The Headcase Stax thread

[gstjohn]

2 hours ago, bwck2000 said:

It is interesting that the SR-007S is sharing the same OFC cable as the entry-level SR-X1, rather than the HiFC cable from Hitachi used in L300 / L500 let alone the silver plated ones. 

Nice way to boost the sales of the L500mk2 and L700mk2 cables.🤣

[Oneguy]

You’re not wrong. One of the things I liked about estats was that cable rolling wasn’t a thing.

[Kung]

Many audiophiles in China can't stand the warm bass and dark tone of OG 007, then some people replace the OG 007 earpads with kennerton thror earpads to make 007 sound more transparent and neutral. The Japanese official website says that  007s earpads are sound absorbing, which improves quietness and refine the sound...It also looks like a reverse operation for current stax tuning but stax did it themselves, this makes thror 007 VS 007s very interesting...

And according to my experience in making earpads, the use of different cloth on the inside of the earpads will warm the tone, although to different extents, so I'm also curious, if 009/009s are replaced with 007s earpads, will it alleviate some wonky or bright problems and make the sound more natural.

[spritzer]

I do find that interesting as the commercially available electrostatic headphones in China are not as forward sounding as modern Stax, EH1, Q1, Q2 and naturally the King Sound models.  

It will be fun compare them as they might be trying to fix issues with the drivers with the earpads.  

[udurbalanced]

The aesthetic of the SR007S is a huge downgrade but if they borrow the ergonomics from the X9K I'd call that an improvement. The swivel-cup mechanism is the only thing I don't like about my SR007, and I can see the benefit of being able to replace the cable if it gets damaged. 

[spritzer]

My 007's might be here by Thursday but in the meantime I found these pics:

Same cable as the SR-X1 and I really like the all black flight case...  

Edited Tuesday at 10:02 PM by spritzer
Spelling

[mrmarbach]

The flight case is cool indeed, and the shock of the Frankenstein impression seems to have faded. But who cares.

Now how about those drivers...

[spritzer]

True, hopefully I'll know tomorrow.    

[Kabeer]

On 6/20/2025 at 1:11 PM, bwck2000 said:

It is interesting that the SR-007S is sharing the same OFC cable as the entry-level SR-X1, rather than the HiFC cable from Hitachi used in L300 / L500 let alone the silver plated ones. 

 

On 6/20/2025 at 3:18 PM, gstjohn said:

Nice way to boost the sales of the L500mk2 and L700mk2 cables.🤣

It is a strange decision. Would have been much better to use the HiFC cable. The X1 cable sounded very slightly duller vs the L500 cable.

 

At first I thought the 007S uses a different connector, but upon inspection, the connector is the same. So I would suspect upgrading to the L500 cable would be worthwhile.

Edited yesterday at 12:51 PM by Kabeer

[LostHisMarbles]

Birgir when you get them -on top of the usual- could you also share:

- if the 700mk2/9000 silver-plated cable makes an audible difference (of all the products they make, this is the only one where it'd make sense, so naturally they opted not to, genuine STAX through and through)

- if the pad attaches in ways not reminiscent of the original version.

 

So old fart doesn't start emailing you again, you know..

[spritzer]

I don't have any of the other cables here so I can't test that.  

[LostHisMarbles]

The audience wonders now if you're perhaps feeling not yourself? A cunning plot in the script alternatively?

The hoarder of all things e-stat, does not have everything? Goddamn, lol

(are jokes allowed here, or do we throw stones at newbies out of sheer principle?)

 

Regardless and as privately mentioned yesterday, looking forward to your impressions. Am getting.. way too old; not many more releases for me.

Would like this to end with one i enjoy. Fingers crossed

[spritzer]

I sold both of my X9000's (there is no reason to keep them when they are already plummeting in price so I'll pick up a cheap one in 5 years) and the L500 and L700Mk2's are also gone.  I might pickup either of the other two if they show up at a nice price but the cables have never changed much for me

[spritzer]

Well, they have arrived:

First off, they smell terrible.  I don't know what they are using in those new earpads but it smells awful, deep and nasty chemical smell.  Might be the foam but yeah... this isn't great.  

Now for the new arc... ehhh it's alright.  The fitment is similar to the old one and it does the job.  I have the same problem as with all other 007's though, it's too wide for my rather gigantic head so I'll need to bend it bit to make it taller.  Small thing and I'll get to check out how it is to manhandle it a bit.  

Now for the sound... I'm only a few tracks in but initial impressions were not great.  Way too boomy but it settled down when I pressed the top of the drivers towards the head, hence the arc issue I always have.  The port is gone though so get the fitment right and the bass should be just fine.  In terms of tone they are not as bad as the X9000 or 009S, more forward than the 007A with a port mod though and the excellent depth perception of the older models might be lacking here.  Not sure, need to do some listening but the sound is certainly more "in your face" than the older ones.  

They don't seem to have the resolution of the older one either, this is on my usual Denafrips Terminator and Carbon CC setup, and I have this distinct feeling that something is lacking.  Now I know how all of the 007's sound like the back of my hand and detail that should be there... just isn't.  It's subtle though.  

Sound stage is just fine but I have this nagging sensation that it isn't as precise as a nice 007Mk1 or Mk2/A.  The sound is also not as smooth and balanced as the older ones.  Push it with something demanding (now I'm playing Knopfler - Going Home) and this isn't brilliant.  The whole fun bit about this song is to crank it a bit in volume once it gets going and it kinda falls apart, becomes harsh and grading while loosing cohesion.  A good 007Mk1 can play this at stupid volume levels on this setup and no problems at all.  

Sorry for the stream of consciousness but I just wrote what came to mind.    Overall... this is a much better effort than the X9000 though and time will tell how I get on with them.  Not talking about burn in... that shit doesn't exist.  

Finally I grabbed the nearest 007 which just happened to be a Mk2.9 007A for comparison:

The structure is clearly very different but I'll have to investigate further later on.  

Finally, that stench from the earpads is driving me fucking nuts!!