He seems to be using regular Belden wire, which is pretty standard high-quality cabling, not an esoteric multi-thousand dollar boutique audiophile brand.

This may explain why putting my hands near the earcups noticeably alters the sound. If the grill reflected significant sound, I'm guessing putting hands near the earcups wouldn't have such a large effect. It may be only a matter of time before someone finds the exact way to apply painters...

The German car companies pushed for diesel, which anyone who lived in CA in the 1980s/1990s should have realized is a horrible idea because NOx is just as bad, if not worse, than CHG emissions. They eventually found out they couldn't meet US EPA NOx regulations with diesel and just faked their...

All that matters is you enjoy what you have. Once you are at that point, just ignore the noise.

Wifi would be a nice improvement in terms of range and sound quality over the Bluetooth we are currently stuck using. https://www.theverge.com/2024/2/27/24084802/sonos-headphones-june-release-date-rumor-party-speaker

The wooden Stax stand works well. The use of wood and having a wide open gap seems helpful in reducing moisture buildup. Moisture is your enemy with electrostatic headphones. Also the stand has zero sharp edges.

The leather on Stellias tends to darken with use as they accumulate skin oil. The ear cups are dark brown when new and start to look black over time.

There is a common misperception that LDAC is lossless because Sony intentionally put L in the acronym to fool people. It is never lossless and drops bit rates very, very aggressively if the signal is not strong. I have a Hiby R3 that streams LDAC and an A&K DAP that streams APTX-HD. If I move...

Given the thick the grill lines, the headphones would be pretty heavy if there were solid metal rather than plastic. Also, I see plenty of devices with plastic painted to look like metal. It's like vegan leather pretending to be leather and not a petroleum by product.

The Eksonic Aeras is made in the EU (i think Greece). My X9000 sounds great with it. Eksonic also makes a T2, but I believe that model is made in the U.S., so could have some import costs if you go down that route.

My "leather" headband separated along the seam, so the red stitching clearly is decorative. I used Scotch branded no-run super glue to hold the two sides of the headband in place and haven't had any issues since.

My impression is they have given up on this model. So I doubt it.

I have the same issue with the "leather" coming unglued from the headband. Not good for something so expensive.

I would add that the x9000 are physically more open than typical open-backed headphones. This makes the x9000 susceptible to noise pollution. If I open my window, outside noise negatively affects the sound out of these headphones by making them sound lifeless. Strangely, if I put my hands...

This product is very disappointing. Firmware updating via iphone still does not work. The windows app is horrible. Connecting with a USB cable is very glitchy. There clearly was a lack of testing before they sold this clunker.