VIVA AUDIO EGOISTA STX ELECTROSTATIC HEADPHONE AMPLIFIER REVIEW

The Egoista STX is a visual work of art, and nothing else looks quite like it. Especially with the right body color and with all those tubes lit up. Sonically, it brought out more of what my ear speakers were capable of reproducing than what I thought was even possible. It made me love my L700s all the more. I have no doubt it will do the same with pricier and more resolving cans. Its sound was smooth, detailed, appealing, and very much bordering on addictive. It is simply one hell of a thing.

Yes, there are less expensive options out there to drive your electrostatic headphones. STAX, among others, makes some lovely upmarket solid-state and tube-based energizers. But as our Editor Emeritus John Johnson discovered in his Feliks Audio headphone amplifier review there is something unique and special about the sound of 300B tubes with headphones. And here, wrapped in their fine Italian bodywork, I am hard-pressed to think of anything else that makes as much of a statement or leaves as much of an impression as the Viva Audio Egoista STX. If you have the means, I most enthusiastically recommend an audition, post haste. You won’t regret it!