Nectar Hive Estat

Then you have a real amp. The energizer is what you hook up to a standard amplifier, 20w RMS or better per channel.

I think it’s still getting better as it plays. Made a slight adjustment to EQ based on the FR of my set as shown in Rajeev’s graphs.

Put in 1 db gain at 300hz with a Q of 1.5, and changed the -2 at 2000 to 3000. I don’t trust EARS-based measurments in the 10hz range. I don’t hear a dip. Cymbals are just fine and metallic, not sandpaper. Definately smoothing out. Letting Roon Radio make selections, Me & Bobby McGee - Janis Joplin version, Behind Blue Eyes, The Who. Starting to show some more guts. Imaging is superb. Soundstage was great on my early test tracks from the Stones’ Satanic Majesties Request.

I’ll be traveling for a day or two, so won’t get to do detailed listening until mid-week.

I do make a marking on the stator if you remove the ear pad. For the Hive it is an H01, H02 etc… For the Pollinator it’s P01 etc… I keep track of the sales and the F response for each one I sell. I’ve gotten things down where it is fairly consistent and there shouldn’t be too much variation to one and to the next. The amp adds another dimension but I don’t think there should be any issues. It can handle a good range of bias with pro bias of 580 being the most common. I have tried normal bias at 240V and it’s interesting to experiment with that as well.

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Thank you. I’m not sure what effect running both the Hive and my old Stax off the same amp at the same time might have, but it does allow me to do some quick AB. The old- normal bias Stax are more bass oriented - after 35+ years of break-in… The Hive has a bigger soundstage. The seem equally fast, and the Hive seems cleaner. Just an initial impression.

What amp are you using? Parallel headphones do double the load capacitance so it will make the amp work harder, so a good powerful amp will be best.

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It’s an older tube model STAX SRM-T1S that @spritzer modified to add mojo. It didn’t seem fazed at all by having both headphones plugged in. Since I’m not an EE, I really don’t know that much. Has GE NOS tubes.

@spritzer says it’s a standard mod he does and moves it closer to the KGSS circuit, and “is something STAX should have done”. But hey, he is the Don of the STAX Mafia. Oh wait. There is no STAX Mafia. :phone:

:phone: That’s an inside joke, I think. It shows up all the time on head-fi.

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Some songs make me turn up the volume. Santana’s Oye Come Va just came on, and bass is way more present with higher volume.

Now ROON radio is feeding me Janis’ Summertime… Gotta listen to the music.

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There now is. @pennstac @dncnexus @nectarsoundnet

There are quite a few STAX experienced folks here. But I think the STAX Mafia - if it existed, which I deny - consists of @spritzer, Kevin Gilmore, and a few others.

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New cartel in town! :rofl:
Jk

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Please send me one of those 4 tube e-stat amps when you make one, be sure to have the letters DEX7 on the back.

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Continuing short impressions. Listening to deadmau5, after some acoustic world music ranging from Calypso, to Pentangle, to Afro-Cuban choices. It’s not sounding bass-shy now, although I’m not comparing it A-B to anything. Still listening via Roon with my revised EQ. Not that loudly, which is a good sign. My room is much quieter - If I closed the windows, I could eliminate the cicadas in the background.

Earlier listening had been done in a noisier environment. I will have to pay attention to things like AC that may mask some of the deeper sound. It will still be days, if not weeks before go through my regular list and give a report.

This weekend, I cut my 92 year old Dad’s hair because he insisted.

Oh deadmau5 is definately showing these things off to good advantage…

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Haha. I cut my 14 year old son’s hair yesterday (or was it Saturday)!

He started his first day of high school today… he was insistent as well. I complain, but I secretly Love that he prefers that I cut his hair (prior to Covid as well).

Glad you’re enjoying your new E-stats. Deadmau5 is one of my son’s favorites.

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Your son is showing good taste.

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Looking forward to your impressions! :smiley:

Welp realized that I am not able to edit a post after so much time, so I guess I will just have to drop my review here!

Nectar Hive Review

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The Beginnings

As I took my first step into electrostatics I was afraid of what I would find. I have gone on my audio journey knowing what I wanted from the beginning. I wanted dynamic driver headphones to pair with tube amps. This has been my path my whole time inside of this audiophile hobby, but as time went on I started to wonder if I should have been more open minded about the headphones I purchased. Planars were a natural step with my curiosity and I demo’d some, primarily the Audeze lineup. I quickly realized that planars weren’t what I was searching for, so I turned my eyes toward the elusive electrostatics. After lots of research, I thought that they would be a waste of my money, since they seemed to be the antithesis of what I normally enjoyed, being bright, airy, and lacking bass punch. But something about the quickness and speed made me lust after them.

I learned from @Gazny about a new “startup”, if you could classify it as such, known as Nectar Sound. They were producing electrostatic headphones out of their garage, but touted the experience of an electrostatic, while keeping the redeeming qualities in dynamics that I wanted, primarily impact and bass. I quickly reached out to Sajeev, the owner to inquire about his headphones, and upon talking to him learned that Bottlehead had created a tube energizer to match his headphones. I quickly pulled the trigger since it seemed to be exactly what I wanted, and with a higher end amp from Bottlehead it would be a good investment for other electrostatic headphones in the future. The price of the headphones are $600.

After a couple of weeks, I was able to get my amp built and the headphones delivered. And now we are here for the review. I will be adding a review of the Bottlehead Tube Energizer to the proper thread, but since I have a lack of reference to know how it compares to other energizers, it will be more informational with less subjective bits.

Disclaimer

This is my first entry into electrostatics and as such I have a limited experience with energizers and electrostatic headphones. I will not be able to compare and contrast to other electrostatic headphones, and as such might be lacking a point of reference that one could attach themselves to. Due to this I have come to the conclusion to reference aspects of these headphones to my dynamic driver headphones, namely the ZMF Auteur and HD 6XX. These will not be a comparison on which is better, rather a way to keep a reference. I know that each headphone has a different use case, and as such they can not be compared fairly without bias. I have not been able to test the Hives on other energizers, so I can’t say with certainty which aspects of these headphones are the headphones themselves and which aspects are those being influenced by the tube energizer. YMMV depending on the energizer used. I will try to update as time goes on when acquiring other energizers and how this influences the sound.

Review

Source

Modius SE -> Bottlehead Tube Energizer -> Nectar Hive
Modius SE -> Asgard 3 -> ZMF Auteur/HD 6XX

Build

These are built well. The headphone is 3D printed, but with a “ABS Like” resin. This is claimed to be more durable than regular 3D resins used. When holding them they do feel quite robust, but I would be careful not to drop them. The headband is made from a nice mesh material, and the earpads are from Brainwaves, although these can be pad rolled, and a user has successfully been able to use ZMF pads on these. I have not tried this yet but will in the future. The connector is a standard STAX 5 pin that was sourced from Moon Audio.

Bass

This is the part that surprised me the most. I have done research on electrostatics and this is where many say they are lacking. This is not the case with the Hives. The bass is well extended, with slight rolloff in the lower frequencies but nothing that is dramatic. Bass has impact, and is well textured. Layering can get slightly muddled in complex bits. When compared to the HD 6XX, it extends much further, but has a similar feeling of slam and impact that the HD 6XX has on the Asgard 3. While not a bass can, it can hold its own and make me forget that this is an electrostatic.

Mids

The mids are an interesting aspect of the sound. I will touch a bit more of the separation but mids are given their own space to breath in the mix. It is not prominent or mid forward, but it feels that way occasionally due to the way things are spaced. Both male and female vocals are nice to listen to, but lack a sort of intimacy that the HD 6XX has, and lacks the liquidity that the Auteurs have. I would describe them as slightly dry in tonality, with the timbre to be too fast. It makes for an interesting experience, but slightly artificial sounding. The vocals could be seen as pretty neutral and real to life, but I am more inclined to favor vocals that are more seductive.

Treble

This was an area that I was a little afraid of. I hear that electrostatics are bright, but that is their redeeming quality. I would say that the Hives are not bright at all. They are airy, but nothing comes across as sibilant. The detail in the highs are very impressive. I think they did a good job in the highs.

Timbre/Tonality

I am not sure if these are the same, but I kind of lump them together personally. I found the timbre to have a very quick decay. This is quite a stark difference to my Auteurs that have a lustful seductive timbre. I can say I enjoy the Auteur more, but I do see the appeal of the faster transients and quicker decay. Tonality wise, the Hive are very clean. Throughout the whole FR, everything seems very clean, precise, and almost sterile? Not too sterile, there is a slight warmth to it, but it’s ever so slight.

Micro/Macrodynamics

I found the dynamics, both micro and macro, to be very good with this headphone. I am not the most well versed in this aspect of sound description, but I didn’t feel anything lacking or noticeable when listening in regards to dynamics.

Soundstage/Imaging/Separation

Soundstage is quite impressive. It is larger than both the Auteurs and HD 6XX. If the HD 6XX is 70% of the soundstage of the Auteurs (which is what I found personally, if you find different, you can just scale the percentages based on what you think), then the Auteurs are 70% of the soundstage of the Hives. They seem to be quite expansive, not artificially so but enough where imaging and separation benefit greatly. Everything in the mix feels like it has its own space to breathe. Mids seem to be placed in the center and away from the music. Imaging is not blobed like the HD 6XX rather a clean sweep across the soundstage. I found this to both have depth and well as width. Due to the soundstage and good imaging, separation of instruments, noices, voices are very well defined. This is one of my favorite qualities of this headphone.

Quirks

These are not without their quirks though. One thing to be aware of is the ability for the stator to stick with changes in pressure. If you take off your headphones while they are energized it will create a sticking phenomenon with the stator and you will have to unplug the headphones and touch the 5 pins to get it to de-energize and unstick. This can be annoying if not known, but I have since learned that when I am trying to take off the headphones, I should unplug the headphones, de-energize, then take them off. This seems to be the best method I have found.

Conclusion

Overall I have been quite impressed with the Nectar Hives. I think it has been a good entry into the world of electrostatics and these have made me appreciate the electrostatic characteristics. I am now interested in how the other electrostatics are, and am looking forward to trying some offerings from STAXs in the future.

I don’t like them as much as I do my tube amps and dynamics, and the ZMF Auteur and soon ZMF Verite Closed will stay as my go-to favorites and headphones I reach for the most, but I think that the electrostatics, and the Hives will have a place in my collection when I am looking for a different flavor than what I am normally used to. They aren’t my favorite in my collection, and probably electrostatics never will be, but they have found a niche part to reside in my collection, and they aren’t going anywhere anytime soon.

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Very nice review. I’m taking my time listening to my set. I can compare them with my older standard bias STAX, but I would love to be able to listen to a good set of modern STAX like the L-700s or to be fairer in terms of price even SR-L500s.

One reason I’m taking my time is that I think the bass has been improving over time. While they should not require burn in (per manufacturer) I think there is an advantage. I know there was with my Hifiman HE-560 planar magnetics.

One thing that struck me when I got my STAX tube amp was how much different and better my STAX sounded than with the transformer boxes. I have an SRD-6 that I had been using. I’m almost tempted to take the time to hook it up to my vintage Sansui amp and take a listen. Except that I think I have only standard bias. The Hive can play on standard bias, but will not be as loud, and my have a slightly altered FR. I’m not going to look for an SRD-7 just so I can try it out.

If anybody has either newer phones or an SRD-7 or even a solid state SRM, I’d take care of it during an audition for comparison.

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Very informative review. Great stuff @dncnexus.

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The Hive is just getting better the more I listen. I hope to spend some decent time this weekend listening. Today I looked on Tidal for some audio test tracks. I find that I can hear the 20 hz tone, but need to turn up the volume slightly. I don’t know if it’s the headphone or my ears that are rolling off down here. 30 Hz and 40 hz tones are a piece of cake. On the high end, I suspect it’s my 67 year old ears - Solid to 13Khz, down a bit at 14khz, a bit more at 15khz, and barely audible at 16khz - I’m not turning up the volume too far on any single tone. I suspect it’s not a good idea.

Listened a bit to some “audio test” music, which I generally didn’t like. Way too much electronica. Chesskey makes a nice audio test album with real music. Tried some of the playlists in the audio test thread here. @reallyoldcob and I have clearly different tastes, but his notes were useful.

Right now I’m listening to @Resolve’s recent suggestion in the Jazz thread, the Alboran Trio, Meltemi. Just wonderful listening. Pinpoint spacial location, piano sounds like a real piano, bass technique is excellent - you can hear as the bass player goes in and out of a solo, changing the finger technique to either stand out or blend in. Drums are as clean as can be, with well defined and never-annoying cymbal.

As I listen more, I’ve backed off my initial EQ thoughts. I’d saved my earlier setting as Hive, now I backed them off about 50% and have it saved as Half Hive. But I’m also using without EQ a lot. I don’t know why my initial impression was of weak bass. It clearly is not weak at all.

I’m convinced that my pair, despite what Rajeev says about not needing a break-in period have gotten much better. @DEXCOM7, @dncnexus, were you sharing a pair? Did either of you get it new? I’d be interested in your thoughts on this.

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The pair @DEXCOM7 used originally was mine before my amp was ready. That was brand new. After he shipped them to me with 2 weeks of usage he also bought a new pair. Not sure how it changed since I have had it after it was ran for awhile.

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@pennstac

This was my experience as well, I would get in calls with @TylersEclectic and talk about how the headphones would start getting better and better. They do need some time to get relaxed, at least, that was my experience.

I do have to say that I now own the L700 mkII and I am torn apart. :rofl:

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