TOP HEADPHONES - ELECTROSTATIC
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The various headphones listed below are our subjective picks for the top headphones in the world, based upon our reviews. That said, the list is a dynamic list and as we review new headphones that we feel deserve a spot on the list, the list and the ranking will change to accommodate the new headphone. Things do change.
The new and undisputed flagship of the STAX earspeaker/headphone line is the STAX SR-X9000 electrostatic headphone! And after listening these past weeks, this was perhaps one of the easiest calls that I have made to date. Did I mention how extraordinarily immersive the STAX SR-X9000 is? $6,200
For a long time, I had thought the STAX SR-X9000 as the ‘jewel in the electrostatic crown’ so to speak. I do not think about the STAX SR-X9000 that way anymore. Since reviewing the Dan Clark CORINA, I would be exceedingly happy to live with it instead. Bravo! The Dan Clark CORINA is one of the most transparent, resolving, and musical headphones, inclusive of both dynamic and planar magnetic headphones, that I have heard or reviewed to date ($4,499).
The STAX SR-009S may represent, for many, a transcendent listening experience. It may move you beyond expectation to that which you never imagined possible in a earspeaker or headphone. And should its stable of playmates be able—of good musical repute and like ability and up to task—then you will find yourself in another world of music, altogether. $4,000
The STAX SR-007A is exceptional! They do that thing that electrostatic earspeakers do with transparency—they bring it like no other headphone technology can (planar, dynamic driver)—and they marry that transparency to incredible musicality, free of distortion in all its forms. Suffice to say, that transparency, clarity, speed, soundstage are all next-level plus with the SR-007A. $2,299
The STAX SR-L700MkII electrostatic earspeakers is something quite new, at least to me, as it represents my first hearing of an electrostatic earspeaker/headphone. The experience has been, at the very least, a revelation and, at most, magical. As I write the conclusion, I am still listening to music. Sophie Hunger’s Headlights (Rules of Fire, Two Gentlemen) plays and I am fooled again, as I turn to see where a particular sound has come from. It’s on the track %$&*@! $1,599
The Dan Clark VOCE is a very good electrostatic headphone. It is midrange forward in terms of both its strength and its presentation and there is definitely gold to be found here! It is, as first mentioned above, reminiscent to me of the Quad ESL-57 and even the Martin Logan CLS, both permanently etched in memory. However, like both loudspeakers it is a wee bit bass shy with the wrong partners—amplifier, DAC, cables. So one will need to be careful in choosing its friends. $3,299
