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Hi, I'm relatively new around here. I just recently acquired an ESP950 and have read the E90 energizer leaves some to be desired. Can someone suggest a good place to look for used Stax amps? Would 580v pro bias be a good match for the 600v esp950?
I have ESP-950's, and the E90, and I have a Stax SRM-T1 as well, and used to have an SRM-1 mk 2. My ESP 950's have been rewired with a Stax cable and I have a dongle that lets me use headphones with 5-pin Stax plugs on the Koss E90 amplifier. I already had my SRM-T1 before I got my ESP-950's, else I might have stayed with the E90.
The E90 sounds a lot like the SRM-1 mk2. I think the SRM-T1 might sound a little more "refined" but otherwise there's not much difference between the E90 and the SRM-T1.
E90 is really no slouch. Very close to the sound of the various widely-available Stax amps. I think to get a NOTICEABLY better sound out of the ESP-950 you'd need to go up to something like the KGSSHV* amp. As usual with high-end audio, the last 15% of sound quality costs 85% of the money......
So, really, unless you are obsessed with audio like I am, or have loads of money, it makes sense to stick with the E90.
The E90 also has the advantage of being able to run on batteries. Very handy if you are into location recording and want the transparency of electrostatic headphones for monitoring.
(I am
badly obsessed with audio, so I am building a Gilmore designed amp, but it's slow going because I never have time to work on it.)
* KGSSHV This stands for Kevin Gilmore Solid State High Voltage- and let me explain what that means. There's a gentleman named Kevin Gilmore, who is a very talented electronic engineer and also a skilled technician and machinist. He has designed a number of very good headphone amplifiers, mostly amplifiers designed for use with electrostatic headphones. Often, people use his design and build the equipment themselves. Mr. Gilmore is more than happy to provide his design to home-builders for free. The amplifiers can be a little challenging, but with patience I think even a beginner could build them. However, you need to be able to solder and also to house the amplifier in some kind of chassis. Chassis work could be as simple as buying a commercially available blank chassis and cutting the various mounting holes, etc that are needed. Or, you can start from metal stock and machine it all yourself if you have access to the right kind of tools.
I believe that some Kevin Gilmore designs are available commercially from "professional builders." They are not cheap. I think a KGSSHV would run about $4,000. It would cost you about $1,500 to build one. (Prices are guestimates.)
