[amsync]

$5,800.00

a good surprise, considering the asking price in yen

https://www.headamp.com/products/stax-sr-x9000

Headamp and STAX now are both listing the cans at $6200 USD for USA buyers not the $5800 from earlier in the day. Weirdly I actually confirmed the price with Justin earlier because I thought it was odd and he specifically confirmed that 5800 was right.

Either a mistake was made with the original launch (in that case congrats to those that jumped already but poor execution of the launch) or they held a (secret???) sale for the first day? If its the latter that really is not sitting right with me. It's one thing to run a temporary sale for folks that want to support the launch but then why not advertise it? You'd want to make sure as many people jump on it as possible.

Edit: apparently the initial price was not the correct USA price, so it seems the go forward price in the US will be $6200..

 

[omega1990]

The Novem amp brings traditional tube warmth with more power than my stax 727ii amp. The sound gains tonal density and the bass has more impact and presence. Even though its a tube amp, it has a very tight grip on the headphones drivers and the volume gets loud very fast. Unfortunately, the only other amp I have tried was the stax d50 which is weaker than both amps mentioned above, I cannot state how it compares to any other amp. I am still trying to save for a Blue Hawaii se.

As the previous owner of my novem amp stated that most of its power seems to be on the front end. So in terms of even the most demanding/power hungry estat, I am usually listening below noon on the volume nob.

What I would be most concerned about would be synergy between the estat and this amp. The stax 009S, 404le, and srx mk3 pro that I have, all sounded exciting and ideal. It will now be hard for me to enjoy these on any other amp after hearing these 3 on my novem when compared to my 727ii and d50, I was quite blown away actually. The mk3 pro which is a monitor headphone sounded great with every track I threw at it. Same for the 404le and 009s, but classical really stood out on the 404le and the 009S while still being a tad bright on the novem, sounded more balanced than on the 727ii which on this amp sounded thin and a bit lifeless. The novem in a way turned these 3 headphones from headphones IMHO into speaker like experiences. Less of a 2d presentation and had a more holographic forwardness to the details.

However, my 007mk1, voce, and sigma using stax 404 drivers, while they can be powered by this amp are not given justice for what they do. The sound of this amp makes these 3 too relaxed, unegaging compared to the excitement I get from the 3 brighter headphones mentioned in the previous paragraph. I feel the Blue Hawaii will be more ideal for these 3 headphones. Hope that helps

 

[omega1990]

I dont think Justin or anyone on Headamp already heard SR-X9000. That statement must be pulled from marketing blurb.

I'm pretty sure you are correct, from the email I got from headamp announcing the x9000, they are posting new info as they get it from stax japan.

 

[AnakChan]

Here's the press release in English. Not certain if it contains anything more than on the Stax International page but thought it's a nice summary here :-

 

[MadHatterRyu]

September 2021, Saitama Prefecture Fujimi City, Stax HQ

Stax Products have been preserved (Historical museum)

Products displaying the journey to today lined up on the shelves.

Many of these have earned the "legendary" status.

And now a new flagship model gets unveiled.

And that is

STAX SR X9000

First report

So what kind of headphone is the Stax SR X9000?

(in the picture, 静魂 means calm spirit)

X ancestry, Ω genetics
(I swear they originally read it as Chi not X and along the phase of development, it became X because everyone just called it that)

We have answers from people from Stax.

Yoshinori Tachihara the manager of PR
and Moriyasu Machida the GM of Engineering departments.

Sorry for taking up your time today, but can you tell us about your intent with making this product?

Our original intent was to surpass the SR009S.

Our main focus was to work on large metallic mesh around the electrodes

The original idea came from the X that we developed in 1970.

It's an excellent approach to reduce air resistance and only allow sound to pass through with minimum reflection too.

We introduced the idea into the flagship of 1993, the SR Omega. This time with a larger driver too.

There's a limit on how big we can make the mesh because this reduces the rigidity.

Therefore, we had to add reinforcing for the metallic mesh and this had to be done through precision work by hand.
This affects the ability to mass produce something.

But we still wanted to keep using the metallic mesh concept due to it's incredible properties.

We came up with the idea of MLER (Multi layer elect rords)
Multi layered fixed electrode as it's called in the english site.
This allowed for a very effective means of production.

The X9000 uses this for reinforcement. We have 4 layers of stainless steel. I know it looks like 1 layer.

5:06 This here is the metallic mesh.

Along with the metal mesh, we have 3 fixed electrodes.
They are all attached together through a heat based diffusion bonding process.
The bonding happens over a high temperature, slow pressing process in vacuum.
This allows for bonding at the molecular level.

So the original Omega needed resin for the bonding but this time we are able to create the driver without needing bonding agent and yet have an even more rigid structure.

It seems the driver of the X9000 is larger than the SR009.

Yes so we have achieved a 20% increase in area compared to the SR009S, our former flagship.
We will keep trying to push the boundaries of the headphone listening experience.

There appear to be significant differences in the appearances of the SR009/009S and the SRX9000, is there any particular detail you want us to pay attention to?

Firstly we've done away with plastic parts and decided to go with metallic instead. The head band (ARC ASSY) uses stainless steel.

Stainless steel is easy enough to machine based on demand while allowing for excellent build quality.

The problem is that stainless steel is prone to vibrations. This time, we used the ARC ASSY and have a stabiliser part at the summit. This returns the vibrations coming from the driver.

Even the headpad adjustment part is now metallic. We went with a smooth sliding based adjustment this time.

Have there been any improvements to the way the housing works? What can you tell us about the physical and acoustic properties of the new guard mesh?

We are using a tilt guard mesh this time. It has a stay that is elongated towards the end so it is not flat, thus giving it an angle. This causes a dispersion and prevents unnecessary sounds being generated.

Mr Machida, can you tell us if there's anything about the screws that are being used in the assembly of the guard mesh?

The screws holding the guard mesh use a hexagonal head and gold paint. They were meant to stand out. Honestly any normal bolt would have done but we decided to go with hexagon head bolts instead.

What can you tell us about the new earpads and cables?

The earpads use the same high quality leather that you find in other Stax products. As for cable, this time we are going with a removable type. This allows you to use higher grade cables if you want.
Instead of having the cables right at the bottom, we introduced a slight angle. Some users will experience better wearing comfort because this extended portion points forward.
We will be providing 2 cables 2.5 and 1.5m

And what do you say is one immediate thing to look out for with the new X9000?

The exterior definitely has a lot of changes but the one thing to look out for has to be the new sound.

Till now we had no headphone that was specifically made to match the capability of the SRM T8000.
It was a flagship headphone amplifier without a matching headphone. Our users paid a lot for this amplifier.
So it was only fair we build one keeping the T8000 user in mind.

And paired with the T8000, this headphone will outperform the SR009S.
We really want you all to experience this.

I'm sure there exist old timers who will remember how good the SRX sounded back in the day and we wanted to use a similar one again.

But this time as an ear speaker instead of a headphone. We call them speakers because the experience is closer to speaker listening.

What genre do you think this headphone will best compliment?

We don't really think about the genre that much, our approach is to keep reinventing our sound itself.
We want listeners to experience the feel of "listening to a new sound altogether" from all their previous listening experiences.
I believe this product has the capability of doing that.

We want you to crank the volume to your hearts content *pause* without hurting your ears of course. (they laugh)

I think you should just listen to the music you like best.

Will the SR X9000 work on amps other than the T8000?

It should still technically work with the SRM 400S/500T but for best results, it should be paired with the T8000. But there's a definite improvement even at SRM700S/700T for those who don't want to spend that much on the T8000

The headphone goes on sale on 8th of October for 693000 Yen including tax.

We're excited to bring this product to you. Because of the pandemic has definitely affected our listening meetups but we will try our best to host ways for people to experience the SR X8000.

Please keep watching our updates for events we are participating in.

Please take care of us. (yoroshiku onegaishimasu, there's no perfect english translation to this)

This is both a new flagship as well as a new sound. We really hope you get to experience it too.

Please take care of us.

 

[Kiats]

The Novem amp brings traditional tube warmth with more power than my stax 727ii amp. The sound gains tonal density and the bass has more impact and presence. Even though its a tube amp, it has a very tight grip on the headphones drivers and the volume gets loud very fast. Unfortunately, the only other amp I have tried was the stax d50 which is weaker than both amps mentioned above, I cannot state how it compares to any other amp. I am still trying to save for a Blue Hawaii se.

As the previous owner of my novem amp stated that most of its power seems to be on the front end. So in terms of even the most demanding/power hungry estat, I am usually listening below noon on the volume nob.

What I would be most concerned about would be synergy between the estat and this amp. The stax 009S, 404le, and srx mk3 pro that I have, all sounded exciting and ideal. It will now be hard for me to enjoy these on any other amp after hearing these 3 on my novem when compared to my 727ii and d50, I was quite blown away actually. The mk3 pro which is a monitor headphone sounded great with every track I threw at it. Same for the 404le and 009s, but classical really stood out on the 404le and the 009S while still being a tad bright on the novem, sounded more balanced than on the 727ii which on this amp sounded thin and a bit lifeless. The novem in a way turned these 3 headphones from headphones IMHO into speaker like experiences. Less of a 2d presentation and had a more holographic forwardness to the details.

However, my 007mk1, voce, and sigma using stax 404 drivers, while they can be powered by this amp are not given justice for what they do. The sound of this amp makes these 3 too relaxed, unegaging compared to the excitement I get from the 3 brighter headphones mentioned in the previous paragraph. I feel the Blue Hawaii will be more ideal for these 3 headphones. Hope that helps

thanks so much for your impressions. Very helpful indeed! In which case, I might go for the KGST, which has been described as a mini BHSE, instead. The BHSE takes up too much footprint for me since I already have other gear.

 

[shabta]

The best one being…?

HE-90

 

[Mach3]

HE-90

Your HE-90 preference base on audition of the HE-1 & HE-90 on separate occasion or the same time?

 

[ToroFiestaSol]

Glad to see big daddy Stax finally coming out with something new and TOP OF THE LINE. No more sidegrades like the 009S or some black paint job (009 BK). I have no doubts about the technical superiority of this new headphone, the only thing that can hold it back VS the other options in the market is how much Stax messed up the voicing/timbre/frequency response. Will try to hear one ASAP.

 

[number1sixerfan]

Glad to see big daddy Stax finally coming out with something new and TOP OF THE LINE. No more sidegrades like the 009S or some black paint job (009 BK). I have no doubts about the technical superiority of this new headphone, the only thing that can hold it back VS the other options in the market is how much Stax messed up the voicing/timbre/frequency response. Will try to hear one ASAP.

I agree. It's been a long time coming. It will be really interesting to see how these will shake out timbre wise. It gives me some confidence that it sounds like the 009S is the foundation, as I'm just hoping for more advanced performance but with the same clarity/transparency/detail and general tone of the 009 (non-s)--except again for the issues in the highs, which I'm not certain that the 009S corrects for (haven't heard it, but heard that it does to a degree). I'm really hoping there isn't a major deviation from the current signature.

 

[musicman59]

Headamp and STAX now are both listing the cans at $6200 USD for USA buyers not the $5800 from earlier in the day. Weirdly I actually confirmed the price with Justin earlier because I thought it was odd and he specifically confirmed that 5800 was right.

Either a mistake was made with the original launch (in that case congrats to those that jumped already but poor execution of the launch) or they held a (secret???) sale for the first day? If its the latter that really is not sitting right with me. It's one thing to run a temporary sale for folks that want to support the launch but then why not advertise it? You'd want to make sure as many people jump on it as possible.

Edit: apparently the initial price was not the correct USA price, so it seems the go forward price in the US will be $6200..

$400 usd price difference overnight is significant. At the $6,200 price now I am not
that sure to go for it as I was at $5,800 .

Will wait for reviews/opinions and then I will reconsider it….

 

[juwa]

In Germany, the official price for the sr-x9000 is exactly € 7,250. Confirmed by the dealer. Converted to US dollars, that's $ 8,500.

 

[Lord Rexter]

$400 usd price difference overnight is significant. At the $6,200 price now I am not
that sure to go for it as I was at $5,800 .

Will wait for reviews/opinions and then I will reconsider it….

Come tomorrow it would $6,600 at this rate, that is around $800 in just 2 days...this raises a question in my mind so if someone booked at $5,800 then they just saved $400 that's not bad at all I would say

All joking aside hope they don't jack up the price anyone

 

[padam]

I agree. It's been a long time coming. It will be really interesting to see how these will shake out timbre wise. It gives me some confidence that it sounds like the 009S is the foundation, as I'm just hoping for more advanced performance but with the same clarity/transparency/detail and general tone of the 009 (non-s)--except again for the issues in the highs, which I'm not certain that the 009S corrects for (haven't heard it, but heard that it does to a degree). I'm really hoping there isn't a major deviation from the current signature.

A differently sized, physically bigger transducer with different mesh stators using new manufacturing technologies like thermal bonding should give different sonic properties, so I would be surprised if it sounded similar.

Around 2017-2018, Stax had bought back at least two SR-Omegas, which are sitting at their headquarters. They might have a few more, might give a clue about the basis for construction and tuning, at least that's what I'm hoping / betting on, imho should be between 007 and 009 like the Omega.

Will be interesting to see impressions long-time 009/S users. If it is deemed to be much better, then it also puts past opinions into a different limelight.

It was the same with the 007 users switching to / adding in the 009 (and possibly switching back again) slightly different synergistic matches might provide some variables.

 

[ThanatosVI]

In Germany, the official price for the sr-x9000 is exactly € 7,250. Confirmed by the dealer. Converted to US dollars, that's $ 8,500.

Ok Stax is dead to me then.