Poll: Sony R10 Vs Stax

[PC Corp]

Although team Sony is starting to dominate this forum, some members are still not happy, especially the lack of "respect" from Stereophile.
Given that you have a good source and enough money, which one will you get??
Sony R10 King or Stax (any Stax you want considering you can order it from Japan for 50% of the US retail price.)

I'll go for the Stax personally based on other people's review.

[KR...]

Stax

[Vertigo-1]

I think this is a pretty lopsided poll that's pretty pointless because:

1. You can count the number of R10 owners, past or present, that are either on Headwize or Headfi, on one hand.

2. Of those owners, past and present, I'm the only one that has actively bothered to mention over and over how the R10s sound, much less compare them to other headphones.

3. See any professional reviews on them available to the masses? Not in the last decade last time I checked. The R10s have been in production since 1988. Which was why I was bitchin' about Stereophile...you'd think they would've gotten their hands on one by now.

4. Stax as a company is a pretty well known as the top of the tops of headphone makers. Any one of their headphone can live like a lord off of just the company name distinction. The R10, on the other hand, is almost like a ghost product in Sony's lineup, and it is only one headphone. It's not even mentioned on Sony's own site. I'll bet not even some of Sony's own employees know the R10s exist.

But hey, I just enjoy actively talking about headphones and debating them, and welcome open critcism...I certainly don't feel a need to defend the R10s, they're very great headphones and any owner of 'em knows that. And I understand others would already rather go back to their music and luxuriate in beautiful sound rather than chit chat about the tools used to reach that goal, like I was pretty tempted to when I first got the R10s. But, I dig this community, and if I can even convince one more person to join in on the fun of being king, I'll gladly talk about the R10s.

Anyways, Stax vs. The R10 King? Hmm, somebody I was talking to last night put it the best. If you want to hear 0's and 1's, go with Stax. If you want to hear beautiful music, get yourself an R10 and get ready to float on white fluffy clouds of music.

[RickG]

Originally posted by Vertigo-1


Anyways, Stax vs. The R10 King? Hmm, somebody I was talking to last night put it the best. If you want to hear 0's and 1's, go with Stax. If you want to hear beautiful music, get yourself an R10 and get ready to float on white fluffy clouds of music.

I'm not hearing any 0's and 1's now Vert, and the music sounds quite beautiful to me.

[Vertigo-1]

I'm not hearing any 0's and 1's now Vert, and the music sounds quite beautiful to me.

The 0's and 1's joke was to say how revealing Staxs are.

Yet another point...how many people have actually heard both Staxs of some sort and R10s before? markl is to be the newest R10 owner...but I believe he may have never heard Staxs before. I have owned Staxs before so my above point comes from ears on experience. The previous R10 owner, mrbeanyohan, had the Omega IIs + tube amp that it comes with and R10s + Holmes Powell DCT-1, and also believed the R10s were more musical, with Staxs being too overly revealing.

Interestingly, both me and mrbeanyohan pursued R10s as the last available alternative after trying Staxs, and being disappointed with the sound of Staxs.

This could just go to show these two headphones are geared toward more distinct tastes in music...if one listens to a lot of vocalistic songs, the R10s are probably going to be the better choice. If one prefers classical music, Staxs are going to be better. I'm sure my music tastes will sound decent on Staxs and it'll even be a very revealing experience, but I'll probably enjoy them even more on the R10s. I know mrbeanyohan had similar music tastes to mine.

[shivohum]

Darth Nut has heard the R10, the HP-1, and of course numerous Staxes. According to http://headwize.powerpill.org/ubb/sh...num=1&tid=1162, he wrote:

"Yohan: you once asked me which headphone I would get for myself if the were no electrostatic headphones. THIS IS IT!"

with reference to the Grado HP-1.

And he also wrote:

"And yes, I have auditioned the Sony MDR-R10 before: it's not bad, but nowhere as good as the HP-1s."

So it seems that in his estimation, the Omega II > HP-1 > R10. Just another opinion for people to consider.

[Vertigo-1]

Yes, but Darth Nut did only merely audition the R10s...I'm assuming he didn't get to use it at home with his extremely killer source. I'm also wondering what amp he used...both Yohan and I tried/used/use the R10s with a high end tube amp, which really furthers the way they sound.

I agree about the HP-1s though. In a world where there were no electrostatics, the HP-1s would serve quite nicely in their place. But I do not feel the HP-1s are better than the R10s. To me the R10s surpass them to the point where I'm even willing to bypass the normally hard to pass ideology of a top headphone simply sounding different from the next top headphone. I believe very firmly in that ideology when talking about the RS-1, HD-600, AKG-K501, the usual batch of top headphones...I am honestly hard pressed to choose a victor, only a preference. But include the R10s in there and all of a sudden there is a definite victor, in my ear's humble opinion. But then any deaf person could say, given their price, is that a huge surprise? It simply is to the R10s detriment that they are of the dynamic headphone class, where headphones typically cost well below $1000. It's probably more sensible to directly compare the R10s upwards against electrostatics, rather than other dynamic headphones, given their price range. It has been 13 years now...maybe Sony should bring down the price. If the R10s were $1000, they would be selling like hot cakes.

[PC Corp]

hi Vertigo-1,
did you really use a sound card with your Stax??
You have a really good SACD play now. Should you give them another chance?

ah, $1k is a good price for me.
No now, I mean 2 years later.

oh, I just wonder maybe we can get the R10's from Japan for less than $1.5k.

[shivohum]

Vertigo, do you feel that the R10 only reveals its true potential with a really killer amp (e.g. Holmes-Powell)? If so, what do you think the minimum level of amp is that's needed for the R10 to show its stuff?

Just to keep presenting alternative views , here are some things mrbeanyohan had to say about the R10.

First from http://headwize.powerpill.org/ubb/sh...fnum=1&tid=283 :

"Using Discman first, the Grado WINS out a lot, the tremble of the MDR-R10 sounds harsh, and the transparency lose out to Grado."

"Using the Holmes Powell headphone amp, the MDR-R10 stills wins but MDR-R10 is not as transparent as the RS-1. Almost sound identical, the MDR-R10 wins in the fact that it can produce sweet clear detail and tremble."

"MDR-R10 bass is as good as RS-1 but better in tautness. In conclusion, keep Grado RS-1 - THEY ARE THE BEST, MOST BANG FOR THE BUCK HEADPHONE."

And from http://headwize.powerpill.org/ubb/sh...fnum=1&tid=271:

"So Grado wins in the bass and Sony wins in other areas. MDR-R10 is almost like the Sennheiser HD-600 but its warmer, sweeter sounding and STRONGER, tauter bass."

"However, the best system is I think Holmes Powell headphone amp and the Grado RS-1 or Sony MDR-R10, depending whether you prefer better low end or mid end and high end."

So at least to mrbeanyohan it definitely does not seem as if the R10 is clearly ahead of the pack if it is worse than the RS-1 in some ways and in other ways sounds like the HD-600...

[shivohum]

However, it's not as if I agree with Darth about everything. In http://headwize.powerpill.org/ubb/sh...num=1&tid=1162 he writes:

"In 1994, Corey Greenberg (the outspoken reviewer from which mag? TAS?) compared the HP-1 + Melos SHA-1 with the Stax Lambda Signature + SRM-T1, and concluded that the HP-1 was more transparent and accurate. I totally agree with his findings."

I think I would disagree, as I own the Stax Lambda Pros, which are actually an earlier and supposedly less accurate version than the Signatures, and I think that in terms of delicacy, speed, transparency, and finesse the Staxes beat the HP-2s at least... In terms of impact it's a different matter though.