I traded one of my Bottlehead preamps modded to a headamp for this Stax Electret headphone system from my buddies at Decibel Audio .What is this?how much did it cost new?Have you ever seen one?It actually sounds very good.It connects directly to the speaker outputs of a an amplifier and volume is controlled via the amplifiers volume pot.I connected it to my old Fisher 400 and enjoyed some good clear tunes last night,so I'll most likely hang on to it.I just want to know if I got the best of this deal or not.Thanks

It's a Stax SR-40 or SR-44. I can't remember if the phones were different or just numbered differently (it may be the SR-40 is the phone, and the system is the SR-44, but you can check Stax's website -- someone recently posted a link to their history files).

I owned the SR-44 from 1976 to 1990. These were made by Stax to offer electrostatic-type sound in a cheaper setup. The electret condenser design required the full output of a power amp to sound right, and they sounded far better than just about anything else available during that time period except for the Stax electrostatic phones, which were, and are, much, much more expensive.

My memory is that the bass was good, but not exceptionally deep. But it was clean, fast, and tight. The mids were glorious, and the highs were bright and incredibly detailed, perhaps too much so. They were fatiguing to wear for a long time, partly due to the detail, but most of that was due to the fit. They went on your ears, not around them, and the pleather covers on the driver modules promoted more heat and sweat than even MDR-V6 phones. Soundstaging was so-so, but you could hear everything in the recording.

I sold mine because of the amp situation. I had these originally running off of the second set of speaker outputs of a GAS Son of Ampzilla (forget the name, it was SOTA for solid state at the time). When the GAS died, it could not be repaired except for rebuilding at the cost of a second mortgage, and so I got another amp, but it had/has only one set of speaker connections. While you can run speakers through the Stax connector box, the spring loaded connections were made to accommodate lamp cord, and the box itself severely colored the sound through the speakers. Part of the problem is the cheap internal wiring and the switch quality. I know of at least one person who rebuilt the box, rewiring it all with audiophile cables from the 1980s, and changing the switch, but the cost of doing so was beyond reason for me.

I had Koss Pro4AA before that, which were SOTA dynamic studio monitoring phones, unrivaled except for electrostatics. But heavy leaden sounding things, still in production but laughable now. Sennheiser had just introduced their portable models to the US. I replaced the Stax with a pair of MDR-V6 phones, which had just come out. The Sony's bass was deeper, but the sound didn't compare otherwise, and the highs were (and are) shrill and fatiguing.

I just saw some boxed old stock Stax SR-34 phones in a local store, and if anyone is interested in them, contact me off-line and I'll tell you were to go or call. Never heard those, but I'm pretty sure they were the precursors to the 40/44 series.

I should look before I write.

These are the SR-44s (SRD-4 adapter and SR-40 headset). The SR-34 came out afterwards.

These links are from a Google search on "Stax SR-44":

STAX products history
... Products name, Brochure, manual. 1938, Foundation. 1950, Stax brand ?uHigh frequency
style condenser ... Electret type Earspeakers, SR-44, 1976, A class DC type power ...
www.stax.co.jp/ENG/History.html - 53k - Cached - Similar pages
STAX?????
The summary for this Japanese page contains characters that cannot be correctly displayed in this language/character set.
www.stax.co.jp/JP/Products-Hist.html - 49k - Cached - Similar pages
?????????
The summary for this Japanese page contains characters that cannot be correctly displayed in this language/character set.
www.hoops.ne.jp/~asd123asd/k-sys.htm - 27k - Cached - Similar pages
The Electrostatic Headphone Circuit/Manufacturers/Stax
... model, from / until, price. SR-44 (SR-40 + SRD-4), 1975 / ??? SR-54 (SR-50 ... August
2001): I intend to buy a Stax SR 34 pro headphone set incl. packing. What is ...
http://www.audiocircuit.com/9111-esh...cial/Stax-STA/ 9111CMSTA.htm - 44k - Cached - Similar pages
The Electrostatic Headphone Circuit/Manufacturers/Pictures
Commercial Electrostatic Headphones Brand: Stax Pictures: Headphone Systems (electret).
SR-44 (SR-40 + SRD-4). SR-54 (SR-50 + SRD-4). SR-34 (SR-30 + SRD-4). SR-84 ...
www

just out of curoisoty-do electret type cans require the same type of high voltage polarizing voltage as electrostatics ?
And if so,is an electroststic amp compatible ?
Reason I ask is-maybe the sound could be improved with a better amp,maybe one of the Gilmore designs

They have a constant charge and need high voltage. I know that the electret condenser models could NOT be connected to the Stax amps for electrostatic phones; the DIN connector was different, I'm pretty sure, and I remember there were other reasons (I did explore that a long time ago). You'd have to check with Stax and some experts on what options, if any, are available. Those links seemed like the best place to start looking.

For comparison's sake, for the SR-34 (the successor). I believe the SR-44 was on the list before the 34 came out.

Stereophile 1993 Recommended Components
Headphones & Headphone Accessories

A

Cary Audio Design CAD-300SEI: $3395
Sennheiser Orpheus HE 90/HEV 90: $12,900
Sennheiser HE 60/HEV 70 headphone amplifier: $1795
Stax SR-Omega headphones: $4500
Stax SR-Lambda Pro Signature: $2000 *
B
Etymotic Research ER-4S: $330
HeadRoom Supreme portable headphone amplifier: $399 $$$
Home HeadRoom headphone amplifier: $599
Koss ESP/950: $799.99 $$$
Melos SHA-1 headphone amplifier: $1095 *
Sennheiser HD580: $349 $$$
Stax Lambda Pro 3: $1200 *
Stax Lambda Pro Classic: $850
C
Grado SR-60 headphones: $69 $$$
Stax SR-34 Professional: $200 $$$ *
D
Beyerdynamic DT990 Pro: $159 *
Sennheiser HD540 II: $199 *
Sennheiser HD560 II: $289 *
Sennheiser IS 850 Digital Infrared Wireless Headphones: $1395

I don't know how much a Bottlehead preamp modded to a headamp cost, but those staxs are worth about $100.