Does the Stax system sound 14 times better than the Dali IO-12?
The law of diminishing returns clearly works here.
That is true. However, people might say that a good e-stat system sounds more than 14x better than the IO-12, it sounds 1000 times better in many respects, actually infinitely better, if they do something the IO-12 does not. That is, the difference is not numerically comparable, it's a qualitative difference, for which some people are willing to pay 14 times more. I am not trying to rationalize it, but that's just how things are.
![Headphone Smile :) :)](https://cdn.head-fi.org/e/headfi/smily_headphones1.gif)
But the temptation of convenience and comfort of usage might overwrite all the above, hence likely there are people for whom the IO-12 (or similar) is the last headphone they need (and not because they are close to the grave)
![Headphone Smile :) :)](https://cdn.head-fi.org/e/headfi/smily_headphones1.gif)