I think this is a pretty lopsided poll that's pretty pointless because:
1. You can count the number of R10 owners, past or present, that are either on Headwize or Headfi, on one hand.
2. Of those owners, past and present, I'm the only one that has actively bothered to mention over and over how the R10s sound, much less compare them to other headphones.
3. See any professional reviews on them available to the masses? Not in the last decade last time I checked. The R10s have been in production since
1988. Which was why I was bitchin' about Stereophile...you'd think they would've gotten their hands on one by now.
4. Stax as a company is a pretty well known as the top of the tops of headphone makers. Any one of their headphone can live like a lord off of just the company name distinction. The R10, on the other hand, is almost like a ghost product in Sony's lineup, and it is only one headphone. It's not even mentioned on Sony's own site. I'll bet not even some of Sony's own employees know the R10s exist.
But hey, I just
enjoy actively talking about headphones and debating them, and welcome open critcism...I certainly don't feel a need to defend the R10s, they're very great headphones and any owner of 'em knows that. And I understand others would already rather go back to their music and luxuriate in beautiful sound rather than chit chat about the tools used to reach that goal, like I was pretty tempted to when I first got the R10s. But, I dig this community, and if I can even convince one more person to join in on the fun of being king, I'll gladly talk about the R10s.
Anyways, Stax vs. The R10 King? Hmm, somebody I was talking to last night put it the best. If you want to hear 0's and 1's, go with Stax. If you want to hear beautiful music, get yourself an R10 and get ready to float on white fluffy clouds of music.