[ALSO]

Quote:

LETS DO IT AGAIN.  I SAY!   I will be back in Japan from December 5, 2013 to December 12, 2013.  This trip will find me in Osaka, Kyoto and possibly Hiroshima.  I am not against the idea of a day trip to the Tokyo area.  I have contacted two Osaka based audio companies- Onkyo and Zander Audio. I  await a response from them.  I did enjoy visiting the very high end audio shop in Akahabara, who's name I have now forgotten. It was located in the multi floored building that housed the large headphone shop and the Mcintosh dealership.  I think it would be really cool to interview either the Headphone Shop or the High End store.  I don't want to make things too complicated, but perhaps we could do a video interview for the next one?  This might cut down on the cost to translate text. 

Thank you all for the terrific work; am happy to contribute w/translation needs etc., am a native English and Japanese speaker, and move regularly between the US and Japan.  Although new to headphones, completely overwhelmed by STAX.

 

[Trident900fi]

I understand better now why it takes more than 2 months to get an SR-009 !

 

[Takeanidea]

The interview was small, brief, and understated. I can't think of a company that is so much the opposite of what the consumer headphone scene has become. Stax is the anti-Beats. No bravado, no slick outward styling. Certainly no celebrity endorsements!

I think it's awesome that they've let the enthusiast audience reach out to them and I also wonder if they realize the relative pull that Head-Fi has that may be able to pump at least a little more life and longevity into their endeavors. It would be a sad world if a company this dedicated to quality sound simply died out. I'm sure some of the electrostatic fanatics would DIY to pick up the slack, but it wouldn't be the same.

Well, I've pretty much decided that I will have a Stax set-up when I'm out of debt.

You hit the nail on the head regarding the whole anti publicity way in which Stax seem to conduct themselves. In most markets the very best sell themselves and are subject to waiting lists.
This was such a great write up thank you so much to scott and arnaud and currawong you are all great ambassaodors for headfi and an inspiration.
Disastermouse I can assure you you'll enjoy your stax set up but pleaselgo to a meet and try a few flavours first you can decide to go either new or vintage (or both)
Some of the vintage sells for a lot more than it cost to start with and takes quite some amping

 

[Yorick1983]

Thank you very much for this great article! I never realised that Stax was such a small company. I own a Stax 4040II system and it's great, so right away I became a fan of Stax products. Because Stax is not advertising, It's very nice that some other Stax afficionados went to the factory for an interview. Otherwise we wouldn't have learned these things about the brand.

 

[Ali-Pacha]

https://maps.google.fr/maps?q=7,+Chikumazawahigashi,+Iruma-gun,+1,+Miyoshi-machi,+Saitama,+Japon&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:frfficial&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hl=fr&sa=N&tab=wl

 
Ali

 

[MrTechAgent]

Awesome.
I don't know how but somehow I missed the video on Head-Fi TV about the "Japan Headphone Show", I was stunned by seeing the presence of headphones (Stax especially) in stores as if they were selling pants.
It was just crazy , I had been to Tokyo when I was 6 and all I can remember is the presence of Camera's and stuff , I really want to go again and buy stuff

 

[Headzone]

Quote:

Awesome.
I don't know how but somehow I missed the video on Head-Fi TV about the "Japan Headphone Show", I was stunned by seeing the presence of headphones (Stax especially) in stores as if they were selling pants.
It was just crazy , I had been to Tokyo when I was 6 and all I can remember is the presence of Camera's and stuff , I really want to go again and buy stuff
 

Do you have a link to that video?

 

[MrTechAgent]

Quote:

Do you have a link to that video?

Here you go it is called the "Tokyo Headphone Festival" my bad.
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAM199z_POg

 

[eric65]

Hi Arnaud.
 
Do you have any news about the date of marketing of the very high-end Stax amp ("T2-like") specificaly designed for 009 and a priori with an similar price to SR 009 Stax Headphone (5000 U.S. dollars ?)
According to the interview Stax 12/12/12 the circuits of this amp were ready; remained to find a box of adequate size.
Otherwise, if Stax wants to remain competitive, it is preferable for the Stax company that the price of this high-end amplifier does not exceed that of 5000 U.S. dollars of these amplifiers directly in competition (to use with the Stax SR-009) : BHSE and LL2 amps.
 
Eric

 

[georgep]

I doubt that Stax could compete with the BHSE price-wise (ie produce a similar amp for the same price). I would suspect as well that if Stax simply re-released the T2 with a beefier power supply it would retail for over 15k. If there is any expectation that a possible new T2 replacement would cost in the 5k range, it would need to be a significantly simpler design. But just IMHO - would love to be mistaken on this.

 

[Golfnutz]

I doubt that Stax could compete with the BHSE price-wise (ie produce a similar amp for the same price). I would suspect as well that if Stax simply re-released the T2 with a beefier power supply it would retail for over 15k. If there is any expectation that a possible new T2 replacement would cost in the 5k range, it would need to be a significantly simpler design. But just IMHO - would love to be mistaken on this.

 
George, can you share what it costs to build a T2 (ball park) ?

 

[georgep]

That's just it, at today's prices, parts alone can be 4-5k. If Stax did it they could probably do it a little cheaper, but they would need to factor in R&D, labour, physical plant, warranty, marketing, and profit for them and all the other folk in the chain. Equals crazy expensive.

 

[eric65]

Who knows?
Maybe the Stax engineers, with their future high-end Stax amplifier, have found a way to operate with more efficiency than the SRM 727 the SR-009 headphone, and also than the T2  (originally manufactured to operate the headphones very demanding Omega) with means of simpler manufacturing and less expensive than those needed to do with the very complex T2 amp.
 
The 009 seems to be less demanding for amplification that the Omega , it is likely that the construction of the amplifier is less demanding in resource to do operate correctly as a 009 than a Omega, and thus ultimately easier and cheaper to manufacture.
 
Given the global success of the SR-009, Stax can possibly hope to play on the production volume and some simplification of the amplifier to get a competitive price ; a sort of super SRM 727 for example for only twice the price of 727 ?
Who knows?

 

[Golfnutz]

That's just it, at today's prices, parts alone can be 4-5k. If Stax did it they could probably do it a little cheaper, but they would need to factor in R&D, labour, physical plant, warranty, marketing, and profit for them and all the other folk in the chain. Equals crazy expensive.

 
Thanks George. I was just curious what it would roughly cost to build one. 4-5k seems like a pretty good deal if you have the skills and resources.

 

[MacedonianHero]

  Who knows?
Maybe the Stax engineers, with their future high-end Stax amplifier, have found a way to operate with more efficiency than the SRM 727 the SR-009 headphone, and also than the T2  (originally manufactured to operate the headphones very demanding Omega) with means of simpler manufacturing and less expensive than those needed to do with the very complex T2 amp.
 
The 009 seems to be less demanding for amplification that the Omega , it is likely that the construction of the amplifier is less demanding in resource to do operate correctly as a 009 than a Omega, and thus ultimately easier and cheaper to manufacture.
 
Given the global success of the SR-009, Stax can possibly hope to play on the production volume and some simplification of the amplifier to get a competitive price ; a sort of super SRM 727 for example for only twice the price of 727 ?
Who knows?

 
Yes, the SR-009s are more efficient than the SR-007s...a good thing IMO. But that said, the many amps that I've heard with the SR-009s (SRM727II, KGSS, LLMK1, KGSSHV) all sounded quite different with them...with the best one by far being the KGSSHV. I've also found the SR-009s very much dependent on sources/DACs too.