[NOMOS]

The 009S brought to ABOUTH this curve plays at such a High level
that I don't know how to exceed that .

The Speed and Clarity of playback, along with an incredible one
Bass with Force , Pressure , and Timing ,. .and a High-tone Resolution
to cheer ,……

I haven't bought anything for a year , what's like a miracle to me
That's probably called , I've arrived


Enjoy your Music , Nomos

 

[rthomas]

Ok so the cat is out of the bag, ~2x the price of the SR-009 when it launched 10 years ago. Given the deflation - inflation in Japan in past decade, I wasn't too far off .

Seems like Stax really did revive the original SR-Omega sound and it's apparently cleaner sounding than the 009S with better bass control etc so worth a look if you can stretch the budget accordingly. From glancing through the intro page, they mention the new electrode combines best of both worlds (damping and transparency from original omega mesh stator with the rigidity from the multi-layer electrodes first introduced with the 009). Also mention about 20% larger stator & membrane (same kind of plastic material as 009 series although thickness info isn't ever shared etc) which they claim contribute to a better perceived staging (early impression from the reviewer was it they felt acoustically transparent when worn as a result, this isn't going to be an open space type of headphone eh ). The housing is still machined from aluminum and headphone apparently feels lighter than 009 since it's same weight but larger in size.

I'd be seriously tempted ... if I was flush and still listening to headphones ;-p. Will experience it through you guys who will courageously take one for all of the us .

cheers,
arnaud

Can any headphone be ''cleaner'' than the SR009S? Don't the TOTL Staxes already have negligible distortion far lower than human ears can detect?

I'm skeptical about how much of an improvement this is. I hope they tweaked the frequency responce to make it less bright and added a bit of bass.

Maybe the soundstage is larger due to the larger surface area of the drivers. I'd love to compare them side by side with an SR009S to see if the difference is worth it.

As usual we have the hymns of praise from every ''professional'' reviewer/salesmen for all the recently released flagships. It would have been fantastic to have Tyll back this year to do a Big Sound 2021 to get some honest impressions with no sugar coating of deficiences.

I'm very happy to see all the new flagships released but it looks like we are headed for $10K headphones being the norm very soon. People will have their monthly car payment + headphone payment + DAVE payment ( obviously only the DAVE can extract ALL the info from an audio file, no other DAC can /s )

 

[rthomas]

I also don't buy this ''every new Flagship has MOAR detail/resolution BS''

Music has a finite amount of detail. I've compared the HD800S to my SR009S (driven by the Carbon) and the differences were tiny. The 009S was like 1% more detailed and the biggest difference was the better bass quality from the Stax.

 

[arnaud]

@rthomas , I am in agreement that a healthy dose of skepticism is mandatory these days with hype around launches. On the other hand, if most opinions from Japanese people having heard it converge toward same thoughts (voicing is different: somewhere between 007 and 009 making it less picky of recording quality, staging is improved vs 009: wider, …), there must be some truth to it.

As for the low distortion from the 009/009S, at least within inaudible range, I’ve not paid enough attention to these (controversial) figures and have no good feel for it. What is sure though is that a larger electrode is a good thing for estats (something @chinsettawong could elaborate on with his experience), the change in earpad (depth and overall dimensions etc) is very influencial as well so it’s no surprise the sr-x9000 at least sounds and images differently from 009.

imho, while the 009 is great and while my short listening sessions with the 009S made me prefer the later, I would not call either perfect, nor was I as excited about the 007mk1 driven out of BHSE as the cult following by the mafia would suggest. I’ve always found the 009 mid/highs to be better than the mid dip / treble peak of 007 etc.

While I certainly won’t be paying 6kUSD for a headphone (ludicrous considering what a good nearfield speaker rig can do these days), I am curious about the latest offering given the good reputation of the original omega (no direct experience unfortunately).

cheers,
arnaud

 

[chinsettawong]

The sound is more of a personal preference than anything. I prefer large sound stage, and I always make my headphones’s driver quite big.

If the X9000 is similar to the original SR-Omega, then the sound stage should be very large. I had a few opportunities to try the SR-Omega, and I really like its big sound stage. The diaphragm size of the SR-Omega is 90 mm. Comparing to 80 mm on SR007 and SR009, SR-Omega’s diaphragms are quite a bit larger.

 

[lsantista]

While I certainly won’t be paying 6kUSD for a headphone (ludicrous considering what a good nearfield speaker rig can do these days), I am curious about the latest offering given the good reputation of the original omega (no direct experience unfortunately).

Certainly the X9000 can go down in price some 5-6 years down the road, maybe less, plus there is the used market.. I agree with your points, but do consider, as someone posted elsewhere, even your 009 was launched a decade ago at US$5,250, which is the same purchasing power of $6,400 today. The world was still coming out from the biggest crisis of generations and people generally didnt have the cash as today. The 5,800-6,200 street price of the X9000 is below that and actually puts into perspective (save from Stax managing to bring down production cost of the tech inside) expectations the new HP. Of course it can still sound much different and even overall better, but its not like I expect some major bump as the original Omega was, just because it costs 35% more than current price of current flagship. Comparatively, even Stax charged more for the 009 at launch (and I remember posts doing the same inflation adjustment for the original Omega and it resulted in something like that as well)

 

[NOMOS]

The sound is more of a personal preference than anything. I prefer large sound stage, and I always make my headphones’s driver quite big.

If the X9000 is similar to the original SR-Omega, then the sound stage should be very large. I had a few opportunities to try the SR-Omega, and I really like its big sound stage. The diaphragm size of the SR-Omega is 90 mm. Comparing to 80 mm on SR007 and SR009, SR-Omega’s diaphragms are quite a bit larger.

If the surface of the Diaphragm increases by 20%
were in SR X9K opposite SR 009
and the diameter of 80 mm is at 009 then we would be at just under 88 mm in the new one
SR X9K . So almost again the 90mm from the Omega .

 

[arnaud]

Certainly the X9000 can go down in price some 5-6 years down the road, maybe less, plus there is the used market.. I agree with your points, but do consider, as someone posted elsewhere, even your 009 was launched a decade ago at US$5,250, which is the same purchasing power of $6,400 today. The world was still coming out from the biggest crisis of generations and people generally didnt have the cash as today. The 5,800-6,200 street price of the X9000 is below that and actually puts into perspective (save from Stax managing to bring down production cost of the tech inside) expectations the new HP. Of course it can still sound much different and even overall better, but its not like I expect some major bump as the original Omega was, just because it costs 35% more than current price of current flagship. Comparatively, even Stax charged more for the 009 at launch (and I remember posts doing the same inflation adjustment for the original Omega and it resulted in something like that as well)

The sticker shock for me comes from the following, some being personal circumstances so ymmv of course:
1. The 009 launched for 345kJPY in japan (maybe 3-4kUSD at the time?)
2. Japan has not been through much inflation in 10 years I think
3. The sr-x9000 does not look particularly more expensive to build than 009/S
4. My speakers cost me a thousand dollars and I enjoy the sound so much more than all past headphones

In the US where distributor used to rip people off, I understand the price jump isn’t as bad now that price distortion across markets has eased. For Japanese buyers, I’d say we’re reaching thin air at these prices…

cheers,
arnaud

 

[Hubert481]

Speakers better than 009?
which model?

 

[arnaud]

These: https://www.recital-audio.com/define_hefa/

Note I did not say better but more enjoyable . I’ve realized I am (or have changed to) prioritizing imaging and, earspeaker as it may, a headphone remains a headphone in that regard… I really enjoyed the massive resolution of headphones, but I do feel that my speaker rig today is miles ahead of my best headphone rig ever when it comes to realism.

I still have work to do with the low end (some of it is out of hope because of the small room size) but I got most of the response nailed (no eq whatsoever on the 2 speakers actually, just placement and passive treatments of the room). Out of memory, the dotted black would be the speakers before treating the room while the red is close to what I have today (added an old active sub, this one under dsp eq to try compensate a bit the drop in bass at listening spot but that’s a null regardless of speaker location…). In practice, I don’t sense missing out on bass actually:

the drop off above 8kHz is just anti-aliasing filter on the measurements (I just used a 20kHz sample rate…). The speakers are flat to 20kHz I believe.

Also measured T60 and it’s under 300ms over most bands (typically 200ms or less) + I listen close to the speakers so this is litterally a nearfield listening rig with little room effect above 400Hz.

cheers,
arnaud

 

[padam]

The sound is more of a personal preference than anything. I prefer large sound stage, and I always make my headphones’ driver quite big.

If the X9000 is similar to the original SR-Omega, then the sound stage should be very large. I had a few opportunities to try the SR-Omega, and I really like its big sound stage. The diaphragm size of the SR-Omega is 90 mm. Comparing to 80 mm on SR007 and SR009, SR-Omega’s diaphragms are quite a bit larger.

As far as I know, 90mm is the diameter of the surface area (105mm is the total diameter)
Same for the SR-007 is ~55mm SR-009 is ~69mm (wasn't precisely measured but I am sure someone doing a full repair already measured them)
20% larger would make the SR-X9000 about 83mm, still different to the Omega.
And of course they highlight that the technology is quite different now, so I don't think it's going to sound the same.

 

[jimWA]

As far as I know, 90mm is the diameter of the surface area (105mm is the total diameter)
Same for the SR-007 is ~55mm SR-009 is ~69mm (wasn't precisely measured but I am sure someone doing a full repair already measured them)
20% larger would make the SR-X9000 about 83mm, still different to the Omega.
And of course they highlight that the technology is quite different now, so I don't think it's going to sound the same.

SR-X9000 is advertised as 20% larger surface area, not 20% larger diameter, which, as NOMOS calculated above, comes out to just under 88mm diameter.

 

[chinsettawong]

If you want to be very precise, the diameter of SR-Omega’s diaphragms is 90mm and SR-007’s is 78mm.

 

[NOMOS]

For me now , one of the Best Music Album of this Year .
What a positive experience with the Stax SR 009S , hardly to believe

 

[h1f1add1cted]

Same for me, every day with my SR-009S is pure joy, since this step-up at my gear, I'm really finshed this game. I will only listen to X-9000 one day at my local HiFi dealer, but just to check this new Omega experience and I can't imagine anything overwhelming difference, which could lead me to sell my SR-009S and upgrade to X-9000 instead. I'm sure Stax has made his job right with this new flag ship and it will be impressive no question.