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Yep! Stax lost me with that combination of $6K+ price plus driver risk. If I were to buy another headphone, the upcoming ES Lab 2a is more interesting to me.
ufospls2
Headphoneus Supremus
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Very fair point. I know a couple people personally who have had the issue + the reported cases in the X9000 thread and here. It's enough to make me wary simply due to the out of warranty repair costs combined with a one year warranty. Stax are also strict about warranty, but I'm not sure if that is coming from the Edifier Side or the Stax Japan side. If it were $500USD or less to replace both drivers + shipping, I'd be much more inclined to be ok with it and would own a pair. $2000USD+Shipping (and then customs import which is 12% of declared value in my case) when they are sent back is crazy to me and the potential risk isn't worth it, but that's just me.
That doesn't mean there aren't a lot of very happy X9000 owners out there who have never had an issue, and it doesn't mean they aren't great sounding headphones. I really like them, a lot, and I hope those who own them continue to enjoy them problem free.
Chefguru
Headphoneus Supremus
My first unit showed imbalance within 24 hours. The replaced unit seemed fine for the several months I owned it.
The 009 was plagued with issues on launch but it turned out it was due to a faulty wire connection and was corrected going forward.
Sr-omega has a very high failure rate (I heard as high as 1 in 3) but the models that didn’t fail seem to have survived for 30+ years.
The real concern is over time a channel imbalance occurs - I’m starting to see some signs that this may be an issue based on recent reports of out of warranty driver failing.
aokman
100+ Head-Fier
The biggest issue I found and reason I haven’t got x9000 yet is no easy way to know the manufacturing date either. Due to the low turn over selling such a high price headphone, odds are you’re getting old stock…
Herbie151
New Head-Fier
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Yeah - you see this is my concern. I've got a pair of (v.old!) Denon A-HD 7000. Great in the day, probably not so great by modern standards and all rather congested inthe middle but lovely nevertheless.
Worth may 400 to 500 GBP today in good condition with box etc??
And for ten times that price, I'm being invited to part with money for a product
1) No manufacturing date
2) 2 year warranty date in UK, whereas some e-stat manufacturers are now offering much more (e.g. Warwick)
3) Repeated reports of channel imbalance
4) Pressure to lock me into the Stax energiser ecosystem by repudiating warranty with a 3rd party providers
5) Maybe only 2000 units even made so far?
6) Very unattrative (and sonically poor) energizers from their own brand with not advances made for over 7 years to the expensive flagship.
It's not a great sales pitch is it?
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I tried to back-of-napkin work out the German tank problem but for the X9000. From what I've gathered, X9000 serial numbers start at 1000 (or 1001, whatever) and continue sequentially. My serial number is in the 2140s and I purchased mine in early February 2024. A post on the Stax mafia's forum at the end of July 2023 mentioned that Stax produced the 1000th X9000 that month, while it was first released in mid-October 2021. Production would have started before release, so it took roughly two years to produce 1000 units, let's say 100 weeks. With 5 working days per week, that's 500 working days so averaging about 2 X9000s produced per day.
Given that rate and the known serial numbers (1000th unit would have serial number 2000/2001), I estimate that my unit was produced in early November 2023, making it about 3 months old when I bought it. This was at a US dealer, so I don't know how the inventory situation might be in other countries. And assuming the same rate of 2-per-workday has been continued since that 1000-unit mark, we should be approaching 1800 units shipped from Stax now.
For anyone who might be interested in my X9000 repair story (thus far), in mid-December I shipped my unit out to Stax Headphones in Hong Kong as they handle international customer service. Stax Headphones then shipped it to Japan for inspection and servicing. They got back to me in late December saying that the technician found the channel imbalance. The drivers would be replaced and the unit would go through the "aging process". The entire repair and aging would take roughly 4 weeks. So hopefully I should be hearing back from them soon about it. The headphone would be shipped back to Hong Kong and from Hong Kong back to me.
That "aging" process is curious to me. I recall seeing a video of a Stax workshop tour where there were racks of headphones connected to amps which was their "burn-in" setup. The Stax user manuals make no mention of burn-in, so it seems that Stax insists on running the units in at the workshop and it appears to take quite some time.
Given that rate and the known serial numbers (1000th unit would have serial number 2000/2001), I estimate that my unit was produced in early November 2023, making it about 3 months old when I bought it. This was at a US dealer, so I don't know how the inventory situation might be in other countries. And assuming the same rate of 2-per-workday has been continued since that 1000-unit mark, we should be approaching 1800 units shipped from Stax now.
For anyone who might be interested in my X9000 repair story (thus far), in mid-December I shipped my unit out to Stax Headphones in Hong Kong as they handle international customer service. Stax Headphones then shipped it to Japan for inspection and servicing. They got back to me in late December saying that the technician found the channel imbalance. The drivers would be replaced and the unit would go through the "aging process". The entire repair and aging would take roughly 4 weeks. So hopefully I should be hearing back from them soon about it. The headphone would be shipped back to Hong Kong and from Hong Kong back to me.
That "aging" process is curious to me. I recall seeing a video of a Stax workshop tour where there were racks of headphones connected to amps which was their "burn-in" setup. The Stax user manuals make no mention of burn-in, so it seems that Stax insists on running the units in at the workshop and it appears to take quite some time.
aokman
100+ Head-Fier
Id be curious what is causing the imbalance, is it related to how they’re being driven or manufacturing defects.
I trust my bias system completely now and it self discharges at power off which I personally prefer and hopefully preserves them.
But to be safe im not buying a pair until I know it’s guaranteed to be a new batch. That said Australian consumer law is very strict and you could claim warranty at 10yrs just based on the purchase price lol…
I know Dan Clark does an aging process / burn in also to stretch the membranes and check channel balance at the end / match up driver pairs that suit.
Can you check serial numbers without opening the box?
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The serial should be printed on the outside of the box (the cardboard exterior box).
Aside from the number located on the box, you can find the serial number on the left earphone, on the underside of the sliding mechanism.
FWIW, I purchased mine in July 2023 and haven't noticed any channel imbalance.
icnaiwhimor1975
500+ Head-Fier
I had 2 pairs with 1xxx and 2xxx serial numbers - I did not notice any problems at all
It seems to me that these serial numbers of stax - are generally just random
ericj
Headphoneus Supremus
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Anyone have gut shots of an SRD-6? Or pictures of the front and back of the board in any self-biased energizer?
etc6849
100+ Head-Fier
No channel imbalance on my X9000's SN: 1196. I even measured them a while back with miniDSP EARS and didn't notice anything abnormal. I keep all my headphones stored in a humidity controlled cabinet though.
aokman
100+ Head-Fier
A few months on, I can say my new bias has been flawless and love it, planning a few add ons to it for a final enclosure build but honestly it doesn’t need them. Transformers with the Sansui Alpha 907 doesn’t leave me wanting for anything from a direct drive energiser… it’s fast, intricate and so clean, the loudness control brings estats to life.
Side note if you haven’t tried a subwoofer with estats… do it. Such a visceral experience, the sound stage and depth of the sound is so massive.
Side note if you haven’t tried a subwoofer with estats… do it. Such a visceral experience, the sound stage and depth of the sound is so massive.
As requested.
https://picbox.im/image/IMG-3073.Upy0
https://picbox.im/image/IMG-3078.UVdt
Let me know if you need more.
Edit: for some reason I could upload the pics to the post so I created links instead.
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ericj
Headphoneus Supremus
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Thanks much. It looks it's actually between the 5 and 7 in design as one would expect. 90mm (probably) spacing between mounting tabs rather than the SRD-4's 50mm.
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