[marcoarment]

How crazy would it be for me to sell my week-old, channel-imbalanced, PriceJapan-bought SR-009 at a nice discount to someone, possibly a resident of Japan, who's willing to deal with this exchange?
 
I'd gladly buy an official U.S. pair at full price today to have full support, and eat a partial loss on these as a lesson-learned fee.

 

[georgep]

Probably super mega crazy. Besides, you will get no better/more support than you will get through PJ - the only thing is that it costs a bit more to ship to Japan than within the States. If you don't think the imbalance will just go away on its own (or cannot wait to find out) you should go ahead and send them to PJ. As you recognized earlier you have over 1k of savings - no reason to burn that up and lose even more cash.

 

[marcoarment]

  Probably super mega crazy. Besides, you will get no better/more support than you will get through PJ - the only thing is that it costs a bit more to ship to Japan than within the States. If you don't think the imbalance will just go away on its own (or cannot wait to find out) you should go ahead and send them to PJ. As you recognized earlier you have over 1k of savings - no reason to burn that up and lose even more cash.

 
Has an imbalance ever gone away on its own, without sending them to Stax?
 
I've tried different amps, sources, and outlets. I've tried every discharging and grounding trick known to man. I've tried boxing them for a few days. I've even tried freezing them in the box for 24 hours, then letting them warm back up in the box for 24 hours. Nothing has fixed or meaningfully changed the imbalance — in every case, it's fully unbalanced again within the first few minutes of playback.
 
My theory is that all of this voodoo that we're told to try, by fans, Stax, and dealers, is all BS, mostly unintentionally. This problem clearly affects a substantial percentage of SR-009s, always has, and still hasn't been fixed — just read through this thread and you'll see that it's very likely to affect at least 5–10% of them. Everyone's story sounds the same: they send them to Stax, "nothing" happens, yet they come back and the problem never happens again.
 
I bet Stax has no idea what the problem is either, or it's a problem inherent to the design of the 009s that will always affect a percentage of them and can't be fixed without dramatically changing their sound, price, or manufacturing process. So they quietly replace some parts or entire drivers that come back with it, and keep up the image that there's nothing wrong with their flagship product.
 
That's just my crazy theory, and I'm very new to this world, so who knows. But that makes far more sense than the voodoo remedies, and it fits what little data we have.
 
Either way, my opinion remains the same: they're still the headphones I want. (I just want them to work.)

 

[paradoxper]

Eat some shipping and send them out already. Then if they aren't 'fixed' bitch a little bit more before offloading 'em.

 

[marcoarment]

  Eat some shipping and send them out already. Then if they aren't 'fixed' bitch a little bit more before offloading 'em.

 
I'm trying! Waiting on a response from PJ with the next step.

 

[complin]

I feel your comment is totally unfounded
As far as we are aware the problem does not appear to be a mechanical fault of a driver failure, there is no evidence of this. That's not to say a very small percentage have not had such a failure which is the case with any manufactured product. If the issue were as prevalent as you claim the dealer channel would be very upset as such warranty work costs them money, which is why they are very reluctant to service grey imports. Stax make this clear on their corporate web site. Most audio manufacturers don't offer an international warranty only in country where purchased. 
 
As has been previously said the consensus is its an environmental issue that has caused the problem, probably a parasitic charge. This might be related to some of the materials used like the diaphragm material, coating etc 
This can happen with any electrostatic headphone even if its 20 years old. Perhaps we should start a thread or poll here to see actually how many people have actually experienced the problem with the 009
 
I'm really sorry to hear about your problem and hope it resolves itself soon. I know that Spritzer was trying to do some research on what might be causing the issue and the solution, but I haven't heard if he was able to come to a conclusion. 
 
 
Quote:

  This problem clearly affects a substantial percentage of SR-009s, always has, and still hasn't been fixed — just read through this thread and you'll see that it's very likely to affect at least 5–10% of them. Everyone's story sounds the same: they send them to Stax, "nothing" happens, yet they come back and the problem never happens again.
 

 

[gepardcv]

If the issue were as prevalent as you claim the dealer channel would be very upset as such warranty work costs them money, which is why they are very reluctant to service grey imports.

How much do we really know about the dealer channel? In the US, everything seems to come through Yama's (which has a spotty record, judging by this and the main Stax thread), and few people know anything about Yama's opinion. A significant percentage of Stax's business seems to be in Japan to begin with, where customers undoubtedly get quicker service and turnaround directly through the manufacturer.
 
I can easily buy the theory that Stax quietly fixes units coming in and does not want to lose face by admitting a problem.

 

[okw3188]

I'm trying! Waiting on a response from PJ with the next step.

I've sent mine 3 weeks ago. Before that, they 'll ask you to write out the details of the fault. And they will stress that they're acting as middle man, between you and Stax.

 

[georgep]

I've sent mine 3 weeks ago. Before that, they 'll ask you to write out the details of the fault. And they will stress that they're acting as middle man, between you and Stax.

 
 
But your issue isn't with Stax. Airbow is a third party that does a bunch of mods to a stock Stax 307/407 unit, so it is betwen you and Airbow, not Stax. Besides, this thread is related to 009 imbalance issues - it would be better to indicate that you have a modded 307 or 407, otherwise people might think you are referring to a 009.

 

[marcoarment]

I've sent mine 3 weeks ago. Before that, they 'll ask you to write out the details of the fault. And they will stress that they're acting as middle man, between you and Stax.

 
Yup, same process here so far. (I sent them the details — waiting for what's next.)
 
Did they give you a time estimate? PJ told me the average is 2 months, which of course sucks for an in-stock, brand-new, effectively-DOA product getting factory repair service in its home country. (A couple of weeks for shipping is understandable. A huge wait at Stax isn't.)

 

[Audio Jester]

Yup, same process here so far. (I sent them the details — waiting for what's next.)

Did they give you a time estimate? PJ told me the average is 2 months, which of course sucks for an in-stock, brand-new, effectively-DOA product getting factory repair service in its home country. (A couple of weeks for shipping is understandable. A huge wait at Stax isn't.)

it seems to me that you are getting a decent response from PJ. Firstly, they are indicating that they are going to fix your pair rather than sending you another pair which may present the same problem. Secondly, they seem to be giving you a realistic time-frame for the repair, they are not directly related to Stax and considering that Stax does not have a massive output (if you recall the decent backlog they had with 009 orders). Would you rather they gave you an unrealistic time-frame with you becoming frustrated with them not returning your headphones as quoted?

 

[okw3188]

   
 
But your issue isn't with Stax. Airbow is a third party that does a bunch of mods to a stock Stax 307/407 unit, so it is betwen you and Airbow, not Stax. Besides, this thread is related to 009 imbalance issues - it would be better to indicate that you have a modded 307 or 407, otherwise people might think you are referring to a 009.

Yeap, you are right, I am a pair of Airbow SC-21 (mod SR-507). The reason why I posted here is that it seems that the imbalance issue is found to be with 009. 

 

[okw3188]

   
Yup, same process here so far. (I sent them the details — waiting for what's next.)
 
Did they give you a time estimate? PJ told me the average is 2 months, which of course sucks for an in-stock, brand-new, effectively-DOA product getting factory repair service in its home country. (A couple of weeks for shipping is understandable. A huge wait at Stax isn't.)

PJ told me that the waiting period would be about 1 month for my pair of Airbow SC-21. And they stress that I have to accepted whatever the outcome of the repair. 

 

[MariusValentin]

This issue occur only with the headphones who are purchased from pricejapan? What about the ones from authorized dealers?

 

[CybDev]

I bought mine from an authorized dealer a little over a year ago, no problems so far.