Member Reviews: Stax SR-009 Electrostatic Headphones

Knowing where to begin describing these is hard. The closest I can come is my first experience listening to a pair of full-size swiss Piega loudspeakers back in the early '90s. The resolution of those things was so incredible I thought that they reproduced the notes of a double-bass with such amazing resoultion you could hear the detail of the strings vibrating and that's before you get an idea of what their ribbon tweeter could do! Similarly, I recently experienced the capabilities of the Linn Klimax Twin power amp on a variety of speakers. The absolute authority and perfection of its presentation was something to behold and it immediately drove me to wonder how it might be possible to...

As the subjective sound quality of the SR-009 has been extensively discussed in the other reviews, I will focus on my objective experiences. Whenever I purchase new high-end products, I always choose to run a blind test consisting of the model in question alongside other high-end headphones. This time, the comparison counterparts included the LCD-3, HD800, HD650 and Orpheus.    My subjective impressions always tend to take a similar route: there exists a very strong correlation between the price tag and the sound quality that I perceive. It was no different this time. Therefore, I performed the blind test on ten participants who are all fellow classical musicians in a...

Will write a review after I have had them for a while.

First of all they are drop-dead gorgeous and an extremely high quality construction. I have not seen any headphone close to this type of quality feel. It can't be described. When you hold these you won't want to let them go. They are a stunning masterpiece in this regard. They make every other headphone feel cheap. Just... wow. Top that with superb comfort and you've got a an object that will send small pulses of pure joy through your body every time to come in contact with it.    The sound of these headphones didn't wow me the way I was expecting. I've come to the conclusion that no headphone is physically capable of delivering music with quite the level of realism a...