Stax Questions
Feb 25, 2006 at 4:59 AM Thread Starter Post #1 of 14

jaybar

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hi all-

1) With the death of Stax's North American Distributor, this past summer, is there a new Distributor in place?

2) How long is the cable on the Stax headphones? I need 10 feet. If the cable is less than 10 feet, what are my options for short extension cables that would bring it to 10 feet?

3) Do their solid state amps run hot (they used to)? I have no more than 5" of clearance between shelves on my rack (and connot chnage that). This would give me less than 1" of clearance between the amp and the shelf above it. Is thst sufficient?

4) How would a Stax system in the $1500-$3000 range compare to my AKG K1000/Grace M902 system? Will it be an upgrade? downgrade? or sidegrade?

Thanks,

Jay
 
Feb 25, 2006 at 5:12 AM Post #3 of 14
the cable is 2.5m long, so it's under 10 feet by a bit. STAX sells 2.5m and 5m long extension cables (SRE-725 and SRE-750).
 
Feb 25, 2006 at 1:34 PM Post #5 of 14
Quote:

Originally Posted by jaybar
1) With the death of Stax's North American Distributor, this past summer, is there a new Distributor in place?


I actually wrote to Stax about this a couple of months after the sad death of Mr. Mori****a. As always, Stax rarely bother to answer email from past or prospective new customers. But they did eventually update the listing of dealers on their website to remove Mori****a as the official North American/Canadian distributor. I'd guess that there will not be a new distributor any time soon. Given how helpful Mr. Mori****a was supposed to be, and how awful the US distributor Yamasinc is, that's a pity.
 
Feb 25, 2006 at 1:40 PM Post #6 of 14
Whatever has been the case with the U.S. importer/distributor, I do know that its U.S. retail dealers are not having problems ordering Stax products.
 
Feb 25, 2006 at 6:52 PM Post #8 of 14
Quote:

Originally Posted by jaybar
Would Stax be an upgrade over my current K1000's? If so, what level of Stax would I need to achieve that?


The K1000 is a unique headphone, with its physical configuration giving it an unusual ability to present a less headphone-like sound perspective. The only Stax headphones that went as far in this direction were the Sigmas, the large and bulky precursor to the Lambdas that I believe are usually thought to not sound as good overall as the later, more conventional Lamba models.

Without knowing what it is you don't like or wish to improve over the K1000's, I'd think it would be all but impossible to answer your question.

The only real answer to "what should I buy" is "whatever you've been able to hear for yourself, at a friends or a head-hi meet or a helpful dealer, that you like better than what you have." I think in most cases people might as well ask their fellow head-fiers to also ask them what to wear, eat, etc as what headphone they should buy next. Sometimes you can get an idea about what you might like, if you've stated pretty clearly what you currently like and don't like about your headphones and there's another head-fier who has been in a similar situation. But the only real advice that's sure to be reliable is to try to listen for yourself. If you just have vague feelings that there's something better available, that's bound to make the sellers happy, as you can get lost in an endless loop of always feeling unsatisfied but not really knowing what if anything could be exactly what you want. I think a lot of folks here are in that situation. If you have money and time to burn, fine, but otherwise it seems to detract from what should be the ultimate goal, enjoying music.

Here endth the sermon.
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Feb 26, 2006 at 9:18 AM Post #9 of 14
Quote:

Originally Posted by jaybar
Would Stax be an upgrade over my current K1000's? If so, what level of Stax would I need to achieve that?


Jay,

I have to say no if you are going to use Stax amplifiers.

A K1k driven with a decent amp is more to my liking than the Omega II/717 combo thus far.
But a Stax driven by a better amp is pretty darn good.
 
Feb 26, 2006 at 8:59 PM Post #10 of 14
I love my Stax Headphones and Amps. But if anything goes wrong with them, Good luck in getting them fixed. I bought the Omega's and 4070 from Japan dealers. The Omega's went out on one side. It took Six months to get them fixed. No dealer hear will fix them because I bought them from overseas. That I understand. The dealer I bought them from took six months and charged me 200.00 and shipping both ways. I wished the US dealer would give a little price brake. You can buy them from Price-Japan for 1500.00. I bought them some where elese at 1800.00. At that time I didn;t know about Price -Japan.In the US aren't they about 3500.00? I do know it was a lot more. But If I did it again I would think hard on where to buy them.
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Feb 26, 2006 at 9:31 PM Post #11 of 14
Quote:

Originally Posted by carlflow
I love my Stax Headphones and Amps. But if anything goes wrong with them, Good luck in getting them fixed. I bought the Omega's and 4070 from Japan dealers. The Omega's went out on one side. It took Six months to get them fixed. No dealer hear will fix them because I bought them from overseas.


I think this a superb point that many fail to take into account. In my case, I have decided to purchase from an authorized dealer in the U.S. As an added bonus, the seller is a head-fi sponsor, Moon Audio.

Yes, I will be paying a bit of a premium. But the comfort of dealing with someone in the U.S. and having a two year warranty makes it well worth it, imo.
 
Feb 26, 2006 at 9:31 PM Post #12 of 14
Quote:

Originally Posted by carlflow
In the US aren't they about 3500.00? I do know it was a lot more.


The MSRP's wee bit over $4000 for Omega II's in US. The Stax MSRP's outside of Japan's about twice that of Japan.
 
Feb 27, 2006 at 5:32 AM Post #13 of 14
Quote:

Originally Posted by Salt Peanuts
The MSRP's wee bit over $4000 for Omega II's. The Stax MSRP's outside of Japan's about twice that of Japan.


The cheapest I've seen the SR-007 selling in Japan for is about 165,000 yen (approx $1400), but there are probably a few selling them for less than that if you shop around.
 
Feb 27, 2006 at 9:03 PM Post #14 of 14
Quote:

Originally Posted by jaybar
Would Stax be an upgrade over my current K1000's? If so, what level of Stax would I need to achieve that?

Jay



This is one man's opinion. It really depends on the whole path from the source to the headphones. Everything matters.

I had a pair of Stax Omega IIs driven by a Gilmore KGSS amplifier. The combination sounded terrific.

THEN, I had my K1000s recabled with the Stefan AudioArt Equinox cabling and then drove them with the Nelson Pass FirstWatt F1. There was NO comparison. The K1000 / Equinox / FirstWatt F1 is significantly better IMHO.
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Therefore, I sold the Omega II / Gilmore KGSS. No regrets.
 

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