Thanks to @Audio Addict for the heads up. I went over to The SourceAV yesterday to finally give the SR-X9000 a listen. The team was very friendly and provided me plenty of time (I was there over an hour) to listen to the SRX9K and several other headphones on various setups. They also have some fantastic speaker demo setups for anyone tempted to move into that land (eyeing a two channel myself). There was only one other couple there; the show room was dead silent.
My home setup right now for estat is Audeze CRBN > Mjolnir Carbon > Denafrips Pontus 2.
Setup at The SourceAV was SR9x / CRBN > BHSE > Chord Dave (I asked not to use the m-scaler)
I considered bringing my Carbon but have done some extensive testing against the BHSE and find that they're mostly similar but with the Carbon having slightly better dynamics/bass and the BHSE opening up the mid-range more.
Before getting into the SRX9K I listened to their CRBN to calibrate how different it was from my system. To my dismay, the Chord Dave./BHSE was a step better than my Denafrip/Carbon combo. One example was on Diana Ross's "Coming Out" there is excellent drum build-up before the song hits - on my CRBN setup at home, I've always felt that it doesn't capture the right drum sound (especially in comparison to my dynamic setup). There was a noticeable improvement on the Dave/BHSE and better spacing between where that hovered vs. Diana's voice. Given my previous comparisons between the amps, this likely reflects the Dave being a truly superior DAC to the Pontus. I guess it shouldn't surprise me, given the price differential, but I suppose a part of me was still in the dacs don't matter crew. Sadly, my revised thesis is that they can count, but it takes a tremendous amount of money to crystalize those jumps.
Onto the impressions... I like the build of the SR-X9000, especially the headband over the SR-009 series. The weight feels fantastic on the head, although I'm spoiled because the CRBN is also a wonderful fit. Part of my ear was touching the driver, which I thought was odd. Small pet peeve is I don't particularly appreciate how the Stax headphones cannot swivel to a down-facing position. The SRX9K includes two cable lengths in-box for those who don't know. The shorter one is laughable—no idea the purpose of it.
I owned the SR-009S for about a year up until two months ago, when I migrated over to the CRBN. My first impressions were that the SR9X sounded like the Sr-009s at first. However, as I started settling into it I found that the soundstage did open up more, and there was a noticeable improvement in the lower end. Despite what's being said on here, I don't think the CRBN has much of an edge in the low-end, especially on a top-tier system. This was already evident to me in my impressions on the CRBN, where I was surprised to find the CRBN doesn't have much more than a 1 click advantage over the Sr-009S in low-end off a Carbon. The SR9X manages to narrow the gap further.
The clarity and separation that the SR-X9000 provides is the best I've heard of any headphone. There is a slight dimming of the Sr-009S energy, but it's not as dramatic as expected. This is not, in my impression, a combination of the Sr-007 & Sr-009. This feels a lot more like a V2 of the 009 line. Overall, every type of song I listened to was impressive. Only on one song did I find a passaged that felt a bit fatiguing. My previous experience with the Sr-009S is that they provide a great first listen, and then a few tracks in, you're exhausted from the brightness and can't relax into the music. The CRBN has been the opposite. Finally, the SRX9k’s soundstage is bigger than the Sr-009, but it is not as noteworthy as people have stated.
The big takeaway here is that the SRX9K sounds and looks like a refined Sr-009, but I will need to sit down for 2+ hours uninterrupted to understand how fatiguing it is. I look forward to my pair whenever it decides to arrive (July?). I also have to give some new consideration to DAC upgrades which feels more like a chore than anything else...
Other note: The CRBN unit they had there also had the same sticking driver/farting noises my two units have had - proving this a universal issue with the CRBN and not a defective batch.
My home setup right now for estat is Audeze CRBN > Mjolnir Carbon > Denafrips Pontus 2.
Setup at The SourceAV was SR9x / CRBN > BHSE > Chord Dave (I asked not to use the m-scaler)
I considered bringing my Carbon but have done some extensive testing against the BHSE and find that they're mostly similar but with the Carbon having slightly better dynamics/bass and the BHSE opening up the mid-range more.
Before getting into the SRX9K I listened to their CRBN to calibrate how different it was from my system. To my dismay, the Chord Dave./BHSE was a step better than my Denafrip/Carbon combo. One example was on Diana Ross's "Coming Out" there is excellent drum build-up before the song hits - on my CRBN setup at home, I've always felt that it doesn't capture the right drum sound (especially in comparison to my dynamic setup). There was a noticeable improvement on the Dave/BHSE and better spacing between where that hovered vs. Diana's voice. Given my previous comparisons between the amps, this likely reflects the Dave being a truly superior DAC to the Pontus. I guess it shouldn't surprise me, given the price differential, but I suppose a part of me was still in the dacs don't matter crew. Sadly, my revised thesis is that they can count, but it takes a tremendous amount of money to crystalize those jumps.
Onto the impressions... I like the build of the SR-X9000, especially the headband over the SR-009 series. The weight feels fantastic on the head, although I'm spoiled because the CRBN is also a wonderful fit. Part of my ear was touching the driver, which I thought was odd. Small pet peeve is I don't particularly appreciate how the Stax headphones cannot swivel to a down-facing position. The SRX9K includes two cable lengths in-box for those who don't know. The shorter one is laughable—no idea the purpose of it.
I owned the SR-009S for about a year up until two months ago, when I migrated over to the CRBN. My first impressions were that the SR9X sounded like the Sr-009s at first. However, as I started settling into it I found that the soundstage did open up more, and there was a noticeable improvement in the lower end. Despite what's being said on here, I don't think the CRBN has much of an edge in the low-end, especially on a top-tier system. This was already evident to me in my impressions on the CRBN, where I was surprised to find the CRBN doesn't have much more than a 1 click advantage over the Sr-009S in low-end off a Carbon. The SR9X manages to narrow the gap further.
The clarity and separation that the SR-X9000 provides is the best I've heard of any headphone. There is a slight dimming of the Sr-009S energy, but it's not as dramatic as expected. This is not, in my impression, a combination of the Sr-007 & Sr-009. This feels a lot more like a V2 of the 009 line. Overall, every type of song I listened to was impressive. Only on one song did I find a passaged that felt a bit fatiguing. My previous experience with the Sr-009S is that they provide a great first listen, and then a few tracks in, you're exhausted from the brightness and can't relax into the music. The CRBN has been the opposite. Finally, the SRX9k’s soundstage is bigger than the Sr-009, but it is not as noteworthy as people have stated.
The big takeaway here is that the SRX9K sounds and looks like a refined Sr-009, but I will need to sit down for 2+ hours uninterrupted to understand how fatiguing it is. I look forward to my pair whenever it decides to arrive (July?). I also have to give some new consideration to DAC upgrades which feels more like a chore than anything else...
Other note: The CRBN unit they had there also had the same sticking driver/farting noises my two units have had - proving this a universal issue with the CRBN and not a defective batch.
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