[sillysally]

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Just received the Realiser today!  Chained it into my system from my PC's HDMI-out -> Realiser Toslink-out -> Berkeley Alpha DAC.  Took a few tries to get a good HPEQ with my SR007s.
 
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Yes its important for folks to understand that you can make a good HPEQ or a no so good HPEQ, it just takes a few try's to hear what is good and not so good. 
 
 
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If you know what speakers sound like, that's how the Realiser sounds like.  A SR009 helps, too, but I'll be getting by with a SR007.
 
It's a pretty cool device and I don't want to discourage you or anyone else, but the coolness is heavily predicated on your willingness to do a proper PRIR.

Good point, you don't need the SR-009's to enjoy a Realiser rig, even the base Stax system that you can get with the Realiser is pretty good.
 
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P.S. - couldn't resist today, so as long as I was there I also bought a new Stax wooden headphone stand and plastic cover, and a new 2.5m "silver" extension cord for the SR-009.  What the heck, it's a lifetime investment.  Might as well do it right.
 
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Yes the SR-009's headphones are a life time investment, congrats!.
 
Ok ("silver") I was to lazy to look up the part number. 

 

[dsperber]

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Unless you want to pay for vacation in LA, couldn't you just order from pricejapan.com? The price ends up as 3500€ shipped (4200€ / 5250$ _after_ customs/vat, there's always a small chance that you evade it!). From LA, you are still subject to customs at home.When I

 
When I was looking around at sources for the SR009, I looked into Audiocubes (which ships worldwide).  Even if you saved a few hundred dollars, the real problem was that the warranty was from Stax Japan.  So should anything go wrong you had to ship the headphones back to Japan for repair.
 
I decided it was worth it to me to pay US customs, sales tax here in LA, and "retail price"... since I'm only a 20-minute drive to Yama's here in LA, and I have an 18-year relationship with them.
 
But if the difference was thousands of dollars instead of hundreds of dollars, I might have come to a different decision.

 

[Hoax]

Well even if europeans could get the top stax models at US prices its still a a huge price tag. By the way, like others already mentioned I know its not Stax that makes these headphones cheaper especially for US citizens. Its just the entire electronic market from TV's / Instruments and pretty much everything cost about 19/23% extra in Europe
 
But my questions was mostly meant in general, why do they have to be so expensive? If you look at the top models of Beyerdynamic/Sennheiser and pretty much all the popular brands you can get top of the line around 1000 USD/Euros. So what makes the top of line of stax worth 6 times more the price? I understand it would be a lifetime investment but i doubt they would last longer than those other top models of other brands. And by the time it might break down it might already be really hard to get it repaired (i've seen some posts in the stax thread about people looking for replacement parts that are really rare to find nowadays).
 
I guess hearing is believing, I read that even the basic stax model can compete with the top of the line beyer's and sennheiser's so the top of the line stax must be really something but still, that price is crazy lol

 
I need to read up on these models, I wonder if the surround feeling would be about the same on each stax model and where these huge price differences per stax model are based on
 
Edit - Copy pasting a pricelist i got from a stax dealer in my country and it looks like its mainly the amps that make these so expensive, in the lower levels the amps even cost more than the headphones
 
Seperate:
 
SR-307 - € 599,-
SR-407 - € 699,-
SR-507 - € 1.149,-
SR-007II - € 3.199,-
SR-009 - € 5.999,-
 
In combination with amp
 
SRS-2170 - SR-207 & SRM-252s € 1.099,-
SRS-3170 - SR-307 & SRM-323s € 1.799,-
SRS-4170 - SR-407 & SRM-006ts € 2.599,-
SRS-727II - SR-007II & SRM-727II € 5.799,-
SRS-007II - SR-007II & SRM-007tII € 5.999,-
 
 
Not sure if all these headphones need the amp i got from the pricelist but the 307 cost 599 and 407 cost 699 however in combination with the amps there's a 800 euro difference also note that for some reason there was no amp combo listed for the SR-009 but im guessing you could add another 2000/2500 on top of the SR-009 price. So to get a top of the line Stax system that would be about 10.640,30 converted to USD. 
 
 
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It's 5500€ in EU from quick googling.
 
Unless you want to pay for vacation in LA, couldn't you just order from pricejapan.com? The price ends up as 3500€ shipped (4200€ / 5250$ _after_ customs/vat, there's always a small chance that you evade it!). From LA, you are still subject to customs at home.

 
Where did you see that 5500 price? They might have the cheaper models at cheaper prices than I got my pricelist from. Those mid/high range stax models are really out of my budget lol. I would be very thankful if you can find me back that shop

 

[Elysian]

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Yes its important for folks to understand that you can make a good HPEQ or a no so good HPEQ, it just takes a few try's to hear what is good and not so good.

 
Yeah, it took several tries to get a HPEQ that didn't have slight channel imbalance.  The volume sounded off, and the speakers didn't sound properly aligned.  It was also interesting hearing how thin and high-pitched the SR009 HPEQ sounded through an SR007.  At least getting HDMI out of the PC was completely hassle-free.

 

[Hoax]

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I would agree that using a transducer or external subs for bass does the trick.  Plenty of depth, even when I play organ music.  I have two subs hooked up, and they move the air for me and support the bass from the phones.

If you want to connect a subwoofer to the realiser can you just use an El Cheapo woofer since it only has to blow out air? Or is it actually creating bass too?

 

[HDMan]

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If you want to connect a subwoofer to the realiser can you just use an El Cheapo woofer since it only has to blow out air? Or is it actually creating bass too?

 
LOL, funniest thing i ever heard, do some research

 

[hekeli]

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Where did you see that 5500 price? They might have the cheaper models at cheaper prices than I got my pricelist from. Those mid/high range stax models are really out of my budget lol. I would be very thankful if you can find me back that shop

 
Google: site:de stax sr-009
 
EU is EU, get it where it's cheapest. 

 

[silverlight]

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P.P.S. - I was talking with Lorr about something I'd read somewhere about the Eagles' live recording of "Hotel California" on their "Hell Freezes Over" DVD being a stunning demonstration track for both Realiser and SR-009, in particular the lead-in intro where there is a very large conga drum played beautifully and producing wonderful bass notes and tones.  He asked me if I had the "first release" of that DVD, which was produced with a DTS 5.1 soundtrack, or a later reissue which had a Dolby soundtrack.  I actually had the original version, with DTS sound.
 
Well, he then proudly stated that he was at DTS at the time that DVD was produced, and he was on the engineering team that produced the sound for it.  Why am I not surprised, then, that the sound on that "live performance" DVD is truly stunning?
 
He also mentioned that there was a special "audio-only bonus track" on that original DTS DVD, of "Seven Bridges Road", with each Eagle recorded individually onto their own individual channel.  So if you "solo" each channel with the Realiser while playing this track, you will be able to hear each Eagle individually singing out of his own one of five physically distinct channels "arrayed around you".  Perfect demonstration and reference track for both the Realiser, your PRIR, your headphones/amp/DAC, etc..

 
Thanks for the head's up.  Ordered a new one from Amazon marketplace for $6 (includ. shipping).  go amazon!  Have it here ready to go so look forward to hearing Lorr's work

 

[sillysally]

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Yeah, it took several tries to get a HPEQ that didn't have slight channel imbalance.  The volume sounded off, and the speakers didn't sound properly aligned.  It was also interesting hearing how thin and high-pitched the SR009 HPEQ sounded through an SR007.  At least getting HDMI out of the PC was completely hassle-free.

Yep you nailed it, about why you may have to do several HPEQ's.
 
My SR-009's don't sound the least bit thin using my realiser and PRIR's from AIX. But I do use a SRM-727 SS amp, so I can't comment on a SRM-007. 

 

[jk6661]

Sorry if this has been addressed earlier, but I couldn't find it.
 
Has anyone replaced the Realiser's crappy wall wart PS (inexcusable for a $3000+ component, IMO) with a good linear PS? If so, was there an improvement?

 

[Hoax]

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Sorry if this has been addressed earlier, but I couldn't find it.
 
Has anyone replaced the Realiser's crappy wall wart PS (inexcusable for a $3000+ component, IMO) with a good linear PS? If so, was there an improvement?

I dont hear anything wrong, so for me personally no need for improvement

 

[wsilvio]

I'm curious if anyone is using apple tv to stream 2 channel music over hdmi? I have a huge alac library on iTunes and I'm trying to find the best way to feed it to my realiser. My MacBook pro can use an adapter to output hdmi, but I find the sound to be harsh and fatiguing. I could re rip my library in wav. And use my oppo as a server, but I'm afraid that with the size of library I have, finding what I want might be troublesome. Any thoughts welcome.

Will

 

[antonyfirst]

How is this expected to perform with closed headphones?

 

[Kiritz]

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How is this expected to perform with closed headphones?

It is supposed to work with any headphones.

 

[antonyfirst]

I am a bit late in the thread. What external dac's have been compared against it? What dac chip does it use?