I'll be happy to try to answer your questions that I know are directed at me. The music I used when I compared these wasn't a huge assortment. I used music that I felt was higher performing on the SR009's. Jazz, blues, classical, contemporary country, classic R&B. Lorde, Nickleback,AC/DC and Yello were the only material outside those genres. So I used the WES and the Headamp Blue Hawaii on the 009's and I used the Cavalli LW, LAu, the Questyle 4 piece Gold & 800, the Woo WA5 & WA22 all on the Utopia with the same material. So it really wasn't the best of comparisons but fair enough for my comment. My first reaction was that the 009 sounded dated like an older speaker that can't do what a new speaker can do. This was on the WES. On the Blue Hawaii I felt the 009 was just a bit better than it was on the Woo. But to compare the better of those against the Utopia is my next reference. The WES/BH on 009 v the Cavalli LAu/ Cavalli LW on the Utopia. I found a more present and lively even more musical midrange in the Utopia. The 009 was lacking in this. The Utopia was all Focal in its high frequency, smooth, Unexaggerated but very detailed, present, very musical and highly extended. In the 009 it was nice, airy, open but clinically flat. In lower frequencies I was impressed at how the Utopia defined its place as a speaker. The Utopia was fast, clean and real. For sure more, better and faster bass with more extension. I found the bass on the 009's sloppy and distant by comparison. In string bass in Jazz recordings it seemed that the 009 was not Interested in coming out to play. On Stevie Ray Vaughn Tin Pan Alley they both lit up and dance but the 009 still wasn't nearly as interested in making music. I fell out of love with the 009 at that point and can't get that love back. On Yello, most punishing the Utopia just hung with me at all levels, on the 009's once the level reached around 96db it just couldn't keep up but to be fair below 96db it was happy but it wasn't giving me the emotion I remember I loved about the 009. Of course these are my personal impressions and as a STAX lover I guess I've changed my opinion of them after hearing a dynamic outperform it with many positives the 009 doesn't have. I've been listening to the Utopia mostly on the Moon by SimAudio 430HAd and now that we're bringing in Chord I'll be listening to their DAC's too. I'm looking forward to using the DAVE and others on the Utopia. Brian Hunter, Dan Stillhart Browdy, WarrenpChi and I mostly agree on the utopia but not entirely. We've all now spent a lot of time in them. One thing we are beginning to notice is that with time they continue to get better.
