The only thing is from my personal tastes, the sr007mk2 + WES + WDAC1 (Did I get the model right? It's the woo audio dac) was really only marginally better than my hd800 setup. The difference being that the stax setup felt a lot more natural.
You should still listen before you buy, especially when dropping that kind of money. There's a store in montreal called "Audioshop" that has both the sr007mki and sr007mk2 with the bundled amplifier from stax. If you really wanted they could special order the sr009 but do not have one to audition. It would be a good idea to try it before you buy since quality in the higher echelons is a lot more subjective (like personally I don't like the grado sound for the most part).
Hmm, I preferred the Sr009 quite a bit more than his 007 albeit it being less musicaly engaging; that can be fixed with the system. But tastes do differ. The transparance and pin point imaging is very impressive. I'd rank my HD800 rig in between the two stax in terms of sound texture and sound quality however with more bass texture than both the stax and transparence on par if not greater than the 007. I'd also place the HE6 with lcd3 pads and mcintosh mc225/ NAD m51 over the WES, woo transport and 007's as well overall, but the high frequencies aren't quite as extended. However the mids are greater than any other headphone I've heard besides the orpheus which I tried at Sennheiser Canada after the show. Now those are not fair and could only wish to own them :/
If the 009's were a bit cheaper I'd probably get them as end games; but for now i'm pretty darn close with what I have + I have more variety. I'll most likely wait for Senn's next flagship, hoping the headphones aren't colored
Interesting to here your thoughts on that.
Maybe I'll have to come by and try your he6 setup ;P
There was really just something off in the Sr009. Li-En felt that the soundstage depths on the sides were really closed off.
I felt that it sounded "choppy" in a sense (hard to describe).
Meanwhile, neither of us felt that way about the 007.