Recent content by Repentant subjectivist

Yes, Stax definitely knows what they're doing. The "Stax mafia" notion of needing third party amps is just ridiculous and completely unfounded. Its funny that people like Spritzer will write endless paragraphs of technical garble which actually has no implications on the audio. There is another...

I must add that the sense of improvement from the 252s to the more powerful amps, while to me "evident", is small. I had the 252s + L500 for about a year and didn't have any complaints. I happened to do a bargain for the amp I currently own, if it wasn't for that I wouldn't have bothered...

As Cortes said, there aren't really any alternatives to Stax amps that are tempting. My subjective opinion is that going from the 252s to the 006t and 727II makes for a better sounding experience, but that could be other factors at play than objective sound differences. When plugging the SR-007...

I think getting the L500 or L700 will bridge the soundstage gap. While the HD800 has a larger soundstage still, to me the "soundstage" part is very good going from the L300 to the L500/L700. Some music is better with a small and intimate soundstage, and I remember being extremely impressed with...

Could you imagine how many reviewers and forum users have had their impression of a pair of headphone completely dictated by factors such as listening at night, or with a beer in hand and other similar things that have a massive impact on how we perceive the headphone (or any other audio...

As with the other upgrades, it made my system more concise, articulate, focused and fluid!

The key difference between the HD6xx (which is basically a HD650 afaik) and the HD600 is its treble. The HD600 is brighter.

If we assume that a very cheap pair of circumaural could be EQ'd to match the exact sound of a pair of high end electrostatic headphones like the 009, what is stopping anyone from managing that and simply saving everyone a bunch of money? Is it a question of just tinkering enough with EQ...

Aren't there more measurements than just FR graphs? I'm not very well versed, but I can't imagine a pair of 10$ IEMs ever producing the same sound as a 009 even if you managed to match the FR graph.

Stax SR-L500 is the only headphone I own now! I'm done with multiple headphones, I have no need for it. I might buy the remake of the Stax Omega rumoured in the future. Either that or a 009.

Why do you say they have "boosted treble"? In relation to what? I think there is a case to be made that Stax headphones objectively sound more clear than most dynamic drivers.

My personal opinion: The newer Stax (L300/L500/L700 + 009 & 007) are to my ears clearly better than the HD800 in terms of detail and natural sound. The only thing the HD800 does better is soundstage width. I find the HD800 to be brighter than all the Stax. When people talk about Stax being...

I think generally the main difference between a subjectivist and an objectivist is whether or not measurements and blind testing tells the whole story or not. Once a subjectivist learns of psychoacoustics, that gap is bridged and there is no reasonable way to maintain the subjectivist stance...

Thanks for the helpful tips. What would you define the position of a zealous objectivist?

The latter, althought that is of course completely subjective on my part. Any value judgement depends on so many subjective factors that its essentially meaningless for me to say so. What I am trying to say is that there are loads of headphones costing many times as much as the HD6// which...