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johnwmclean said:

 
Has your 7 year old Stax amp also been surpassed 

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Better make that a 26 year old Stax amp as the 007t is just a SRM-T1 with a cheaper/simplified PSU and parallel output tubes. 

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The 007s definitely don't have any "grain".

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I checked mine, and I couldn't find any grain either.
I like the grain on my rosewood LCD-2's, though.....

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n3rdling said:

LMAO @ dismissing the 007 as some kind of out of date headphone.  Sure I think the 009 is a better headphone, but the 007 is absolutely still one of the best headphones ever.  Before the 009 came out, a large portion of the most experienced users on this forum would have rated the 007 as the best current production headphone money can buy, and now that the new TOTL is out people want to act like the old TOTL is no longer great...silly audiophiles.

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I haven't heard anything in that price range headphone-wise, but there's a general undercurrent of "anything that's not the company's most expensive flagship model is not worth bothering with" here on Head-Fi, and it frankly bugs me.
 
If nothing else, plenty of perfectly capable Stax sets go largely overlooked because they're part of the more affordable Lambda series instead of one of the Omega series flagships. (Unless they're Sigmas, for those looking for a more speaker-like experience.)
 
That, and I frankly thought the fairly recent SR-202 didn't sound as good as the original, Normal bias SR-Lambda. More on that below.
 
Quote:

currawong said:

The 007s definitely don't have any "grain". The whole point about owning a 'stat rig IMO is that you don't have the same issues you have with dynamic cans. Orthos go a long way to rectifying most of those but then have different issues instead.

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I'd like to know what people mean by this "grain"; I'm guessing it's a sort of strange rough texture overlaid onto the sound, which is something I noticed with the SR-202 + SRM-212 and HE-400 (and found really distracting and artificial), but NOT my vintage SR-Lambda. Maybe not the SR-Gamma, either, though I still need to sort out the channel imbalance issue with that one.

The original SR-Lambda is the best deal out there but it's pretty hard to find (at least in time before it sells).
 
I hear a 'residual grain' with pretty much all non-electrostats which I'm guessing has to do with speed of the drivers.  The current orthos are pretty good in this regard though, as well as the HD800, TH900, and R10.  It's pretty distracting for me and is a large part of why I pretty much only listen to electrostats anymore.

Sorry but in this discussion i don´t understand one thing.
if the stax sr-009 is the best headphone ever, more refined, more detailed, more all..., the end game headphone, etc. etc. etc.
what is the need to have other headphones?

Good question-ALOTA!

alota said:

Sorry but in this discussion i don´t understand one thing.
if the stax sr-009 is the best headphone ever, more refined, more detailed, more all..., the end game headphone, etc. etc. etc.
what is the need to have other headphones?

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After acquiring my 009, I got read of all, lost most interest and only got an Omega2 for when I am in the mood or the record calls for it...

Now I don't call this 009 the be all end all. I am sure Stax can and will do better, next time .

Also, the funny thing is now that I have such resolving home rig, I am totally happy walking around with my $30 earpods! They just sound enjoyable and when listening to music, I simply grt reminded to play it back again at home on the full rig. 5kUSD phone, 30USD portable earphone and I am totally happy .

But essentially, for anyone who feel he/she is way too obsessed about the next best thing and keeps changing gear, I can't recommend better than shooting for totl rig once one understands what he / she is really looking for soundwise. Took me maybe 10 years to get it for headphones so, well, that's a education process imo.

Now, there's no guarantee tastes won't evolve again so probably nobody can guess for you how long you will enjoy your own rig. All I can say, the 009 truly has outstanding strengths that did trenscend the initial fotm rave, just like it has characteristics that really don't fit some tastes, it's not for all but can probably be all one needs...

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alota said:

Sorry but in this discussion i don´t understand one thing.
if the stax sr-009 is the best headphone ever, more refined, more detailed, more all..., the end game headphone, etc. etc. etc.
what is the need to have other headphones?

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Been married for 16 years now (and all to the same woman)...so some of us need some variety in our lives. 
 
That said, the SR-009s get the vast majority of head time (by a good margin) and they are the most resolving headphones I've had the pleasure to listen to.

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macedonianhero said:

Been married for 16 years now (and all to the same woman)...so some of us need some variety in our lives. 

 
 

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I moved with my wife and family to Thailand 20 years ago and that solved the whole variety problem for me.

Hi:
 
Alota; in general terms the great advantage and the secret of the Stax SR-009 is objective and globally can leave satisfied to a large percentage of users, even to the most demanding. In detail, articulation, tonal coherency and placement of instruments are fabulous and almost all like this kind of parameters.
With these characteristics, it is logical that not look for anything else. The SR-009 are a fantasctic compendium of benefits to get the most realistic sound.
 
Cheers

i listened the 009 and i have no doubt that is fantastic(but not in the price o f course).some head-fiers have only the 009, others like peter a great hedphone like 009 and fantastic dynamic headphones.
for this my doubt.
@ macedonianhero: i have only one wife too

I see a lot of posts about Amps for the SR-009s but hardly any about DACs pairings.  Is it worth it to invest a lot of money into a quality DAC if your source is a desktop computer with FLAC files and your amp is something like a BHSE?

Yes but high price doesn't always mean high quality. 

So true, Spritzer, high price does not mean high sonic quality yet most folks believe that it does.  For many, it is impossible to believe that a much less expensive unit, or one with a less "legendary" name, can be as good.  

^^ That's why this hobby is so interesting.