[HeadAmpTeam]

We had an excellent time this spring getting a chance to see and speak with everyone again at the various Trade Shows and Head-Fi Meets we attended. During that time, we had an opportunity to partner with Kimber Kable for an exclusive giveaway to celebrate

This giveaway is open to anyone who;

• Lives in the US
• Took a moment to hear our setup & gear at:
  • Axpona 2022
  • The Nashville - Center Hill Lake: Head-Fi Meet on April 30th 2022
  • The DC Area Head-Fi Meet At the Glen Echo Town Hall on April 30th 2022
• Posts their impressions here on this Head-Fi Thread or on a sister post featured on Facebook

We will leave this contest open thru the end of May and reach out to the winners Friday, June 3'rd, to get your shipping information!

 

[Gr8orangeone]

I attended axpona this year and was really excited that you guys were there. I got a chance to listen to the raal sr1a on the new raal tube amp and really enjoyed checking them out. The volume of stuff you had for me to listen to was almost over whelming! I talked with a few of you and had a great time checking out all the gear!

 

[JeestersMandelbrot]

Had the pleasure of attending the meet up near Nashville. What a absolutely spectacularly full day of head-fi, whiskey, good food, and great people that is! The expansive spread of top-tier gear brought in courtesy of Headamp was overwhelming in the best way. All the stuff I’ve only ever seen or heard of here on the forum or on YouTube.

Audeze CRBN, driven by a HeadAmp Blue Hawaii Special Edition, with Bricasti Design M3H DAC

Immediate impression is a very full lush sound, natural. I think this was the first set up I listened to that day. What a start, right? It was a lot to take in, so I had to just sit there with my eyes closed.

RAAL SR-1A, driven by a VM1A amp and the same Bricasti Design M3H DAC.

I think this was the first one that really caught my eye as I was walking in. I do most of my listening in my home office by myself while cosplaying as a productive, hardworking team member, so I don’t need to consider sound leakage at all. Very open sound, very comfortable. A little difficult to get the fullness in the low end, but I can imagine pairing this with a super clean, nearfield studio subwoofer. Constantly fussing with the angle of drivers which is fun but distracting. The thought of having a set up this comfortable, that sounds this close to a full set of speakers, without having to worry about things like room treatment, is very enticing.

Meze Empyrean Elite driven by my own SMSL SP200 and Schiit Bifrost 2

This is the one that haunted me. Definitely spent the next several days trying to to justify buying these. I need this in my life. Feel that personally I tend to enjoy more warm and fun sounding headphones then the more clinical flat stuff, and this Elite was a perfect fit. I selfishly hogged these for several minutes. Throwing several of my favorite songs at it, from jazz to rap to black metal, and switching back-and-forth between the Elite and my Audeze LCD – X. The Elite was noticeably more full sounding, more natural, and more detailed. The natural vocals were there along with all the low end slam I could want. Wow.

That’s it off the top my head. I’m sure the Kimber power cables, their interconnects, as well as the digital cables do add a certain sense of clarity and weight to the sound.

 

[chesebert]

I attended Axpona and had a chance to listen to the raal sr1a on the raal tube amp and X9000 and CRBN on Blue Hawaii. I believe I already indicated in the other thread that I thought CRBN on Blue Hawaii lacked a bit of impact and drive compared with the best I have heard. X9000 sounded good with Blue Hawaii - properly driven. Raal was interesting and I appreciate what they are trying to do, but I felt there was a bit lack of overall coherency to the sound - possibly due to not ideal placement and driver angle. I noticed that they used the same dac to drive multiple amps (and use loop out connecting amps together to the same dac. Notwithstanding the high quality drive stage of Bricasti M3, I think the daisy chain is detrimental to the sound quality. For best quality, I would recommend use 1 dac for 1 amp (using RCA and XLR at same time may also degrade sound quality).

The best part of my time at the HeadAmp table was bumping into Justin and chatting about amps and good times.

 

[hifixman]

I attended both Canjam NYC 2022 and Axpona and never cracked to be amazed by Headamp station.

Besides, there is a dedicated electrostatic headphone event held in Beijing this week. According to my friend how held that event, people prefer BHSE even over Warwick Aperio which is many times more expensive. Congratulations on Headamp for their amazing design and products!

 

[hifixman]

 

[hifixman]

Like all the Headamp customers, I have been patiently waiting for the X9000 to arrive to do my comprehensive reviews. I also know that Headamp team is trying their best in this challenging times with issues caused by supply chain.

Good things will happen with anything plugged into Headamp products!

 

[hifixman]

 

[krack]

I attended the Glen Echo Town Hall head-fi meet and I finally had the opportunity to listen to the STAX X9000 for an extended time. I am already familiar with a number of estats, and I personally own a pair of vintage STAX SR-Lambda Signatures. And of course I've heard all manner of dynamics, planars, AMTs, ribbons, etc.

The X9000 paired with the HeadAmp BHSE is honestly an incredible pairing. I got all the microdetail that I was familiar with in my Lambda Signatures but the X9000 took everything else to just a slight tier higher. It has great tonal balance, especially when I swapped back to the Signatures to compare and found the Signature's treble more peaky/less even. It has great soundstage size, sound separation, punch/slam, macro and micro dynamics, timbre and all the other audiophile terms we all use. It's as well-rounded a headphone as I think I've heard. And I'm including many headphones. Susvara, og HE-6, Raal SR1a, AB-1266 Phi TC 009/009S, Focal Utopia, LCD-5/4/3/2/X, Dan Clark Stealth, all ZMFs, etc. I've heard them and almost all of them either specialize too much in one category or seriously fall behind in some technically capable way in my mind compared to X9000. The only other headphones I have heard that are appropriate comparisons are the Warwick Acoustics Aperio headphone system and the Sennheiser HE-60 (Baby Orpheus). I have sadly not heard the HE-90 as of yet. Kudos to STAX for making a worthy flagship.

 

[hifixman]

https://b23.tv/x6AqQUV

 

[hifixman]

https://b23.tv/x6AqQUV

It's said the stax X9000 & BHSE system is nothing less than Senheiser Orpheus by the Chief engineer and CEO of Moondrop who will release their new electrostatic headphone in the upcoming 2022 Shenzhen Audio Show.

Accordingly, Stax/BHSE system is more controlled and introverted with low profile highs while Orpheus is more aggressive.

 

[hifixman]

HE also said X9000/BHSE sounds more real to life.

 

[Makiah S]

It's said the stax X9000 & BHSE system is nothing less than Senheiser Orpheus by the Chief engineer and CEO of Moondrop who will release their new electrostatic headphone in the upcoming 2022 Shenzhen Audio Show.

Accordingly, Stax/BHSE system is more controlled and introverted with low profile highs while Orpheus is more aggressive.

Wait a MoonDrop full-sized Electrostatic... hmm you should have him reach out to me us

 

[ufospls2]

Wait a MoonDrop full-sized Electrostatic... hmm you should have him reach out to me us

Sorry in advance to headamp, I don't want to take away from the actual point of this thread, but thought some people might be interested.

Moondrop has had murmurs going around of an electrostatic headphone and what appears to be a dynamic headphone, for a couple years. Here are some photos of the prototypes. Would be really cool if we actually see production models this year at the shenzen show : )

and these appear to be the DD prototypes

 

[Makiah S]

Sorry in advance to headamp, I don't want to take away from the actual point of this thread, but thought some people might be interested.

Moondrop has had murmurs going around of an electrostatic headphone and what appears to be a dynamic headphone, for a couple years. Here are some photos of the prototypes. Would be really cool if we actually see production models this year at the shenzen show : )











and these appear to be the DD prototypes

Hmmmmmmmmmm, well they need to shoot that eSTAT proto-type over our way, for SCIENCE of course and to make sure it'll pair with the very best and most well known eStat amp!

Fingers crossed it shows up at Chicago or London... or maybe even SoCal!

It's said the stax X9000 & BHSE system is nothing less than Senheiser Orpheus by the Chief engineer and CEO of Moondrop who will release their new electrostatic headphone in the upcoming 2022 Shenzhen Audio Show.

Accordingly, Stax/BHSE system is more controlled and introverted with low profile highs while Orpheus is more aggressive.

That's great to hear!!! Thank you for your impressions and thoughts from others!