Thanks for the advice. Not sure he1 is right for me because I don’t have time to wait for it the be built but I requested they contact me so I can get a better idea what’s involved.
Looking at your profile it’s clear you have extensive headphone experience. I always wanted to try Stax but never had opportunity. I’d greatly prefer only having 3 headphones. The only headphones I’ve ever known are hd800. Which Stax model is the best for all genres? Is the 007.2 sufficiently different from 009/009s to get both? Would it make sense to buy all 3? Could you live with only electrostats?
I have developed a neurogognitive disorder which has lately made it difficult for me to read through forums and really process nuance across multiple threads. I tried and I got overwhelmed. So I do appreciate your advice.
Thanks for your comment - glad to offer some hopefully useful advice:
A few important points I found over the years venturing into high end headphones and associated gear:
- There is no "best at everything" - however there are headphones that are better than others in many or maybe even most (but not all) areas
- A lot depends on personal preference, music style, hearing, etc. - that's why only testing yourself can provide you with the optimal solution for you
- System synergy (especially the three main components: headphones - amplifier - dac) is pretty important - even more so for high end gear
- timbre or frequency response issues can somewhat be adjusted by maching with the right components (-> system synergy), using tubes or even EQ etc. but speed cannot be gained through any of those means. Thats why the most realistic and in my opinion best headphones are electrostats and those headphones with electrostat-like speed like the susvara or abyss headphones.
That said I think venturing into STAX is highly recommended in my opinion, especially if you like to listen to voices, jazz, classical, indie, chanson, instrumental or similar genres. For those genres the magic electrostats are able to create is hard to match. Rock, pop etc. is still very enjoyable - the only genres I would'nt really recommend a STAX setup for are all kinds of electronic music or if you prefer very hard hitting bass.
Coming back to your question: Yes the 007 and the 009 are different enough the own both. The 009S is pretty similar to the 009 but slightly voiced closer to the 007 from what I recall, so getting only that one could be an option. I cannot really reliably comment on the 009S though since even though I tested it many times I didn't test is on my own gear and therefore a comparison would be missleading.
Also a lot is about amp/dac matching. There seems to be some prevailing opinion on this forum that the 009 is best with the BHSE (or T2 for that matter), but personally I found the BHSE not the best match with the 009 in the setups I heard it, I think the BHSE fits better with the 007. As always also here personal preference, matching components etc. matters.
I personally could live only with my electrostats ... I could live even only with my 009 setup - I guess that's mainly because they do so well with all my favorite genres.
If you want to cover all your bases I think having three or four headphones can get you a long way. Apart from electrostats the only ones I would consider to be somewhere in that are are some abyss headphones or the susvara.
Unfortunately nobody will be able to give you any great advice on how to proceed from here, since personal preference, music preferences, system matching play a major role at this point.
Testing all the different gear on different amps/dacs with your own music is the only way to really know, but that's even hard to make happen when it's not during corona-times.
Since you seem to have the means to make it happen, I'd recommend getting your hands on a hand full of headphones like the stax' mentioned, abyss and susvara - plus a few different headphone amplifiers (tube or not tube) and combine them with your dcs to see what you like most. Unfortunately that's the only way to really know - but it's well possible to have some fun in the process
I wish you all the best on your headphone journey.