[verwandlung]

Do you think it would make sense to wait until summer to order them, since it seems that abrupt changes in temperature could be what damages the 009?
 
PS. Now that people talk about imbalance, I am starting to worry about my pair of 007: it seems that the right side is not as loud as the left one! The music always seems to be staged more on the left side! Nothing too obvious, of course, but still a little worrisome..
 
 
Karlgerman, the best of luck with your phones (this is very annoying to say the least).

 

[karlgerman]

Quote:

In the meantime, get yourself a pair of high quality NOS tubes (e.g. mid/late 50's RCA clear tops).   Modest cost and money well spent.

the sr-009 still sounds great and still has the imbalance driver problem. the louder i hear music, the more imbalance occurs. next week
i send it back to stax. but when my 009 comes home after fixing-- there might be a BLUE HAWAII SE waiting for him!

 

[pomme de terre]

Any more updates to this? Has anyone else had more problems and has everything been fixed in the latest batch?
 
I'm finally looking to take the plunge and this thread has me a bit worried...

 

[Jup-Na-Keeeeeel]

^Same here. I'm wondering about this as well.

 

[El_Doug]

I think this may have only applied to the VERY first few that were produced - I have heard 4 pairs of 009s, and none have had any imbalance issues
 
Quote:

Any more updates to this? Has anyone else had more problems and has everything been fixed in the latest batch?
 
I'm finally looking to take the plunge and this thread has me a bit worried...

 

 

[pachku]

Mine got the flu last May, after two months. Sent it back to Japan, had it returned in no time, and it's been perfect since then.

 

[karlgerman]

[size=small]Unbelievable, about a week after it was sent in for repair[/size]
 
[size=small]my 009 is back home again.[/size]
 
-------- there was nothing to repair????
maybe the little trip worked well for the stax.
maybe vibrations during transportation could have solved the problem of imbalance.
after 2 hours of testing everything seems to be ok.
 still unbelievable!
but i am really, really happy now.
 
greez
karl

 

[jerg]

Quote:

[size=small]Unbelievable, about a week after it was sent in for repair[/size]
 
[size=small]my 009 is back home again.[/size]
 
-------- there was nothing to repair????
maybe the little trip worked well for the stax.
maybe vibrations during transportation could have solved the problem of imbalance.
after 2 hours of testing everything seems to be ok.
 still unbelievable!
but i am really, really happy now.
 
greez
karl

That...kinda sucks actually, instead of Stax having a definitive answer and mechanical fix to the issue, it's still something completely in the dark that could potentially show up again.
 
Did Stax explicitly state that there was nothing wrong? Did they at least disassemble/reassemble them (which could have been the fix)?

 

[karlgerman]

they handed me a report document about what was done on the 009.
just testing  -no disassemble.
they will get another chance, because after 5 hours of testing the problem with my right driver problem went back.
 
 
 
 
 
 
next time there should be a more serious check.
the headphone seriously was ok when i received it yesterday.
maybe temperaturechanges or humidity has an affect on the driver.
 
my dealer will get the whole amp-dac ....equipment, including my omega2, to do some measuring in front of
sending in for final fix to the stax sevicepoint in germany.
 
 
if they do it as quickly as last time it will not be that hard fore me.
 
 
 

 

[vvs_75]

That's not good. I was under impression that all of  the SR-009s have to go to Japan for the fix. I would request ship them back to Japan and test  for at list a week.

 

[spritzer]

Stat's developing channel imbalance out of literally thin air is a well known issue and the imbalance will also disappear as quickly.  It is common practice for Stax to replace the drivers when this happens but that's just because we have no good way of getting rid of the imbalance short of manually discharging the diaphragm by passing a grounded conductor over its entire surface area.  If both earpieces were perfectly balanced then they naturally did not replace the drivers. 
 
As for why this happens is still debated but this phenomenon has been known since the 1940's, long before we had electrostatic transducers for audio. 

 

[David1961]

Although I've had the SR-009's since January, I got to hear them for the first time today with the help of headfier IanG which I'd like to thank him for. Ian lives about two miles away so I went through to his place where we both listened to his SR-007's and my SR-009's via his audio equipment. He has two Stax amps which are SRM717's and SRM007t's and out of the two with both headphones, myself and Ian preferred the SRM717's. Out of the two headphones the SR-009's were much more detailed. The main reason why I went to Ian's place was to find out if there were any problems with my SR-009's which I'm pleased to say there weren't, I have to say though I'm very much looking forward to hearing the SR-009's with my K-01 and the BHSE I have on order.

 

[IanG]

Quote:

Although I've had the SR-009's since January, I got to hear them for the first time today with the help of headfier IanG which I'd like to thank him for. Ian lives about two miles away so I went through to his place where we both listened to his SR-007's and my SR-009's via his audio equipment. He has two Stax amps which are SRM717's and SRM007t's and out of the two with both headphones, myself and Ian preferred the SRM717's. Out of the two headphones the SR-009's were much more detailed. The main reason why I went to Ian's place was to find out if there were any problems with my SR-009's which I'm pleased to say there weren't, I have to say though I'm very much looking forward to hearing the SR-009's with my K-01 and the BHSE I have on order.

Yes it was great to hear David's SR-009s and find they were faultless! Moreover, using my normal SRM-007t displayed a comparatively muffled and bass-heavy sound with the SR-007 which was much improved in clarity and frequency balance with the SR-009s. My SRM-717, unused for over a year, had been warming up and was substituted for the SRM-007t. The sound was materially improved with the SR-007s and whilst, in my opinion, the scale of improvement was not as great with the SR-009s (because there was less to improve!), those headphones still gave a sound which was quite a bit better than that of the SR-007s, with great clarity, air and frequency balance.
 
The SR-009s are comfortable too and I am tempted to buy them!
 
 
 

 

[Il Mostro]

Quote:

Yes it was great to hear David's SR-009s and find they were faultless! Moreover, using my normal SRM-007t displayed a comparatively muffled and bass-heavy sound with the SR-007 which was much improved in clarity and frequency balance with the SR-009s. My SRM-717, unused for over a year, had been warming up and was substituted for the SRM-007t. The sound was materially improved with the SR-007s and whilst, in my opinion, the scale of improvement was not as great with the SR-009s (because there was less to improve!), those headphones still gave a sound which was quite a bit better than that of the SR-007s, with great clarity, air and frequency balance.
 
The SR-009s are comfortable too and I am tempted to buy them!
 
 
 

The SR009's are remarkably "un-picky" and did indeed sound good with everything in my listening sessions.  The SR-007's Mk2's, on the other hand, are significantly more demanding.  I think I would have no problem living with the 009's and take my time getting an optimum amp to pair them with, vs going with the 007's and ponying up for an amp upgrade right now.  I do know one thing now... Lambdas are no longer an option for me.  I have been ruined.

 

[arnaud]

The good news too is that it's only going to get better as far as commercial amp choices for the 009, I am thinking Eddie Current and Cavalli Audio. Plus, who knows, maybe Justin will go ahead with a commercial KGSSHV at some point. In any case, I feel in no rush to upgrade my current amp as far as how the 009 sound (the fact none of the offerings are readily available in Japan certainly influences a great deal though). It's that satisfying (I agree that the bass does not sound in the least deficient with the Stax amps, the same cannot be said when they're driving the 007mk2).