Stax SR-L300 Headphones Review

The Stax SR-L300 have a retro look with big rectangular ear cups. The cups are also covered by an open, grilled design. The band holding the cups together is very wide, and you have a small strap that serves as a headband. Unfortunately, they look better than they feel once you take a closer look; the cups are made out of cheap-feeling and thin plastic. Their cable is also very large, heavy, and cumbersome.

While the padding on the cups isn’t very thick, the SR-L300 are comfortable headphones. They don’t apply too much pressure on your head, and the strap keeps everything stable enough for casual listening. However, the cups are fairly shallow, and some people could feel their ear touching the drivers, which is quite uncomfortable. On the upside, they are quite lightweight due to their plastic build, and they feel more comfortable than they look.

These headphones don’t have an in-line remote or controls on the ear cups.

Surprisingly, for open-back headphones, the Stax SR-L300 are not very breathable. They trap quite a lot of heat under the ear cups, and you will feel a difference in temperature while wearing them. These are obviously not suited for sports, as you will even feel your ears getting warmer during casual listening sessions.

The SR-L300 are not portable headphones. These critical listening headphones require a specialized amplifier/energizer to work. Smartphones and laptops can’t drive these headphones and they are also quite bulky over-ears. These headphones are designed to use at home and should stay in or around the same place.

They do not come with a pouch or a case.

The Stax SR-L300 feel very cheap, especially for their price point. Their build is all made out of plastic. The hinges are thin and feel like a slight impact could break them. The grill pattern of the ear cups feels like it would break pretty easily. Also, the size adjustment slider is very flimsy. Overall, the build quality is very disappointing and doesn’t represent their high price tag. However, their all-plastic design choice might be due to their high operating voltage, but we can't confirm this.

The SR-L300 have a decently tight fit, and the large, flat earcups do not lift or wobble much when shaking your head side to side. However, they still slip around a bit when tilting your head forward or backward, and the cables are very cumbersome. You should use these in a stationary position without moving your head too much, or they will fall off. This shouldn't be an issue during listening sessions.

• Stax headphones
• Manuals

The Stax SR-L300 have decent frequency response consistency. Their bass delivery varies significantly, but the biggest variations were measured in low-bass, which these headphones already lack. Therefore, these variations shouldn’t be that audible since these frequencies are already missing, to begin with. On the upside, they are decently consistent in their treble delivery under 10KHz across multiple reseats.

The bass range of the SR-L300 is mediocre. The LFE (low-frequency extension) is at 59Hz, which suggests that they won't be able to produce low thump and rumbles. Since lack of low-bass is especially hard to hear on headphones, the overall bass range will be light on thump and rumble, but punchy-enough to be adequate for music that doesn't have a lot of sub-bass (like classical music, music recorded before the 1980s, and podcasts/audiobooks). On the upside, mid and high-bass, responsible for the punch of bass and kick and warmth respectively, are well-balanced and follow our neutral target curve well.

The SR-L300 have an excellent mid-range performance. They whole range is flat and is within about 1dB of our target curve, which is great. This will result in accurate reproduction of vocals and lead instruments.

The treble range of the Stax SR-L300 is also excellent. The range is flat and quite even before 5KHz. However, there’s a small bump at 6.5KHz and an even bigger one at 9KHz which could make sibilances (S and T sounds) around these frequencies a bit sharp and piercing for some people. Not everyone will hear this as sibilant as others.

The imaging performance is great. The weighted group delay is at 0.41, which is within good limits. The GD graph also shows that almost the entire group delay response is below the audibility threshold. This ensures a tight bass and a transparent treble reproduction. Additionally, the L/R drivers of our test unit were very well-matched, which is important for the accurate placement and localization of objects (instruments, voice, footsteps), in the stereo image. However, these results are only valid for our unit, and yours may perform differently.

The soundstage performance is good. The PRTF graph shows a good amount of accuracy and pinna interaction/activation. However, there is no notch present around 10KHz. This suggests a soundstage that is relatively natural and large but perceived to be located inside the listener's head. Also, because of their very open enclosure, their soundstage will be perceived to be more open than that of closed-back headphones.

By design, the Stax SR-L300 don’t achieve any isolation at all. All the low rumbling sounds in the bass range, speech in the mid-range or sharp sounds like S and Ts in the treble range will seep into your audio.

The SR-L300 leak a lot, but this is to be expected from open-back headphones like these Stax. This means the significant portion of their leakage is spread between 450Hz and 20KHz, which is a very broad range. The overall level of their leakage is quite loud too. With the music at 100dB SPL, their leakage at 1 foot away averages at 67dB SPL and peaks at 88dB SPL.

These critical listening headphones don’t have a microphone.

They do not have a microphone.

They do not have a microphone.

The Stax SR-L300 don’t have a battery.

There is no dedicated app to enhance your listening experience.

These headphones are not Bluetooth compatible.

Thanks to their wired connection, these headphones don’t have any latency issues and would be suitable to watch video content or gaming.

These headphones need a specialized amplifier/energizer to be used and get audio. We measured them through a Schiit Ragnarok amp and an iFi iESL Pro energizer. Technically, you should be able to route these to your consoles and get audio, but this wouldn’t be common usage.

The Stax SR-L300 technically don’t have a base or a dock that will let you charge the headphones, but you’ll need an energizer to make them work.