Week ago, got my very first set of Stax earspeakers.
Yes, kind of vintage,(still paying off Med School), but MAN.
These are the most gloriously awesomest "cans" I've EVER heard.
And I have some other very nice 'phones.
 
Here's how good they are;
I can't read while I am listening to them.
 
All my other cans, I can generally read while I am listening to music through my headphones,(if I'm not laying back to do some focussed listening....)
But with these, I hear so much, the details are SO VERY CLEAR, hear things I've not heard in my recorded music SO WELL, that I can't do anything but LISTEN.
 
They're a pair of SRX Mark-3's with an SRD-7.
In pristine condition, minimal wear to the pads, all the hardware is shiny and clean.
 
I wouldn't care if they had scuffs on them, they just   sound    WONDERFUL.
 
Listening to Mickey Hart's stuff on a set of headphones will tell you pretty much what they can do.
These earspeakers make everything that Hart is doing completely audible, without anything being overdone or harshly pointed.
 
Frickin' awesome.
 
 
 
 
I know, I know, there's a STAX THREAD.
 
But celebrating something this cool, knowing that many of you other guys have had similar epiphanies yourselves...well, I just had to jump up and down out in the open for a minute instead of being merely reply number 15943 on a 1063 page thread.
Which is way cool too, don't get me wrong, but....well....ya know.
 
 

 
 

I demurred on the purchase of one of the alpha Stax because I bought a Stax SR3n rebuilt with a 5n diaphragm unit.   Using it with a 300b amp and a Stax SRD 7b trannie adaptor, it just sounds great. Enormous definition, liquid,  great sound stage,  and can listen to it forever without fatigue.
 
I may someday try to hear the alphas at a meet, but difference between $92 I paid for the SR3n/5n with a transformer and the thousands for the alpha rigs makes me scratch my head that the point of diminishing returns must be pretty tight.
 
 

ZOMG!
 
ZOMG!!! Forget about reading Mr DogMeat, these Stax sound so good I cannot feel any burning sensation at all!!!!!!!
 

That portable stat amp was perhaps a shade too powerful.

Either that, or he was listening to "The Firebird", by Stravinsky.
The definition on those Stax is just THAT good.
 
snicker.

oh, and I was listening to an older performance by the London Symphony of Mozart's Requiem in D last night......
 
The tiny little miss-cue by one of the altos was AUDIBLE, when I'd barely noticed it before.
 
That just tickled me, for some reason, instead of bugging me.
Perhaps it was delight in how well these perform.
 
 
yes.
I can't imagine paying the massive amount of money discussed in that Video by Jude. I'd never get the loans paid.
I got my Stax rig for just under $200.
And get to eat more than ramen for the next year.
 

The SRX III with SRD6 was my first Stax rig.  I still have one set working and another with burned out diaphragms. They are great with music where bass isn't an issue but because of their bass roll-off get tiresome on some pop/rock.  The transformers can sound pretty good  but you get more ambience and detail with amps.  The Stax SRM1Mk2 is a favorite old amp around here.