O2 experts: candidates for reviewing the Illusion

Dear O2 experts

I am currently getting rid of my electrostat rig made of a Stax SR-303 powered by a full size amp Manley Stingray through the Illusion transformer box, that probably most of you have already heard of.

Though I very much like the sound of this combo, I know the bass are missing much weight which translate into a somehow excesively clear sound (highs appears much enlightened, though not aggressive). Don’t get me wrong, bass extension is trully impressive with this system (goes much much further than SRM-313 for example), but it still lacks weight. You can ear bass, but not feel them.

Since upgrading to O2 is not a viable option for me today, and considering some recent reflection on my own approach of the music, I have decided to downgrade my system. I use a pair of HD650 at the moment, and will soon have them balanced, which should bring me enough qualities to fully enjoy them.

The point is that I am definitely considering keeping my Illusion transformer box, in case I decide to come back to electrostatics one day (having the O2 in mind but up to 5 or 10 years from now). For many reasons that I can detail later, I have never been really interested in buying those expensive aftermaket amp (Headamp, Singlepower, RudiStor, etc…).

However, for the sake of this hobby and of course in my particular interest and that of the head-fi community, I also would like to challenge those aftermarket amp and find out if they are trully the best way to drive these outstanding earphones.

For this purpose, I would very much appreciate if any O2 owner and expert could help me out and accept to review my Illusion transformer box and tell me its true potential when associated with some top reference full size amps in order to drive the O2.

I feel this can be a really challenging excercice that will help us all to explore new horizons to drive this true world class reference headphones….

Anyone interested please pm me.

PD: for practical reasons, I am not willing to send my Illusion out of Europe.

Wow, I was not expecting so much enthusiasm for this review...

Thank you Bastet for your kind words. I trully beleive this can benefit a lot of us, though:

Mmm, Are you sure of this... I understood they just stopped exporting, but that the Illusion was still available for the japanese market. That would be very sad news.

C'mon... Any qualified european owner of an aftermarket amp willing to give it a try !!

Thanks

Thank you for your interest Spritzer, I was expecting you to show up in this thread.

I believe you qualify as one of the best knowledgeable headfiers when it comes to driving the O2.

My main concern is not VAT (declared value can always be lowered), but safe shipment. For this reason, I feel much better if it is not stopped by third parties custom agents. Lower risk of beeing lost or damaged due to wrong handling. The less people handle it, the better I feel

Even for the local japanese market . This is really bad news for Stax owners.

Surprisingly, the Illusion never got much of attention but still people are paying insane money to get some Stax SRD7-mk2/pro adapters .

I will post some pics later in this thread.

Some pics as promised....



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KGSS or KGBH owners (even SinglePower ES1 or Egmont Signature), this is the one chance to investigate new horizon and opportunities to drive your O2.

I would obviously very much prefer the reviewer to be a long date Stax aftermarket amp owner with extensive knowledge when it comes to driving the O2.

I do accept any suggestion though

Thank you for your interest

Krmathis and Spritzer, unfortunately, it looks as if you are both out of geografical range for me...

Let's see how it turns out.