Stax availability in US?

[tentimestwenty]

I've been trying to reach the US distributor of Stax , Yamas Inc. but there is no answer and no reply by e-mail. Are they still in business? Is it posible to buy stax from japan?

[Emooze]

Try Audiocubes II or Price Japan

Unless you were looking for a brick-and-mortar place

[Skin]

what are you looking for?

[tentimestwenty]

Omega.

[Currawong]

There's also kuboten.com if you want to buy stuff from Yahoo Auctions (or new).

[Skin]

hopefully you mean the O2 since they havent produced the SR-Omega for over 15 years.

If you do mean O2 then the cheapest place to get it new is imported through eifl. Yes they're legit. Just be forewarned that if you have any problems with the headphone while its under warranty you have to ship it back to eifl in japan. I've heard their customer service is rather good for what its worth, basically its just the negative of an increased round trip shipping fee.

If you want a US version, which differs in no other way than a black outer cup vs silver and a US warranty which i think is longer than the Japanese version [2 or 3 years vs 1 year], then you can get one through woo audio or moon audio, which are both Stax dealers, but they run closer to $2400.

[2deadeyes]

Don't forget to check audiogon - there are good deals to be had at times.

[tentimestwenty]

how does the warranty work though? would the US distributor be able to cover them or do the repairs. spending this much on headphones i would like some piece of mind.

[tentimestwenty]

Originally Posted by Skin

hopefully you mean the O2 since they havent produced the SR-Omega for over 15 years.

If you do mean O2 then the cheapest place to get it new is imported through eifl. Yes they're legit. Just be forewarned that if you have any problems with the headphone while its under warranty you have to ship it back to eifl in japan.

If you want a US version [which differs in no other way than a black outer cup vs silver and a US warranty] then you can get one through woo audio or moon audio, which are both Stax dealers, but they run closer to $2400.

Omega 727II is what i meant.

[Skin]

Originally Posted by tentimestwenty

Omega 727II is what i meant.

STAX SRM-727 HIGH OUTPUT HEADPHONE AMP (BLACK) - elusivedisc

Stax Headphones

The above are US versions, if you get a Japanese version you'll need a stepdown transformer. Same warranty rules i stated above apply, no domestic and you'd have to ship it back to japan. And same shorter length [1 year Japan version 2 years domestic]

If you dont mind used i'd certainly say it would be worth searching for. They usually go for a little over $1000 used. For the money you're paying new you could get a superior Headamp KGSS.

[spritzer]

If the phones should should break (very rare but does happen) then the repairs are handled by the distributor. There is not much to it though as they just swap out the offending parts for new ones.

I would also rather go with the older Mk1 SR-007 and a SRM-717 amp as they are simply less colored and more linear then the new stuff.

[greggf]

We called yamasinc about a week and a half ago. They answered the phone and seemed fine, business-wise.

As sort of an aside, though, they said that it would take them 4 to 6 weeks to get a Stax Omega II Mk.2 / 007TII system into the country; they were out of stock. A quick check of the big dealers - Goodwin's, Jerry Raskin's, TTVJ, Elusive Disc - found one (black faceplated) Omega system in the US, at Elusive. They said at Elusive that it would take them 8 weeks to get a silver faceplated version.

Is this the normal state of supply for the Omega II in this country?

My experience with Koji at eifl - a nice guy and a great outfit, at least in my one experience with them a few years ago - is that he can get one to you at a better price much, much faster than the authorized distributor. The only problem (or not, as discussed above) is the warranty situation.

Isn't it asking for trouble if the authroized distributor is out of stock and 99.9% of all dealers never have any in stock?!

[spritzer]

There might be some other reasons in this case but in general the Omega production has just about kept up with demand. It has always been easier to get sets from Japan though and the most I've had to wait was 10 days or something like that.

[The Monkey]

I have found yama's inc. to be consistently unresponsive. Others have better experiences. It seems that phone is a better way to contact them.

[greggf]

Yes, yama's said that the Omegas are "incredibly popular." That production barely keeps up with demand explains it all.

After hearing the Omegas, I understand.