[Tugbars]

comparing headphones and speakers is like comparing apples vs oranges. Because both can taste sweet, it doesn't mean they are the same. Of course speakers have potentially better soundstage and bass.

Headphones are good for detail retrieval & intimate listening experience and they offer a cheaper solution to get good sound quality relatively to buying speakers which can offer the same detail retrieval, clarity in sound etc.

And about 009S, call me purist but i seriously think that STAX especially 009 aren't good for listening songs like "The wall" When there is a lot of going on in a song, like when there are a lot of sound layers overlapping each other and/or very fast passages they start shining. There you see what electrostatic headphones are about. They offer very good clarity and detail presented with properly done layering. (and that's all i want from my music) Headphones or speakers with good timbre is what is needed to enjoy "The wall" most. STAX isn't known to have the best timbre.

 

[thomaskong78]

comparing headphones and speakers is like comparing apples vs oranges. Because both can taste sweet, it doesn't mean they are the same. Of course speakers have potentially better soundstage and bass.

Headphones are good for detail retrieval & intimate listening experience and they offer a cheaper solution to get good sound quality relatively to buying speakers which can offer the same detail retrieval, clarity in sound etc.

And about 009S, call me purist but i seriously think that STAX especially 009 aren't good for listening songs like "The wall" When there is a lot of going on in a song, like when there are a lot of sound layers overlapping each other and/or very fast passages they start shining. There you see what electrostatic headphones are about. They offer very good clarity and detail presented with properly done layering. (and that's all i want from my music) Headphones or speakers with good timbre is what is needed to enjoy "The wall" most. STAX isn't known to have the best timbre.

I understand what you mean.

Speakers and headphones are apple and orange not in the same league.

If I want deep bass, dynamics and deeper soundstage, I would go to my speaker system.

But when I want intimate sound without disturbing sleeping wife, then I may go to Stax 009S.

For my purpose, I think 009S and Carbon is the end game.

I do not need to go to T2 to get 10% better sound spending 6k$ or more.

 

[buzzlulu]

I understand what you mean.

For my purpose, I think 009S and Carbon is the end game.

I do not need to go to T2 to get 10% better sound spending 6k$ or more.

Or have the bother of tubes (imho)

 

[tumpux]

It's funny that you keep repeating about the T2.
Trying to resist the inevitable?

 

[Dcman]

First I want to say a warm hello to everyone as it is my first post in here.

I just returned from my local hi-fi shop where I had a chance to listen to the Stax 009 + STAX SRM-006TS KIMIK combo.

I was rather impressed with Jaz and Classical music however when I played some more bass-heavy songs like "Finesse" or "Elevate" by Drake https://tidal.com/browse/track/91166673 I was given plenty of ratling and distortion of low frequencies (30-60hz) at 60-70% volume.

I was expecting maybe a bit thinner sounding bass in comparison to my LCD-2 but distortion really shocked me. Therefore I want to ask you could you check those songs on your 009 in order to compare the results?

I would be very grateful!

 

[karlgerman]

Hi, how loud is your preferred listening level?
Imo electrostatic sytems are not made for very loud hearing and full range planar loudspeakers do have a problem with heavy bass and extreme dynamics at high hearing level.
For me, one of the advantages of the 009/009s is the level of information you get even at lower power. That is for my STAX and my MartinLogan Summit x loudspeakers too.
The MartinLogan is a hybrid, it has a active Bass unit, so the dynamic and bass problem is not that dramatic.

Next is the Amp. I used SRM 006tII, still have it but my Blue Hawaii TubeAmp or my KGSS has way more power and those are the amplification i really use every day.

The smaller, original STAX amp´s tend to produce some distortion because of missing power resource. You could hear that also on lower loudness levels.
This is what i experienced wit the Stax headphones.

Karl

 

[thomaskong78]

First I want to say a warm hello to everyone as it is my first post in here.

I just returned from my local hi-fi shop where I had a chance to listen to the Stax 009 + STAX SRM-006TS KIMIK combo.

I was rather impressed with Jaz and Classical music however when I played some more bass-heavy songs like "Finesse" or "Elevate" by Drake https://tidal.com/browse/track/91166673 I was given plenty of ratling and distortion of low frequencies (30-60hz) at 60-70% volume.

I was expecting maybe a bit thinner sounding bass in comparison to my LCD-2 but distortion really shocked me. Therefore I want to ask you could you check those songs on your 009 in order to compare the results?

I would be very grateful!

STAX SRM-006TS is not up to driving Stax009 or 009S to its full potential.

I had been driving Stax 009S with KGsssv Carbon amplifier for 5 months without noticing any distortions on the bass.

 

[Whitigir]

Hi, how loud is your preferred listening level?
Imo electrostatic sytems are not made for very loud hearing and full range planar loudspeakers do have a problem with heavy bass and extreme dynamics at high hearing level.
For me, one of the advantages of the 009/009s is the level of information you get even at lower power. That is for my STAX and my MartinLogan Summit x loudspeakers too.
The MartinLogan is a hybrid, it has a active Bass unit, so the dynamic and bass problem is not that dramatic.

Next is the Amp. I used SRM 006tII, still have it but my Blue Hawaii TubeAmp or my KGSS has way more power and those are the amplification i really use every day.

The smaller, original STAX amp´s tend to produce some distortion because of missing power resource. You could hear that also on lower loudness levels.
This is what i experienced wit the Stax headphones.

Karl

Yeah, right ....my sr-009s and T2 can blow your ear drums.

 

[comzee]

Yeah, right ....my sr-009s and T2 can blow your ear drums.

As a previous KGSSHV Carbon+009 user, I think I would get back into Stax if the T2 was readily available. I'm pretty jealous of people that have one.

 

[Dcman]

Thank you for your contribution guys.

I just realized that I made a mistake in my description above about the amplifier. I went through my emails again and it actually said "Stax sr-009 headphones and an sr-007 energizer." But I bet (based on what you said above) that this one did not have enough power either to drive them properly.

It is such a shame though you need to spend like $5000 dollars on a more powerful amp just because you like to listen on higher volume for shorter periods of time

 

[purk]

Thank you for your contribution guys.

I just realized that I made a mistake in my description above about the amplifier. I went through my emails again and it actually said "Stax sr-009 headphones and an sr-007 energizer." But I bet (based on what you said above) that this one did not have enough power either to drive them properly.

It is such a shame though you need to spend like $5000 dollars on a more powerful amp just because you like to listen on higher volume for shorter periods of time

You can get the KGSSHV from mjolnir for less than $2500 these days. Yes the Carbon and BHSE are better but the KGSSHV is much much better than the 007 or 727 including 717.

 

[jgazal]

Maybe too much gain or DC in the source combined with higher volume levels at the amplifier made the diaphragm touch the stators?

 

[karlgerman]

Bass and mid/high tone on the diaphragm will always lead to some distortion. That is why planar loudspeaker Manufacturer split the bass section to avoid that. The bigger the stroke on the diaphragm the worse it sounds. A lot of planar demos at the HighEnd Munich suffer from "the too loud" presentation. Even my beloved MartinLogan company made this mistake every time.

Touching the Strators sound way more awful than the distortion resulting of a bad amplification or a high level dynamic on the diaphragm.

Imo, one of the advantages of the STAX ist the almost complete information oft the sound file will be shown on lower volume levels.

 

[Whitigir]

Bass and mid/high tone on the diaphragm will always lead to some distortion. That is why planar loudspeaker Manufacturer split the bass section to avoid that. The bigger the stroke on the diaphragm the worse it sounds. A lot of planar demos at the HighEnd Munich suffer from "the too loud" presentation. Even my beloved MartinLogan company made this mistake every time.

Touching the Strators sound way more awful than the distortion resulting of a bad amplification or a high level dynamic on the diaphragm.

Imo, one of the advantages of the STAX ist the almost complete information oft the sound file will be shown on lower volume levels.

again, nope, my system can blow your eardrums and still putting out quality performances.
It would be nice to have the faults rumors and myths stopped for the Stax systems. It started with Stax has no bass ... and now this ?

 

[catscratch]

SR-009 measures 0.1% THD @ 20hz in the bass at 100db in InnerFidelity's measurements. In fact it probably measures less, but 0.1% seems to be the noise floor of the measurement system. There are no open dynamic driver headphones that can do that as far as I know. So let's not get ahead of ourselves here. If there's distortion in your SR-009 system, it's either faulty, or something else in your system is. Electrostatic headphones are generally far cleaner in bass distortion than dynamic headphones are, though tactile impact is usually somewhat less. They're also dependent on seal, so if the seal is bad, then bass output goes down and measured distortion goes up.

ML speakers use a crossover and a dynamic subwoofer because the ES panel in those models doesn't have the surface area to put out deep bass. An ES panel that's flat down to 20hz has to be huge and very difficult to drive. In headphones, it's a completely different story.