[DragonOwen]

Got my 009 yesterday, they sound fantastic! The sound signature by the way IMO very close to my 507, but 009 is just much better in every way (especialy bass section and low mid section)

Some photos of my current rig (already post it in the rig photos thread, but decided to do it again here

):
 

 
 

 
 
 

 

 
By the way, today at my place will be a small litening session, my friend will bring his KGSS and SR-007, so it will be quite interesting IMO: GES (upgraded and with not stock tubes) vs KGSS on STAX SR-507/007/009 headphones 

 

[Gradofan2]

Quote:

Got my 009 yesterday, they sound fantastic! The sound signature by the way IMO very close to my 507, but 009 is just much better in every way (especialy bass section and low mid

 
So... which is it? 
 
"Very close" to the 507... or... "much better in every way" than the 507?  
 
Or... perhaps you mean... they sound similar... but... the 009 is obviously a bit better in all respects.  
 
I guess... the real question is... dose the 009 sound $4,000 better than the 507?  
 
Having had the 507... I doubt the 009 can sound $4,000 better than the 507 - at least for me. 

 

[El_Doug]

If we were all going for a maximization point between "bang for the buck" and "is the improvement worth $X," we would all be using Koss Portapros! 
 
it's also very hard to answer your question, simply due to the value a given member places on the sq difference, and how much of a dent $4k makes in their wallet.  I own both the 507s and the 009s, and I do NOT believe the difference is worth $4k   Still, the difference is night and day, the 009s are far superior, and the cost is worth it for the sake of getting the best experience (just not in a SQ/Dollar sense)
 
Quote:

I guess... the real question is... dose the 009 sound $4,000 better than the 507?  
 
Having had the 507... I doubt the 009 can sound $4,000 better than the 507 - at least for me. 

 

[rubenpp]

Quote:

By the way, today at my place will be a small litening session, my friend will bring his KGSS and SR-007, so it will be quite interesting IMO: GES (upgraded and with not stock tubes) vs KGSS on STAX SR-507/007/009 headphones 

 
 
Would love to hear your impressions

 

[DragonOwen]

Quote:

 
 
Would love to hear your impressions

My english is not very good, so review will be short.
009 is on the different level compared to 007 and 507. 009 and 507 sound signature is very close, but 009 is on whole new level of quality. 007 sound signature is very different compared to 507 and 009, IMO 007 is like electrostatic version of LCD-2 (which also was at my house today with custom cable which consists of gold and silver and the sound was fantastic, this cable gave LCD-2 a huge improvements (today listened mostly with 2 channel Beta22)).
As for the amps... I was shocked, but 007 sound much better on my upgraded GES than on KGSS, I thought GES can't even drive 007 properly (but on tracks with some really powerful bass effects and a lot of them at the same time on the volume that almost got my ears bleed there really was clearly hearable distortions on 007 with GES... but again the volume was far above normal, so on normal volume level and even a little higher there is no distortions)... on some tracks with a lot of bass on KGSS 007 gives a clearly hearable hum and on GES with 007 there is no hum on the same track. 507 also was much better with GES, I didn' like them with KGSS at all, so I listened that combination only a few minutes, that is how I didn't like them... 009 was great on both amps, but I liked GES more on most tracks: GES gives more "rich" sound on all headphones IMO, but KGSS is a slightly darker  and have more midbass, so on some rock tracks it gives 009 more drive.
 
Sorry for my bad english...
Some photos from today listening session if someone interested:
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Pettnolf]

Thanks for the feedback! Very good to hear that the GES does well with sr-009. Have ordered both the upgraded ges and sr-009 a week ago. Hoping to get them in a week or two hopefully. Getting a bit worried about the lack of communication from pricejapan after I paid them for though, haven't recived any answer or confirmation of my payment 6 days later. But I haven't heard anyone getting scammed by pricejapan so not really super-worried.
 
What did the other two think about the combination of sr-009 and upgraded ges compared to sr-009 + kgss?
 
Thanks!

 

[DragonOwen]

Quote:

 
What did the other two think about the combination of sr-009 and upgraded ges compared to sr-009 + kgss?
 
Thanks!

It wasn't two it was about 8 more people, so I'm quite not sure what every one of them thought (there was just so many people and devices...), but if I'm remember correctly mostly they all were thinking in the same way as me on this question... Basically with 009 the difference between amps was mostly a taste difference, 009 was great on both of them, but again I still liked GES better.
 
I strongly recommend to change tubes on GES! After I changed stock tubes, my GES had quite an improvement on almost all aspects... so I don't even want to say what I think about stock tubes on GES 

 

[Pettnolf]

Oh yeah, I have a quad of reissue mullard 12ax7 on my table here ready to be rolled in
 
Haven't found any 6S4 tubes to replace the stock with but I don't think swapping the power tubes affects the sound very much.
 
What tubes have you tried out yet?
 
 
Thanks!

 

[DragonOwen]

Quote:

Oh yeah, I have a quad of reissue mullard 12ax7 on my table here ready to be rolled in
 
Haven't found any 6S4 tubes to replace the stock with but I don't think swapping the power tubes affects the sound very much.
 
What tubes have you tried out yet?
 
 
Thanks!

 
Tried only that I have now (6S4A GE and 5751 GE) and stock tubes. I firstly got 6S4A GE tubes and 5751 GE I got only a two week later, so for two weeks I lived with only stock power tubes changed (the stock power tubes didn't have firm label on them, so will call it "no name" 6S4A) to 6S4A GE and it was clearly an improvement, it was like it was cleared some veil on sound when I changed power tubes, so I will recommed to try to change all the tubes if it's possible...

 

[Vicks7]

It wasn't two it was about 8 more people, so I'm quite not sure what every one of them thought (there was just so many people and devices...), but if I'm remember correctly mostly they all were thinking in the same way as me on this question... Basically with 009 the difference between amps was mostly a taste difference, 009 was great on both of them, but again I still liked GES better.

I strongly recommend to change tubes on GES! After I changed stock tubes, my GES had quite an improvement on almost all aspects... so I don't even want to say what I think about stock tubes on GES :angry_face:

Agree on the tubes for the GES. Woo Audio delivered my amp with a very poor set of International Servicemaster 12BZ7 tubes one of which failed after 20 minutes (very disappointed actually - cheap of them) so I ordered some better 12AX7 tubes from another supplier (Mullards) and very happy with the amp driving my 009s.

 

[madbull]

If we were all going for a maximization point between "bang for the buck" and "is the improvement worth $X," we would all be using Koss Portapros! 

LOL, that's so true!

 

[pp312]

Quote:

I own both the 507s and the 009s, and I do NOT believe the difference is worth $4k   Still, the difference is night and day
 

 
Or maybe just twilight compared to midnight, or dawn compared to midday. 

 

[Golfnutz]

Quote:

Thanks for the feedback! Very good to hear that the GES does well with sr-009. Have ordered both the upgraded ges and sr-009 a week ago. Hoping to get them in a week or two hopefully. Getting a bit worried about the lack of communication from pricejapan after I paid them for though, haven't recived any answer or confirmation of my payment 6 days later. But I haven't heard anyone getting scammed by pricejapan so not really super-worried.
 
What did the other two think about the combination of sr-009 and upgraded ges compared to sr-009 + kgss?
 
Thanks!

You should send them an email. My correspondence was first rate. They always answered my emails very promptly.

 

[rubenpp]

Quote:

My english is not very good, so review will be short.
009 is on the different level compared to 007 and 507. 009 and 507 sound signature is very close, but 009 is on whole new level of quality. 007 sound signature is very different compared to 507 and 009, IMO 007 is like electrostatic version of LCD-2 (which also was at my house today with custom cable which consists of gold and silver and the sound was fantastic, this cable gave LCD-2 a huge improvements (today listened mostly with 2 channel Beta22)).
As for the amps... I was shocked, but 007 sound much better on my upgraded GES than on KGSS, I thought GES can't even drive 007 properly (but on tracks with some really powerful bass effects and a lot of them at the same time on the volume that almost got my ears bleed there really was clearly hearable distortions on 007 with GES... but again the volume was far above normal, so on normal volume level and even a little higher there is no distortions)... on some tracks with a lot of bass on KGSS 007 gives a clearly hearable hum and on GES with 007 there is no hum on the same track. 507 also was much better with GES, I didn' like them with KGSS at all, so I listened that combination only a few minutes, that is how I didn't like them... 009 was great on both amps, but I liked GES more on most tracks: GES gives more "rich" sound on all headphones IMO, but KGSS is a slightly darker  and have more midbass, so on some rock tracks it gives 009 more drive.
 
 
 

Thanks for sharing , looks like you had fun

 

[DragonOwen]

Quote:

Thanks for sharing , looks like you had fun

It sure was, but it was hard day for me... by the way on the next day I came with my 009 and 507 to my friend (the one that has KGSS and 007) house and start another small listening session on his rig... His rig is quite something: CONSONANCE D-Linear 7C as the digital source, Accustic Arts DAC 1 Mk II as DAC and he also has PS Audio Power Plant P5 and very good power cables, so there is no problem with power in his rig. KGSS  sounded much better then he sounded at my place, I think it was mainly becase of DAC... I think that KGSS need a "warm" DAC with "smooth" sound, so if DAC is on the analytical side of sound then I wouldn't recommend to choose KGSS, especially with 009, because it would sound pretty harsh and maybe even bright... The second reason why KGSS sounded at my place not like it may sound is because of power cable: at my house we used Black Dragon power cable, but at the house of my fried we tried Black Dragon and then tried Cardas Golden Reference and we understand that Cardas power cable "smooth" signature is much better to KGSS than crystal clear sound of Black Dragon.
By the way also listened LCD-2 rev.1 with cable from CablePro and it blown my mind! It sounded better than 007 in every way and emotionally vocal was even better (and I'd even say much more) than on 009!! Also the atmosphere on the old rock (Pink Floyd) and club jazz (something like smoked room and etc.) was amazing on LCD-2, the 009 sounded great though, but Pink Floyd sounded not like rock concert, but more like concert at the Philharmonic, so again 009 sounded great and interesting but not close to reality...