[WernerW]

Just ordered . Was told 2-3 months. The dealer mentioned they are making 7-10 per month so 2-3 months might be optimistic ..who knows. While there I got to compare the 009s and the 9000 briefly. Distinctly better build quality with the 9000 and I've never had a pair of headphones feel more comfortable

Hi,
what??
What do you mean? Your dealer handles 7-10 per month?
or
STAX ist making 7-10 per month?
I cannot believe ...
10 per day maybe?

I already heard that each individual SR-X9k is adjusted by a laborious handicraft because the tolerances of the new mesh and the drivers are cumbersome.
Is this true?
If this is true it reminds me the legendary SR-OMEGA from 1993. These were hand-adjusted and due to this, ony 600 pieces were produced until the model was discontinued.

In other words:
10 devices per month would mean 120 devices per year and it would take five years (a full product lifecycle ) to get the 600 pieces like the Omega.
This cannot be the production concept of a modern headphone manufacturer, and this does not sound realsitic.

So, I would be interested in the real production rate at STAX.
Do you have an idea? Thnx

 

[Steve1976]

Hi,
what??
What do you mean? Your dealer handles 7-10 per month?
or
STAX ist making 7-10 per month?
I cannot believe ...
10 per day maybe?

I already heard that each individual SR-X9k is adjusted by a laborious handicraft because the tolerances of the new mesh and the drivers are cumbersome.
Is this true?
If this is true it reminds me the legendary SR-OMEGA from 1993. These were hand-adjusted and due to this, ony 600 pieces were produced until the model was discontinued.

In other words:
10 devices per month would mean 120 devices per year and it would take five years (a full product lifecycle ) to get the 600 pieces like the Omega.
This cannot be the production concept of a modern headphone manufacturer, and this does not sound realsitic.

So, I would be interested in the real production rate at STAX.
Do you have an idea? Thnx

I received mine after 4 months of production and it was only around the 150th unit so it was maybe 40 per month on average.

 

[arnaud]

Sr-009 reached at best 20 units a month unless I’m delusional. As such, I don’t expect the x9000 to be produced in much more quantities regardless of initial surge of orders (this has always happened for stax totl product, except for 009S maybe?). I bet there’s only 1 at best 2 staff in charge of the critical portion of the assembly (the transducer unit assembly & inspecting for small debris etc). It probably humanly boils down to 1 unit a day or so…

 

[arnaud]

We’re going 10 years back in time so, things may have drastically changed but, it’s somewhat unexpected for such company as stax…
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/stax-interview-and-factory-tour-12-12-12.650210/post-9141435

[Mr. Sasaki (later)] Film [for the earspeakers] comes from the supplier and we perform the assembly in house. The assembly is done in a clean room because with the small DS gap and static electricity involved, even small dust particles are a major issue. This is the difficult part of the process. The final inspection of the electrode is done by a technician meticulously inspecting the whole surface for defects and presence of small particles. In that context, you can imagine the difficulty to mass produce these devices and the barrier of entry for competitors.
Basically, it's impossible for us to produce many [SR-009] drivers at a time. We produce 20-30 units a month and it's actually not sufficient to satisfy the demand, so there is waiting line for this product.

 

[WernerW]

Sr-009 reached at best 20 units a month unless I’m delusional. As such, I don’t expect the x9000 to be produced in much more quantities regardless of initial surge of orders (this has always happened for stax totl product, except for 009S maybe?). I bet there’s only 1 at best 2 staff in charge of the critical portion of the assembly (the transducer unit assembly & inspecting for small debris etc). It probably humanly boils down to 1 unit a day or so…

Hi Arnaud, and also hi Steve (Steve1976), thanks a lot for your replies.

Phew, that still sounds to be a slow process.
1 unit per day (200 working days per year) would mean 3 years for the full OMEGA production run that started in 1993 (600 units in total had been estimated until the OMEGA was discontinued).

On the other side, I heard there is a huge worldwide X9k demand, US, Europe and Asia.
Today, there are many very rich people in China, they buy any gadet at 10,000 bucks like a chewing gum.
Does the X9k production capacity of STAX meet the demand (I heard, the worldwide demand of X9k is as high as Stax has never thought it would be at that high TOTL price level).
If I was STAX, I would either dramatically increase the production capacity by hiring new employees or by raising the price.
You know, market price depends on demand versus supply.

And you also see, during these new times of extreme TOTL headphone hype, Warwick has no problems to sell APERIO headphone system for 25,000 bucks, HIFIMAN has no problems to sell Shangri La Sr for 50,000 bucks and Sennheiser has no problems to sell HE-1 ("Orpheus 2") for 60,000 bucks.

 

[WernerW]

We’re going 10 years back in time so, things may have drastically changed but, it’s somewhat unexpected for such company as stax…
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/stax-interview-and-factory-tour-12-12-12.650210/post-9141435

[Mr. Sasaki (later)] Film [for the earspeakers] comes from the supplier and we perform the assembly in house. The assembly is done in a clean room because with the small DS gap and static electricity involved, even small dust particles are a major issue. This is the difficult part of the process. The final inspection of the electrode is done by a technician meticulously inspecting the whole surface for defects and presence of small particles. In that context, you can imagine the difficulty to mass produce these devices and the barrier of entry for competitors.
Basically, it's impossible for us to produce many [SR-009] drivers at a time. We produce 20-30 units a month and it's actually not sufficient to satisfy the demand, so there is waiting line for this product.

Hi Arnaud, oh, our posts crossed each other (I read this one after I posted mine).
Phew! This is very interesting!
But the demand has exploded in 2021.
We have an enormous TOTL headphone hype worldwide right now! (Don't know why. Maybe too much loose money circulating around these days)

 

[eee1111]

What's worse is that my BHSE had to be sent in for repair right after I ordered the SRX-9000. Shall we take bets on whether I get my amp back or my phones first?

Same time

April or May

 

[arnaud]

And you also see, during these new times of extreme TOTL headphone hype, Warwick has no problems to sell APERIO headphone system for 25,000 bucks, HIFIMAN has no problems to sell Shangri La Sr for 50,000 bucks and Sennheiser has no problems to sell HE-1 ("Orpheus 2") for 60,000 bucks.

Hi Warner,

There’s hope stax specialist(s) putting these together are increasing efficiency with time and that these 20 units/month figure are the lower estimate. Now, until today, Stax has never been after large volume sales so, in my guess, they’re probably just fine with the concept of 6+ months of backlog. Another such brand is Accuphase where they would not care less if their products are 3x more expensive overseas which is reducing potential sale volume drastically…

As for warwick, I’d be really really surprised if they’re selling many to actual consumer market. I guess they may be claiming some use by some studios (those using sonoma stations as I recall some historical links there?) but it may be just that?

 

[elton7033]

What's worse is that my BHSE had to be sent in for repair right after I ordered the SRX-9000. Shall we take bets on whether I get my amp back or my phones first?

i heard headamp repair take quite a long time, atleast half a year so i bet you will get your X9k first

 

[wsilvio]

Humorously, I was told it would take 2 weeks. That was six weeks ago! I've been through this before and it took almost 5 months.

 

[tumpux]

Why should Stax increase their manufacturing capacity? To establish an aura of a flagship product the X9 should follow the same business model as the Birkin bags.

 

[andre dufour]

To get back on topic …
Can people who are waiting or received their headphone give us their dates so someone can compile them to better understand the wait period.

I’ll go first:
1) ordered from head-amp 12/30/21. Estimated time I was told is 4 months.

Order placed on 11/5/21 from woo audio. Not yet received. Was advised early January.

 

[GPD1]

Hi,
what??
What do you mean? Your dealer handles 7-10 per month?
or
STAX ist making 7-10 per month?
I cannot believe ...
10 per day maybe?

I already heard that each individual SR-X9k is adjusted by a laborious handicraft because the tolerances of the new mesh and the drivers are cumbersome.
Is this true?
If this is true it reminds me the legendary SR-OMEGA from 1993. These were hand-adjusted and due to this, ony 600 pieces were produced until the model was discontinued.

In other words:
10 devices per month would mean 120 devices per year and it would take five years (a full product lifecycle ) to get the 600 pieces like the Omega.
This cannot be the production concept of a modern headphone manufacturer, and this does not sound realsitic.

So, I would be interested in the real production rate at STAX.
Do you have an idea? Thnx

So I hadn't thought too hard when I was told 7-10 / month( guess I really wasn't paying attention) until I saw your post and yeah i agree 7-10 seems to low .. So I went back to the dealer and he again stated that it is 7-10 a month ( material supply and that the headphones are hand made being the stated reason ) . I wouldn't discount the possibly this is wrong though. Regardless of how many they are making they really need to be giving dealers good estimates of how long customers will need to wait / where they are in queue. Customers can then decide if they wish to wait and or go buy something else

 

[DougD]

So I hadn't thought too hard when I was told 7-10 / month( guess I really wasn't paying attention) until I saw your post and yeah i agree 7-10 seems to low .. So I went back to the dealer and he again stated that it is 7-10 a month ( material supply and that the headphones are hand made being the stated reason ) . I wouldn't discount the possibly this is wrong though. Regardless of how many they are making they really need to be giving dealers good estimates of how long customers will need to wait / where they are in queue. Customers can then decide if they wish to wait and or go buy something else

Given the suggestive info we have on production volumes, my guess is that Stax has one or possibly two people willing & able to do the intricate assembly of the SR-X9000.

And that the same person/people is/are also the only resource(s) available to do the also-complex assembly of the SR-009s and SR-007, which of course are still in production.

 

[Chefguru]

Based on what we're seeing here is my guess:

About 2-5 people a week are ordering the SRX9k. Meaning a 10~ unit delta per month.
Initial orders from first 60 days are only 50% fulfilled by this point.

Back of the napkin...
Oct - 5 waiting
Nov - 20 waiting
Dec - 20 waiting
Jan - 5 waiting

Sept/Oct people waiting will get theirs this month
Nov orders come in Feb-April
Dec orders April-June
Current Jan people will likely not get theirs until June/July

This also means that re-sale on a used unit will likely fetch a small premium up until Fall this year where things will better align with demand