icnaiwhimor1975
New Head-Fier
thread with an unfairly small amount of live discussion
very cool first post
very cool first post
STAX OMEGA4 compared to Omega1 / Omega2 / Omega3
- Thread starter darth nut
- Start date
Wow, what an awesome post, thank you for sharing. I think I need to read it three more times just to get it all to sink in!
I've always felt the X9000 did something special with soundstage too. I first tried it at CanJam 2023. At that point I already had a few high end headphones and nothing really wowed me at the show except the X9000. Out of everything, that was the only one that stood out, there was just something special about it. I got to back to back test it with the ShangriLa Sr and even against that giant, it felt special. Two months later I found myself STILL thinking about it so I bought one.
Anyway, I've been hypothesizing lately that the angled grille on the X9000 contributes a lot to soundstage and I think your curved headstage analysis lines up with that. I think the angled grilles actually are reflecting sound out in front of us, resulting in that diffuse "halostage" area. I hope we both can test this further, trying things like blocking the front of the grilles (not the sides) or even removing the grilles entirely.
PS I think you may want to try and get your hands on a RAAL Immanis to test. I ordered one after hearing at CanJam NYC 2024 and that headphone also has some unique staging. Perhaps it's not a coincidence that it also vents air/sound out of the front like the X9000.
I've always felt the X9000 did something special with soundstage too. I first tried it at CanJam 2023. At that point I already had a few high end headphones and nothing really wowed me at the show except the X9000. Out of everything, that was the only one that stood out, there was just something special about it. I got to back to back test it with the ShangriLa Sr and even against that giant, it felt special. Two months later I found myself STILL thinking about it so I bought one.
Anyway, I've been hypothesizing lately that the angled grille on the X9000 contributes a lot to soundstage and I think your curved headstage analysis lines up with that. I think the angled grilles actually are reflecting sound out in front of us, resulting in that diffuse "halostage" area. I hope we both can test this further, trying things like blocking the front of the grilles (not the sides) or even removing the grilles entirely.
PS I think you may want to try and get your hands on a RAAL Immanis to test. I ordered one after hearing at CanJam NYC 2024 and that headphone also has some unique staging. Perhaps it's not a coincidence that it also vents air/sound out of the front like the X9000.
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