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This is the third of a three-part video series documenting Editor-in-Chief Carlo Lo Raso’s recent visit to three Japanese audio brands: TEAC, TAD Labs, and STAX.

Landscape orientation outdoor photograph of Carlo Lo Raso, Editor-in-Chief from Secrets of Home Theater and High Fidelity standing outside the STAX Headquarters in Japan on a cloudy overcast dayOutside STAX Headquarters

Introduction

In October 2024, I was invited to Japan to visit three very unique and storied Japanese audio brands. Through this visit, I was especially interested to get a peek at what goes on behind the curtain. My goal was to get a sense of each company’s story and, hopefully, bring some of that to you. I hope you enjoy these videos.

Landscape orientation indoor photograph of the first electrostatic earspeakers, the STAX SR-1The First Electrostatic Earspeakers, the STAX SR-1

This particular visit was probably the most personally significant during my time in Japan.

My “gateway drug” into the HiFi world was my first “Walkman” that I bought while I was in high school. That little box was my musical oasis, and while it elevated my listening pleasure, it also ignited a desire to find ways to extract the best performance from it. That, in a nutshell, meant looking for better headphones. And through my searching and listening, I did keep finding better headphones that upgraded my portable listening experience. I also discovered a whole other class of headphones for home listening that I never even knew existed. Electrostatic headphones. And, at that time, the only player in “E-Stats” was the originator of the product, STAX.

A HiFi dealer that I frequented at the time let me listen to a set of STAX Lambda headphones (or earspeakers as they call them), and it left an indelible impression on me as to what headphones could sound like.

Landscape orientation indoor photograph of the STAX Earspeaker Energizers waiting for completionSTAX Earspeaker Energizers Waiting for Completion

Forty years later, I could not have imagined that I would be somehow completing this circle, as I make the 3rd stop during my visit to Japan.

Landscape orientation indoor photograph of Ryuji Shimizu– Sales Director of STAX holding the STAX SR-009 EarspeakersRyuji Shimizu– Sales Director of STAX Holding STAX SR-009 Earspeakers

I present to you one of the most revered names in headphones.

Welcome everyone to STAX.

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A native of Toronto Canada, Carlo's interest in audio began at a young age when, unbeknownst to his mother, he started taking apart her numerous transistor radios to see how they worked. This desire for “knowledge through deconstruction” continued through to the family’s 8-track tape player, turntable, headphones, and speakers. Carlo subsequently spent a lot of time in his room. Toronto was a fertile ground for Hi-Fi in the 1970s and 80s and Carlo spent much of his wayward youth hanging out in downtown Toronto stereo shops, listening to all manner of gear and picking the brains of the various store owners. Through that formative experience, Carlo developed an appreciation for good music and good sound reproduction. Also, as a budding graphic artist, the aesthetic aspects of a given piece of gear became increasingly of interest to his eyes. It was at about that time as well that Carlo began purchasing “Audio Magazine” on a regular basis and came to appreciate, in particular, the writing and reviewing of the late Leonard Feldman. Later on, he was also influenced by the writing and observations of the staff at Sound and Vision Canada, helmed at the time by Alan Loft. Carlo graduated from Sheridan College with a degree in Classical Animation and was subsequently employed by Walt Disney Consumer Products for 10 years as a Character Artist and Art Director. Having become disenchanted with Los Angeles, he then decided to strike out on his own. Carlo started his own company and has been freelancing artwork, from his home studio, primarily for the toy and publishing industries since 2001. In 2013, on a bit of a lark, Carlo answered a “Call for Writers” ad from an AV website that he had been regularly reading for about 5 years called Secrets of Home Theater and High Fidelity. He had come to appreciate the website’s combination of subjective impressions along with the objective bench-testing available in several of the reviews. The “B-Team” must have been working that day because by some miracle he was hired as a writer and his first review for the site was published early in 2014. Carlo has been continually writing, editing, traveling, listening, and learning on the company’s behalf ever since. Carlo currently lives in Granville, Ohio with his wife, two sons, and a very old, but chill dachshund.

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