[Zblarg]

Currently at the Stax office in Japan giving the SRM-T8000 a listen - although I've heard it quite a few times at shows, this is the first time I'm listening to it in a proper quiet Stax listening room.

It does seem to emphasise more on the warmth of the SR-009 and take that polish at the top (upper treble) to sound a little more rounded. Coming from a few years of an Eddie Current Electra I actually feel I miss the trebles a little in the SRM-T8000.

The SRM-T8000 to my ears seem to make the SR-009 a little more speaker-like too...so more musical.

I also have the SR-007Mk2 & L700 & I think from a tonality perspective, the L700 & SRM-T8000 are the best match to my ears (again I'll stress from a tonal perspective). The SR-009 will have the edge of resolution of the L700 but the L700 has the edge in terms of tonal synergy with the T8000.

Going back to more listening...

Edit: separation sounds more distinctive on the 009's

Sounds good, thank you for your impressions! Looks like they decided to calm down the brightness of the 009, I'm glad to hear that.
You briefly mention the 007 MK2, but you don't say anything about how it sounds in pair with the T8000. Could you please tell us more about it? Hope it doesn't become too dark.

You make me curious when you say the 009 is more "speaker-like". What do you mean? Sounds quite exciting.

The BHSE is an excellent amplifier but it's not warm at all. It's a very straight and neutral amp with a rock solid sound. Technically perfect, very detailed, never agressive, not bright to my ears, but not romantic at all and not warm nor specially smooth. I think the T8000 is just another sound, for other tastes. Not heard it yet but I guess there is no competition. The Stax approach looks very different.

 

[AnakChan]

Sounds good, thank you for your impressions! Looks like they decided to calm down the brightness of the 009, I'm glad to hear that.
You briefly mention the 007 MK2, but you don't say anything about how it sounds in pair with the T8000. Could you please tell us more about it? Hope it doesn't become too dark.

You make me curious when you say the 009 is more "speaker-like". What do you mean? Sounds quite exciting.

The BHSE is an excellent amplifier but it's not warm at all. It's a very straight and neutral amp with a rock solid sound. Technically perfect, very detailed, never agressive, not bright to my ears, but not romantic at all and not warm nor specially smooth. I think the T8000 is just another sound, for other tastes. Not heard it yet but I guess there is no competition. The Stax approach looks very different.

I tried the SR-007Mk2 briefly with the T8000 and it was a little too warm for my tastes. Mind you, I'm generally a bit of a treble head so I never found the SR-009 bright.

To me, "more speaker like" meaning more musical but with a slight trade off in airiness....at least in my experience with speakers - to me I've yet to experience "airiness" in speakers, at least for the speakers I've experienced (former B&W Nautilus series, Sonus Faber of the sub $10,000 range....haven't had much experience with the expensive $30,000 range speakers - I live in shoebox Japan?). Probably the one time I felt of hearing "air" in speakers was at the Brise Audio showroom listening to their B&W 800 D3 setup.

 

[harris4crna]

Send Justin an email ? Otherwise any shows in the states has a big possibility for it to come. I would suggest to hear the BHSE before buying the t8000 . Then when you think you like BHSE, go for KG T2 instead LOL

Just read the postings from London Can-Jam. Read the opinions on the Stax 009 with the BHSE. It seemed an overwhelming consensus the BHSE sounded the best with the 009. Close to the same price of the T8K, it appears the BHSE still may be the overall winner.

 

[Whitigir]

Just read the postings from London Can-Jam. Read the opinions on the Stax 009 with the BHSE. It seemed an overwhelming consensus the BHSE sounded the best with the 009. Close to the same price of the T8K, it appears the BHSE still may be the overall winner.

You would be surprised to see how KG T2 will do with 009. It doesn't come easy or cheap though

 

[Piotr Michalak]

Tested the new STAX amp at this years CanJam London and... It's good of course, but still, what I've found, is that SR-009s need a lot o PRE-amplification. They really open up (or rather: become fully bodied) thanks not to the greatest Hawaii or Stax or other amp, but - in my case - thanks to ASL Twin Head pre-amp output. Therefore I would say that my home setup with AK380ss => ASL Twin Head mkIII => Stax SRM-007 => SR-009 sounded better, more powerful and fully bodied than the SRM-T800 => SR-009 setup. I may be mistaken though, since it was pretty noisy everywhere, and still, T8000 sounded as a very good amp, I don't discredit them. I just recommend to give them a pre-amp.

 

[musicman59]

Tested the new STAX amp at this years CanJam London and... It's good of course, but still, what I've found, is that SR-009s need a lot o PRE-amplification. They really open up (or rather: become fully bodied) thanks not to the greatest Hawaii or Stax or other amp, but - in my case - thanks to ASL Twin Head pre-amp output. Therefore I would say that my home setup with AK380ss => ASL Twin Head mkIII => Stax SRM-007 => SR-009 sounded better, more powerful and fully bodied than the SRM-T800 => SR-009 setup. I may be mistaken though, since it was pretty noisy everywhere, and still, T8000 sounded as a very good amp, I don't discredit them. I just recommend to give them a pre-amp.

This is interesting. Not long ago I realized that my SRM-727 MkII has an internal switch that removes the volume control and the amplifier goes direct to be use with a pre-amp. Over the weekend I did the change and connect the 727 to my McIntosh C2300 pre-amp. The change of sound was significant to me. It got sweeter and with more body as you experience. My chain is Aurender N100H to Bricasit M1 SE to the Mc C2300 to the 727 MkII.

 

[JimL11]

This is interesting. Not long ago I realized that my SRM-727 MkII has an internal switch that removes the volume control and the amplifier goes direct to be use with a pre-amp. Over the weekend I did the change and connect the 727 to my McIntosh C2300 pre-amp. The change of sound was significant to me. It got sweeter and with more body as you experience. My chain is Aurender N100H to Bricasit M1 SE to the Mc C2300 to the 727 MkII.

You can get the same result by turning the volume control all the way up, which basically bypasses it.

 

[astrostar59]

Tested the new STAX amp at this years CanJam London and... It's good of course, but still, what I've found, is that SR-009s need a lot o PRE-amplification. They really open up (or rather: become fully bodied) thanks not to the greatest Hawaii or Stax or other amp, but - in my case - thanks to ASL Twin Head pre-amp output. Therefore I would say that my home setup with AK380ss => ASL Twin Head mkIII => Stax SRM-007 => SR-009 sounded better, more powerful and fully bodied than the SRM-T800 => SR-009 setup. I may be mistaken though, since it was pretty noisy everywhere, and still, T8000 sounded as a very good amp, I don't discredit them. I just recommend to give them a pre-amp.

I also thought this when I was on my Stax 717 amp. I then used a good tubed Pre-amplifier before the 717. But since I realised it was a weakness in my Stax amps sound, basically thin and cold sounding. if you go to a better amp you won't feel the need for a pre-amp IMO.

 

[donc55]

Some of the old STAX driver amp BS!

Send in your driver amp to a Stax service center for tube replacement. What???

Very hard to roll tubes and bias yourself! BIG DRAWBACK!

Many people hate Russian tubes Vs the classic US and European tubes.

How does it compare to Woo Audio driver amps??? Which are the only "readily available" SOTA choices IMO!

 

[bearwarrior]

After reading this thread, I will probably stay with my KGSSHV Carbon. I enjoyed it very much.

 

[Whitigir]

After reading this thread, I will probably stay with my KGSSHV Carbon. I enjoyed it very much.

So you had been eyeing and thinking that T8k could be an upgrade ?

 

[bearwarrior]

So you had been eyeing and thinking that T8k could be an upgrade ?

Well... I would rather not consider that as an upgrade. If I prefer the warm or the tube sound, I will probably pick the BHSE instead. I want to see more impressions about this amp. But I am really happy to see some new great electrostatic amps.

 

[JimL11]

Some of the old STAX driver amp BS!

Send in your driver amp to a Stax service center for tube replacement. What???

Very hard to roll tubes and bias yourself! BIG DRAWBACK!

Many people hate Russian tubes Vs the classic US and European tubes.

How does it compare to Woo Audio driver amps??? Which are the only "readily available" SOTA choices IMO!

According to Kevin Gilmore, the reason that you have to send it back to Stat for tube replacement is that the specifications for the tubes are very tight in order for the servo to work, or to put in another way, the servo has a very limited range. So plugging in a replacement tube willy-nilly may not work. Based on reports from other listeners, I'm not sure I would consider the Woo amps SOTA.

 

[donc55]

According to Kevin Gilmore, the reason that you have to send it back to Stat for tube replacement is that the specifications for the tubes are very tight in order for the servo to work, or to put in another way, the servo has a very limited range. So plugging in a replacement tube willy-nilly may not work. Based on reports from other listeners, I'm not sure I would consider the Woo amps SOTA.

That is what is stupid about the design!

Why did the STAX T8000 design NOT ALLOW the use of any equivalent NOS tube?

ALL THE OTHER STAX DRIVER AMPS ALLOW TUBE ROLLING AND USER BIASING!

 

[kevin gilmore]

I did find 2 pairs of tubes from my collection that were close enough to work. You can do it all with a good tube tester, but takes a bit of time.
Easier to make a test jig if this is what you are going to do.

if you think you are going to just grab any 2 tubes and stick them in there, you won't be happy with the performance.

in particular the mu of all 4 sections have to be carefully matched otherwise you get differential gain channel to channel