Stax buyout

[Owen Young]

This is interesting to me, esp in the light of Ross's recent For Sale posting of his SRX Mk3 phones (which tempt me)...

Chinese Speaker Maker Edifier Purchases Famous Electrostatic Headphone Maker Stax (http://www.innerfidelity.com/content/chinese-speaker-maker-edifier-purchases-famous-electrostatic-headphone-maker-stax)

I'm surprised/sad to read that staff no's at Stax had dwindled to so low.

[Michael Wong]

Sold for petty cash !

:(

Let's hope Stax doesn't get bitten by the cost-cutting monster that usually accompanies Sino takeovers.

[Michael Jones]

Some of these well-known (at least, in or little world) hi-fi forms are very small.

Stax's turnover was less than US$3 million. Quad's turnover, prior to them being bought out, was around 1.3 million pounds. That's not very much.

[chiba]

That sucks, and is pretty rare in Japan; I'd have thought one of the larger Japanese companies would have snapped them up.

Just as an aside, Stax 'phones are very cheap in Japan compared to the rest of the world. The basic SRS-2170 is only about $800 in Japan; you'd pay over twice that in NZ. When I was living over there and bought mine I thought the store had mispriced them!

[Owen Young]

Small scale production in Japan would undoubtedly be v costly.

Edifier Technology make speaker systems & headphones. Edifier have reportedly said...."the new brand will use 100% Stax produced electrostatic speaker unit while Edifier will produce the rest of the parts - in order to create more affordable, easier-to-use electrostatic headphone".

[Ernie]

We've come full circle. Altec Lansing, giants in a former life, their core business is now iPod speakers. You can't blame Edifier for having higher-end ambitions. There are startups like Hifiman cutting a path through the market making good quality electroplanar headphones for a lot less than the incumbents.

I see Samsung are doing valves in a new line of gear... Exciting times for some. Extremely uncomfortable for others. Seems like if you can dream it, someone will make it. Somewhere.

[kaka]

So many options in headphone amps and phones now - based on my ownership of mid-level Stax a couple of years ago, good dynamic phones coupled with a reasonable amp are preferable to those offerings. More impact.

Having said that, one of the aussie Stax adherents liked them for their spatial positioning of orchestras, but my classical tastes top out at quartets.

I haven't heard their 07 or 09 top end models. The alternative electrostatic phone amps (the best known is the Blue Hawaii, (http://www.headamp.com/electrostat_amps/index.htm) and Woo Audio (http://www.wooaudio.com/products/wes.html) do one too) presumably improve on the Stax models. They certainly cost more!

[Cooksferry]

So many options in headphone amps and phones now - based on my ownership of mid-level Stax a couple of years ago, good dynamic phones coupled with a reasonable amp are preferable to those offerings. More impact.

Having lived with a top end Stax system for some months I'd have to say the above comment would apply to them as well. While the Stax system did some things very well, for far less money there are quite a few phones available now that match or better them in many areas.
While I had the Stax system I did solicit the opinions of others in a back to back comparison and in all cases the vote went to a dynamic phone/amp combo.
The companies that will survive and thrive long term are those that can offer a range of headphones and that includes cheaper models to go with MP3 players and the like, a market that Stax never got a hold in. There's a limit to the market to the higher end and that's now a very competitive area. The latest headphone, the 009, is very expensive and also needs a pricey amp to match with it.