Stax SR3

[Paul Barker]

I think I did good on eBay. £110 delivered.

I put them into the system as it is now and waited an hour for the bias to charge the panels.

So, how do they sound compared to the system on it's speakers.

Very interesting comparrison. The sound is almost identical, which speaks very well of Collins speakers.

To be fair the bass of the Ear Speakers is better but it doesn't have to drive the room.

Though it is true the Ear speakers are better overall, in most parts the Marty Feldmans' are a close enough match.

There is one area where the Ear speakers dominate in quality, and that is the human voice, particularly speach. The level of the human comes up to the correct level. It is recessed in the Feldmans'.

That's it.

Very happy to have near ear electrostatic speakers. Very happy with the Feldman SPeakers.

[Andrew]

I am lucky enough to have a pair of these and they are very very good, aren't they? Be interesting to compare them to the modern versions...

Andrew

[Paul Barker]

Nice one Andrew. I think biggest benefit is the comfort, and also the feeling you aren't listening to headphones, feels like you are sat in your room listening to your system.

I have now noticed they are a tad rolled off at the top compared to my speakers. But it is quite likely my speakers are tad bright and the Es ear speakers are correct. Certainly the humans sound real.

Not as good an experience as listening to humans on q57's but in the right direction. Most modern designs of speakers seem to do so much else so much better, but can't seem to bring with them the lifelike human voice.

Best magnet speaker I have heard the human voice with had no permanent magnet. Field coil OB,s. Don't do anything else as well as all the fantastic designs about today, but bring out the human voice almost as well as the 57's . Good enough for me anyway.

But also have the 57 dimensions.

Is it in the dimensions?

I think the q57 dimensions are part of the key, but if you build an OB of those dimensions with permanent magnet speakers, which I have tried many, you don't come as close to the 57 as you do with field coils.

After you have done achieving real humans in your room you will notice you neglected everything else to the detriment and made something that would never sell to the 20 20 brigade. Takes me back to the Laskies catalogue hifi purchase decisions method, you looked down the statistics , was it 20 cycles to 20,000 cycles? Tick, how many watts was it? Tick, does it fit in my room? Tick, can I afford it? If so buy it. Never have to listen to a thing.