Using it with a nice dac amp at moment.(smsl m6 minidac) I have tried it with just a phone and although needed a bit more drive it sounded surprisingly decent.
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had these on all morning and have to say both comfort and sound wise you totally forget they are on. by far the most comfortable cans Ive used
final update I guess. Love these cans:) not for everyone but I like them. clarity and subtlety in spades. decent soundstage too so you forget they are on
Nice write-up, Grant :)
They sound intriguing.
I guess what you could do is plug them in, turn them up and then walk away to make a cuppa or drop the kids off at the pool or something .. anything that will occupy that ten to fifteen minutes :D
TBH the longer they are on the better they sound Paul. getting driven quite nicely with Jerrys dac/amp at moment via optical. A nice mix. No distortion and decent soundstage. they aint perfect but they are likely the best I will ever afford
I've always fancied trying a pair of high-end Stax (come to think of it, is there any other kind ??) but never have.
Closest I got was a pair of AKG when I last went to HiFiHangar. They wanted £100 for them but they kept cutting out depending on how the wire was situated.
The thing that got me - as you said - was the soundstage : it was really amazing, properly "out of your head" left and right :)
I don't really use 'phones enough to justify a wodge of cash on them though.
I've got AKG Y50 for travelling and Grado SR80i for home use and they're both decent enough.
Stax are electrostatic I think. use a generator of summat. not sure I want 10k v buzzing around my napper:eek:. pricey too. these are budget planars at about £350. most are over 1k and all way up. they are very nice and different to the normal driver thats for sure. Not everyones cuppa though I guess
When I was trying our various set ups for portable use (by that, I don't mean walking/running/cycling and the like, but for use when away from home in hotels, etc) I tried the PM3s, amongst many others. They're a nice phone, best used with an amp IME (a Mojo worked really well).
I ended up with the Audeze Sine with the Cipher cable. This set up is much more convenient (if you're an Apple device user) and SQ is, for me, a notch above the Oppo (slightly more dynamic, whilst not becoming harsh; improved sense of space; better detail: these comments apply to me, my musical tastes and my hearing. Headphones are just so personal that everyone will have a different take). They are also a tad more comfortable. As the amp is in the cable, you can set the EQ using the Audeze app which is stored in the amp, so you can use the same settings on any Apple device. Nice touch. Having said that, I tend to use it 'flat', as it were.
Definitely worth considering if you're looking at this type of 'phone.