[Purnendu]

Hi folks,
Dumb question may be? Is it possible to run a stax electrostatic headphone on a leben300 xs amplifier? If not, could someone please explain why.
The AKG 1000 can apparently be driven to good effect on this amp, although from the speaker terminals
Am just begining my head phone journey, am zilch technically. Since I have a very good amp and excellent source (ayon 1sc) it would be great if I coud explore what maxing out my rig could possibly mean, and stax is perhaps the best. As of now I run the senn 595, which is a great combo
Purnendu

 

[NA Blur]

Most amplifiers are of the constant voltage variety.  That means the circuitry inside is designed to deliver a constant voltage to a source say a headphone.  A typical dynamic headphone requires anywhere from 100mV up to 5 volts.  The bias voltage alone for a pair of STAX electrostatic headphones is upwards of 400 Volts.  Let's look at your amps specs and see if it can muster up 400 + volts.
 
Laben 300 xs Specs:
http://lebenhifi.com/products/cs300xs.html
 

OUTPUT POWER	15W X 2

This shows the amplifier can give, at maximum, 15 Watts of power
Using Joule's law we see that power ( watts ) = Voltage Squared over the resistance
If your amp puts out 15 watts and the resistance of the STAX is around 145kOhms
http://www.stax.co.jp/Pdf/Export/News-SR009_E_web.pdf
then working Joule's law in reverse we can determine the voltage going from your amp into the headphones.
The resistance of the output of your amp plus the 145kOhm load of the STAX is found by:
1/R(net) = 1/R1 + 1/R2
1/R(net) = 1/6Ohms + 1/145000 Ohms
R = 5.99 Ohms or still 6
 
I used 6 Ohms for your Laben 300 xs because this is the middle range of its output resistances.
 
Power = V^2 / R
15 Watts = V^2 / 6 Ohms
Solving for V shows:
V^2 = 15 Watts * 6 Ohms
V = 9.48 volts
 
This means your amp will deliver at most 9.48 volts into the 145kOhm load of the STAX headphone.  This is no where near the voltage needed for an electrostatic headphone let alone the bias voltage.

 

[Purnendu]

NA,
Many many thanks for your knowledgeable and clear answer.
Will stick to Beyers and senns.