[hifixman]

The difference is unbelieveable - you can also hear via youtube - no hesitation

Thank you! Exactly! Happy new year& Merry Christmas X9000 club

 

[Mentanalyste]

I’m just shocked that that man could elaborate and pinpoint EVERYTHING my systems sound accurately as a matter of fact even he was just back to US from HK and Japan with severe jet lag which I think is largely due to his ownership and empirical experience of many top of line flagship high end steamers, DACs, and amps. Plus this system must be better than Aperio in that it costs me more money, research, energy and etc. I’m buidling it to compete with HE-1.

Thank you for your video.

I noticed that you have the VIVA EGOISTA 845. For my part, it is an incredible amplifier. What do you think of it?

I sold my VIVA EGOISTA 845 to buy an electrostatic amplifier for the upcoming arrival of my Stax X9000. I have a hesitation between the VIVA EGOISTA STX and one of the three: BHSE, Carbon CC or the T2.

Do you have an opinion on the subject knowing that you have an equivalent VIVA EGOISTA 845 for the dynamic headphones and T2 for electrostatic headphones ?

 

[hifixman]

Thank you for your video.

I noticed that you have the VIVA EGOISTA 845. For my part, it is an incredible amplifier. What do you think of it?

I sold my VIVA EGOISTA 845 to buy an electrostatic amplifier for the upcoming arrival of my Stax X9000. I have a hesitation between the VIVA EGOISTA STX and one of the three: BHSE, Carbon CC or the T2.

Do you have an opinion on the subject knowing that you have an equivalent VIVA EGOISTA 845 for the dynamic headphones and T2 for electrostatic headphones ?

Good question, 845 and T2 are the best which are extremely similar in many many many ways, making me question the need to keep both. With the right source such as Aurender N20/N30, Playback designs, Mola Mola, the 845 could drive dynamic cans and planners in an electrostatic fashion with more body and weight but less resolution than the T2.

Almost all people I know who ab contrast Viva STX and 845 prefer the later, here is a sound demo of the two viva flagships:

http://b23.tv/qunH08r

One thing to make 845 unique is that for other TOTL designs, they are garbage in and garbage out, making movies and YouTube videos brutal to enjoy many times. Yet the 845 makes everything stunning even YouTube, TV, and movies, as you might already know.

I honestly didn’t love T2 that much out of stock even it is the best amp currently for X9000 as it was originally designed for the original Omega, so I push myself very hard to a new intense learning experience to tweak and upgrade her, and I’m still learning and testing. T2 will truly shine if you know how to treat her and train her in my opinion and to my liking.

Cheers

 

[thinker]

I have played a lot with 845 and 2A3 amps and i prefer Egoista 2A3 over 845 it's more musical. If you like a 845 amp shine you need old united electronics 845 tubes, even old RCA 845 tubes doesn't come close. New 845 tubes are garbage how to make an amp sound good with those. Egoista 845 has huge sound but it's not musical.

 

[hifixman]

I have played a lot with 845 and 2A3 amps and i prefer Egoista 2A3 over 845 it's more musical. If you like a 845 amp shine you need old united electronics 845 tubes, even old RCA 845 tubes doesn't come close. New 845 tubes are garbage how to make an amp sound good with those. Egoista 845 has huge sound but it's not musical.

Thank you for sharing! Curious what cans do you use. To my ears, 845 is very very musical but again it could be subjective.

 

[thinker]

I have never compared dynamic and electrostatic amps, two topics wich i strictly keep separated.

 

[hifixman]

I have never compared dynamic and electrostatic amps, two topics wich i strictly keep separated.

I found HD800s a tad too dark and too warm with 845 even with Siltech silver cable lol I never liked Hd800 as being too sharp and piercing but somehow perfect with 845 due to how musical the 845 is.

Here is the link of sound demo of the whole Sen lineup with Viva845. The source in this system is rather bright and analytical but ones could get a sense

https://b23.tv/BV1M54y1S7Wt

 

[thinker]

My personal experience is that it is easier with dynamic amps to make a combo sound good, electrostatic amps are almost individual matches, you buy an amp particularly for X9K or 009. It's rare that you have a good match with two different phone models. When you buy for instance X9K you have to find and test many amps wich suits your taste. I was struggling with X9K and found lastly a DIY amp wich make a happy combo to my ears. Somebody said earlier that X9K isn't as liquid as Omega maybe but try different amps, i can say definitely that X9K is almost more liquid that Omega. I had to switch tons of tubes to my DIY amp before the sound went liquid and musical.
I ended up to use old GEC KT-66 tubes all other tubes sounded like garbage. I know this hobby is hair splitting.

 

[hifixman]

My personal experience is that it is easier with dynamic amps to make a combo sound good, electrostatic amps are almost individual matches, you buy an amp particularly for X9K or 009. It's rare that you have a good match with two different phone models. When you buy for instance X9K you have to find and test many amps wich suits your taste. I was struggling with X9K and found lastly a DIY amp wich make a happy combo to my ears. Somebody said earlier that X9K isn't as liquid as Omega maybe but try different amps, i can say definitely that X9K is almost more liquid that Omega. I had to switch tons of tubes to my DIY amp before the sound went liquid and musical.
I ended up to use old GEC KT-66 tubes all other tubes sounded like garbage. I know this hobby is hair splitting.

you buy an amp particularly for X9K or 009 +1

It is just 009/s are tuned too differently from X9000

And it is not just electrostatic systems, one source + one amp + one can could be the most ideal formula for any serious systems for the maximum synergy.

.

 

[Mentanalyste]

Thank you @hifixman & @thinker for your feedback.

We all have a super positive experience with the VIVA EGOISTA 845, for dynamic headsets.

I want to power my x9000 that I just ordered. Having a great experience with the VIVA EGOISTA 845 I naturally think about the electrostatic version, the VIVA EGOISTA STX dedicated to Stax headphones.

So nobody has any feedback on the STX?

 

[goldwerger]

with X9K and found lastly a DIY amp wich make a happy combo

Which one?

 

[hifixman]

Thank you @hifixman & @thinker for your feedback.

We all have a super positive experience with the VIVA EGOISTA 845, for dynamic headsets.

I want to power my x9000 that I just ordered. Having a great experience with the VIVA EGOISTA 845 I naturally think about the electrostatic version, the VIVA EGOISTA STX dedicated to Stax headphones.

So nobody has any feedback on the STX?

Among the amps I heard, the top two amps that could do X9000 Justice are T2 and Cayman period, but both need to be treated right. The higher it goes on gears, the higher it requires the users to organize a system. Unless you custom made them as a power amp version, and use a hard to find well-matching preamp as toner which in my experience is far more superior, natural and organic toner than only resorting to sources/cables/tubes to tune the whole system, otherwise you could only work on the source, which per se would be easily multiple cost of the amp per se, isolation, tubes and cables to build an ideal X9000 setup, as I have been doing. Actually Kerry could do a power amp version of T2, and given another chance I might go for that path.

The other amp you wonder about is just as @thinker suggests good for 009, not X9000

 

[number1sixerfan]

Yea I don't think you can or should compare electrostatic and dynamic systems beyond at a high level. You can't compare an electrostatic amp to a dynamic amp in any valuable way beyond tier matching most components/headphones.

If I were looking to pull the trigger on a $10k plus amp for the x9000, I would try to identify what I do and don't like about the x9000 and find an amp that will likely help correct/better synergize based on those factors. For most people, I think that means finding a really engaging and lively amp that doesn't hinder what the x9000 does well (resolution, staging, etc.).

I do also agree that it's harder to find a single amp that works for all for stats than with dynamics and planars. That's where the T2 shines, it's literally good with everything. The Eksonic Aeras for a much lower price has the same balanced synergy potential--the 007 might be the only headphone I think it's just a hair too warm with. If you have multiple stats and are looking for the most flexibility/synergy, I'd start there without question. But if only looking to optimize one or maybe two, I think that opens things up quite a bit (unless you're looking at absolute opposites like the 007/009).

 

[number1sixerfan]

Thank you @hifixman & @thinker for your feedback.

We all have a super positive experience with the VIVA EGOISTA 845, for dynamic headsets.

I want to power my x9000 that I just ordered. Having a great experience with the VIVA EGOISTA 845 I naturally think about the electrostatic version, the VIVA EGOISTA STX dedicated to Stax headphones.

So nobody has any feedback on the STX?

There are pretty much no impressions on the STX vs. anything else. Trust me, I considered it and looked all over this site and many others. But there aren't for many stat amps, as there are just fewer people that have high end stat systems. The x9000 is pretty easy to power, and should benefit from any neutral to forward presenting amp with liveliness. I would just try to get a general sense of the STX's sound signature.. if you hear anything about it being relaxed or overly smooth, I'd probably not pull the trigger given the x9000's sound signature.

 

[hifixman]

There are pretty much no impressions on the STX vs. anything else. Trust me, I considered it and looked all over this site and many others. But there aren't for many stat amps, as there are just fewer people that have high end stat systems. The x9000 is pretty easy to power, and should benefit from any neutral to forward presenting amp with liveliness. I would just try to get a general sense of the STX's sound signature.. if you hear anything about it being relaxed or overly smooth, I'd probably not pull the trigger given the x9000's sound signature.

Some good points there, yet I don’t think X9000 will benefit from a forward sounding amp, as this can is already overly mid centric.

the crux to me is to correct the odd spatial presentation of X9000, that is why I’m using a most suitable master clock to correct its spatial presentation, in conjunction with many many other approaches jointed together to reach an level that totally revolutionized the odd stock spatial presentation.

Besides it is equally important for me to address the lack of extensions at both ends of X9000, that is why I’m using tubes, cables, and various combination of isolation.

Time and phase accuracy are really not matter of personal taste. Soft sound could be caused by many factors.

Headphones, source and rare end are three distinctive sciences and subjects to be studied. A successful system needs knowledgeable of all of these three areas and much more beyond.

In this video I was using esoteric discrete dac with PAAT streaming with Soulnote X3 master clock. Without my tweaking, they are bad match and synergy.


I can normally find a few solutions to a case/system I’m working on. But there are better solutions coming from years of empirical and hands on experience, learning, and research.