My Ebay Stax score

C

Coreyk78

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jul 10, 2008
Messages
240
UPS guy just dropped these off today :D

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They look like brand new, still had all the plastic baggies for everything in the box, I think these are from around 1982. I've only listened to them for about a half hour but they sound really nice, soundstage and detail like no headphone I've ever heard. All the instruments in songs have seperation like your at the concert or in the same room with the instruments, its a really cool effect. I think they should work really well for positional sound in games.

They are an on ear headphone, so they are not as comfortable as full size cans, but not too bad really. I'm pretty excited about getting these and being able to have a taste of Stax sound for way under 100 bucks. :D

I'm using my old Onkyo TX1500 MKII to power the adapter box, but it only makes 17w /channel so I don't think I'm getting the full potential of these yet, but I'm going to be building an LM1875 gainclone amp dedicated to running these and see how that does.
 
Wow!! What do they sound like? Comparisons with the RX700s?
 
Yes, depending on what headphone you're talking about. These Stax phones are electrets (not to be confused with electrostatic ) and sound warmer than other types of drivers. They have great midrange and a good soundstage. Nice score, these are a collector's item
 
450 said:
Wow!! What do they sound like? Comparisons with the RX700s?
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Compared to RX700, the most noticeable thing is that the Stax put out a lot less bass, the bass is there, but it doesn't have the impact it does with the 700s. However, I think the Stax outdo the RX700 in the midrange and high end. They have lots of detail, never heard anything else like them, everything is so clear and seperated, its like you can hear where the instruments were in the studio when they recorded the music, I don't know how else to describe it.
 
Coreyk78 said:
Compared to RX700, the most noticeable thing is that the Stax put out a lot less bass, the bass is there, but it doesn't have the impact it does with the 700s. However, I think the Stax outdo the RX700 in the midrange and high end. They have lots of detail, never heard anything else like them, everything is so clear and seperated, its like you can hear where the instruments were in the studio when they recorded the music, I don't know how else to describe it.
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Sound like my studio monitor cans.. The 48's..
 
FinalAura said:
Stuff from 1982 sound better than today's tech?
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Audio is not like other things. its really user's choice on what they think is the best, there are no hard benchmarks for testing.

think about it this way, with videocards your old one got 30 FPS in your favorite game, and your new next generation one got 60FPS. The new card is better

with headphones your old headphones have deep lows and good sound quality, whilst the new ones have noise canceling and slightly worse sound quality.

which one is better? its completely up to you. if you only listen to music in a quiet environment, why would you need noise canceling at the expense of sound quality? if youa re listening to it on the go, maybe sound canceling is for you. its different per case.


also, speakers do get better w/ use.. so technically older speakers are "better"
 
When it comes to headphones, older is usually better.. The R10's. The 'king' was made in 99.. Not 82..But almost 10 yrs old..
 
I always thought that the Senn HE90s are the best in general. They are made in 1991, and none of the later headphones including the Stax Omega 2 (Mk1 and MkII), R10, L3000, Edition 7/9 and PS1 can outperform them. But I guess when it gets to $2000+ headphones, it's really just a matter of taste on which is better than which as I have seen people prefer the HE60 over the HE90. The sad thing is that the only high end headphones that are still in production are the Omega2 MkII and the Edition 9 :(.
 
p997tt said:
I always thought that the Senn HE90s are the best in general. They are made in 1991, and none of the later headphones including the Stax Omega 2 (Mk1 and MkII), R10, L3000, Edition 7/9 and PS1 can outperform them. But I guess when it gets to $2000+ headphones, it's really just a matter of taste on which is better than which as I have seen people prefer the HE60 over the HE90. The sad thing is that the only high end headphones that are still in production are the Omega2 MkII and the Edition 9 :(.
Click to expand...

I thought the HE90 had a limited run recently (few years ago). HE90 at $15,000 (or more due to dollar value/inflation) is far too much for me and most people. I'd rather spend 15k on a speaker setup than a headphone setup.
 
450 said:
I thought the HE90 had a limited run recently (few years ago). HE90 at $15,000 (or more due to dollar value/inflation) is far too much for me and most people. I'd rather spend 15k on a speaker setup than a headphone setup.
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You would be surprised.

Anyway, yes Stax and the like are probably the best at sounding real ever made. Reason for this, imo, is that the drivers are made from lighter than air material. This gives them the ability to be faster and thus more realistic than any dynamic driver headphone. This is a very simple explanation and to be truthful I do not know much more but will say that:

Stax own!
 
spaceman said:
You would be surprised.

Anyway, yes Stax and the like are probably the best at sounding real ever made. Reason for this, imo, is that the drivers are made from lighter than air material. This gives them the ability to be faster and thus more realistic than any dynamic driver headphone. This is a very simple explanation and to be truthful I do not know much more but will say that:

Stax own!
Click to expand...

If the demand for an HE90 or similar is there why is production stopped? :confused:
 
plinko said:
Yes, depending on what headphone you're talking about. These Stax phones are electrets (not to be confused with electrostatic ) and sound warmer than other types of drivers. They have great midrange and a good soundstage. Nice score, these are a collector's item
Click to expand...

You have my heart pumping when you mentioned you got them for under $100 and I was thinking they were Electrostatic Headphones.
Back in 1989/90, I listened to a set of Stax Electrostatics being driven by a Stax tube amp, these were the best sounding headphones I ever heard.

The Demo disc I was listening to had a man and a woman talking and walking around the room and you could swear that they were in the room with you.
 
450 said:
If the demand for an HE90 or similar is there why is production stopped? :confused:
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They are just too damn expensive to produce vs the actual demand. There were and are a very small number of people who have the means and desire to buy such and expensive pair. Most folks in that price range are speaker people.

Now, the Stax Lambda normal bias and a srd-7 with a small parasound amp that I had were, as Spritzer( a Stax guru ) put it, his second favorite stax. This cost me $400!!! Now, good luck getting a deal like that. I think sometimes people just hook me up b/c the guys and gals on head-fi are just super nice folks who are into it for the same reasons I am. Not for the money, but for the love of sound.

Stax are just real sounding. No other way to put it. Many suffer from a lack of bass. You should research a model as best you are able before buying. There are bad stax models. Not many but there are some which are way bright, no bass etc.

The electrostatics are the deal btw. The ones the op bought are good but are not electrostatics. They are entry level and good but not a true, full blown Stax.
 
450 said:
If the demand for an HE90 or similar is there why is production stopped? :confused:
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How many people want to spend 8-10 grand for a pair of headphones???? But we got the 'crappy' 650 though.. How do you go from the HE90 to the 650's??? Like dating Halle Berry, & dumping her for Rosanne barr..
 
p997tt said:
I always thought that the Senn HE90s are the best in general. They are made in 1991, and none of the later headphones including the Stax Omega 2 (Mk1 and MkII), R10, L3000, Edition 7/9 and PS1 can outperform them. But I guess when it gets to $2000+ headphones, it's really just a matter of taste on which is better than which as I have seen people prefer the HE60 over the HE90. The sad thing is that the only high end headphones that are still in production are the Omega2 MkII and the Edition 9 :(.
Click to expand...
You are generalizing a bit.. Many people prefer the R10's, & especially PS1's to the HE90.. & some headphones do surpass them.. Here is my DT48 plug.. A headfier who owns the 48's compared them to the HE90, O2, & R10.. & said those three headphones did not reveal anything that the 48's couldn't do.. So it was a toss up to his ears.. People talk about the HARX900 being a great deal.. Try getting a pair of 48's for 60 bucks, & having them being compared to the R10/HE90 in certain areas.. A true bang for your buck..:D
 
spaceman said:
You would be surprised.

Anyway, yes Stax and the like are probably the best at sounding real ever made. Reason for this, imo, is that the drivers are made from lighter than air material. This gives them the ability to be faster and thus more realistic than any dynamic driver headphone. This is a very simple explanation and to be truthful I do not know much more but will say that:

Stax own!
Click to expand...
You might want to try the 48's before making that comment.. The most real & natural sounding headphones I ever heard.
 
450 said:
How did you get the DT48 for $60? Online it seems to be well over $200.
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Not me, another owner got them for 60 on ebay. He has 3 pairs . They retail for 447, but can be had new for 313. Theres two versions, The a and e. I have the a model. They are used for hearing test, hospitals, sound engieers, and for monitoring music.. They have one of the best tranducers on the market today, flat response, and deviation of 1DB, so they are very balanced. The e version is geared toward music application and studio work.. Both models put a heavy emphasis on the mid range and accoustics.. Some say accoustic play back on these surpass the 02. Midrange is the best I heard..Ultra crisp, and has gritty and realness, that I would categorize as amazing.. The 48's been in production for 50 yrs.. And the first dynamic headphone ever created. They are special and can compete with the all time greats in certain areas.. If you want headphones with similar characteristics but fun sounding, the DT150's are hard to beat.. The bass has much better slam and authority. More boom so to speak, and more forgiving with bad recording. Price goes from 150-192. They will be my 12th headphone purchase.
 
cesium666 said:
ya that doesn't really seem possible. IIRC the lightest material there is is aerogel, developed by nasa
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Yea, must be marketing BS. I have some planar speakers made by Monsoon and they use a very thin piece of plastic like material that vibrates to create sound but it is still heavier than air. ;)
 
They use lighter than air material for drivers. Air does weigh something guys.

Stax, as the name might have clued you in, use electrostatic driver elements. These are quite different from typical headphone diaphragms and deserve an explanatory note. In an electrostatic speaker, a thin electrically-charged conductive membrane is suspended between two stators -- fixed electrodes whose value changes from positive to negative with variations in the musical signal. The membrane is alternately attracted to and repelled by the stators' changing charges. Since the membrane can be very thin, it is amazingly responsive -- and the thinner the membrane the more easily it is moved. The SRS-404 features Stax's thinnest membrane yet -- a scant 1.35µ, which is substantially lighter than the air it displaces.

http://www.onhifi.com/product/stax_srs4040.htm
 
Obviously air weighs something. I'm just saying that there currently does not exist a material that weighs less than air (other than some gases). Aerogel remains the lightest, solid material that exists.

How the hell does the article go from thickness (1.35 micrometres) to weight?
 
Air does weigh something guys.
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So does driver material. The question is which weighs less.

I think Spaceman just misunderstood the quote. It says it's lighter than the air it displaces (during it's range of motion), which is very different from actually being lighter than air.
 
Nicolaskl said:
So does driver material. The question is which weighs less.

I think Spaceman just misunderstood the quote. It says it's lighter than the air it displaces (during it's range of motion), which is very different from actually being lighter than air.
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Air under pressure = heavier than normal, just hanging around air. Got it.
 
spaceman said:
Air under pressure = heavier than normal, just hanging around air. Got it.
Click to expand...

No, that's not really it either. It's true (and maybe that's part of what they're talking about, but I doubt it), but the real difference comes from the fact that a speaker driver displaces far more air than its own volume (they have to, that's how they make sound). They're talking about it being lighter than the volume of air it displaces while it's moving back and forth, not just the volume of air that the driver physically occupies while it's sitting there motionless. For example:

If you have a driver that is 10 cm by 10 cm and .02 mm thick it has a volume of 0.0000002 m^3 (assuming I didn't flub a decimal spot). If that driver has a maximum excursion of 2 cm in either direction then it's capable of displacing 0.0004 m^3 of air. That volume of air is 2000 times its own volume, so in order for the driver to be "lighter than the air it displaces" it just has to have a density that is less than 2000 times that of air. The density of air is 1.2 kg/m^3 so our driver material would have to have a density less than 2400 kg/m^3. Aluminum wouldn't do it. Magnesium would be close. Probably have to use some kind of ceramic or ceramic composite in this case for it to be possible (which is what the drivers in my Infinitys are made of), if it's possible at all.

Anyway, what they state seems to be impressive, but not actually lighter than air. :)
 
spaceman said:
They use lighter than air material for drivers. Air does weigh something guys.

Stax, as the name might have clued you in, use electrostatic driver elements. These are quite different from typical headphone diaphragms and deserve an explanatory note. In an electrostatic speaker, a thin electrically-charged conductive membrane is suspended between two stators -- fixed electrodes whose value changes from positive to negative with variations in the musical signal. The membrane is alternately attracted to and repelled by the stators' changing charges. Since the membrane can be very thin, it is amazingly responsive -- and the thinner the membrane the more easily it is moved. The SRS-404 features Stax's thinnest membrane yet -- a scant 1.35µ, which is substantially lighter than the air it displaces.

http://www.onhifi.com/product/stax_srs4040.htm
Click to expand...

Yea, well, that's sort of how planar speakers work too and the membrane is not lighter than air.
 
Klob said:
Yea, well, that's sort of how planar speakers work too and the membrane is not lighter than air.
Click to expand...

Klob. Hello? I already stated that I was wrong. I understand my mistake now b/c Nicolaskl explained it? lol

;)
 
I just had a read of an interview with the directors of Stax (which took place a few months after 007A/Omega2 MkII was released) and was quite surprised to see that there are only 11 people working in their factory now. Also, they only earn money from selling headphones and lose money from their amps.

In the near future, it looks like there will be a new Stax headphone coming out that will cost more than the 404 and less than the 007. The concept of this new headphone has been finalised and it won't be long until Stax start selling this new model. Stax are also looking to further develop their Lambda series, but there is no mention of any changes they will make to the Omega series. :(
 
p997tt said:
I just had a read of an interview with the directors of Stax (which took place a few months after 007A/Omega2 MkII was released) and was quite surprised to see that there are only 11 people working in their factory now. Also, they only earn money from selling headphones and lose money from their amps.

In the near future, it looks like there will be a new Stax headphone coming out that will cost more than the 404 and less than the 007. The concept of this new headphone has been finalised and it won't be long until Stax start selling this new model. Stax are also looking to further develop their Lambda series, but there is no mention of any changes they will make to the Omega series. :(
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The Lambda Normal bias that I had were the previous owners second favorite headphone. He had or has heard every Stax and Electrostat made and a modded Blue Hawaii amp. So the fact that Stax is making more Lambdas is a very good thing. What would be ideal is a $300 killer Stax. It wouldn't have to be the very best ever. Just some good bass response and the normal Stax sound with non-fatiguing highs and it would sell a ton.
 
I don't think spritzer has continued to laud the SR-Lambda as his second favorite headphone (if he ever did in the first place).

He has ranked his electrostat collection on another forum and I don't think the SR-Lambda are in his top 10, or if they are they barely make the top 10. He doesn't even own an SR-Lambda (or any Lambda for that matter) if I recall correctly. His main headphones are SR-Omega 1 and SR-007 MK1 (Omega 2 MK1). As well as an SR-Omega with SR-007 drivers.

I have owned the SR-Lambda and they are very good, but they're not incredible like some people in this thread make them out to be. I prefer my Omega 2 MK1 far, far more than the SR-Lambda.
 
spaceman said:
The Lambda Normal bias that I had were the previous owners second favorite headphone. He had or has heard every Stax and Electrostat made and a modded Blue Hawaii amp. So the fact that Stax is making more Lambdas is a very good thing. What would be ideal is a $300 killer Stax. It wouldn't have to be the very best ever. Just some good bass response and the normal Stax sound with non-fatiguing highs and it would sell a ton.
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Not to sound like an ass. But if they were so good why did you sell them.. When you first got them all you did was rave about them on headfi?
 
[A]MD-Fan;1033303675 said:
I don't think spritzer has continued to laud the SR-Lambda as his second favorite headphone (if he ever did in the first place).

He has ranked his electrostat collection on another forum and I don't think the SR-Lambda are in his top 10, or if they are they barely make the top 10. He doesn't even own an SR-Lambda (or any Lambda for that matter) if I recall correctly. His main headphones are SR-Omega 1 and SR-007 MK1 (Omega 2 MK1). As well as an SR-Omega with SR-007 drivers.

I have owned the SR-Lambda and they are very good, but they're not incredible like some people in this thread make them out to be. I prefer my Omega 2 MK1 far, far more than the SR-Lambda.
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Still can't get over your set up.. Nice 1,500 DAC..
 
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