[bigshot]

I think Stax are for people who like to make things difficult on themselves. There are so many more convenient alternatives out there, I'd rather go that route than don a hair shirt. Convenience and functionality is the most neglected aspect of high end audio. I see photos of people's portable rigs with a laptop and a million black boxes connected with big thick wires. Who wants a portable rig that fills a 20 pound backpack? Simple and elegant is better than complicated and awkward.

 

[Glmoneydawg]

Oh, I should have been clearer, the question/possible myth isn't whether electrostatic headphones do need a special kind of amplifier — but whether the choice within that range of amplifiers makes a dramatic difference on how the electrostatic headphone sounds.

Capacitive load of electrostatics (headphones or speakers)can make the amplifier roll off high frequencies...quite noticeable in some cases.

 

[Glmoneydawg]

I think Stax are for people who like to make things difficult on themselves. There are so many more convenient alternatives out there, I'd rather go that route than don a hair shirt. Convenience and functionality is the most neglected aspect of high end audio. I see photos of people's portable rigs with a laptop and a million black boxes connected with big thick wires. Who wants a portable rig that fills a 20 pound backpack? Simple and elegant is better than complicated and awkward.

In a perfect world simple and elegant would be best....but simplicity,elegance,convenience,price ect shouldn't really be a factor of what's best.....what's best is what's best regardless of other parameters.Electrostatic headphones don't seem to suffer from the same sound signature issues as electrostatic speakers.

 

[pinnahertz]

Electrostatic headphones don't seem to suffer from the same sound signature issues as electrostatic speakers.

Right, but they do suffer from their own.

 

[bigshot]

In a perfect world simple and elegant would be best....but simplicity,elegance,convenience,price ect shouldn't really be a factor of what's best.....what's best is what's best regardless of other parameters.

It depends on what the end goal is. Obviously a well designed sound studio is the best sound there is, but sound studios don't function well as a living room. (There's nowhere to set your beer can down!) The thing that gets lost a lot of times in discussions of theoretical "best" is that the purpose of a home stereo is to listen to music in the home. That means that comfort and convenience counts. Even though I love the sound of my multichannel speaker setup, I know that the reason it sounds that way is more because of my home than my stereo. If someone is a student in a dorm room, their idea of perfect would be different.

But if I have learned anything over the years, it's that money doesn't necessarily buy good sound; and consistency, practicality, flexibility and usability are the main improvements to home audio that have been made since the introduction of high-fidelity stereo in the late 50s- not sound quality. One of the best sounding recordings I've ever heard was made in 1954, and at that time, you needed to be in a high end recording studio to even hear it. Now you can stream it to your telephone and hear it in anywhere you go. That is simplicity and elegance.

 

[fronl]

It depends on what the end goal is. Obviously a well designed sound studio is the best sound there is, but sound studios don't function well as a living room. (There's nowhere to set your beer can down!) The thing that gets lost a lot of times in discussions of theoretical "best" is that the purpose of a home stereo is to listen to music in the home. That means that comfort and convenience counts. Even though I love the sound of my multichannel speaker setup, I know that the reason it sounds that way is more because of my home than my stereo. If someone is a student in a dorm room, their idea of perfect would be different.

But if I have learned anything over the years, it's that money doesn't necessarily buy good sound; and consistency, practicality, flexibility and usability are the main improvements to home audio that have been made since the introduction of high-fidelity stereo in the late 50s- not sound quality. One of the best sounding recordings I've ever heard was made in 1954, and at that time, you needed to be in a high end recording studio to even hear it. Now you can stream it to your telephone and hear it in anywhere you go. That is simplicity and elegance.

That's a lot of how I feel, can an FLAC file sound better than Spotify? Sure, and for songs that really matter to me I'm happy to purchase a file,really sit, and listen critically. But 90-95% of my listening is done while accomplishing other things. Do my taxes, listen to music; work, listen to music; kick back on these very forums, listen to music. Rarely to do find myself with both time and the in the mood to do the most analytical listening. Do I want to have the best pair of headphones on the best source possible nearby when I do these things? Sure, but the convenience factor is often a huge contributor to me as well. The amp/dac thats already plugged in with the headphones that are readily available are going to get snagged. The trick is having the right ones nearby

 

[bigshot]

Quality and convenience keep getting closer and closer together. You really don't have to put up with inconvenience or pay a fortune for good sound any more- at least with the electronic components.

 

[Glmoneydawg]

Quality and convenience keep getting closer and closer together. You really don't have to put up with inconvenience or pay a fortune for good sound any more- at least with the electronic components.

Yep....less time fiddling and more time listening/discovering.I never could have even imagined the way this hobby has evolved over the 45ish years I've been involved.

 

[Iplaydrunk99]

amazing post ty !

 

[Joe Bloggs]

I think Stax are for people who like to make things difficult on themselves. There are so many more convenient alternatives out there, I'd rather go that route than don a hair shirt. Convenience and functionality is the most neglected aspect of high end audio. I see photos of people's portable rigs with a laptop and a million black boxes connected with big thick wires. Who wants a portable rig that fills a 20 pound backpack? Simple and elegant is better than complicated and awkward.

In a perfect world simple and elegant would be best....but simplicity,elegance,convenience,price ect shouldn't really be a factor of what's best.....what's best is what's best regardless of other parameters.Electrostatic headphones don't seem to suffer from the same sound signature issues as electrostatic speakers.

I think in the hifi world there's such a perception / bias that the best system out there must be a beast of a thousand wires that that's what gets marketed to the audiophiles regardless of performance issues. It's the reason why smartphone headphone outs have gone the way of the dodo while poorly engineered DAPs that can't even shield their headphone outs from WiFi and Bluetooth, let alone 4G radio are ruling the earth, and TeraPlayer lookalikes (oh, btw, the TeraPlayer probably failed because it's too compact) that don't even have WiFi or Bluetooth knock even those out of the park in terms of sound quality in people's imagination. If you could spin a plausible story* around a 20kg brick that can only play wav files in alphabetical sequence, complete with loosely modular construction that falls into pieces at the drop of a hat, THAT will be the next holy grail of headphone audio quality, mark my words.

*The story of course being how every user-enabling feature out there is an evil polluter of sound that must be eliminated, because it hogs CPU cycles, dirties the power, etc. to cover up for the fact that the designers of this particular brick can't engineer their way out of a paper bag

 

[castleofargh]

I think in the hifi world there's such a perception / bias that the best system out there must be a beast of a thousand wires that that's what gets marketed to the audiophiles regardless of performance issues. It's the reason why smartphone headphone outs have gone the way of the dodo while poorly engineered DAPs that can't even shield their headphone outs from WiFi and Bluetooth, let alone 4G radio are ruling the earth, and TeraPlayer lookalikes (oh, btw, the TeraPlayer probably failed because it's too compact) that don't even have WiFi or Bluetooth knock even those out of the park in terms of sound quality in people's imagination. If you could spin a plausible story* around a 20kg brick that can only play wav files in alphabetical sequence, complete with loosely modular construction that falls into pieces at the drop of a hat, THAT will be the next holy grail of headphone audio quality, mark my words.

*The story of course being how every user-enabling feature out there is an evil polluter of sound that must be eliminated, because it hogs CPU cycles, dirties the power, etc. to cover up for the fact that the designers of this particular brick can't engineer their way out of a paper bag

I've always been amazed to see instability, inconvenience and lack of options, treated as measures of high fidelity. I don't get it. At least when people correlate pricing with fidelity, I know it's BS more than half the time(in this particular hobby!), but I understand the rational.

 

[bigshot]

It's the audiophile equivalent of hair shirts and self flagellation.

 

[hakunamakaka]

I really don't get these audio graphs in nearly every review or impression of hp. In such regards many of the tube amps should be thrown away. They tell you close to nothing on how musical it is or it's sound reproduction, chasing for sharp imaging/micro detail extraction is another hi-fi jibberish where in reality sound is perceived differently and it's normal for it to blend together. Everyones has it's own sound perception. Focus on music itself, knowing what you like and exploring new sounds instead of chasing that "hi-fi" sound that will give you an eargasm of a drum kick note from the song that you heard 100x times. No "hi-fi" sound will beat a "budget" sound with the music that touches you

 

[Joe Bloggs]

I really don't get these audio graphs in nearly every review or impression of hp. In such regards many of the tube amps should be thrown away. They tell you close to nothing on how musical it is or it's sound reproduction, chasing for sharp imaging/micro detail extraction is another hi-fi jibberish where in reality sound is perceived differently and it's normal for it to blend together. Everyones has it's own sound perception. Focus on music itself, knowing what you like and exploring new sounds instead of chasing that "hi-fi" sound that will give you an eargasm of a drum kick note from the song that you heard 100x times. No "hi-fi" sound will beat a "budget" sound with the music that touches you

Where did you get the idea that low fidelity would be more musical?

 

[bigshot]

We listen to low fidelity every day of our lives and don’t even notice it... in cars, on TV, radio, etc. Quality is a function of purpose. There are situations where sound fidelity is needed, and situations where it isn’t. Music is music and it’s quality doesn’t always depend on high fidelity. It’s all dependent on how it’s being used.