The Stax thread (New)

[jaycalgary]

I was watching Ebay and 5 new F81 or F83 panels sold for $360. I am sure someone is happy. I was going to buy them but all I could have done is hoard them for a long time. I know it would have been fun to build the cabinets but would it be really hard and expensive to diy the electronics? Especially considering that a 2nd hand pair of F81 are about $5k. I will stick to ESL57's considering the Stax amp requirement.

 

[jeffreyfranz]

I know the Stax are legendary, but ESL-57s are by consensus about as good as it gets. Be happy. Just my opinion.
 
Quote:

I was watching Ebay and 5 new F81 or F83 panels sold for $360. I am sure someone is happy. I was going to buy them but all I could have done is hoard them for a long time. I know it would have been fun to build the cabinets but would it be really hard and expensive to diy the electronics? Especially considering that a 2nd hand pair of F81 are about $5k. I will stick to ESL57's considering the Stax amp requirement.

 

 

[jeffreyfranz]

Just wanted to drop in and say hi. I am still happy, to put it mlldly, with my SR-507 and SRM-600. That is why I haven't been around--been spending all my time listening to my Stax and my Quads. This is my first-ever Stax rig, and I will always be grateful to Nerdling, Milosz and all the others who advised and encouraged me. 

 

[n3rdling]

Hey Jeff, glad you're enjoying your stuff  FYI, there are two upcoming LA area meets, check out the meets subforum.

 

[milosz]

Jeff, please be advised there are some Stax that do not produce very good bass- although their treble has a certain crispness to it....
 

...like other Stax, once you try them, it's hard to stop.

 

[milosz]

Quote:

I was watching Ebay and 5 new F81 or F83 panels sold for $360. I am sure someone is happy. I was going to buy them but all I could have done is hoard them for a long time. I know it would have been fun to build the cabinets but would it be really hard and expensive to diy the electronics? Especially considering that a 2nd hand pair of F81 are about $5k. I will stick to ESL57's considering the Stax amp requirement.

I don't know where you'd get the exact OEM audio coupling transformers for them, but the high voltage supplies are relatively easy to build.  There are some DIY electrostatic speaker guys out there, an Internet info / sources for stuff like diaphragm film, coating, transformers and so on. So it COULD be done.
 
I am not sure the effort would be worth it.  ESL57's sound SO good and the potential to get something not outright WRONG, but not-quite-right on a DIY ESL frankenspeaker would mean that the DIY job would stand a fair chance of sounding OK  but not optimum.  You know, a transformer not quite matched would WORK but maybe not with the optimized result you get from the Quad ESL. (I have a pair of ESL57's, LOVE them!  I am actually going to try an experiment and use them as a subwoofer for a pair of single-driver Fostex 3 inch speakers I'm making... use a Behringer DCX 2496 and drive the Quads below 100 Hz or so... it's a wacky idea and that's why I want to try it.  HA HA HA ESL57 as a subwoofer...  actually in my room they are quite solid down to about 40 Hz. It's just something I want to try, I doubt I will end up listening to it for any length of time.)
 
Apropos of nothing....  SONY 3-way SS-R10 ESL I read about.  Another rare Japanese electrostat 
http://www.thevintageknob.org/sony-SS-R10.html
 

 
 
 
 

 

[jaycalgary]

I am more surprised for how little they went for. Must be because of how few of these Stax models are out there. For someone that has a pair of F81 or especially F83 and they had the chance to buy 5 new drivers in cellophane that opportunity is probably not coming around again. Well maybe once. I was guessing most of the good tube transformer builders could make a pair. F81 in 5.1 surround with all the amps needed just kidding. I still have my Esl57 working fixer uppers with plenty extra bass and treble panels. Just not enough room for them or proper amp so far and I want to rebuild them eventually. Your sub sounds like a great experiment.

 

[J-Pak]

There are commercial companies that can rebuild the Stax and Quad ESLs. Poor functioning/non-functioning units usually don't fetch all that much. I paid $220 for a pair of my Quad ESL63 that are in very, very nice cosmetic condition, but needed to be rebuilt. For a little over $2000 all in they are really awesome speakers, handily beating even the Maggie 3.5R and 3.6 IME.

 

[schorsch]

Quote:

There are commercial companies that can rebuild the Stax and Quad ESLs. Poor functioning/non-functioning units usually don't fetch all that much. I paid $220 for a pair of my Quad ESL63 that are in very, very nice cosmetic condition, but needed to be rebuilt. For a little over $2000 all in they are really awesome speakers, handily beating even the Maggie 3.5R and 3.6 IME.

Well,
is there someone reliable around here in Europe to rebuild my stax f-81.Any recommendations. I was a bidder for the panels too, but I selpt in the wron minute(
 
Regards Georg

 

[jaycalgary]

I blew 2 fuses in my SRM-717 F1 and F2 both are 250V 0.1A and are difficult to find locally. So far the closest I can get now is 0.5A. This is too risky? I can wait till Monday and may be able to get the proper size though.

 

[mwilson]

Does anyone know if there's a place that carries Stax in South Florida? I am really curious to have a listen to see if it's a direction in which I might want to branch out. Specifically I'm looking at SR-009

TIA

 

[West726]

Someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think there is any showroom in the U.S.  Unless you find a meet, your best bet is Tokyo (Maruishi, Audio Union, Yodobashi Akiba . . .).  Normally I wouldn't say such a thing, but if life is short and music is forever as your signature says, maybe you could hop on a plane . . . the ticket is far less expensive than the 009s . . .

 

[Magick Man]

And you get to enjoy Tokyo, which is a really amazing place. It's one of my favorite cities on Earth.

 

[Tilpo]

Someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think there is any showroom in the U.S.  Unless you find a meet, your best bet is Tokyo (Maruishi, Audio Union, Yodobashi Akiba . . .).  Normally I wouldn't say such a thing, but if life is short and music is forever as your signature says, maybe you could hop on a plane . . . the ticket is far less expensive than the 009s . . .

And if you're lucky you can avoid customs tax as well.

 

[graben]

We have a lot of Stax dealers here in Osaka as well.