[BenF]

The problem with 007 is that It requires a very good amp and a dac at the same time. Without a good dac, bass doesn't get tight, treble becomes sibilant and on top of all 007s can't do what they do best: delivering a thick mid texture with a lot of detail. Without a good amp, treble becomes mush, mids sound too dark and overall it sounds like 300-500$ headphones at best.

009/S doesn't require a very good amp to start sounding pleasant. 009/S do sound pleasant even with average amps. Definitely they both scale with better gear, however due to the fact that 007 has very low diaphragm tension and have relatively a closed design to 009, it's definitely more timid when it comes to showing it's full potential. 009 is more dac dependent than 007(better dacs have better sibilance control)

when they are at their full potential, 007 is slightly behind in terms of detail, has better bass in both detail and tonality(sounds thicker and more realistic). 009S has huge stage, clearly better detail and both have top imaging where everything feels just right. Because 007 drivers are acoustically damped more(stators have less perforated area,with a thick ring on the edges), they provide better mid texture too however it costs them to sound intimate in terms of soundstage compared to 009. Pick your poison basically: You want to sacrifice mid texture and you want more detail with bigger stage? 009. You want to sacrifice a little bit of detail and wide staging for thicker, punchier bass and better defined mids? 007. I don't want to comment on tonality and "timbre" subjectivist stuff, those are yours to decide.

I auditioned 007MKII (vs 009, 009S, L300, Shangrila Jr and Perun) at HeadAmp through Blue Hawaii SE + Holospring DAC + SU1 interface .
Despite the amazing soundchain, 007 sounded very warm and not nearly as transparent as you would expect from an electrostatic headphone.
Frankly, if it was 10 times cheaper, I still wouldn't have bought it.
It did have better bass response than 009 and 009s though.

 

[elton7033]

I auditioned 009 and 009S at HeadAmp through Blue Hawaii SE + Holospring DAC + SU1 interface .
I expected to walk out with 009S, as it was supposed to be latest and greatest from Stax.
However, I ended up buying 009 instead - female vocals sounded too thin on 009S. Otherwise, everything else was the same.

If I am in the market for a pair of 009 i will choose the SR009BK over 009S any day

 

[elton7033]

I auditioned 007MKII (vs 009, 009S, L300, Shangrila Jr and Perun) at HeadAmp through Blue Hawaii SE + Holospring DAC + SU1 interface .
Despite the amazing soundchain, 007 sounded very warm and not nearly as transparent as you would expect from an electrostatic headphone.
Frankly, if it was 10 times cheaper, I still wouldn't have bought it.
It did have better bass response than 009 and 009s though.

people says the 007Mk1 are much different compare to the Mk2s, cant wait to see how my Mk1(not yet arrive from Japan) will perform compare to my 009 then...

 

[Tugbars]

I auditioned 007MKII (vs 009, 009S, L300, Shangrila Jr and Perun) at HeadAmp through Blue Hawaii SE + Holospring DAC + SU1 interface .
Despite the amazing soundchain, 007 sounded very warm and not nearly as transparent as you would expect from an electrostatic headphone.
Frankly, if it was 10 times cheaper, I still wouldn't have bought it.
It did have better bass response than 009 and 009s though.

Holo Spring is already warm, BHSE is too warm for 007 too. I can't comment on transparency much. I used to have both, 009S is clearly more detailed but the difference wasn't huge for me. Carbon + Soekris 1541 was my setup back at the time when I had both. I remember I've seen that you say L300 is more detailed than 007 too. Well, it's hard to put out experiences with words I guess. Everybody has different definitions for detail, soundstage, imaging is it seems.

 

[IgeNeLL]

009S offers more detail and dynamics but less texture than 009.

I think it is hard to understand.
While IMO, detail and texture are co-ralated.

 

[Tugbars]

Take exactly same driver, same diaphragm... if that driver is acoustically damped heavily(stators, even dust covers are a part of the damping process) you get more texture. When the driver is not damped well enough, it can sound more detailed.(treble may sound harsh when it's not damped well and bass can get too weak) Designers try to find the sweet spot between two while designing drivers.(that's why 009 has such elaborate stator design, they wanted to damp the driver as less as possible -for the sake of maximum detail retrieval- while maintaining texture, proper bass response and treble control) 007 is damped extremely heavily, 009 is not. There are of course more parameters which can affect texture and detail but for the sake of simplicity I ignored them.(like diaphragm tension, chassis design, driver shape etc) All lambdas lack proper damping, because they are cheap products, they are built to convey a lot of detail in cheapest and most simplest ways.

The purpose of the acoustical damping is mainly to take diaphragm under control in certain frequencies. Due to physical properties of the diaphragm material, at some frequency intervals diaphragms can have their own modes, we can call them weird behaviors of drivers to make it more understandable. (driver shape also affects in which frequencies the driver modes going to happen). Hd800 for example isn't damped well enough to put it's 6k peak under control, so that it can deliver more detail and bigger soundstage. That's definitely a calculated design choice.

Texture is how much you can hear sound changes in a sound envelope.

this is a sound envelope. I guess these are for simple piano sounds. There are cases where you can hear insane amount of detail but the accessibility for the listener to hear sound changes in sound envelope is missing: Etymotic ER4 series.

In short, I don't get excited when I hear loads and loads of detail with headphones/speakers. Texture is also very important.It's not really hard to make a detailed sounding driver, it's really hard to design a driver which can deliver texture and detail at the same time.

 

[GarageBoy]

Tugbars, what would you consider a headphone that has a good texture?

You are implying that the er4 has good detail, but poor texture, correct?

 

[PointyFox]

If texture = greater difference between loud and quiet sounds = dynamics, what is detail?

 

[Tugbars]

Simply put, texture is how accessible/audible is all the 4 sections of sound envelope to the listener. How accessible differences are between loud & quiet sounds in the sound envelope is dynamics.

You are implying that the er4 has good detail, but poor texture, correct?

Yes. ER4S can't really put out proper decay information. People gonna come out and say "oh it's because the driver is über fast". No, not really.

 

[PointyFox]

Is there some sort of scroll I need to read to make sense of that?
What are the "4 sections of sound envelope" and what does it mean to have accessible sound?

 

[Tugbars]

https://www.teachmeaudio.com/recording/sound-reproduction/sound-envelopes

That's the scroll but given that you could find it easily by a simple google search, I think you just want to think what I'm saying is nonsense. You just want to confront me. That's fine. I'm not conveying any kind of information with extreme certainty, if you have "scrolls" that prove me wrong and going to help me to learn more, let me know. I am just sharing what I understood from the scrolls I read.

 

[Bonddam]

My 009s Have an imbalance issue, will it work it’s self out or send them back?

 

[PointyFox]

Did you try the slapp technique? I forget the particulars, but it involves shorting the pins then giving the driver housing a slap. Apparently it can unstick the driver if it's stuck to a stator.

 

[Bonddam]

Did you try the slapp technique? I forget the particulars, but it involves shorting the pins then giving the driver housing a slap.

I did

 

[PointyFox]

There is also a possibility that one of the internal wires broke, which would involve taking the earpad off, unscrewing the wire housing, then soldering it back together.