Headphone review thread

[JamPal]

Listened to a Stax Amp / Can combo at HiFi show.. only £995.00

:shock: sounded fugging unreal though. Better than all the speakers I heard.

 

[musicbox]

Hmmm... unreal in what sense....

Actually, I have just listened to it again, the first movement of Mahler's 9th, about as dense and complex a piece of music as you get, and it was pretty damn good.... maybe its just me needing to adjust to them.

 

[JamPal]

musicbox wrote:

Hmmm... unreal in what sense.... Actually, I have just listened to it again, the first movement of Mahler's 9th, about as dense and complex a piece of music as you get, and it was pretty damn good.... maybe its just me needing to adjust to them.

I couldn't fault them at all. I don't know which model they were but it made the hairs on my arms stand up.

 

[musicbox]

If the RRP was £995 then it was the 4040 set, the one I've got. Still making up my mind, but getting some other things to try out today.

 

[Hawk]

Ive got the Stax 4040 Signature set up, ive had it for about 18 months and at the time its UK retail price was £1200 GBP. Luckily mine was bought in Japan thanks to a work mate so i paid alot less.

Its a great sounding setup, but IME it does need plenty of time to warm up before it sounds its best. The energiser is a tube design though so leaving it on all the time is not an option. It can be very revealing so if your source is not quite right it will tell you in no uncertain terms. The combination of tube and electrostatics IMO give a midrange to die for, and onethat ive yet to hear bettered. They do bass ok, but i think its fair to say that others can do it better. Also if on occassions you want your music to slap you round the face a bit they might leave you feeling a little unexcited. For that reason i also run the Graham Slee Solo/ RS1 set up too

Those attending the Herts Massivebakeoff can hear for themselves..

What cables are you using with the Stax musicbox? I must admit i didnt like the silver versions that i tried and found that coper based produced a more even sound.

Hawk

 

[musicbox]

It Cardas Golden Cross XLR straight from the Marantz SA-11. Changing to balanced cables made a big improvement.

Have just got hold of a GS Solo MC to compare.... first impressions (with senn HD-650 + Cardas cable) are that tonality is much better than the Stax, treble is open and relaxed, plenty of bass.... maybe just a bit warm overall though. And not nearly such an illusion of a proper soundstage. Need to sit down and listen for a good long time.

 

[Hawk]

musicbox wrote:

It Cardas Golden Cross XLR straight from the Marantz SA-11.  Changing to balanced cables made a big improvement.Have just got hold of a GS Solo MC to compare.... first impressions (with senn HD-650 + Cardas cable) are that tonality is much better than the Stax, treble is open and relaxed, plenty of bass.... maybe just a bit warm overall though.  And not nearly such an illusion of a proper soundstage.  Need to sit down and listen for a good long time.

I used the HD650/Cardas with my solo for a while as well. I found the cardas made quite an improvement but in the end the package was a bit too warm for my taste. I always felt i needed some extra volume with the senns to get that connection with the music. Someone quite rightly pointed out that the RS1s are much more forward sounding but that is one of the things that appeals for me.

I actually spoke to Graham when i ordered the solo and he swore by sennheiser HD250 II Linears. He said he prefered them to the HD650s so it they might be worth a try. They werent to my taste though, i thought they were a little thin sounding and superficially i found them a bit plasticy. He didnt particularly rate the Grados either so it all boils down to taste in the end.

Cheers

Hawk

 

[Sony6million]

Aye but doesn't the basic stax model start at 350? I heard them briefly at the show and didn't notice much between each pair. They all sounded good, mind.

 

[musicbox]

Headphone amp shootout

I've now had the chance to do some listening to the 3 headphone rigs I seem to have acquired...

Graham Slee Solo MC + Senn HD650

Earmax Pro + Senn HD650

Stax 4040 - 404 Signature Headphones + SRM-006t energiser

Basically, since the arrival of the GS Solo the Stax has been consigned back to its box and isback onto Hififorsale.com, whence it came.

As before, it has fantastic illusion of imaging and incredible hear-through sound quality, but I cannot live with the lack of bass slam nor the slightly sibilant treble (which to be fair only seems to affect orchestral violins - unfortunately a staple of my music preferences

).

Switching to the GS Solo, the first thing I noticed was how 'grey' the tonality of the Stax system was - its as if the sound has been bleached.

By comparison the Solo is dark and rich with tonal colours nicely vibrant and right. Bass power is very strong, almost overwhlming with some rock tracks. Tried it out with Killer's Hot Fuss and Stroke This is it - neither great recordings but the Killers driving bass lines were something to revel in. Superb

.

Also tried various classical - mainly big orchestral, Mahler 9 (Karajan) and Brahms 4 (Kleiber). Again the power and definition of the bass swung things along convincingly. Treble was nice, but maybe just a hint ofsolid-state hardness. Soundstage seems to extend well beyond the ears, but not in the incredible spacial way that the Stax does it.

Physically the GS Solo is very desirable... a small perfectly formed rectangle of what feels like totally solid shinybrushed aluminium, beautifully made and heavy.

Today the Earmax pro arrived, bought it of AVforums for what I rekon is a good price.... but I was fully expecting it might be joining the Stax on hififorsale.com after my earlier joys with the GS Solo MC.

Well.... this tiny valve OTL amp is something.Looks slightly homemade, a tinybakelite body about the size of a fag packetwith 3 valves on top and a brass cage looping over it (actually the valves don't get too hot to burn anyone, just warm).

Sound wise it seems to sit exactly in the middle of the group.... Bass is deep and tight though not as powerful as the Slee. Tonally it provides the full palette of tonalcolours and sounds very natural. Butthe treble has that incredible natural organicsweetness that only seems to come fromthings with valves in it. Overall its a bit leaner than the GS Solo,which meansit avoids the occasional feeling of over-warmth than can befall the GS Solo. Soundstage this time is also a good half-way house between the Slee and the Stax, there is again a feeling of transparency and space, but not the same totality of hear-throughness that I experienced with the Stax.

Conclusions

The Stax 4040 is clearly not for me. If I had unlimited funds I'd be interested in hearing their ultimate system, which uses a different design of headphone and different energiser to see if it was better - reports on the headfi forum seem to indicate it might do bass and tonal richness better. I used to own a pair of Sennheiser He-60/HV-70 electrostatic headphones, and I can honestly say that they were better than this Stax 4040 set.

The Graham Slee Solo MC is superb, lots of people are going to love this, especially for its compact size, build and looks. It sounds fantastic and I could happily live with it. Only thing to watch for is that it might possiblybeoverwarm for some tastes - but this may be down to headphone selection, my HD650s are described by others as being too warm. With Grados, for instance, I don't think this would be an problem at all.

The Earmax Pro is the one I'm settling for. Itsthesweetness and organic naturalness that wins out in the end, despite it not having the bass drive that the GS Solo can provide. And its got valves, so lots of potential for trying to improve it further with some different tubes.

Happy listening folks.

 

[Guest]

http://www6.head-fi.org/forums/forumdisplay.php?s=&daysprune=&f=2

Hi

I have just skimped thro this thread. May have already been mentioned but I have been going on the above forum for 3 yrs now. It is an American site, they are much more into cans over there and they have a better market of amps/headphones etc. Well worth a look lots of experienced guys on it loads of info.

:dude:

 

[Geordie]

Kreekinteeth wrote:

http://www6.head-fi.org/forums/forumdisplay.php?s=&daysprune=&f=2Hi

I have just skimped thro this thread. May have already been mentioned but I have been going on the above forum for 3 yrs now. It is an American site, they are much more into cans over there and they have a better market of amps/headphones etc. Well worth a look lots of experienced guys on it loads of info.

:dude:

So have I my friend

I am known as "pbirkett" over there, but I dont post all that often now, as I am pretty much finished with headphones for the time being, but suffice to say, if it wasn't for that forum, I would never have tried the DT531, ANT Amber or EMU 0404

 

[Guest]

Yes its through that forum and advice Re Cary 300SEI I finished up buying Cary valve amps for my speaker side SLP 98L Pre AND aNNIVERSARY mONO BLOCKS . aBSOLUTELY FABULOUS AND i AM AFRAID MUCH BETTER THAN MY OLD nAIM nAC 82 2 hI CAPS nAP 250 (OH I have left the caps lock on...well im not retyping it all) or my Musical Fidelity Tri Vista. However these are all excellent amps and the Carys are expensive, valves are a different kettle of fish anyway no offence to any Naim owners.I am still using my M.F X Can V3 and Senn 600 very satisfying .A lot of people over the pond reckon the Cary 300SEI is the best headphone amp amongst others of course. But really it is a little 15 watt integrated , when swithched to h/phone it uses all its charm on them . About 2.5K I think though.

 

[Injector]

I've just bought some of the Bose (

) Quiet Comfort2 headphones. Theyare fantastic IMO with a full sound. I needed some noise-cancelling 'phones and although these are (very) expensive at £285 they do the trick better than any others I have tried. Comfy too.

They have a 30 day trial so if you're not convinced you can send them back for a full refund. Also payable on 10 months' interest free credit (4 payments of £71.25)....and they come witha limited offer free portable cd player which sounds fantastic too, despite looking

.

 

[antonbhoy]

Just thought I would add my new headphone amp in.

For £75, I think it's good value for money. The sound quality IMO is a bit bass heavy, but that my be down to the type of headphones I'm using.

 

[contour]

Just bought an AKG K26P headphone to go with my iPod and just wanted to do a little write up about it. I think it is a woderfull little piece of kit witch realy surprised me the first time I put it on my head. Build quality seams pretty good and the comfort isn't bad either.It grips quite firmly to the head and being a closed back design it keeps outside noise well away. It's is a bit of a pain to put it on at first due to the mechanism they use to adjust to your headsize but once you know it it's fine. I tried them at my local hifi dealer threw a new Marantz SA 15S1(witch looked realy great btw and sounded very nice as well to) and compared them with some Grado SR 60's and Sennheiser PX-200. I started with the AKG's and whas imediatly impressed with the deep tight bass and nice soundstage(esspecialy for sutch cheap cans) also the trebble was very good and snare drums had a very nice attack to them. After that I tried the Grado's and although they where very nice sounding with tight but a bit dry bass and highs that where a little agrassive they didn't sound as good to me as the AKG's.They where vey clean though and fast but lacked behind the AKG's in overall sound. Esspecialy the soundstage witch seems not to exist with the Grado's was one of the very big plusses.Next was the Sennheiser but this was disgarded afteronly 1 minuteas it didn't do anything for me at all.No bass and no other special qualities either so I decided to go for the AKG witch only set me back 45 euro's compared to the 100 euro Grado's and 69 euro Sennheisers an absolute bargain and if you ask me one of the nicest pairs of little headphones you can probably find to go with your iPod or other portable players(mind me it won't even fair badly used with home hifi). I would also prefer them above the more expensive K27P's witch has an build in volume control in the lead witch I'm not to keen on.

 

[peter312]

Well, I've had a pair of Sennheiser HD595's for about 3 months andam reasonably pleased with them. ("Reasonably" - that's actually a bit damning isn't it).

Whilst I feel theyare a big improvement over my previous headphones, I found them wanting in a couple of areas, once the "honeymoon period" was over. I find the HD595's sound a little "distant" and the treble to be a little shut in. For example, I have a pair of Wharfedale Evo Pacific 30 speakers and they have a much "airier" treble. ("Airier" might be the wrong word - "clearer" or "unmuffled" would also work). Also, I guess I find the HD595's just a little boring.

My son recently broke his Sennhieser HD575's and, as he liked them so much, is now the proud owner of my HD595's.

So, I'm on the lookout for a new pair of headphones. I'd like to find a pair that improve on the HD595's in the areas mentioned above. I find that the HD595's very comfortable and their soundstage very good.

Please can anyone suggest some headphones to me? Having read recent issues of HFW, would anyof these be worth a look:

• The Grado 325i's - although the pictures of them don't make them look that well built (and I have heard that there are comfort issues).
  
• How about the "bargain" Goldring DR150's?
  
• I can even get some HD570's new, but am unsure if they'd be any better than the HD595's.
  
• Is anything else worth a look?

The next bit of fun will be trying to demo the things - so many places won't let you demo headphones for "health and safety reasons".

Thanks in advance

Peter

 

[Hawk]

I would strongly advise you go listen to the Grados, what your describing is the very reason I sold my HD650's. The distance and the slight shut in sound is what some people describe as the sennheiser veil. Its a characteristic ive heard in all the senns ive tried, and even by changing cables to cardas ive never been able to get rid of it. Its not like their is anything missing but to my ears it makes me always feel the need to turn the volume up a bit. Some people find grados a bit too much the other way, but you might find they give you what your looking for.

Rgds

Hawk

 

[peter312]

Thanks, Hawk.

What headphones do you use, out of interest?

:dude:

 

[contour]

The Grado's should be great and pretty clear.When I was looking for a headphone for my iPod though I found the sr 60 to be very clean but and crisp with nice tight bass but they lacked a lot in soundstage. The comfort was good though and I guess that it depends on your head and your ears if the grado's will be comfortble as they sit on your ears more then that they sit around them like most big headphones.There are grado's with a cup style foam pad though so they might be comfier for more people. I heard lot's of senheissers including the 595's and they didn't impress me at all and I found them very dull sounding. I now have the AKG k401 witch is nice and very comfy but it doesn't have the tightest of all bass compared with others.They do major on soundstaging though and this is what made me choose the AKG 401 years ago. Now I'm also looking at the SR325i by grado but will wait untill someone I know goes to the states.Also try the sr225 if you can witch is also very good sounding but very nasty looking(imo). And try to demo some AKG k271 studio,k501.k601 and k701 if you can.

 

[Hawk]

peter312 wrote:

Thanks, Hawk.What headphones do you use, out of interest?

:dude:

ATM Ive got some Grado RS1's that I use with a Graham Slee Solo, and also a Stax setup..

Regards

Hawk