extremely light and comfortable.  The sound is open and airy without any top end grain.  Bass is there but the open nature of these cans do not give me the over pressure feeling between the ears like orthos and planars .  At this point they are right up with any of the current equipment I've used.   
 
I cannot say where this may lead.  I am enjoying the sound and listen in amazement that these were available during my college days.

 
I wish I could drop $800 on headphone and amp and not expect much.

 

[AmanGeorge]

Congrats - Stax is a special breed of headphones, for sure. I ended up selling my HD800s in favor of a set of vintage Lambdas.

 

[Double F]

Quote:

Congrats - Stax is a special breed of headphones, for sure. I ended up selling my HD800s in favor of a set of vintage Lambdas.

 


Quote:

 
I wish I could drop $800 on headphone and amp and not expect much.

I said this in the context of the $1300 hd800 and T-1s that once graced my rack.  This $800 should really have been saved for a rainy day

 

[earerror]

Congrats for your purchase, any pictures of your setup? 
Im a vintage fan. 

 

[moodyrn]

Believe it or not, stax is very under-rated. I know the omegas get talked about a lot, and people just over look stax in general thinking they are too expensive. But to be honest, I have preferred every stax I've ever listened to over other flagship headphones. The only other headphone that I've heard that I will put up there with them, is the he-6. But then if you bring the higher end staxs in the mix, they might be outclassed as well. Even budget staxs can compete with the best dynamics, and in my opinion, surpass many of them. When you look at the fact that you can find a vintage stax setup for 500-800.00, the value is very, very good. If you go the adapter route, you could find a setup for around 300-400.00. That's about the price of a mid tier headphone, but you will definitely not have anything near a mid tier sound.

 

[nullstring]

Quote:

If you go the adapter route, you could find a setup for around 300-400.00. That's about the price of a mid tier headphone, but you will definitely not have anything near a mid tier sound.

Would you mind listing a few setups?
I am interested in doing this.

 

[moodyrn]

A lambda/pro + srd 7/pro should fetch 300-500.00 and possible as low as 250.00. That would require you to have a separate speaker amp. If you chose to go the energiser/amp route, then a lambda/pro + something like an srm1 mkII pro should fetch something like 500.00-800.00. 500.00 would be on the low side, but I've seen them go for that price a few times. Now the step up from that would be a lambda signature on the earspeaker side, and a T1/s on the amp side. That would put you closer to a 1000.00, but would surpass most 1000.00 headphones IMO.

 

[Ikarios]

Ever since I got to listen to some Stax setups at the recent NYC Meet, I've been in awe - the detail, speed, and transparency that a Stax setup provides is *exactly* what I'm looking for. It's odd, because I've listened to most of the $1k-range headphones (T1, HD800, HE-6, HE-6p, LCD2) and apart from the HD800, I didn't really like any of them. They all had little problems with the frequency response that my ears did not agree with. However, the moment I put on the Lambda Sig + SRM717 setup, I was FLOORED. I couldn't believe how fast the Stax were, and how clear they sounded.
 
Consequently, one week later, I have two Stax setups coming to my door... one SR-202+SRM252, and one SR-X mk3 + SRD6 + TA2020-based T-amp. I'm hoping that for the price, I can get most of the Stax sound without paying for the top-end Lambda/Omega setups. Here's to budget-mid-fi!