Stax Electrostatic speakers & Amplifiers

[TerryO]

I was over at a bloke I have known for years place yesterday to discuss business when the topic of HiFi came up and my recent purchases, he said come and have a look at what I have up stairs. Sitting in a small room were these massive Stax electrostatic speakers and in a cabinet near by was a Stax pre amp and Stax mono blocks. This gear was all about 25 + odd years old and wasn't even connected up, nor had it been for several years since moving into this house.

 

Anyway my question is has anyone heard one of these systems working and what was it like and how does it compare to modern electrostatic speakers?

 

cheers Terry

Edited May 10, 2017 by TerryO

[michaelw]

i had many listening sessions back in the 80s/90s with the small, single-panel els-f81 'stats.

 

a speaker with clear limitations but amazingly musical, more so than the similarly sized quad 63s or contemporary 'stats like acoustats of the time.

 

there's superb midrange, soundstaging, detail and speed,

but limited in output, bandwith and it was very fussy about matching amplifiers.

 

not enough power and they sounded dead, too much and they quickly died,

iirc stax recommended between 100-300 watts.

the weird impedance curve, 4~512ohm, limited the range of suitable amplifiers.

sensitivity was a low 73db/1w/1m.

 

i've also heard the bigger f83; more highs, lows, output but less cohesive.

 

a modern pair of stats would have less foibles but may not be as lust worthy.

 

haven't heard stax electronics aside form their cd player.

 

Edited May 11, 2017 by michaelw

[Nigel]

Thank Dog stats have come along way since then. 

73dB is pathetic by today's standards.

Probably why they concentrated on headphones, which they do pretty well.

[michaelw]

scans from an old stax brochure circa. 1983...

 

 

 

Edited May 12, 2017 by michaelw

[TerryO]

Thanks for the brochure Michael, looking at it I'm pretty sure he has the ELS-8X speakers, the CYN Pre-amp and the DM-100M power amps and a really old Rotel CD player, he originally was into vinyl but the TT died of old age, thus the Rotel was given a run a couple of decades ago.

Having spoken with the owner since starting this thread it has been decided in the next month we will get together and connected it all up and see how it sounds.

 

Thanks again for the brochure.

 

cheers Terry

Edited May 12, 2017 by TerryO

[Tony M]

The late Steve Molnar of International Sound in Adelaide used Stax monoblocks as his reference amplifiers - I believe they were DA100M's.  I remember them clipping when he was demoing a pair of Apogee Centaurs.  I bought the speakers, but left the amps (probably weren't for sale anyway).  I used them with an ME850, which had no problems driving them, but reliability was an issue.

 

It's hard to imagine those amps happily driving speakers with efficiency in the 70's but I'll look forward to hearing the first-hand reports.   

[Guest kab]

http://20cheaddatebase.web.fc2.com/LibSTAX/7912EK-07.pdf

 

I have one of these 

stax made superb preamps.

 

Cheers.

 

[TerryO]

1 hour ago, Tony M said:

The late Steve Molnar of International Sound in Adelaide used Stax monoblocks as his reference amplifiers - I believe they were DA100M's.  I remember them clipping when he was demoing a pair of Apogee Centaurs.  I bought the speakers, but left the amps (probably weren't for sale anyway).  I used them with an ME850, which had no problems driving them, but reliability was an issue.

 

It's hard to imagine those amps happily driving speakers with efficiency in the 70's but I'll look forward to hearing the first-hand reports.   

 

If I remember right the owner said they were 150w a side. But when I looked them up on the web after I could not find a Stax monoblock that was rated at 150w, so I thought maybe I had heard wrong or he had forgotten what they were. When I saw the pic of the DA100M's, which is what they looked like I thought they must be those, maybe I was wrong.

 

I'll find out next time I speak to him.

 

cheers Terry

Edited May 12, 2017 by TerryO

[Peter Allen]

I have some sitting lonely in the corner.

Maybe I'll hook them up eh?

In place of Yamaha NS-1000.  Couldn't be more different?

As has been said by many, delightful but with problems.

Hey, anyone ever heard a perfect speaker?

 

I'll try them with my Plinius SA-100, ought to be able to handle their cruel impedance.

Just add a sub-woofer (B&W PV1b, very musical, just not Home Theatre)

Feed it with a NAS / microRendu > Benchmark DAC! and stand back...

 

probably get it up this weekend, report back.

 

[Wimbo]

5 minutes ago, Peterpills said:

Just add a sub-woofer (B&W PV1b, very musical, just not Home Theatre)

That was a heavy little bugga for the size.

[Peter Allen]

Just set and forget. It integrates well, doesn't hoot too high, not at all.

Then buy a a DSPeaker which tidies it up a bit.

Then run Fidelizer and wonder how that could improve (deepen) the bass.

Then just settle back and enjoy the music.

[F18]

I had the EST4 kit version and it sounds excellent, punching above and beyond for its size and what I paid for them. Certainly collectors item nowadays.

 

Cheers,

[Peter Allen]

Also I've been collecting their headspeakers, similarly waiting to hook up the Lambdas with the energiser SRM-1 Mk 2 pro

Gees you guys are on my tail...

actually a Good Thing to prod me from ennui.

[Ando]

I owned a pair of 83s for a while. Great mids. No bass. Couldnt play at a decent volume . Tried to add woofers , Gave up and sold. Too many short comings for me.

Cheers Mike

[Peter Allen]

I also came by their integrated amplifier for earspeakers,  SRA 10s

Never connected it up either. pretty eh?

Fortunately I've retired recently -- Stax of stuff s, so little time.

[Guest kab]

http://audio-heritage.jp/STAX/amp/dma-x2.html

 

One of the best ss amps ever made IMHO

[Peter Allen]

The F-81s

Quick and dirty hookup today to clear out the spiders.

They work.

They sound pretty good alright, on 'Fast Car' the balance was right on.

But how loud? How about mid- to high 80s dB.

'Is that all?'  Tony Fawkner recording engineer guru monitored his Quad 63s at that level.

I don't drive a sports car either.

--

Shall get back with more if worthwhile.

Edited May 13, 2017 by Peterpills
clarification of model.

[Ken]

I remember Kessler reviewing the F-81's in Hi-Fi News, his story was that he had almost given up trying to find an amp to drive them to his liking, he tried Krell, Mark Levinson, Audio Research all of his USA regulars, he was about to call it quits, and plugged in his Radford STA25, his words were an absolute magical combination.

 

Years later I heard him tell the story that he still considers it one of the best combinations he had ever heard. 

 

Ken

[Ando]

On 5/12/2017 at 6:53 PM, Ando said:

I owned a pair of 83s for a while. Great mids. No bass. Couldnt play at a decent volume . Tried to add woofers , Gave up and sold. Too many short comings for me.

Cheers Mike

On Stax :

Like many people I also had some SR3 headphones which I liked but they stopped working and I gave them away some  time back.

My longest lasting Stax purchase is these Giant Binding Posts still unopened since some time in the 80s (? ) just waiting , and waiting for the right DIY speaker project to use them in.

 

Cheers Mike

[hamishib]

Hi all, I have a pair of ELS-F81 that I could be persuaded to part with. Anyone interested? 

 

They're in great condition and are working!

 

-hamish-

[Peter Allen]

One chooses the speakers for the music you like.

Or you choose the music for the speakers you have.

If you don't choose to play BIG music, these are great.

For the gentleman's retreat, yes!

They would make somebody a happy musicophile.

[Be Quiet...Listen]

On 12/05/2017 at 7:34 PM, kab said:

http://audio-heritage.jp/STAX/amp/dma-x2.html

 

One of the best ss amps ever made IMHO

Nice looking amps those!