The STAX engineers did a brilliant job of miniaturizing the SRS-X1000 system to give us a compact, affordable system that still gives us the STAX sound so sought after by audiophiles. I don’t know if “under one thousand dollars” sounds like a bargain to someone just getting into the headphone world, but these are, in my opinion, a genuine bargain.

If you’re a fan of bright or ‘v-shaped leaning towards bright’ headphones and want a home listening headphone, I encourage you to get something like this.

The reasons to consider the Stax SRS-X1000 are pretty compelling, thanks to some interesting technical highlights and profoundly competitive sonic performance. But then the reasons to give them no consideration whatsoever are equally compelling, given this sort of money on ‘normal’ headphones would deliver far higher perceived value and well as being less, um, touchy about being touched.