I bought electrostatic STAX 30 years ago, I don't remember the model. They has their own solid state amplifier. I had them for about 20 years. The GOOD: superb sensitivity and sweet sound. Can play as loud as you can stand. The Opposite of good: Makes your ears sweat (until the plastic coating fell off of the ear peices), the wire is like a leash, other noises comes through the back of the earphone, the sound stage was like a rainbow over one's head not in front, and no base. I think that because there is no base they sound overly bright. A trick to getting base is to play the speaker and listen to the headphone at the same time. I did not use them much after I got Maggies since the Maggies had surperb sensitivity.
I was recently thinking of purchasing another pair (to cure room reflection) but after doing some research, I concluded that many of the above problems have not been solved.
How would you address some of the problems? I arranged some mini-monitors close to my easy chair, like earphones to overcome room reflections. Try it. I thought the image would still be infront, it wasn't. So I moved the speakers slightly forward of the chair. I could not trick my ears. The sound stage remained between the speakers. Everdently, there was still enough room reflection for the ears to gauge the distance to the speakers. I walked around the room listen to the reflection. I no longer believe in transparent speakers, only strong room reflection. (You might have sumised that I like transparent type speakers with Maggies and Ohm Walsh 4+). It would be interesting to try to design an arbor or speakers that you sit in. The arbor would do some phase trickery that would make you think it was surround sound. The base would be below the chair seat to provide not only sound but feel. I do not know if this could also be the solution to surround sound problem, room reflection. (The only impressionable surround sound I heard was in a large commerical movie theater.)
I was recently thinking of purchasing another pair (to cure room reflection) but after doing some research, I concluded that many of the above problems have not been solved.
How would you address some of the problems? I arranged some mini-monitors close to my easy chair, like earphones to overcome room reflections. Try it. I thought the image would still be infront, it wasn't. So I moved the speakers slightly forward of the chair. I could not trick my ears. The sound stage remained between the speakers. Everdently, there was still enough room reflection for the ears to gauge the distance to the speakers. I walked around the room listen to the reflection. I no longer believe in transparent speakers, only strong room reflection. (You might have sumised that I like transparent type speakers with Maggies and Ohm Walsh 4+). It would be interesting to try to design an arbor or speakers that you sit in. The arbor would do some phase trickery that would make you think it was surround sound. The base would be below the chair seat to provide not only sound but feel. I do not know if this could also be the solution to surround sound problem, room reflection. (The only impressionable surround sound I heard was in a large commerical movie theater.)