The Headcase Stax thread

[spritzer]

10 hours ago, padam said:

I definitely give two thumbs up that they are wiling to delve deeper into their past.

I'm all for that if it isn't a cash grab like the X9000.  Looks like the SR-Omega... misses all of the design nuances and gets them all wrong

[garageboy]

Which older lambdas are the good "classic" lambdas? Do I have to hunt down a sr202/207, normal bias, or pro? I have the L300 and they're a bit wonky/shouty with female vocals... 

[padam]

OG is best. Everyone will tell you differently, just ignore them 😉 (Nova Signature is good, too. I am sceptical about the L500mk2 but it seems to get decent reviews)

[padam]

Eating my words quite quickly, it does look cheaper than the vintage models... it is what it is.

Edited February 10 by padam

[mrmarbach]

The actual drivers look tiny, or is that an illusion?

[padam]

[s2030081]

On 2/10/2024 at 5:15 PM, mrmarbach said:

The actual drivers look tiny, or is that an illusion?

Seems like a round shape version of L500/L300 driver, maybe the diameter is similar.

[ExtremeTurnover]

The foam in my SR-007 earpads is degrading, they need to be replaced soon. I'm not sure if I should pay 200€ for the original Stax earpads, or buy Vesper Audio earpads for around 100€. Does anyone here have experience with custom earpads from them? Based on everything I have read and seen, the build quality is much higher than in the original earpads and the leather is much higher quality too. I haven't seen anyone talking about sonic differences, I'm worried they would change the sound of my headphones. I love the way they sound now and don't want to change that. They offer basic foam, memory foam and latex, I have no idea if the foam will have an effect on the sound and which one would be closest to the original?

[spritzer]

There SR-X1 drivers are clearly a play on the older SR-XMk3/SR-5N basic structure as seen from the stators but who knows what the structure is actually like.  I'll buy a set when they first become available and rip it all apart... 

[catscratch]

Looking forward to your teardown. Also is it just me or do the drivers look awfully exposed behind that rather open grille?

[spritzer]

Absolutely but that might be a good thing.  The SR-X was so overly damped it wouldn't really work today. 

[Kung]

from the picture above, the driver of X1 seems to be slightly larger than that of sr-x. I remember that sr-x has a 51mm diaphragm, while X1 may have  60mm or so ？

[spritzer]

Yeah, seems like that to me as well.  Going by the SR-X Mk3 Pro and even the Gamma Pro's... you can get very good performance from such a small driver though.  Well it they voice it correctly.... 🙄

[justin]

Here’s a quad of Western Electric 300B in the Grand Cayman. Just something i am trying while waiting on the first batch of finished enclosures to arrive (the power transformers just got here by boat)

how does it compare with 20B? So far, here are some bullet points

- Surprisingly low noise. This is with dc heaters. The blue hawaii, or Grand Cayman with 20B or 300B all have about the same noise floor, using decent tubes. 

- The gain is a bit low. About 375x with WE 300B, 425x with EHX, and the EML 20B version is about 700x. [note: i havent tried changing any feedback setting yet]

for comparison most Stax amps are between 500x and 1000x gain

the lower gain could work out great if adding a preamp in front of the amp, but for a quick increase to 1000x gain simply replace the input tube 6SN7/12SN7 with a higher gain 6SL7/12SL7

As one would expect, distortion is higher. About .1 to .2% under load, or about 10x as high as the 20B

which one sounds better is likely going to be very subjective and will have to wait until i get a 2nd one put together for proper A/B comparisons

Edited March 7 by justin

[Jon L]

On 3/7/2024 at 11:32 AM, justin said:

Here’s a quad of Western Electric 300B in the Grand Cayman.

WE300B tubes were only making 5.5 watts vs 8 watts of Shuguang 300B-Z in this video.  It's a bit puzzling and I wonder if other 300B tubes may be a better option in the 'stat amp?

 

[spritzer]

This is funny, I just bought some SRD-7's to use as donors for my own boxes.  A SR-Lambda was included with one of those energizers and just look at that serial number...   

Aside from the foam in the earcups being crusty and the earpads having been replaced at some point, they play perfectly for a 45 year old set. 

[spritzer]

Release date for the SR-X1 is set at May 9th:

https://stax.co.jp/product/srs-x1000/

I've already placed a preorder. 

[Pars]

Any of you notice this? Apparently going to produce it; a version of Pass' beast of a thousand JFETs for electrostatic headphones. I didn't go to Axpona this year, but apparently it was there.

https://www.diyaudio.com/community/threads/axpona-2024-attendees.411344/page-2#post-7655052

Edited April 14 by Pars

[padam]

"Our goal is to develop something even better than the SR-X9000" - quite sure that is achievable...
But nevertheless, my eyebrows are lifting up
Had he said a different model though, I would have spilled my drink for sure.

[spritzer]

For me, Stax simply lack focus and I'm not sure how much that is due to the new higher ups or Edifer.  I certainly don't agree with the design decisions of the 009, X9000, Lx00 lineup and some just don't make any sense.  They are clearly pushing boundaries in some ways with more advanced drivers but major steps backwards with basic stuff like earpad quality.  It's not ok that earpads for the L500Mk2 last for a couple of years before they fall apart. 

Some of the products were just arguably crap, the D50 was so bad it was never sold in Japan.  The D10Mk1 was utter trash and I just got a D10Mk2... it's improved in some ways but it still sounds terrible.  The SRM-400S is a "what the fuck were they thinking" product and on the whole, they just took the original circuits and doubled the price. 

[TammerDown]

I don't understand why they abandoned the 007 driver design. By removing holes from the electrode, they were able to actually give the headphone proper low-end. 

I'm sure in 5 years we'll all roll our eyes when the x9000 "S" drops and it's simply a side-step.

[spritzer]

There has been this push to make the drivers more open when it can work against the overall design.  Perhaps it is just fashion/trend or the designers don't understand the air-damping and now to apply it.  With Stax looking to the past so much... I feel that they just don't know. 

I've often used Quad as an example of what happens when the main designer retires and those who come after him... have no fucking clue what they are doing.  The ESL2912 is a ESL63 with all of the same issues but extra panels tacked on and higher bias, which makes them fail even more.  The panels still de-laminate as they did in 1982, how hard is it to use better materials now. 

[TammerDown]

Stax has removed the L300 and Sr-007 mk2 from their website. Looks like it wasn't just the 007a after all. 

[Oneguy]

Not Stax but random estat find 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/135043673309?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=LZnLr4yOQj2&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=QllYj8wxQKG&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

never seen those before. 

[justin]

8 hours ago, TammerDown said:

Stax has removed the L300 and Sr-007 mk2 from their website. Looks like it wasn't just the 007a after all. 

That's true. I ordered a few more pairs of SR-007MK2 after finding out about this, but that's it. I have no idea if it's being replaced by something else.