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Contact Singlepower and they will send you a price list containing most of the standard options. If you want something else then you are asking for custom work which requires a negotiated price. There are numerous members here who own ES-1's (not all in the US either) and numerous threads discussing all matter of information regarding the ES-1. I cannot speak for other members but I am willing to discuss most things openly on the forums and almost anything else via PM or email.

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Well I lived in Vermillion SD for 2 years and that is not exactly New York City. Without Head-fi (or Headwise before it), there would hardly be a headphone culture anywhere. And we have to import Rega, Naim, Pro-ject, Shanling, etc. etc.

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Sounds like someone else is taking advantage of you, not Singlepower. I'm sorry but your post simply sounds like drivel to me.

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x2 cannot hear the camel on either Omega. I must have tin ears

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No such thing as a "stock" ES-1, it is merely the framework for a custom amp, as most SP amps.

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That's probably why I do not notice it much. Most of the music I listen to on headphones is not very "dense" or complex. That's why when I want to listen to orchestral works I use the speaker system since no headphone I have ever heard satisfies me on large-scale orchestral works.

I like both of the Omegas quite a lot. I still have not decided which one I like the best. Perhaps I'm headphone fickle but it seems that whichever one I am listening to at the moment is my favorite.

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The thicker diaphragm on the SR-Ω gives the bass an extra texture or "thump" even though it has nothing in common with the dynamic hump. I've never heard a bass hump on either phones but if you are used to the very bass deficient He90 they will seem bass heavy.

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It is very dependent on the music you listen to and the recording. The choice of music is critical when giving advice on a headphone system as each genre presents a different challenge.

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While I prefer the SR-007 sonically the SR-Ω has the edge in comfort. Both are lovely headphones but the SR-007 is much harder to please. The SR-Ω is happy on the Blue Hawaii and even a transformer but the SR-007 craves better wires, caps, resistors, connector and above all else, more power!

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Don't about the HE90 being bass shy though. The HE90 out of my HEV90 has excellent frequency balance from top to bottom. Everything just kind flow very nicely together. Nothing really jump out at me beside pure music. The HE-90 has probably deepest bass I've heard. When my ES-1 arrives I will try out the O2 as well.

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They are bass light by design but that doesn't mean that there isn't a lot of bass presence, it just doesn't extend as low nor have the bite of the Stax units. You can compensate for it but it's very evident on a direct, volume adjusted, comparison. I can live with the bass shyness on most recordings, but the upper midrange harshness really gets to me and so does the diffuse EQ but nothing is ever perfect. I have to admit that I am very picky and hard to please so what might be a minor flaw to somebody is a deal breaker to me, especially at this price level.

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Have you listened to them with the HEV90? It really beautiful sounding in my opinion. I didn't like the O2 when I heard them with the KGSS amp.

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Here's where we have some differences. For example, I think one of the strengths of the Lambda Pro is that it can have better attack then either the OII or the HE90. It just doesn't have the finesse of the more expensive cans. However, I'm more aware of very deep bass with the HE90 than the OII. It's hard to quantify, since these are post hoc impressions formed by listening to music, not specifically listening to gear for purposes of evaluation. However, I'm usually more impressed by quantity of bass with OII, but depth of bass with HE90.

There are also production variances in the HE90. Bozebuttons has two HE90's, and I've had the opportunity to compare them. One of them is "bass light". The other has absolutely no problems with the low end. The probability is that the "bass light" pair is defective.

So, impressions of the HE90 may well depend on the drivers in that particular pair (I recently had new drivers put in mine under warranty for a different issue, and that seems to have bolstered the low end slightly). Which raises the interesting question of whether or not the differences in OII that we're talking about represent the characteristics of the one particular headphone that we each have in our possession, rather than the model (although I've heard several of both the OII and HE90 at different times, even though my extensive listening has been through the pairs that I own).

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Good point about production variances. I have only heard one HE-90/HEV-90 pair for any extended period of time (i.e. in non-meet or non-retail store conditions) and to say the least I was underwhelmed, especially given the price of the system. That could very well be a production/unit variance that may manifest itself because of driver, pads or enclosure variances.

I have heard more OII's and I do not notice much variance between units when played on the same system as long as you get the fit right with the pads.

Ahh... now you guys are making me wonder if I need to get an HE-90 to hear in my system

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I have heard the Orpheus setup at length in a setup similar to mine (Meridian CDP, Kimber IC's) so I know what it sounds like. The owner has since moved abroad so I haven't listened to it in just over a year. I'm going to build a HEV90 but it will be much, much better then the stock unit. Tube rectified psu, much better coupling caps, resistors and wires, hand made transformers and chokes. It has synergy even though the design isn't all that great and I'm going to build on that.

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The Lambda Pro is one of my least favorite Stax headphone and a huge letdown compared to the SR-Lambda. The bass is disjointed and uneven, the mids very recessed and the highs are shrill and edgy. Even Stereophile noticed this when they reviewed them back in the day. You have probably heard my current set as I bought it from Thrice. It sounds pretty much the same as my older set that I have apparently given away, or so says the person that has had it on loan for a few years... Any of the Lambdas has more attack and even more bass bloom but they are all forward headphones and with nasty colorations due to the housing. There are only two good versions IMO, the original and the Signature, but each in it's own way. The Pro's and the Nova Signatures are, well not so good.

Stax phones don't have any of this driver QC problem and I have/had multiple sets to compare. I have bought 4 SR-007 in total (for friends and people that have asked for my assistance) both new and used and they all sounded the same after either a little run in or after I put on some new pads on the two used units. It's the same with my SR-Lambda, Signature, Nova Signature, SR-X Mk3 and SR-3 New as I still have two sets of each.

The other HE90 I've heard sounded different, but it was nothing major and it was probably due to the mylar loosing some of the extreme tension Sennheiser put it under during manufacture. When Sennheiser produced the membrane they put it under much more tension then Stax or any other manufacturer did and this is bound to cause problems with the 1um film. They did this to increase the HF performance but sacrificed the deep bass instead. The film is very hard to work with at this thickness and the high tension just makes it worse so it requires knowledge and experience to get it right every time.

The OII's are bound to cause some users problems because of how they fit to the users head. The earpads are a large obstacle at first but I've found that the best sound comes when you are the most comfortable and for me it's with the seem pointing towards the temples and then slightly more upwards. Then I place them so that the front of the ear is touching the front of the earpad so I the ears can capture as much of the sound as possible.

Then there is the big variable, the arc. Like Darth Nut said in his epic review, you have to adjust it to your head. I required only a small bending (10° or so outwards) because I have a huge head but I've seen users bend them into a V shape. Since there is no swivel mount this is a necessity to control the pressure on the head and therefor the bass. Until I did this I was never completely satisfied with the bass as I found it to be anemic and sometimes it just disappeared, or it seemed to. Then I bent the earpieces outward and all was well in the world. It was like buying a new headphone as the whole sound spectrum improved with better highs and better defined soundstage along with the bass breaking free.

System matching is critical as Stax have their own take on what sounds good and so does Sennheiser. I use minimal conductor mass every where (i.e thin wires, 30AWG or less) and that increases the HF performance but that's not something the He90 likes. Thicker conductors will give you more bloom and bass and that's more up their alley.

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You guys need to take a listen to the Thiel smartsubs. They can (and do) integrate, and even if your speakers dont really need the extra umph...you will be amazed at how the soundstage changes and grows for the better when the subs are added.

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this thread is way out of my league