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In the Forum: Audio Discussions
In the Thread: (Hopefully short) headphone journey
Post Subject: Stax amplificationPosted by N-set on: 6/28/2013
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Hi Scooter!

 scooter wrote:

I have tried the SR-009, SR-007, SR-507, and SR-407 many times over a total of some 5 hours with a variety of sources but always with some Stax branded amplifier. Every time I thought / suspected that the big Stax amps looked nice but were not up to the task. The sources were not especially good but I had the gut feeling that the Stax amplifiers were the limiting factor. The amplifiers were "loud" enough, but musical dynamics reminded me of driving a car in 5th gear in the city; stepping on the gas seemed to be an exercise in futility.


Although my Stax experience is limited to ownership of O2MkI (the main workhorse), Sigma, and Lambda Pro amped with SRM717 (driving Omegas)
and another SRM-T1 for the rest, I wholeheartedly agree with the above assesment, at least when it comes to the amps I own (I did briefly listen to 006t with my Omegas and didnt notice any improvement...anything actually). IMHO, my Stax amps (and 006t) are not up to the task,
lacking mainly in the dynamical department (they are anemic to put it simplistically). That's why I started the Staxquiades project to see what can be gained here (if anything at all...).


 scooter wrote:
I found the SR-009 to be quite spectacular in many ways, although for some reason not entirely satisfying, with the jazz and light-listening demo CDs provided by the retailers. The SR-009s are certainly worth listening to as they are unique and detailed and clear. However, with my own classical CDs, the SR-009 just collapsed; disappointing but made the purchase decision easy.


I have not heard 009, and actually I read some post on headfi.org of people saying they comeback to O2MkI after 009. No experience, so no idea.
On the collapse, I did not experience anything that drastic so far (my source is EMT930 with the stock arm+TSD15 and Romyfied EAR834),
but I do get a lot of irritating chaos on complicated loud passages. At this moment I tend to blame the amplifier (a characteristic "breaking"
of the solid state amp), but it may as well be the headphones too. Let's see what I get with the serious, dedicated amp I plan (easily convertible
to a spreaker amp if all that turns out to be a pile of costly crap).


 scooter wrote:
As a side note, I spent some time with the HifiMan and Audeze electrostatic headphones which seemed to all have the same challenge with classical music. Maybe electrostatics have problems reproducing "classical music" or electrostatics need different amplification solutions to reproduce "classical music" effectively.


My current working hypothesis is the second one, although I admit I do not have too many convincing arguments and I may be simply wrong.
Even with the very inferior SRM717 but +/- advanced source I'm able to get interesting musical moments on O2, but, as I said, full scale orchestra
is out of reach now. I believe, although seemingly small, the electrostatic diaphragm can eat very substantial amounts of instantenous current.
Hence a serious current capable amp is needed. Now, if you want to make it properly, you end amp with an amp of a size, cost, and complexity of a medium power speaker amp. Nobody would buy it, so nobody has seriously done it (I doubt in the T2's myth...with all those solid states servos, ccs' etc etc???). DIY or half-DIY attempts (Blue Hawaii, DIYT2 with 234 solid state elements, various Frank Cooter's DIY amps) use short-cuts here or there (e.g. fully SS servoed tubes or output transformers, etc).

I'd also add the source as a major factor. My O2's can be very-very nasty to the source limitations with some sources and wonderfully forgiving with the other.

Cheers,
N-set

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