Stan's New Dac - any reviews yet?

I have been deprived recently.

Been in Cyprus to sort out the house I will retire to in the autumn.

We had hoped to install and ADSL connection in the house very quickly, but it didn't happen. Bureaucracy!!

I took with me a laptop and a Squeezebox boom hoping for my favourite UK and European radio stations and the ability to play my FLACs.

But I was reduced to silence and a tranny!

Ah well back to my Quart Speakers, Quad Amp and Standac. I can breath again.

I have been wondering about some decent headphones, and looked longing at the Stax for years, but they are awfully expensive.

Are they really that much better?

I'm not sure they are these days to be honest. Stax is now a "name" with a great reputation and cachet, but IMO that's where it ends unless you can get some "earspeakers" used at a good price. The UA7 tonearm was a goodie though as I recall, although little else of theirs ever came over to the UK IIRC.

Where would you be looking for headphones, Dave?

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Originally Posted by Labarum

I have been wondering about some decent headphones, and looked longing at the Stax for years, but they are awfully expensive.

Are they really that much better?

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Yes, they are in the same manner that the QUADs back then captured you. And we both know that many people would consider the QUADs gutless .... depends on the kind of music one listens to.

I don't know if you ever had a chance to observe electrostats "at work". That sheet of sandwich wrap just kind of trembles .... just wonderful! Ripples instead of a piston pushing and pouncing.

The STAX offer the same and because it happens (or doesn't) so close to your ear-drums, the effect it very gentle.
I am 62 and have my own permanent sound-track called tinitus. (Too many miles with the open sunroof buffeting.)

With dynamic headphones - even something as transparent as the 701s - the pressure was quite uncomfortable. None of that with the STAX. Just music. Unfortunately, the German health plan doesn't cover them as therapeutic devices. ;)

Clearly, they don't have that bottom end grunt that lovers of rock may desire.
But for anything with recognizable instruments and spaces (including the opera stage), the STAX are in a class by themselves.
The AKGs have an initially impressive holographic quality, until you come to feel that the orchestra seems to wrap around your head.
The STAX place the sound a tad further forward, almost out of and in front of your head.

You can get good used Lamda Pros (or 303) phones on the Bay for little more than €150 and the amps start at about the same level. Really, that's not unreasonable for something, which absolutely places you into the top end of things. (Try that with speakers!)

Takes a while to understand how the system works, with all the various models. My amp is the small SRD-XPro, which can also be used as a mobile with batteries. I just hook it up to the fixed output of the 7520 and regulate the volume from the STAX amp. Works like a charm.

If the QUADs with Cello still rank so highly with you, just try some STAX out somewhere.

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Originally Posted by DSJR

Stax is now a "name" with a great reputation and cachet, but IMO that's where it ends .....

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Well, that reputation had to be and was earned.
I understand that they didn't have as much success in the UK as on the Continents (either side of the Pond), which may make the used market somewhat smaller in the UK. But we live in a global economy.

When I look at the pricing of Grados or the rumoured Sennheiser 800, I find even the new STAX not out of line.
You can get a complete 3030 Set (consisting of the new Lamda 303 phones and a very decent amp) for around €650 from Japan, with full warranty. You'd pay that much for the top models from anyone else, as long as you count in a good headphome amp.
Sure, if you opt for the full-bore Omega2/TubeAmp combo, you're in small-car territory, but that's the case with several top-end audio products, isn't it?

For classical and un-plugged music, there's nothing quite like electrostatics.
But I don't want to gush ... ;)

To get back on topic, I just thought I'd pop by and add my name to the list of users more than happy with the TC-7520.

This is my first external DAC so I haven't compared it with any others. The only comparison I have is with the built-in DACs in my Marantz PM6000OSE CD player and my DAB radio. The TC-7520 wins comfortably in both cases. Bass has more clarity, there is more width to the sound and (particularly in the case of the DAB radio) voices sound fuller and richer.

The DAC is connected to my CDP with a Mark Grant Belden digital coax cable and to my DAB radio via a QED optical cable. I also tried connecting the CDP to the DAC with the optical cable but didn't notice any difference.

I also have it connected up to my PC but haven't really used it much in that configuration - not enough to comment on. I have just ordered some new PC components which will hopefully give me a significant upgrade and also quieten my PC down a bit so that the noise of the PC doesn't obscure all the detail in the music so perhaps I'll give it a proper test after upgrading. I also plan to try it in my home studio at some point in the near-future when the pressure's off a little at work.

I joined this forum to get some advice on a completely unrelated matter and ended up reading so much about the Beresford DACs that I decided to give one a try. I'm very happy I spent the money.

Simon.

First let me say how informative the forum is from a newbie to this - but not to Hi-Fi. I've just ordered Stan's latest goodie which should be on it's way to China as i write.
My question is how to rig up with Airport express?
I'll be using Dell laptop running i-tunes and want to stream to 7520 which will then feed into Ming Da valve pre and power amps.
Can anybody explain best way?
Stan's been very helpful and suggested I post in here to sound out the collective wisdom!
Thanks in advance

You'll need a miniTOS to Toslink cable for a start.

The rest is just a case of setting up the AE. With a mac it's straightforward, with Windows it's a bit more challenging using the AE utility.

I use a Squeezebox for the same purpose.

Isn't it just a matter of taking the optical out from the Airport Express to the 7520?

If you do not need to switch between the 7520's analogue output and other analogue sources, you may want to experiment with leaving the valve pre-amp out of circuit - drive the valve power amp directly from the variable output of the 7520 - and run with the iTunes and Windows volume controls set to maximum.

You could go one stage further and drive the power amp from the fixed output of the 7520, but you would be need to be very sure your software digital volume controls in iTunes and in Windows were not likely to mis-behave and deliver a dangerous pulse to your amp and speakers.

The output of the Airport Express would need to be well matched to the input sensitivity of the amp so that you did not need to use more than (say) 20% attenuation or you might hear some degradation in sound.

It would be safer to leave an analogue volume control in circuit - either the one in the pre-amp or that in the 7520.

If I re-rig and drive my Quad Amp from the fixed out of my 7510 relying on the Squeezebox digital volume control, the sound is marginally cleaner, but I lose the ability to control the volume of other digital sources. And, of course, the 7520 is reputed to have better analogue outputs than the 7510, so the difference should be even less that the very marginal difference I hear.

Sorry if that is too much detail - just plug in and enjoy!

China Goove: This set-up is very easy, you will need the "monster cable" set for the airport express ($30), of which you will use the toslink connector and the optionally the power cord extension. Then you will have to set-up the airport express using the CD on your MAC as a client for your wireless network. I-Tunes recognizes the airport express automatically.

At home, I have a similar set-up using a PC, for those that may be interested, which is simple, cheap, has bit-perfect sound quality, and avoids being an Apple slave: I use MediaMonkey or WinAmp as the sound server. You will need a plug-in called "Remote Speakers Output" by Eric Miles ( you can find on WinAmp site for 30$) to connect WinAmp to the Airport Express. The rest is as above.

Alex Dodis