STAXus Interruptus or: A Funny Thing Happened on the Road to E-Stat Nirvana
I recently sold my STAX X9000 in response to a WTB post on its dedicated thread. I wasn't actively shopping it, or even thinking about doing so, but I've started selling off some assets to raise cash for major improvements (new roof, solar installation) to our house next year. That, coupled with the reality that my Susvara was getting a majority of my head time lately, resulted in the decision to sell the X9000 when the opportunity arose. Here's the (somewhat long-winded) background in case anyone's interested:
My wife and I went on a cruise during the latter half of September. Before we left, I'd owned the X9000 for a couple of months, and it had supplanted the Susvara as my "go to" headphone for nightly listening sessions. I was smitten with its technical prowess and capacious soundstage. I had already ascertained that the Susvara was the superior headphone for most rock music, but over the last year I'd been more focused on jazz and (experimental) electronica, with some classical and vocal-centric music also in the mix, all of which played to the X9000's strengths.
In my ideal world, I would have a single reference headphone that would excel with any type of music. Accurate timbre (fidelity) is my key criterion, followed by bass extension/linearity and soundstaging. I seek the most convincing illusion that I'm listening to live music, or at least full-range speakers. Prior to my entrance into the realm of estats, the Susvara was that headphone, but the even greater resolution of estats seduced me into thinking/hoping there might be an even higher peak attainable. When I ordered the X9000, I thought there was a reasonable chance it would make the Susvara redundant. Within a few days of its arrival, though, I realized the Susvara was still essential for rock. Nonetheless, the X9000 was just capable enough there that, along with its glorious staging/imaging prowess and resolution, I quickly anointed it the new overall #1.
So after a couple of months of owning the X9000, we leave for the cruise, and the only headphone I pack is my SONY WH1000XM4 (noise-canceling). I want to travel light and plan on spending a lot of time lounging by the ship's pool anyway. My Galaxy S10 phone will be my (Bluetooth) DAP. In spite of my love of high-end audio, I'm not a snob about it, and the sound of the SONY is perfectly acceptable for recreational listening. One day as we sailed along, I was reading Head-Fi for entertainment, and the remaster of Pink Floyd's Animals record became a topic. I don't listen to Floyd much anymore, but I've always really liked that album, and decided to check out the remaster. Even on the SONY cans, the increase in clarity over the original master was obvious, and beneficial to the enjoyment of the record, I thought. From there, I decided to listen to Floyd's previous album, Wish You Were Here, my favorite of their post-Syd Barrett oeuvre, and perhaps ironically, inspired by Barrett. Maybe it was just the circumstances (sipping a drink by the pool on a Mediterranean cruise), but even on mediocre headphones, the album had never moved me as much as on that day. Gilmore's guitar playing on Shine On is so phenomenal in terms of its emotive power and lyricism, and at that moment it just made me feel like a teenager again, connecting with it for the first time. And when the album was over, I decided it'd be the very first thing I listened to when I got home... on the X9000! Unimaginable sonic glory awaited, surely.
After a looooong day of flying back to California from Tunisia, I crashed immediately, and was still pretty jet-lagged the following day. Nonetheless, I'd been looking forward to hearing Shine On since that day at the pool, so after unpacking, the time was at hand. I let the system (mostly tube preamp) warm up for about fifteen minutes, donned the X9000, and hit play. The track starts very softly with some multi-tracked synths establishing a spacey ambience. Just after the 2-minute mark, the guitar enters with some plaintive, plucked phrases immediately evoking a longing and pathos that always cuts through my core........... except.......... at that moment I was feeling nothing. OK, give it a little time, maybe my hearing/brain is off-kilter from the previous day's arduous journey. At 3:55, Gilmore introduces a 4-note motif. The motif is repeated several times, and then the bass and drums crash in at the 4:30 mark to provide propulsion and rhythmic counterpoint as Gilmore solos in and out masterfully for the next several minutes. Roger Waters' loping, contrapuntal bass is the foundation of the track from that point on, but lack of impact on the X9000 stripped it of its usual emotional gravitas. I was hearing all of the notes with perfect clarity, but I felt like a detached, casual observer of a recording. There was a lack of drama and immediacy.
It was time for a sanity check. I switched over to the Susvara, and played the track again from the beginning. The first thing I noticed was more of a feeling of presence. The synthesizers had gained tangibility. Along with this came an immediate sensation of emotional connectedness that had been missing for me with the X9000. When the guitar entered, its bite had been restored, and with it, the ability to engage my emotions. Likewise, when the rhythm section crashed in, it was properly climactic and weighty. I listened to the rest of the album, as I had been anticipating for many days, and realized that I had come home in more ways than one. While I had already come to the conclusion that the Susvara was superior to the X9000 for all types of rock, the size of the chasm was now laid bare.
I listened to a lot more music that day, of various genres, alternating between the X9000 and Susvara. The perception that music was more palpable through the Susvara was consistent no matter what I listened to. I realized that I value this much more than the X9000's slight advantages in resolution and soundstaging. And with that realization, a short love affair was over, and a much longer one was resumed.
To be continued...
