Anyone have experience with Stax Electrostatic headphones for FPS gaming?

I’ve found the Stax SR-L700 combined with the Stax SRM-D10 dac/amp for around $1200 used which trigged my curiousity. Anyone have any experience generally how Electrostatic Headphones from Stax (or other brands) works in FPS game and more specifically how this model works? In terms of sound imaging and sound stage, pin pointing enemies gunshot and footstep, direction and distance. How does it compare up to other headphones?

Stax are a little intensive for fps games a good friend of my gave me his for a week and i was blown away with anything music but for video thay can be a bit to in your face. Check my review channel for the upcoming video.

Thanks I’ll check it out :+1:

estats have the most clarity and are very good for speed but stax are a bit much and quite aggressive… they aren’t the best choice and I would never recommend someone to spend this much for gaming purposes…

if you really want to try an estat with good performance and not torch your wallet look into Koss ESP/95x from DROP… this particular headphone can compete head to head with the DT 1990 in terms of performance in competitive gaming… I don’t like to recommend it but I will give credit where its due…

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For something that is a bit relaxed in the 2-8kHz range, the 95X has great resolution and detail retrieval, maybe also due to the compressed dynamics.

Personally, I find my AD900x more than enough for gaming. Only benefit I see with the 95X is better depth and height to the soundstage/imaging abilities, but such I don’t find extra advantageous in a lot of games really.

depends on the game from my experience… sound engines create limitations and fps have some of the worst. AD900x is fine… as is 700x I just hate the comfort… I would take the 880 honestly as my regular use… not the best but doesn’t need to be as it performs exceptionally well in just about every fps. Really no reason to go complete overkill

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Thanks great info. I’ve been looking up prices and generally it’s alot more expensive in Norway, that is why used/demo Stax is on the table (havn’t found any used Schiit, don’t think they’re that popular)

Schiit Asgard 3 (w/ Multibit DAC Module) $820, DT 1990 $590 = $1410 (new)
Demo SRM-D10 $590, Barley used Stax SR-L700 $950 = $1540 (used and demo)

Schiit is more future proof as I can use it on all other headphones (except electorstatic) while the SRM-D10 is Stax proprietary. But if I think of resell value then I think I’ll get more for the Stax combo.

So value wise they’re about the same here

would absolutely recommend changing that to something else more affordable… that is twice the price of original value…

I can second that.

Ah thanks I checked on the Schiit site (and not the Norwegian company that imports them) and it’s much cheaper to order directly, it will end up on around $600 with shipment and import taxes. So then it should be alright value I think compared to the other options in Norway

Let me try to sum it up and make some sort of conclution here, not so we’re derailing too much :slight_smile: :
Electrostatic Headphones can work great for Competative FPS like the Koss ESP/95x, but you’re paying alot which can be achived cheaper with dynamic headphones.
The Stax SR-L700 is intense (wall of sound?) and quite agressive, they’re good but not great for for competative FPS. They are too expensive compared with just as good or better options when gaming is in focus.

I would encourage maybe looking into finding Lake People like G103 or something… as the lake people amps are a solid alternative to the asgard and other schiit products for those with hefty costs. Seems lake people is more accessible with other countries than schiit

You can also get good results from something like Geshelli, Monoprice(liquid platinum or gold), JDS(atom is entry but you have the el series), (might get some feedback for this one) and topping

well, 95x is about the same price as dt 1990… it’s just that estats are fragile, take an energizer which means youd need an amp venturing into other headphones still so added costs, upgrading estats is insanely expensive which should be clear to see considering stax there.

yep, pretty much. Great headphones for sure… juuust not that good for competitive gaming and better options for less money

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You can get lake people from Thomann Germany if you are into that.

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Thanks! I’ll have a look into them too :blush:

yeah, I finally got to try one… definitely fantastic alternative to the asgard… I honestly quite like them. Not as colored mind you but that’s just fine they sound great.

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When you guys mean by intensive, isn’t that a good thing for fps gaming. As you want the detail of the footsteps to be clear and precise?