[calcajun]

I saw mention on another thread of Stax Headphones.
Made me think of some stax I inherited in 1999.

In 1997 at an old friends home, I had noticed a pair of headphones and said, "Wow those are Stax electrets. I never heard those before!"
At some point in the following months I connected them to his system and gave them a quick listen.

In 1999 I inherited his entire estate.
Since then I have moved a few times and had these phones in a box in the attic,then in a drawer, then who knows where I stored them.
After being reminded that I actually had some Stax's , I was thinking how dumb it was that I threw them away.

I was so sure I had thrown them away. I went and looked in the dresser drawer I knew they were in at one time. Not there.
So then I was kinda pissed that even if not worth a lot of money, they were kinda history, at least in a place like this.

After being mad that I threw them away, I decided to go look under the bed for some reason.
Looked and not much there except a 1st gen Tivo with lifetime subscription and a bag with some changed out locksets.
There was another bag far behind those. Just for the hell of it I grabbed it and looked in.
Damn, just a bunch of outdated computer cards n stuf.

So I just kinda moved things around a bit and WOW!
THERE THEY ARE!

My inherited Stax Electret Earspeaker SR-30!

I pulled it out, cleaned them up and listening to them as I write this.
If i am not mistaken, the pads and headband are real leather. can you imagine that?

I don't know a lot of people into this sort of stuff to show and share with and I most likely will seldom use them if i keep them.

So out of curiosity, in case I decide to sell them to someone who will appreciate them more, is there any interest in these? What is realistic asking price?

Thanks for any info.
Here they are!

 

[krmathis]

Great find (under your bed)!

Looking at what price these systems have sold for I would say that you could expect anything from $70 to $100.

Not sure how popular they are though...

 

[Meyvn]

That's the best condition SR-34 system I've ever seen.

 

[calcajun]

Yeah, for all the years i had them, they just sat stored. They are in the same condition they were in when i got them in 99.
I will be using them a bit before i sell them.
Most likely put them on ebay in a few weeks.
Now i don't think they will sell for the price, but on ebay there are 2 pair of these listed right now. One pair has a buy now price of 250.00. Of course i don't think those will sell for that, but it would be way more awesome for me if they did.

 

[milkpowder]

Wow! Congrats! They look very sexy indeed

These are electrets, not electrostatic headphones? I swear I read somewhere they were different... They look the same though, with the same style power-amp-driven adapter and 5-pin connections, etc.

 

[calcajun]

Yes, they are electret.

Here is quote from description of electrostatic and electret...

Electrostatic headphones have thin and lightweight diaphragms that vibrate inside in an electrostatic field. They can reproduce music with great detail and low distortion, because the response time is very fast. A separate high-voltage DC power supply ("energizer") polarizes the diaphragm, which is suspended between two metal plates called stators. The polarizing (or bias ) voltage supply is most often AC-based,

Electret headphones (also called fixed electrostatic) have permanently polarized diaphragms (or are backed by a polarizing material that emits an electrostatic field), so a biasing power supply is not necessary. However, they must still be driven with the same high-voltage audio signals from a high-voltage amplifier or a step-up transformer connected to a power amplifier. Electret headphones have many of the same sonic characteristics of electrostatics (fast, detailed sound), but the electret elements may be prone to depolarization as they age

 

[Carl]

Quote:

Originally Posted by calcajun I pulled it out, cleaned them up and listening to them as I write this. If i am not mistaken, the pads and headband are real leather. can you imagine that?

Artificial leather, I'm afriad. Even Stax's expensive offerings are almost all artificial leather.

Quote:

So out of curiosity, in case I decide to sell them to someone who will appreciate them more, is there any interest in these? What is realistic asking price?

Being Stax's lowest-end offering, probably not as much as you'd like. Of course, you may always luck out and find someone eager to empty their bank balance, but as an objective measurement they're only worth a two digit sum.

 

[Jahn]

amazing what you can find under the bed or in the attic or cellar. someday my kid is going to find the tower of power under a sack of mulch in the garage.

 

[Carl]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jahn amazing what you can find under the bed or in the attic or cellar. someday my kid is going to find the tower of power under a sack of mulch in the garage.

And then they will either,

a) throw it in a garbage skip
b) place it up on ebay with a 99c reserve
c) worship it like a false idol

 

[calcajun]

LOL!

I have listened to them all day yesterday.
They are actually pretty comfortable.

Although fun to pull out and interesting to listen to, they don't have the sound i like.
Sure it was better when i tweaked them with eq, but i prefer to just use no eq or tone control and have the phones that sound the way i like.

So what will happen with these is......

A. I forget about them for a few more years, then pull em out again.
B. Get 50 to 80 bucks for them from Ebay.
C. Throw them away.

I think i will go for B!

 

[facelvega]

put in beautiful photos like that and bidding might well break $100!

 

[calcajun]

Well, Thats them. I did nothing to the photos. In such good shape from being stored and not used.

 

[smeggy]

Well congrats, those things are in super sparkling condition. I'm sure someone will give them a nice home, should be a pretty easy sell.