Jeg skrev en anmeldelse av Stax SR-L700 på reddit denne helgen, kopierer den inn her i tilfelle noen har interesse av det Har også noen sammenligninger med hodetelefoner jeg har/hadde etter jeg fikk dem. Dette er en krysspost fra den store hodetelefontråden, da jeg ble anbefalt at den hørte hjemme her.
Introduction
I've been living with the L700 for a few weeks now and have been using it for at least a few hours every day, so now I feel confident in stating my opinion on the headphone. I did get this headphone at a pretty big discount, see my impressions post from a few weeks back for more exact detail on that.
Build quality and feel
This headphone is very much a not broken? don't fix! type design. For what it's worth the plastic doesn't feel that bad, and I find it perfectly adequate on the much cheaper L300, but for this price I would expect the headband to be metal at the very least.
Headband is very comfortable, but it is still slightly too narrow for me, I've considered removing the plastic piece that prevents the inwards swivel to mitigate this issue, so there is an option for my fellow melonheads. The padding on the headband feels nice and distributes the rather low weight of the headphone just fine, I never feel exhausted from having it on.
Earpads are much better than on the L300 but are still slightly shallow and my ears do touch the metal mesh of the headphone still, but it isn't annoying me unless i am actively aware of it. I do have SoCas spacing adapters, but these really don't work when the headband isn't wide enough already.
Overall it doesn't feel like it will break randomly, every part of the headphone feels durable enough that it can last many years and still look as new if used at home and treated well, especially since the plastic doesn't chip at all.
Bass
When I first got this headphone it felt like the bass extension was absolutely amazing, none of my music felt lacking in subbass, it was not until sometime later when I started doing sine wave sweeps that i realized this headphone falls off a cliff after 40-50hz. This was however not noticeable at all in most music, even songs like Angel, Why so serious?, and Untitled A2 sound amazing despite the obvious lack of any real subbass. I want to try making a mod to seal the front volume and test the bass response afterwards, but that's for another time.
While extension might be lackluster the texture is absolutely amazing, every bass note has this clear layered nature which makes everything happening in the sub-200 frequencies very easily observed. Bass level throughout the mid and upper bass ranges is very well balanced, there is no semblance of the ~80-100hz bump that I find in the L300.
Bass is incredibly fast, and bass notes do not linger at all, I have found that I like songs with intentional reverb in the mix with these headphones, probably because it never sounds overdone due to the fast decay. Some will find this fast decay very unnatural, and lacking in impact, which is understandable. I personally really enjoy the bass presentation and would just wish for better extension (I would not complain about more impact, but sadly physics are a thing...).
Midrange
The midrange on this headphone is hard to dislike, it tilts slightly upwards from the bass, leading to what I percieve as a slightly forward nature. There is no honk/shoutiness present here like in the L300, but I still find the 1-2k area ever so slightly fatiguing over very long periods of time. The midrange is mainly a problem for very busy metal where electric guitars just have too much bite. for more relaxed music the midrange is fine, not perfect still.
Upper mids are very nice, I really enjoy female vocals on this. It reminds me a lot of the Ether Flow, even and slightly elevated. Unlike the L300 the L700 can also do the mid-treble transition without sounding wack.
The midrange also has a really spot on timbre, piano and vocals especially sound extremely natural and realistic. Some would probably characterize the mids as a little too dry, but I find it far less dry than most BA IEMs, such as my MD+.
Treble
The biggest compliment I feel like I can give is that the treble is very much like the Ether Flow's, but more neutral/less prominent. Treble is very smooth and extends well, I detect no sibilance or fatigue from the treble. For my tastes the treble is ever so slightly too drawn back, but most people will find this either just right or a little too much I think.
Treble, like the bass, is very fast. Cymbals sound right in tone but feel like they decay too fast, the lingering tone of a cymbal is something I really enjoy, and this headphone just doesn't do that. The treble has a lot of air and feels extremly ethereal and out of head.
The treble is extremely detailed, but this is somewhat of a detriment in metal music, especially in combination with the slightly dry midrange, which makes everything sound compressed and just kinda awful, for well mastered music this is of course not a problem, but nevertheless this is a very real consideration for the metalheads considering getting this headphone.
Staging and imaging
If you placed the L700 on my head and I for some reason was not aware, I would not believe I was listening to a headphone. Not because the stage is huge or anything, but because the presentation feels so ethereal and intangible. Every sounds just pops out and sort of happens, very unique, unlike dynamic and planar headphones it just doesn't feel like the transducer sitting next to your ear is making the sound.
The height of the stage helps with the above mentioned effect. things happen in a very 3-dimensional space, where depth, width, and height are all very obvious.
The actual soundstage is pretty large, width is slightly better than Ether Flow, while depth is much better. The depth of the soundstage is probably my favorite part of this headphone, especially because it complements the imaging so well, and helps with the three-dimensionality that I mentioned earlier.
Imaging is good, precise within the space given by the soundstage. The image never feels congested and everything is well separated and layered, making everything happening in the music very obvious, and helping with focusing on specific instruments or sounds in the mix.
Other
Transient response is very good, no congestion combined with the fast decay and you've got a winner.
Timbre is the best I've ever heard, very natural, only lacking in the bass department where it just isn't visceral enough.
The plastic construction means the headphone creaks a little when you adjust it on your head, but never in use.
VS. Ether Flow
L700 has worse extension but is less thick and bloated in the mid-upper bass. EFO bass is more enjoyable on a lot of music, but ultimately less accurate.
Lower midrange are complete opposites, where L700 is slightly accentuated, EFO is slightly attenuated. EFO is ultimately more laid back and forgiving on poor recordings. I prefer the EFO for poor metal recordings due to this. Upper mids are very similar, perhaps a little more forward on the EFO.
Treble is similar except the EFO is quite a bit more accented, while the L700 skirts more to the side of neutral. Treble characteristics such as decay and air feel very similar, these headphones are both free from any real peaks in the treble.
Staging and imaging is overall better on the L700, although some people might prefer the thicker more intimate tone of the EFO.
VS. L300
Better extension in the bass, doesn't have the same midbass hump that the L300 has. L300 has much more midrange energy, and strikes me as shouty/honky and thin. The L300's treble has some fucky stuff going on in the 5k and 7k range that is very evident when doing a sine wave sweep. The L300 is the first headphone to have a treble that I actually found fatiguing, it's just way too peaky.
Staging and imaging is somewhat similar, the L300 also has the feeling of everything popping out at you, but has a very diffuse imaging bearing more semblance to poorly placed speakers than headphones.
What the L300 does have going for it is the insane detail and layering you get for the price, but tonally it just feels wrong after a while.
VS. K1000
Ya boi got his hands on a K1000 recently, don't take this impression too seriously as I have not listened extensively to the K1000 yet.
K1000 has a larger soundstage (duh) and slightly more diffuse imaging, but still much better than the L300. Bass extension on the K1000 is slightly better than L700, going about 10hz further down before rolling off. It has far more slam in the bass but is not as textured.
K1000 has a very euphonic (read: thicker) midrange compared to the L700, but timbre feels slightly worse. K1000 doesn't have as even response as L700 in the treble but is not the mess that is L300.
I only compared to headphones I currently have or had the chance to A/B with. I no longer have the EFO, but did compare to the L700 when I had it.
Conclusion
For this price, if you only listen to well mastered music where the bass response is not the most important I have not heard a better headphone, absolutely incredible piece of kit. Caveat being that it just really doesn't do poorly recorded music well at all, in which case you would be way better off with an Audeze/Hifiman in this price range. This headphone has such a natural tone and presentation that is akin to nothing else I've ever heard. Personally I love it, but some people may not like it (I would recommend u/ischa's SR007A review for more insight in the presentation, as he is far more eloquent than I will ever be).
I've never been as happy with a headphone as I am with this one.
Jeg har hørt lcd4 på chord hugo og det var helt konge!
