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Originally Posted by Carl
In my opinion, new Stax came out with the Omega II because the original Omega had far too small a profit margin and unacceptable reliability. It was forced onto the market to compete with the Orpheus. You can see in the Omega II's design lots of little shortcuts (not necessarily of the bad kind), like PCB stators that have been used to drive the production cost down. So Stax moved from the Omega 1 to Omega 2 for a reason. But what reason is for them to move over to an Omega 3? They've got sales, they've got margins.
In any case, older Staxes (SR-X, SR-5N, Lambda Signature, etc) really aren't that far behind the Omega II. It's the amplification that varies the most across the price range more than the headphones. |
There will be an Omega 3 in the future for the simple reason is that they can do better. This is the aim of any company that isn't just in it for the money. In most small scale manufacture the motto is simple. If you can do better you do it, profit margins be damned!
The older Stax phones are better then nearly every thing out there but the O2's are much, much better in my system at least. The truth is that you have to own the Omega and live with it for a long time to get to know it. Optimal pads position, the right headband pressure, the right position over the ears, a very good amp and a lot of good silver wires in the system. For me it was the right amp and the correct headband pressure that sealed the deal. Until then I was never fully satisfied with them. The bass was slightly anemic and would almost disappear at times.
