My Stax Journey Has Begun

My local Stax pusher found a BNIB SRS-2170 that had been lying in a cupboard for 3 years, coincidentally at exactly the same time my good mate Scubadude lucked onto his.

I could not let this good fortune pass me by, especially since I got a great deal (approx 595 USD), and have been thoroughly enjoying my first electrostatics these past 3 days. In fact, my biggest problem is taking them off my head.
There's nothing entry level about this system.

All the usual epithets apply - clarity, soundstage, speed, detail.
Two things stand out immediately for me: the quality and amount of deep, detailed bass that the SR-207 can produce was unexpected, as was the effortless gain of the SRM-252S fed by a Benchmark DAC 1 USB.
Totally black background and totally free of grain.

I'm shocked at the value. Nothing else comes close at the price, dynamic or planar IMHO.
No, the Stax does not have the sheer bass weight and slam of my beloved LCD2F, but I don't miss it.

I've put in some long sessions these past few days, and have had no comfort issues at all.
These things have a habit of turning short sessions into long ones...

Dunno if burn in is a thing with electrostats, but mine sounded huge out of the box and I've not noticed any change.
Well I have from the point of view that I am rapidly discovering what these can do with my favourite music, and am hearing more and better as I settle into the sound signature.

I was only looking to invest in my first Stax early next year, according to the Master Plan, but I'm really rather glad the opportunity came around sooner than expected.

 

There is already a dedicated thread for Stax here.
https://www.superbestaudiofriends.org/index.php?threads/the-stax-i-thread.1722/

Unless, you felt your first foray into Stax (which isn’t even a new product) was significant enough to warrant a new thread of its own?

 

Didn't you already post the exact same thing here: https://superbestaudiofriends.org/i...arphone-system-measurements.3595/#post-226045

 

Apologies! In my unbridled enthusiasm, I seem to have posted this in the wrong thread... ...twice...!

If the mods could please move it to: https://www.superbestaudiofriends.org/index.php?threads/the-stax-i-thread.1722/