One word, Wow. A friend of mine just got his LCD-3s back from RMA. The difference is unbelievable. Prior to this, my pair was noticeably clearer than his with tighter bass and clearer mids, especially vocals. However, his RMA'd pair are just stunning. After A-Bing them with his 009-WES setup, I can confidently say that I have absolutely no desire to get the 009s now. Prior to this, even with my "unveiled" pair of LCD-3s, I still found them to still lack certain traits, namely speed and absolute detail when compared to the Stax 007 and 009 or the HD-800s and thus I was preparing to get one of those headphones to pair with the LCD-3s. However, I can very safely say that my friend's new pair are just amazing. This is a very subjective thing but both my friend and I prefered the LCD-3s from his RWA Audez'e Edition to his 009-WES Setup. The source for the comparison was my MOON 750D. I am frankly quite in awe of the LCD-3s now. I found that the 009s still had a tiny bit more detail and slightly airier highs. However, the LCD-3s noticeably superior bass, luscious romantic yet crystal clear midrange and smooth, unfatiguing yet well extended highs just make them better to me. Btw, my friend also managed to try out his new pair with the local dealer's Liquid fire and said that that pairing (from a humble Schiit Bifrost) was even better than the setup I heard with him. Haha, all this prompted me to send in my pair (A very early unit, has the thick non see through foam). Hopefully I'll get soemthing like Purrin, Jian or my friend's unit.