Proving an absence of difference would be proving a negative. You can only listen using one set of ears at a time and prove that there is a difference. My rule of thumb for stuff like this is that biased opinions are so prevalent in home audio forums, I tune out opinions of people who can’t be bothered to make an effort to eliminate bias and perceptual error in their comparisons. I’ll just continue like Diogenes.
Thats true, but if you have two overkill powerful regular headphone amps, that have been made with high quality components in a competent design, they should sound the same, right? Say if I wanted to drive a pair of easily driven headphones, and one amp is powerful enough while the other one is twice as powerful as that again, would it make sense they sounded different? In my experience, amps sound literally identical to my ears as long as they have enough power. So while I can't prove there isn't a difference as such, I'd think one could conclude about the absence of difference if the specs are within certain parameters, if that makes sense?
I'm very non-technically gifted, so sorry for not understanding.
I think that is a very very VERY safe assumption, but others around here tend to like to dot every I even if the dot is too small to see, and I’ve come to flinch like a dog at a rolled up newspaper. I see no reason to suspect that there would be a difference, if that answers your question.
I own a KGSSHV Carbon. I paid nowhere near $6k for it. Mine was built by Soren Brix who can build one much less expensively. Is it worth it? It sounds good and compared well to several 30+ year old STAX amps I bought used off of Ebay. I can't quantify the difference scientifically so here that answer is "no" as it should be in an Objective fact based forum. I set up an A/B test level matched when I had the Hifiman Jade II amp but it wasn't double blind. While the Carbon sounded better, the fact that it was sighted still means expectation bias could well have stepped in- even though I was hoping to *not* hear a difference so that I could recoup money from selling the Carbon.
As far as bias, you are right. There is general disdain amongst "the STAX mafia" about any amps they didn't design themselves. I will say Dr. Kevin Gilmore designs excellent circuits, but that doesn't mean his designs are the only way to design great amps.
If you are curious, buy a second-hand 3rd party amp and compare it to your STAX 727. There's one right now in the sale area of this site for around $1000. Make your determination that way. (Also, even the mafia types admit the STAX 353X is a good STAX built amp and it should only be ~$500 (It's really good with the Lambda series but might have more trouble driving the 007 or 009 headphones- this is from STAX itself not the STAX mafia.)
I own a KGSSHV Carbon. I paid nowhere near $6k for it. Mine was built by Soren Brix who can build one much less expensively. Is it worth it? It sounds good and compared well to several 30+ year old STAX amps I bought used off of Ebay. I can't quantify the difference scientifically so here that answer is "no" as it should be in an Objective fact based forum. I set up an A/B test level matched when I had the Hifiman Jade II amp but it wasn't double blind. While the Carbon sounded better, the fact that it was sighted still means expectation bias could well have stepped in- even though I was hoping to *not* hear a difference so that I could recoup money from selling the Carbon.
As far as bias, you are right. There is general disdain amongst "the STAX mafia" about any amps they didn't design themselves. I will say Dr. Kevin Gilmore designs excellent circuits, but that doesn't mean his designs are the only way to design great amps.
If you are curious, buy a second-hand 3rd party amp and compare it to your STAX 727. There's one right now in the sale area of this site for around $1000. Make your determination that way. (Also, even the mafia types admit the STAX 353X is a good STAX built amp and it should only be ~$500 (It's really good with the Lambda series but might have more trouble driving the 007 or 009 headphones- this is from STAX itself not the STAX mafia.)
I sold off my 007 and 727II over a year ago, and swapped it for the much cheaper 252s + SR-L500 combo. I'm not curious enough to spend a bunch of money on it, I think the absence of double blind tests difference combined with my knowledge of how powerful bias and placebo is, especially once you get to that level, is enough for me personally to conclude that the difference likely is non existant. But I would love if there was a way to look at the specs and explain the absence of any difference that way, so I could safe people from wasting money. I was caught up in the cost no object holy grail search, and by golly did I feel dumb once I shut off the kool aid and opened my ears.
There's certainly a place for horse sense like that! If there is no reason to believe a difference exists, it's up to the people who hear one to prove it. The fact that they refuse to do that gives you a hint as to how accurate their observations are.
Electrostats present an unusual load(capacitive) for an amplifier,it can change high frequency response of the amp....having said that,Stax has been building these things forever...doubtfull thier amps have any short commings.
It was the ice landers favorite headphone and because of that they wanted to do more justice to it by building a powerhouse amp to make it sound loud enough for them to hear its glory.
I was thinking about transducer technologies and their current problems, and I arrived at the conclusion that planar magnetic and electrostatic technologies could be almost ideal transducer if a few issues are solved with either implementation.
First of all, current electrostatics headphones have the problem of physics and low-frequency amplitudes, their presence is not there because the cancelling due to the nature of those frequencies, that's why they usually give low bass quantity. Also, sometimes they just do not push enough air at low frequencies, and that also helps to the lack of perceived bass.
Now, planar magnetic headphones have some issues as well. First of all, their treble is perceived as "not as natural" as other technologies. This is a complaint I have found more in Audeze headphones, but not exclusive to them. Reasons can go from overdamping to not-so-good tuning. If the planar magnetic implementation could be more acoustically open (helps to increase "soundstage"), solve its treble issues, and lower the weight to be more comfortable, it can get dangerously close to the ideal transducer.
This is why we have science, to explore our paths and choose the best one to achieve a result, and solving the issues is the path forward to better transducers.
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