[spritzer]

Well I found another Stax SRM-T2 for sale now in the UK

SRM-T2

And this one will ship worldwide.

 

[RickG]

Does anyone know what this unit sold for new when it was in production?

 

[grinch]

holy cow. as far as i understand, this amp is as rare as they get and the price should get pretty high on it. wow, just wow.

 

[ServinginEcuador]

The other question is how hard/expensive is it to switch the transformer over to a 115/60 input? If someone here wanted it, this question becomes relevant. Hirsch switched his EAR HP4 over from 220 to 115, so he might know.

 

[RickG]

Quote:

Originally posted by ServinginEcuador The other question is how hard/expensive is it to switch the transformer over to a 115/60 input? If someone here wanted it, this question becomes relevant. Hirsch switched his EAR HP4 over from 220 to 115, so he might know.

That's no big deal.

My main concern is the cash question...

 

[ServinginEcuador]

Quote:

Originally posted by RickG That's no big deal. My main concern is the cash question...

LOL Rick. That, of course, is the big hurdle to overcome first; then the voltage issue comes next both in cost and complexity.

OBTW, he does ship worldwide.

 

[Hirsch]

Now THAT looks like a nice amp for the HE 60

Doug,

zzz actually figured out how to hook up the transformer taps on the EAR for US voltage. I might have stumbled into it, but he prepared an illustrated guide so there was no way for me to screw it up

 

[ServinginEcuador]

Quote:

Originally posted by Hirsch Doug, zzz actually figured out how to hook up the transformer taps on the EAR for US voltage. I might have stumbled into it, but he prepared an illustrated guide so there was no way for me to screw it up

That was mighty nice of him to do that. I'm also glad to hear that it was both cheap and easy to perform the change from 220v to 110v.

 

[eric343]

Just get a step-down transformer... my parents bought one when we moved to the US from Germany (about 13 years ago...) so they could run their kitchen appliances...

...heck, we still have it, and it should definitely be able to run this amp. Too bad I haven't got $3k...

 

[bozebuttons]

Amp is tempting, I contacted the seller
Opening bid is 4199.75 us plus 299.25 for shipping and ins, and thats just the start of the auction who knows how high it will go.

 

[Uncledan]

I think most of the OmegaII owner will wondering how does it sound, maybe we should create a HEADPHONE fund and bid on this amp.

 

[Vertigo-1]

Quote:

FOR TRANSACTIONS OUT SIDE THE UK I ONLY ACCEPT PAYMENT BY PAY PAL. IN POUNDS STERLING.

I hope you guys have a huge credit limit...

Or a huge check account!

 

[darth nut]

I must have been one of the very earliest in the world to purchase this amp in 1995, when the amp was first introduced. I saw preview pics of it in a Japanese audio magazine (which I didn't understand), and after half a year of mustering courage I faxed to Stax Japan inquiring about the price. I didn't need to be able to read Japanese to know that this was a dead serious offering from Stax, with a separate power supply chasis and a total weight of almost 20kgs. (I didn’t understand the Japanese word for “weight” but I could guess what “kg” meant.) When Stax replied I almost fainted from finally knowing its price. Anyway I recovered after my faint, too quickly I must add, because the very next day I confirmed my purchase of it.

For what it's worth, these are my findings of the T2's sound after 8 years of ownership:

(1)The T2's Voltage Swing of 650V compared to the much lower value of other Stax amps seems to me to be the T2's secret formula for transparency. (The Voltage Swing specification is not to be confused with the Biasing Voltage.) It is almost as if the higher Voltage Swing results in faster accelarations and decelarations of the headphone’s diaphragm, resulting in the reproduced waveforms being therefore more accurate. I developed the aforementioned theory in my head because it seemed to best explain what I heard via the amp, as will be listed below.

(2)The gaps between the images are strangely airy. Spaces between images can be a very weird thing. Spaces between images can be noisy or can be quiet and black. But the T2 seems to me to take it to another level: the spaces between images are filled with…dig this…air molecules. The resolution power of the T2 and Omega (either I or II, but more acute with I) combined gave me an uncanny insight into the ambient character of recordings. The resolution seemed so high to me that I could “see” and “feel” the texture of air molecules between images.

(3)In my long essay, I wrote about the Four Depth Cues. I must say that without the T2, I might not have “discovered” the Four Depth Cues. I am not saying that only the T2 can portray depth cues and nothing else can, which would be a false statement. What I’m saying is the T2 made the portrayal of ambient mechanisms so obvious to me that via the T2, I “discovered” the Four Depth Cues. “Perceiving” the Four Depth Cues and “discovering” the Four Depth Cues are totally different. You need a precision tool to “discover” something.

(4)The T2 does not homogenize the various textures. Various textures are rendered differently and accorded sufficient space around each texture such that each texture can breath and develop naturally, independently of the neighbouring texture. I also realised that the specificity of the texture gave me an awareness of how far or how near an instrument appeared to have been situated in relation to the recording microphones. This gave me a realisation of Depth Cue #3.

(5)The T2 also renders hall reverberation characteristics with uncanny transparency. The strange thing is that while I could hear each instrument with greater separation, I also realised that all the instruments exist in a common ambient space, especially with minimally-mic’d recordings. This lead me to formulate Depth Cue #4.

(6)The T2 has better extension in both frequency extremes. The bass goes deeper and clearer, the highs more extended and more delicate.

(7)The T2 also sounds less pronounced in the lower-mids compared to 007t. (I had the 007t for 4 weeks when my T2 went to Japan for servicing.) This less pronounced lower-mids of the T2 can be to some people’s liking but possibly not to others. Those who prefer a stronger ‘body’ to the sound may not like it. Acutally I think that the frequency spectrum of the T2 and 007t is the same, it’s just that the combined effects of greater airiness and greater extension gives the T2 the illusion of having a reduced lower-mids relative to the 007t. One’s perception of frequency balance is seldom the result of the equipment’s frequency balance per se. One’s perception of the frequency balance is the result of many factors such as textural specificity and ambient retrieval. Cause and effect should not be mixed up: perception of frequency balance is the effect, not the cause. I am struggling and lazying my way through another essay which I hope to share here about the illusions of tonal balances and other headphone-related psychoacoustic trickeries at some later date.



I hardly talked about the T2 in my posts (then again I hardly post) because it seemed so rare and unavailable. But now that it appears available I thought I’d chime in with some observations to share. I really hope that another Head-fier would own the T2, if for nothing else than my desire to feel less lonely around here. There are quite a few KGSS fans here, and I’m always missing out on the fun everytime they band together. You culprits know who you are.

 

[Music Fanatic]

Quote:

Originally posted by bozebuttons Amp is tempting, I contacted the seller Opening bid is 4199.75 us plus 299.25 for shipping and ins, and thats just the start of the auction who knows how high it will go.

So far, no one has bid on the one for sale in Japan.

 

[ServinginEcuador]

Ron,

After reading your, as usual, incredibly well said and informative info post, I began to wonder how the Blue Hawaiian/Weebl that Kevin Gilmore designed sounds! He states that he built it to defeat the T2, so now I am really curious to hear what Bozebuttons and Smokey have to say when they get their's. There is some incredibly ingenious function that the inverse response curve of one component is made up for the that of another. Sheesh, that has gotta be one amp that has got to be heard. He also designed it to use up something like 200 watts of power, while only outputting something like 2 or so at the output. Effecient it is not, but sounds good it is supposed to. Hmmmm.......