Iāve actually heard some sound lab estats and they sounded great 
(although I canāt remember the model, heard them at a show). Iām mainly talking about more consumer esl like martinlogan. The smaller more niche makers do a better job imo. That being said the price is kinda out of the reach for many, along with the space you may need for them
Also are they still doing T.H.E show currently? I thought they stopped doing it
I ordered a pair of these for the experience, in the meantime i have been researching and found a site w/ this handy diagram.
yeah i saw this too, looks easy enough. wonder where you can find a plug like that. the 95x and 950 already come with a extension cable you could convert
Need to find a plug and also figure out definitive answer on using certain types of 2 ch. power amplifiers to power them not just the Estat type. Still researching, Iāll post if i find more
When you get it up and running, let us know what you think
Iāve listened to them for a few hours, 2 seperate listening sessions. Sourced from the Topping D70 DAC. They sound great and I would definitely rank them above a lot of other headphones. I think they are definitely worth their price at $400-$500.
I would qualify them as fairly open and relaxed. They have a very natural sound to them. Certain genres of music sound great/spectacular on them. I think their stand-out quality might be their fast transcient response (aka driver recovery/sound seperation). They have an āairyā and āSpeedyā quality to them.
But I have noticed in some songs, the sub-low end can get a little bit distorted-unclean. Which may be why Koss tuned them the way they did. Itās nothing deal-breaking or terrible by any means. I think they actually have pretty good low-end extension. They easily beat out the 600 series headphones from sennheiser in that regardā¦ but itās not the cleanest sounding either. I think Audeze easily has them beat in that regard.
The main ākickerā for me personally, I feel like I get similar detail retreiver from the Tin P1s driven by the THX ampā¦ while the tuning on the P1s sound more refined, with a cleaner and stronger low-end extension and better tuned treble. While the Koss have the P1s beat in their width/airynessā¦ but the design of the 95x definitely show their age a bit when I compared them directly to the Tin P1s. The P1s are just exceptionally well tuned and really well designed if you have a strong and clean enough source for them.
I think the best thing I can personally say for the 95x is that they have given me a decent idea of the potential of electrostats. I can even see the 95x improving signficantly with just a better amp/energizer. If this is just the ābudgetā option for an electrostat setup, I can definitely see the STAX L700 or similar being absolutely āgod tierā.
Very interesting. My 789 I purchased in June will finally be delivered this Friday or Saturday. I own the P1s and donāt love them by any means. I think of them like I do my 4xx-good for the price, but I donāt get the fuss. That said, I havenāt had a clean desktop source to run them from. Iāve used them and my Andromedas from my Chord Mojo using the iematch for the Anromedas, and Iāve used the P1s with the Monoprice THX portable and not much else aside those. Iām looking forward to running all of my headphones and iems off the 789 because I feel like I have to be missing out with some of them based off of the praise they get.
I do agree with your reaction to the 95x. I immediately priced out Stax headphones and amps becuase it totally does something I hadnāt heard before. For now, I will be sticking to tubes and dynamic headphones, but I think my next headphone purchase will be an L700mk2 and amp. I may get a new dac/amp upgrade first, but I donāt want another headphone (aside from the ZMFs I ordered) thats not electrostatic
Iāve found the P1s can scale pretty drastically. They can sound like absolutely anemic ātrashā from a weak source. I can get them pretty reasonably powered from the LG V30 as long as I can trick the phone into itās high-impedance modeā¦ but then they are just full of distortion and noise. They sounded very good from the Monolith THX 788 Dac/Amp all-in-one. Then I listened to them high-gain, being driven by either the monolith 887 or sp 200 with Topping D70 as the DAC, they hit the next level.
Interesting that you find the p1 more detailed with the better source. I found that it sounded really good out of the GS-X Mk2, but even then I donāt know if it was more detailed over the 95x to me. It may have gotten pretty close but I donāt know if it was more. But I will agree that the p1 does scale very well
yeah, i donāt know if i would say āmore detailedā But it was close enough. And it has much better tuning IMO.
Well I think itās more that the p1 has a more organic timbre over the esp95x tbh. The 95x actually is fairly close in tuning to the 650. It just comes down to the less organic timbre and tone of the estats (but the 95x is pretty good in that regard compared to other estats)
about THE Show Newport, it is still an entity. th LAAS show put on by LA/OCAS is more or less on hold. not sure what to say about that one. keep your eye out for the promos on THE Show.
as for ESLs, used martin logans are probably your most affordable way to go.
i am so tempted to get the koss esl headphnes but for now i am content with the Drop Hifiman 4XXs that are still available for $130. i am also contemplateing the monolith thx dac/amp for about $500 and maybe some balanced cables to go with.
if itās lows you want from headphones, the monolith 1060s are a bargain. really deep, speaker like bass.
ā¦hifitommy
Huh, I thought I heard somewhere that they stopped putting it on in 2016 or something, but I must have misheard.
The 95x is a great choice for the price, something to consider for sure if you like esl speakers
What a pleasant Thanksgiving surprise, my 95x arrived today and I managed to sneak away from the kitchen a few times to try them out. Straight up source to Dac to headphones they felt bass lite to me so I promptly ran my equalizer into the signal chain. Ahhh, these take very nicely to equalization. With a tiny little 1-3db bump down at 60hz i was pleased with most music genres. Not only did i find them pleasing but after slipping them on and off my head several times for short 3-4 song bursts throughout the day i started to realize these are a really really nice general purpose headphone.
If i were an individual who did not constantly have the need to tinker w/my equipment or didnāt fancy different sound signatures all the time i could really see the 95xās being a pleasing and solid daily driver at the center of an affordable, clean, capable system. Feed these good source material thru a lightly colored/warm Dac (personal preference), add some Eq if, like me, you prefer some bass weight and call it a day. I really wish I understood sound and music enough to give a vivid description of what these are capable of. My ears told me they liked what they do to the music playing in my head so that was enough for me. At the current sale price i am extremely happy i picked these up and if the Koss warranty and service is as good as everyone says, from a neophytes point of view these are currently a stupidly great value. If i were forced to clean up my desk set-up and settle on a simple straight forward system i would have trouble justifying anything more complex or higher end. From what my ears tell me the next level up past these with most headphones would add significant cost increase. If any of you experienced and properly trained folks think my opinion of these and high recommendation is well off feel free to contradict my statements. I really think these offer substantial value to sound proportions.
How do you think they compare to the 6se since you wanted a comparison to those earlier, and now that you have them what do you think?
I have been thinking of this all day, seriously, because i really like the HE6seās very much. The 6ās require gobs and gobs of power that will come at a substantial cost. Their presence in your head is quite an impact at increased volume levels. They take the power, keep cranking out the music and so far for me, i have yet to bottom them out. My ears cry for mercy BEFORE the headphones and this is a really an experience worth enjoying once in a while. The 95xās though played clean and strongly well into enjoyable volume levels. They do not have the āumphā the 6ās have, but honestly i feel whatbthe 6ās are capable of doing is probably rare and i would look to you to offer up other headphones that can put out the ābeatingā to your ears those can do.
The 95x seems very capable, i managed to clip the amplifier/energizer a few times, but thatās because i use a liquid spark in line currently as my main volume knob and i believe that is considered double amping and can lead to pumping too much voltage/power into the second unit? The 95xās seem like a really great clean complete system to me. They really had a nice neutral sound signature and handled all genres with aplomb and finesse. As long as they hold up, i really canāt see anyone having much negative to say about their sound reproduction abilities. They take well to coloration and felt very comfortable to me. For the current price of $400 and some change i would be hard pressed to come up with a better value product of this much quality.
I really think at itās price the 95x is a no brainier for anyone looking for a new estat under 1k. I would only recommend the lower end stax if you really want a super airy sound with strange unnatural timbre.
Also you arenāt double amping with the liquid spark, the stock energizer that comes with the 95x just isnāt that powerful imo. I have heard the 95x headphones on better energizers and they do sound better with more headroom. I should really pick up an adapter so I can use it on my estat amp.
Do they require the amplifiers with the special plug or can i figure out a way to drive these off my 25wpc Sugden somehow with some kind of special adaptor. I have not been able to find an answer to this question. It seems that high dollar Estat amplifiers are simply really beefy headphone amps with the adaptor plug built inā¦or i could be really really wrong in all i just said.
So estats use a different type of amplification that is not like traditional headphones or speakers. I donāt want to get into how it works lol so I will skip over it. Luckily, there are products like the iFi iESL or Woo Audio Wee that allow you to run your electrostatics off of a speaker amp (or another headphone amp in the case of the iESL). They convert the signal into something the estats can use
