Stax SRS-2170

Mint condition in original box with all original packaging and instructions.

**BONUS** The system originally came with an A/C adapter with
UK voltage setup but I have also included a separate A/C adapter that will
work with US voltage and outlets.

As previously mentioned, the item is in mint condition and has essentially no use (I checked it to make sure it was in good working condition and it sounded fantastic).

Review from AV Club:
Stax SRS-2170 earspeakers REVIEW

Product Name: Stax SRS-2170 earspeakers


Product Type: headphones



Price: $1299.00


Reviewed By: Jez Ford


Magazine: Sound+Image



Distributor: Stax



Who Sells What/Website: Stax

Not headphones, but “earspeakers” as Stax
calls its unique designs. And for once, it’s a sensible name, not merely
PR phrasing. The Stax designs really are like having loudspeakers
hanging next to your ears; the SR-207 earspeaker design we reviewed here
does have pads that contact your ears and a headband to keep things in
place, but honestly, we know of no headphones you’re more likely to
entirely forget you’re wearing.

We remember once, many years ago, undertaking a comparative test of
some 70 different blank cassette tapes, a nightmare scenario which was
made not only possible but distinctly less horrific by the loan of
Stax’s then range-topper, the SR-Lambda Signature, which used a
dedicated valve amplifier to feed them. It was a unique listening
experience, like having a mobile Quad electrostatic panels on each side
of your head. We were rapt, and don’t recall any similar experience
since, though memory is, of course, a pernicious master. 

Stax was then Japanese; the company failed in the 1990s, but was
revived, and the brand is now owned by Edifier, the Chinese company best
known for its dozens of designs of computer speakers and docks, some of
which we’ve reviewed and found pretty enjoyable. The Stax brand is
still, however, made in Japan.

Stax’s current top-of-the-range electrostatic earspeaker, the SR-009,
has actually reverted to a circular earshell, so we were delighted to
receive a design further down the range which is still based on those
spectacular Lambda earspeakers of old. They still have their own
amplifier, though with this package it is solid-state, the combination
of SR-207 earspeakers and SRM-323S driver unit being labelled the
“SRS-2170 earspeaker system”. You could buy the earspeakers ($699) or
amplifier ($799) alone, but since they connect via a five-pin PRO bias
output socket, you might find little else to use them with. 

The SR-207s are as close to fully open as
headphones get, using an oval push-pull electrostatic panel inside their
large unadjustable rectangular headshells, with almost as much sound
flooding out into the room as heading in the earward direction. Not that
you’d be using them on the bus, anyway, given the requirement of mains
power for the amplifier. But it is worth remembering that they also
allow sound from the room to enter freely; we started listening to these
while the missus was in the room watching television, and it was
clearly not going to work for either of us. These are headphones for
lone listening.

We reckon you’ll be doing a lot of it. The presentation of the
SR-207s is uniquely airy, open, detailed and stunning in its portrayal
of the soundstage, which was as close to in front of us as we’ve ever
had headphones deliver; when not in front, it was soundstaging within
the head, and not positioned around and above, as is the norm.
Electronic bass and synth lines may not fill your head with fatness, but
you’ll never hear things sounding so phaselicious, while the dance thud
of a kickdrum has real timing and impact. As for jazz and classical
material, they approach the realm of the Sennheiser HD 800s, ruthlessly
revealing inconsistencies and flaws, putting any hiss in old recordings a
little to the fore, but portraying instruments across and fore/aft in
an immaculately separated soundstage. There’s a very light reediness to
upper registers which we suspect will sweeten as you move up Stax’s
range (see below), and we noticed the padding against the ears can start
getting a little sticky on a warm day. Small bones against a beautiful
body of sound like this.

Stax today may not be a direct continuation of the Stax we knew in
1990, but the signature sound remains, and we fell in love all over
again with the electrostatic headphone concept. In addition to this
pairing, the Stax range also includes SR-307s ($699), SR-407s ($849) and
SR-507s ($1399, with higher level amps also available (including the
valve version) up to $3699. That boringly-round SR-009 reference
earspeaker with its valve amp would come in above $10,000. Bring it on,
we say.

[Prices correct at August 2015.]