Scgorg

An interesting thing to try for those of you who may have 007 mk1 pads lying around, try putting them on the ES-1a. I've tried 007 mk2 pads and the effect of those pads is quite different. The mk1 pads significantly linearizes the midrange, taking the excess energy around 1-1.5khz down a bit and pulling the presence region (2-5khz) up a bit. It also makes the ES-1a slightly less hot in the treble past 8Khz, which I find is a welcome change. For me personally the 007 pads also seal better on the head, and since the leakage tolerance of electrostatic headphones is quite low this is a welcome change. I wouldn't say the tonality is ideal with these pads either, but it's about as close as I've come to it.

My personal pair seems to be somewhat more sensitive than the 007. If I use the 007 and plug in ES-1a while keeping volume the same I find it gets too loud. This might also be related to the more forward midrange/lower treble, however.

Due to a lot of things happening these past months I will have to opt out of this group buy. Doing a build isn't feasible for me currently (and most likely won't be for some time). Still big credit to MWL168 for arranging it.

Will you be getting both pairs of pads Birgir? Looking forward to hear your opinion on them. As for the SR-X comment earlier, I stand by it. I've tried it with both stock pads and aftermarket pads mimicking the stock pad dimensions and it has excessive treble levels in general (all the way from 4-10Khz). I've only heard/owned the normal bias MK3 though. I wouldn't describe myself as particularly treble shy either.

I recently bought this for my own SR-Lambda. Your country's stax distributor should be able to get it for you at a reasonable price (about 20 dollars if I remember right). Stax still has stock of it.

As mentioned the 5khz null is audible with sine sweep but I can't hear anything while listening to music. Suffice to say it is probably too high in Q to be an audible defiency (or if it is, a rather small one). The spike right above 4khz is definitely an artifact of the EARS rig. And I agree HPN does not particularly line up with my personal percieved "neutral". The Stax SR-X MK3 (normal bias) measures almost completely flat on EARS but is horrifically bright if you actually listen to it.

So, I actually have a miniDSP EARS. I don't particularly like posting measurements from it since it is notoriously unreliable due to improper acoustic impedance as well as a couple other issues. I decided to measure ES-1a and compare it to a couple of the headphones that have been mentioned in here so far. These are not industry standard measurements and should not be treated as such. They are highly unreliable and should be completely disregarded above 2-ish Khz. Lower if you want to be conservative. You will also notice some wiggling in the FR at low frequencies due to room noise, especially for the 007 measurements, this is not an accurate representation of the bass. SPL these are aligned at is not the actual SPL used for measurement, and note the much more compressed scale than what is commonly used, this will exaggerate things that are otherwise not problematic. Compensation used is HPN. ES-1a (dark pads) and L700 (stock) ES-1a (dark pads) and 007 (blu-tack modded) ES-1a (dark pads) and 404LE (not quite perfect seal, creates the bass rise) ES-1a (dark pads) and ES-1a (stock pads) All these measurements have 1/12th octave smoothing, I consider that most accurate to what you as a human will hear. I'm happy to provide unsmoothed plots if anyone wishes for it though. Note that this has the midrange coloration that is much more in line with 007 than the lambdas. It still benefits from bringing down the midrange a notch in EQ. The null at 5Khz is audible with sine sweep but I do not hear it in normal music listening. Once again: EARS is highly unreliable and should only be trusted below 2Khz where it is mostly accurate. Also note that very slight position changes will alter the treble response especially much.

I am working under the assumption that L700 and L700mk2 are sonically identical or at least very close. I've not heard the mk2 but owned the L700 mk1 on 2 different occasions. I see no reason for stax to change the headphone, and most forum posters elsewhere seem to have noted that it is very similar if not identical. Just a caveat. I don't really think L700 is better than either SR-009 or SR-007 (but I can understand someone preferring it tonally) and that the difference between them is quite apparent. I feel the same with regards to the ES-1a. ES-1a has a more even treble response, better bass (which is of course at least somewhat alleviated by blu-tack mod which I also used). The staging on the ES-1a also feels larger to me. The midrange peak of the L700 and ES-1a sound similar to me (in terms of what frequency it happens at) but with L700 reaching a slightly higher amplitude and therefore being somewhat more shouty. Build quality seems good to me, I'm a little skeptical of the strain relief but it seems fine I suppose. The entire headphone cup and yoke is aluminum (which is the reason for it being so heavy). In that regard it feels a lot like SR-009. The headpad and stock earpads are lower quality than what stax offer but the "dark" pads which are in a different leather feel very high quality/smooth grained leather. The headband and baffle are nylon, they feel sturdy enough. The headband is very similar to the headband my SR-Lambda has but it does feel slightly more solid. I think the slider on one side is a little loose, however. I haven't felt anything worth complaining about at least, and judging from the pictures on their website the driver assembly seems well done too.

I bought one of these and got them on Tuesday. Been spending a lot of time with them since then, I ordered with both pairs of pads. Some thoughts: The stock pads are irredeemably garbage sounding to me, the bass is off, the midrange is simultaneously forward and recessed (way too much 1Khz and not enough 2-4Khz) and there is way too much treble in the 8-10Khz range. I legitimately had a hard time listening to these. I'm sure some people will like these but this is reminiscent of the SR-507 in terms of how forward/thin it sounds (not a good thing). With these pads? Not a fan. The other pads I ordered which are the ones the creator says has the more laid-back nature is much more to my preference. It is somewhat more forward in the midrange than 007 (which I think is a good thing, 007 lacks a bit of energy between 2-4Khz for me), but I would not call it particularly shouty. It certainly is less shouty than something like the 404LE for instance. With these pads the treble also becomes fantastic, very similar to 007 treble to my ears. Bass was a mixed bag, when I first got them I felt like they were lacking a bit of slam/impact despite going very deep/having good rumble (much like 009S). Over time I feel like the bass has improved in this regard. I think burn-in is a hot load of garbage (other than minor changes in thiele-small parameters) so the more likely answer is the pads softening up a bit. Overall I really like the headphone with these pads, it's what the 009S should have been in my opinion. It seems like a good counterpoint to the 007 if using the dark pads. Slightly more forward, but with a bigger stage than the slightly more intimate feeling 007. Some annoyances: pad attachment uses rivets similar to SR-Omega. Not a huge issue but kind of scary to work with since the dust cover is basically exposed to the screwdriver you use to remove the rivets. Also means it takes a while to remove the pads. The pads do sit on very nicely once attached though. This headphone is also heavy, I have no issue with 700+ grams of weight but I know the approx. 650 grams this headphone weighs is gonna be too much for a lot of people. It's still more comfortable than 007 for me due to the fact that my head is too large for 007 (headband rests against the arc) but I don't think this will be the case for the vast majority of people. Currently this costs about the same as L700mk2 and between those 2 picking this one (with dark pads) is a no-brainer to me. Pretty stellar headphone overall, definitely a keeper. From the pictures this looks like the "dark" pads due to the round ear opening and the higher quality leather. EDIT: Swap around what I said above most likely. The pads I thought were the "dark" pads are the ones that came installed on the headphone.

Ether Flow (both open and closed) sound very questionable to me. I'm pretty sure they are extremely overdamped (a common feeling I get from MrSpeakers/Dan Clark Audio headphones). Somehow they also manage to fit a midbass bump into a planar which makes me double down on the dissapointment. Closed backs are inherently compromised though, and if you do like the Aeon's then I don't see too much reason why you shouldn't find the Ether Flow fine. Whether it is better or worse depends on your taste, but undoubtedly the flow has more bass quantity.

I agree with what MexicanDragon has said, Nintendo are pretty much the kings of kid friendly motion based games. In addition to his excellent game recommendations something like 1-2-switch can be very great as an enjoyable party game for kids and adults alike. It's not quite as heavy on the physical activity as some other games but it does make good use of motion controls and is sure to engage. Other than that the switch also has some more "traditional" fun games that kids are sure to enjoy, a personal favorite is Super Mario Odyssey (which also supports a 2-player mode).

Yesterday I picked up a pair of 007 and oh my, what an experience it has been. My favourite stax before now has been the 404LE, a wonderful headphone but certainly not the end be all. This thing is just absolutely fantastic to listen to. I think the upper midrange is slightly too drawn back for my taste but otherwise it is a stellar headphone, certainly far better than 009S was. Now, after getting this I had a pretty big issue; the fit. This headphone straight up does not fit my giant dome, it's so bad I had to remove the headpad and rest the arc directly on my head. I tried bending the headband to the best of my efforts but it simply does not have enough room while the headpad is still on. I know Birgir has a big head and needs to bend his to make them fit but has anyone here ever had this problem? It's not super bad seeing as the 007 is quite light, but nonetheless it is annoying, doubly so when I cannot use any padding directly on the arc since it won't fit any more.

There are quite a few issues with using the SoCas adapters to fit the modern stax pads on an old set. First and foremost these headphones are designed to have angled pads while the Lx00-series Have the driver itself angled. If you want to use conventional pads on stax that is a VERY bad idea. The volume of the pads is significantly larger than what the driver is intended for and you'll end up with a boomy mess. I'd say you should just stick to the type of pads that are meant for your headphone, or at least close. Stax still sells the EP234 pads which is what you are looking for if your old pads are worn.

I agree with what has been said here, never too late to learn to use a soldering iron! That is really the hardest part since people who are way smarter than me have created great circuits that are free to use, you simply need to assemble it all. I technically did know how to use a soldering iron when I decided to start DIYing stuff about a year ago but my knowledge of everything about analog electronics were quite rudimentary, and I'm still in the same boat as jamesmking that I can't really make any circuits myself barring really simple stuff. After about 5 months of DIY I started the KGSSHV which was my first HV build and it went surprisingly smooth even with a so-so soldering iron and my general clumsiness. You really can save a lot of money and it is EXTREMELY rewarding to finish something you made yourself. Just be careful about high voltages like the others have said While I have no experience with audiophonics myself I know a few people who have liked what they bought from there (mostly chassis though).

Getting parts from Stax turned out to not be a pain! I had to go through my country's Stax importer but it was a pretty painless process so now new wool and 234BL earpads are on the way! I was wondering about the resistors/thermistors/whatever in the earcups though. What is their function? Current limiting the stators? Could they become an issue with time? I'm refurbing this pair of lambdas to be as nice as possible, so I'd like to remove/replace them if that is necessary when I open the headphones.