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Article: Review | Stax SRS-3100 Electrostatic Headphone System


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Thanks, George!   As I PM'd a while back, I bought the SR-009S and SRM-700T on inspiration from your earlier review.  After eschewing headphones for years, I am completely addicted.  A good pair of Stax are captivating, revealing, ethereal in their presentation.  My only complaint is that my listening sessions often extend too damn long (haha).  

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On 1/28/2021 at 10:44 AM, bluesman said:

I wasn’t challenging you, George.  But you do make multiple references to a general perception that products made of plastic are often believed (rightly or wrongly) to be of lesser quality and durability than those made of metal, leather, and other materials for which plastic is substituted, eg “Just because the SR-L300s are made entirely of plastic, one shouldn’t concern oneself with quality issues” and “as with anything plastic, they probably require a bit more care in handling than the two more pricy models”.

 

FWIW, there are easily obtainable and readily usable plastics that far exceed aluminum and steel in strength.  For example, look at hemp plastics, from which Ford built a car in 1941 that was 30% lighter than the same car in steel. The plastic used is 25% stronger (compressive, tensile, and torsional as I recall) than the pressed sheet steel it replaced - the door panels could not be damaged with a sledgehammer.  Here’s a link to more info for those who are interested.

 

Thanks again!

 

Separate from the question of actual durability--Stax, like RAALs, give the definite sensation that they need to be handled with much more care than the more typical headphone design of, say, Focal Utopias and countless models from lower performance tiers.  I skip the recommended storage box, but I do cradle my Stax with two hands so they do not twist as I pick them up on the shelf.  The RAALs I demoed were even trickier.  I think this is a small sacrifice to get unparalleled sound quality--from either Stax or RAAL, depending on your taste--but it's a pretty obvious weakness.

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