Stax SRA-12S
Documentation on the Stax SRA-12S is thin. What survives is mostly Stax's own advertising from the mid-1970s. The SRA-12S was a stereo preamplifier built with an all-FET transistor circuit, priced at $500 in the US. Its main feature was that it could drive Stax electrostatic headphones directly for private listening while also feeding a regular two-channel power amplifier. The preamp doubled as a headphone energizer for Stax 'phones.
Period ads also pitched it at studio users, claiming an extra 20 dB of gain on two line input channels without overload. An Audio advertisement (October 1975, p.47) called it a new linear-circuited all-FET preamp at the leading edge. High Fidelity (April 1976, p.97) touted low distortion, accurate RIAA equalization, and clean frequency articulation. Stax's own ads went so far as to rank it among the world's best-sounding phono preamps. US distribution was handled by American Audioport, a division of the Discwasher Group of Columbia, Missouri.
The archive has no independent editorial review, manual, or full specification sheet for the SRA-12S. The surviving record is advertising, not measured test results. If original paperwork turns up, it would fill a big gap in this entry.
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