[elton7033]

Yep, agree, way too early to judge production quality based on pre-production units etc.
Japanese products are known to always be perfect in every little detail; I guess this
one will be produced in Japan, too...

I recall during Fujiya Avic Online Headphone Fest on youtube the STAX guy did mention all STAX product are still manfacture in the same factory in Japan, so I will expect their QC are the same with older ones like 009/S.
And the original Omega QC was much worst than 009 family from what i heard, so the SR-X9000 should really be the first highend flagship which build can match its pricetag.
I doute how much improvement they can bring compare to the original Omega. The original Omega is more detail than the 009S for sure but still a very picky headphone.

 

[makan]

I will buy the new Stax flagship headphone and would like to pair it with Stax amplifier, which one is better? SRM-700T, SRM-700S or SRM-8000T.

Were I live doesnt have another dealer of electrostatic amplifier, only Stax, because of this I will stick with Stax.

I think many would recommend that you try to pair it with a Gilmore design amp...aa KGSS, KGSSHV, KGST, grounded grid or Carbon. These are floating around 2nd hand on headfi or can be commissioned. Worth the investment...I have the Mjolnir Megatron and Carbon CC, as well as the Cavalli liquid lightning T2 paired with the 009, 007mk1 and es1a

 

[KDS315]

I honestly doubt that STAX would make THAT BIG mistake to need a third market or "mafia" amp to drive their best and most expensive product well. I'm sure they will recommend the SRM-T8000 for it. The current SR-009/009S is quite easy to drive and the X9000 will be too, IMHO. They made that mistake with the 007, which is not easy to drive, but already learned from that mistake and the following 009 was easy to drive, so why should they repeat that old mistake?? Seppuku no one of them wants to commit

 

[Eich1eeF]

I honestly doubt that STAX would make THAT BIG mistake to need a third market or "mafia" amp to drive their best and most expensive product well. I'm sure they will recommend the SRM-T8000 for it. The current SR-009/009S is quite easy to drive and the X9000 will be too, IMHO. They made that mistake with the 007, which is not easy to drive, but already learned from that mistake and the following 009 was easy to drive, so why should they repeat that old mistake?? Seppuku no one of them wants to commit

Needing something better than a STAX amp is one thing, benefiting is another. A Mjölnir Carbon is $1000 less than a T8000, and most certainly better.

 

[tabness]

if i had known theyd release the new Omega so soon id have kept my old one to compare directly lol

however to be honest im not with the look or even the name... X9000? ew lol i get the Omega design cues but i guess i never liked the Omega's look as compared to the 009/S and i hate the split headband

interesting that they market it as a "warm" sound i never bothered with the 007 because "warm" isnt my preference but the Omega did have the most natural tonality maybe this can merge the ultra clarity of the 009/S with the Omega tonality then this could be amazing for me

price isnt as bad as i expected at all (being real we all in crazy land with $1000 for a headphone) i will probably grab it up at launch lol

hope it runs off the 252S as nicely as the Omega did for me (didnt like the Omega with T1S too "warm")

 

[Mach3]

Needing something better than a STAX amp is one thing, benefiting is another. A Mjölnir Carbon is $1000 less than a T8000, and most certainly better.

Even the Blue Hawaii SE would be a better option than the T8000.

 

[Symbiose]

I think many would recommend that you try to pair it with a Gilmore design amp...aa KGSS, KGSSHV, KGST, grounded grid or Carbon. These are floating around 2nd hand on headfi or can be commissioned. Worth the investment...I have the Mjolnir Megatron and Carbon CC, as well as the Cavalli liquid lightning T2 paired with the 009, 007mk1 and es1a

Seems great amplifiers, I will contact Mjolnir Audio and see if they could do a direct sale, only will be dificult to buy the mjolnir because we are limited by price of imported products here in my country, limited at $3.000 US dolars

 

[elton7033]

Needing something better than a STAX amp is one thing, benefiting is another. A Mjölnir Carbon is $1000 less than a T8000, and most certainly better.

Not the CC Version? I though Mjolnir increase price slighty recently for the better TKD volume nob.

 

[elton7033]

if i had known theyd release the new Omega so soon id have kept my old one to compare directly lol

however to be honest im not with the look or even the name... X9000? ew lol i get the Omega design cues but i guess i never liked the Omega's look as compared to the 009/S and i hate the split headband

interesting that they market it as a "warm" sound i never bothered with the 007 because "warm" isnt my preference but the Omega did have the most natural tonality maybe this can merge the ultra clarity of the 009/S with the Omega tonality then this could be amazing for me

price isnt as bad as i expected at all (being real we all in crazy land with $1000 for a headphone) i will probably grab it up at launch lol

hope it runs off the 252S as nicely as the Omega did for me (didnt like the Omega with T1S too "warm")

We all can buy iphone13 pro for 1k, and yeah, I am sure we are sort of insane to pay 6k for a headphone, but the second hand market for these somehow retain value which is not that bad for a hobby. Its all hifi-mans faluts which started this whole sounding good means expensive trend.
252S is enought for the original omega?

 

[Mach3]

Nope the 252S not powerful enough for the Omega. When you start going over 12 it sounds compressed.

 

[padam]

I honestly doubt that STAX would make THAT BIG mistake to need a third market or "mafia" amp to drive their best and most expensive product well. I'm sure they will recommend the SRM-T8000 for it. The current SR-009/009S is quite easy to drive and the X9000 will be too, IMHO. They made that mistake with the 007, which is not easy to drive, but already learned from that mistake and the following 009 was easy to drive, so why should they repeat that old mistake?? Seppuku no one of them wants to commit

It is a not a "mistake", it is a design compromise. The efficiency boost of the SR-009 was achieved by decreasing the membrane to stator gap (supposedly 0.45mm instead of 0.5mm). However, this might have had an effect on some reliability issues as discussed here.
The efficiency of the X9000 is somewhere in between the Omega and the 009.

 

[HBen]

Since the Stax SR-X9000 didn't have its own thread yet and information was spread all over the place I'd gladly invite you all to continue the discussion here: https://www.head-fi.org/threads/stax-sr-x9000.959852/

 

[elton7033]

Today the first public demo of the SR-X9000 are held in Tokyo, there are various opinion floating in japanese Twitter.

Let me try to translate a few review.(editing google translate result since I am too tried after work to write everything from starch)
https://umauma2010.hatenablog.com/entry/2021/09/23/183104

The SR-X9000 has a "lush sound", giving the impression that it is softer overall and has a much wider soundstage than previous products. The tuning of the sound so far remains the same compare to the 009/009S, but still the difference is noticeable, where the SR-009S feels much dry and simple . SR-009 and SR-009S are natural with a delicate expression with thick and high resolution, while appealing the sound itself directly to the ear and producing a sharp sound with lines. However, with the SR-X9000, the thickness of the sound is more soft and lush, but the contents are dense since resolution are much higher, taking electrostatic soundstage to another level, adding musical expression and the three-dimensional of the overall sound. I felt like I can feel it leaves reverberation.

What I felt with the SR-X9000 is that, for example, the violin's crisp high-pitched sound is expressed with a margin. SR-009S and SR-009 tend to appeal directly to the limit value of high-pitched sound with the thickness of the sound, but SR-X9000 gives more space than the limit (reverberation) and is lush.

In terms of sound volume, the instruments that are ringing behind the vocals have a clearer sense of separation than the SR-009S and SR-009, and are naturally expressed in places away from the vocals.
In SR-009 and SR-009S, these incidental sounds seem to be almost on the same line as the vocals due to the influence of the thickness of the sound itself, but this time the thickness has been relaxed to reduce the volume of the entire sound. Recognize that you can feel more.

Other opinion on twitter includes:

• The STAX SR-X9000 has a good acoustic texture, but the soundstage is not as good as palnars when using a high-end amplifier. Well the amp is too rubbish.
• The Sr-X9000 retain good neaturallity and higher resolution in sophisticated sound
• I tried listening to STAX SR-X9000 (driver is T8000). The difference from 009S is
  ・ Not as Heavy
  ・ Music genre is almighty

 

[Trance_Gott]

No word about bass quantity vs 009/s? I really hope X9000 has more bass because 009/s is too bass shy for me.

 

[elton7033]

See

No word about bass quantity vs 009/s? I really hope X9000 has more bass because 009/s is too bass shy for me.

so far people are mentioning it being soft lush and thick but none of them say a single word regarding it bass
Maybe thick and lush already means it have better bass?