Koss ESP/95x Electrostatic System

It's limited to 360 and 294 have been sold. Seems likely it will sell out, I better decide soon.

 

Joined the drop and will report on how they compare with my Stax L300 LE's. Loser will go up for sale. @CEE TEE, I really hope that affordable Stax adapter option will ship in tandem, as I'd love to compare both on my 353X amp.

 

I haven't seen it for $600 for a long time. I think I saw it once for $700 in the last few years.

$14.95 for the stax plug.
$20 for the Koss extension cable.
Cut, strip, solder. done

I think the pads are likely a variation of the Vesper pads I designed. Maybe they even come from Vesper! Even if they only provide more comfort, they are worth it over the stock pads.

As for a different amp/energizer, I've listened to my 950's through @JimL's equipment and another BHSE at te Phoenix meet last year. The 950 does scale very well, but the included energizer is still quite good for casual listening.

I'm happy to bring mine to RMAF in anyone wants to borrow them for the weekend, or longer if you ship them back.

 

Joined the drop, guess we'll see how it goes.

 

I broke down and re-joined too. I'm just going to try to forget about it and get a nice surprise in Feb. If I don't, I'll bitch about the ship date until I get banned.

 

Will try to send you stock + MD version + STAX SRM323 kit soon so you can do a full comparo. We literally only have one set of the new pads.

 

Heard the Koss 950’s at the big Changstar meet in Redwood City a few years back. Listened with Stax units, Koss unit, and an Eddie Current unit that I’m not sure got past the prototype stage. Also heard the 007 and 009. I liked the 950 best with the EC unit. I’d take the 950 over either the 007 or 009, (at this price I should have said.) YYMV as always.

 

Fair points by both of you. I had thought that Koss still had a yearly discount period, but it appears I was wrong. BTW, what Allan listened to was a Stax SRM-T1 with constant current load mod, and an SRM-727 with global feedback mod, using his modded Koss extension cable.

 

I just got these in, and they're pretty nice. Most comparable in my experience to 660S but with more in the lows + highs. Quite forward in the mids but with extra space in the cups, it's not as intense as 660. The lows sound ever present but don't come close to being overpowering. The highs also don't disappear which is immensely important to me, might even be a bit sharp for some, but never sibilant. As expected, they resolve damn well.

Clamp is not too bad, though they all take some adjustment period for me. Light as a feather coming from HD800, cable included. The headband is very soft and totally comfortable, as are the pads. There's also significantly more ear space around my ear, but still shallow enough to always be touching. Overall pretty good fit. Probably my only complaint on these is the hinges are a little squeaky.

The energizer is super slim on inputs but gets the job done fine. Concentric knobs is not my favorite by any means so I've set them up and have my DX7S pre-amping to it for volume control. It also feels a bit cheap, likely because they just gutted the battery pack in this version (but why?).

I'm going to go back and forth between the 95X and 660 to see how they hold up against one another at the same price.

 

The battery pack was a separate thing, the amp just feels that cheap.

Curious how a regulated LPS would do.

Also stax amps are a clear cut above.

Any squeal ?

 

They gutted the battery to cut the costs.

Nobody ever used it anyway, what with stats sensitivity to dust, humidity, phases of the moon, and mosquito farts.

 

Ah well that would explain it

Assuming you mean some noise from the amp as described on a headfi thread about the ESP 950, no there's none. Maxed out it sounds totally quiet with nothing playing and clean when something is playing.

haha the outdoor adventuring doesn't seem like something anyone would be down to take these out too, but I am curious if the dust sensitivity is truly that bad.

 

If you read the stat/stax thread, lots of that crowd have ... what amounts to enormous plastic condoms that go over the whole thing when it's not I use.

 

Ah yeah, though they mention in there stax has a covering film over the driver to prevent that and has for a while. I'd imagine that Koss had the forethought to include some sort of cover in this model but I certainly can't prove they did so.

 

I have had my ESP-950's for about 26 years now. I sent them in for a recap on the energizer about 2 years ago, and that was really the only problem I had with them. That being said, I would love for someone, maybe Mass Drop even, to produce a really good amp that the Koss electrostatics could be used o0n that sounds better. Even a bigger plus would to put a Stax socket and a Sennheiser socket with the option to play all of the sockets with different bias voltages.

 

Here we go, looks like only foam is surrounding the driver components. Not egregious but I have no idea what industry standard is for estat dust covers, need to read up.

Have you gotten to try out the 950s on some other energizers? If so what do you like best?

 

No I wish I could, but after all these years still just the Koss energizer.

 

It's been done, but you need quite the amp. The small stax ones aren't an improvement, afair. Think big boy thousand(s) dollar plus stuff.

The adapters are out there if you have the cash to spare.

The other thing was changing pads to smooth out the response, which the 95X has built-in.

 

It always amazes me how much some charge for the adapter. I believe one can get a spare extension cable from Koss for $20, and one can get a stax compatible plug from etsy for $12 (+shipping). A little wire stripping and soldering, and voila, a $149 adapter cable. I've never made one, but I'd be up for it if anyone wants to fund it. I wouldn't charge anything for my time; just the cost to ship the final cable to you.

@JimL loaned me a couple of amps that he modded/refurbished. They were under $1000 total (I think after his cost. I noted a small improvement over the Koss energizer, and my ability to discern such differences is almost nil, so for many the difference are probably much more. That said, the koss energizer is surprisingly good.