[pyramid6]

Is Stax the only company still manufacturing electrostatic headphones?

I would like to get into electrostatics, but it seems I'll be limiting my choices of headphones to one company.

I know there are used phones out there, but they seems hard to come by.

 

[catscratch]

There's the Koss ESP950. It's actually a great headphone, but the amp it comes with is pretty poor and is a definite bottleneck, so you're better off getting a Koss to Stax adapter and running it from a third-party Stax amp. You can also up the bias to about 620V which does produce some sonic benefits.

Then there's the HEAudio Jade or whatever it's called these days; there's a thread in the high-end forum about it.

Also the current Stax lineup is somewhat discordant in how their headphones are voiced, and you have a few different presentations under one brand name, for better or worse - so there actually is a bit of variety.

You shouldn't discount vintage Stax gear either, in many (if not most) cases it's better than current generation gear and can be had at pretty good discounts. Page through the Stax thread in the high-end forum and there will be a lot of (probably too much) information about it.

 

[pyramid6]

Thanks for the information. I'll keep obsessing.

 

[kool bubba ice]

The 950 can be had used for around 450.. Great deal.. Just ditch the driver/engergizer, get a Stax adaptor & stax amp.. From what I hear, the phones themselves are actually pretty good.

 

[kool bubba ice]

Quote:

Originally Posted by catscratch /img/forum/go_quote.gif There's the Koss ESP950. It's actually a great headphone, but the amp it comes with is pretty poor and is a definite bottleneck, so you're better off getting a Koss to Stax adapter and running it from a third-party Stax amp. You can also up the bias to about 620V which does produce some sonic benefits. Then there's the HEAudio Jade or whatever it's called these days; there's a thread in the high-end forum about it. Also the current Stax lineup is somewhat discordant in how their headphones are voiced, and you have a few different presentations under one brand name, for better or worse - so there actually is a bit of variety. You shouldn't discount vintage Stax gear either, in many (if not most) cases it's better than current generation gear and can be had at pretty good discounts. Page through the Stax thread in the high-end forum and there will be a lot of (probably too much) information about it.

Vintage Stax are really hard to beat from a price to performance ratio..