[dynavit]

Having measured many of these myself, these look very similar to my measurements (I am kind of relieved).
Look at that SR-Omega plot... so smooth up to around 2K, subjectively quite critical for good sound IMHO.

The good thing with these measurments is, that they are all made with the same instruments. So you can compare the different modells.

 

[Petergrifindor]

Hi everyone, newcomer to the forum and the hobby.

After a lifetime of playing and collecting music, but without putting money on Hifi equipment, I decided to get myself a high-end headphone set.

I have been educating myself for a couple of months online about this world, and yesterday was the first day I went to try headphones. Luckily I live in a country that have great shops with a good selection of them. The people of the two stores I visited was super helpful. I could try all the headphones comfortably with my music ( a mix of rock, metal, pop, classical, jazz, blues and folk that I made with this purpose) and for all the time I wanted, no interruptions.

I made two stops.

In the first shop I tried the Abyss 1266 Phi TC, Audece LCD-5, Focal Utopia, and Meze Elite. The amp for all headphones was the Formula S from XI audio, and the DAC the Chord Dave. These were my PERSONAL impressions:

-Abyss: Bass was amazing, the best one I heard all day. You can feel in your body like if you were using speakers (that was a surprise). The spacing and soundstage were great, the timber of all instruments very natural. Almost everything was great BUT in some of the pieces I played I found that certain parts that should be prominent became recessed in the mix (normally lead voices, or instrument in the mids section), making the songs sound weird. I found this defect in enough tracks to be bothersome.

-Audece LCD-5: Bass was great but I didn’t like the soundstage (every sound seemed to came from inside my head, too close) and the timber of the instruments was not natural at all, especially on guitars.

-Focal Utopia: Timber of all instruments sounded very natural, but I didn’t like them very much. Music seemed to lack energy with them. Just the opposite of the Audece, everything sounded too far.

-Meze Elite: a nice surprise, since I wasn’t aware of their existence, and I found that they did everything quite good. Timber, Bass-Midi-Treble, spacing, soundstage… everything was good and nice. But nothing truly outstanding or superb (like the Bass or the soundstage with the Abyss)


The construction of all 4 was amazing. Very very high quality on all the parts.

But to be honest I walked out of the first shop a little disappointed. What I heard, to me it’s not worth the price of admission, and I think I can do better with a good chosen speaker system that would cost the same of any of the headphones.

Second stop: STAX retailer.

They had the 009s, the new X9000 (only the one for audition, not examples to sell for at least another month), the 007 mkII and a bunch of older ones for audition. Only Stax amps, but with good variety. Apart from the 700s, they had all the rest of the current Stax offering.

So I choose the T8000 as an amp, and reproduced the music through a PS Audio Direct Stream DAC.

After 30 seconds of listening to the 009s, I knew why you guys are referred as a cult. In 30 seconds I have completely forgotten all previous headphones I tried during the morning and knew that it’s going to be a Stax. That’s it. This things sound celestial to my ears, it’s really something else. I really wasn’t expecting something as great like this. Pure Bliss.

I only tried the 009s and the X9000, but since I know the new ones aren’t widely available yet, I think you might like to read a small comparison.

Construction wise, I found the X9000 to be much better. Every part was made with good steel, no cheap plastic parts apart from two small pieces used to adjust the height of the headphones (not the whole pieces, only the part you have to press). It’s way prettier in real life that in photos. The 009s in comparison, although good looking, seemed somewhat “cheap” because all the plastic parts used (the cheaper feeling of all the headphones I tried during the day).


Sound-wise, both earphones sounded AMAZING to me. Timber:10, soundstage:10, spacing:10, on both.

The 009s is kind of light in bass, but that allows to discern a lot of details of the meds and treble parts of the music without any effort. Music doesn’t sound busy at all with this one even with full orchestras. I would say Highs 10, Meds 9, Bass 7 resolution 10. Very ethereal sounding, I just loved them.

The X9000 has much more bass (sorry I didn’t tried the 007 for bass comparison, but I was mesmerized with he two I was already using) which changes the character of the headphone. It’s a harder to drive earphone than the 009s, you need to turn up more the volume. Things seems to have more weight to them in this one, and that seems to rest just a little bit of resolution in the highs. Just a tiny bit. Bass 9, Meds 9, High 9, Resolution 9. Also heavenly sounding.

If I were to buy only one, right now I think I would go for the X9000, because the construction is that much nicer, and overall I might prefer how it sounds. But that’s not the plan.

The new plan is to get both, and the amp. I might need to save money for a little more time, but I don’t care.

About the amp, I found the T8000 fantastic. I have read a lot about the BHSE, the Carbon the HGSSHV, T2 etc, and how Stax amps fall short in comparison, but to be honest, I wont buy anything of that price without trying first when I have available an option I have tested and that sounds this incredible. I loved that it allows to connect both headphones at the same time, so I would be able make listening sessions with a friend or with my girl.

Stax earphones definitely make the cost of admission worth it. The music was presented to me like I have never heard in my whole life. They have floored me, I have seen the light, and now I’m a convert.

What I heard yesterday was lovely. Simply perfect.

 

[FredSD]

A few possible points of interest for the Stax Lover. Mal Valve now has 3 headphone amplifiers to drive Stax, other electrostatic headphones,
dynamic cans, planars and in the case of the new Head Amp One and Head Amp Five, the RAAL SR1A as well.
Adding to the well known Mal Valve Head Amp Three V.4 are the new Mal Valve Head One and their new king of the hill, the Mal Valve
Head Amp Five...a headphone amplifier like no other. We are stocking units and are proud to be handling the US on their behalf. We were so
impressed that we will also be carrying their own electrostatic headphone, sources, amplification, loudspeaker and turntable. (everyone should hear
magnetostatic bass and midrange coupled to an electrostatic tweeter.) Feel free to come look at our site for further information.

 

[urs]

Petergrifindor​

Welcome to the Forum and nice to learn that more "Swissies" are joining us.

You seem to live in the Lausanne area, but do I guess correctly, that you did a visit to Zürich ?
There two shops here that match your description, for instance K55 and Audio Vinyl ?

I’m curious how your search for the “Holy Grail of Head Phones” progresses.

Best regards from Wädenswil “am Zürisee”

Urs

BTW: my new X9000 replaces an 009S – it was a VERY clear & easy decision

For the X9000 you may also follow this Thread
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/stax-sr-x9000.959852/page-53

and yes - we "Swissies" even have our own Thread !!
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/the-swiss-head-fiers-official-census.956829/

 

[Petergrifindor]

Petergrifindor​

Welcome to the Forum and nice to learn that more "Swissies" are joining us.

You seem to live in the Lausanne area, but do I guess correctly, that you did a visit to Zürich ?
There two shops here that match your description, for instance K55 and Audio Vinyl ?

I’m curious how your search for the “Holy Grail of Head Phones” progresses.

Best regards from Wädenswil “am Zürisee”

Urs

BTW: my new X9000 replaces an 009S – it was a VERY clear & easy decision

For the X9000 you may also follow this Thread
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/stax-sr-x9000.959852/page-53

and yes - we "Swissies" even have our own Thread !!
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/the-swiss-head-fiers-official-census.956829/

Yeah, you nailed it. Those two where the shops. What a fantastic set of people work over there. They were ultra nice.

I'm not Swiss but by adoption. I'm a spaniard but have been living here for three years.

I would keep posting when I adquire or find new things. For the time would be mostly reading. There's tons to learn for us rookies.

Greetings.

 

[number1sixerfan]

Hi everyone, newcomer to the forum and the hobby.

After a lifetime of playing and collecting music, but without putting money on Hifi equipment, I decided to get myself a high-end headphone set.

I have been educating myself for a couple of months online about this world, and yesterday was the first day I went to try headphones. Luckily I live in a country that have great shops with a good selection of them. The people of the two stores I visited was super helpful. I could try all the headphones comfortably with my music ( a mix of rock, metal, pop, classical, jazz, blues and folk that I made with this purpose) and for all the time I wanted, no interruptions.

I made two stops.

In the first shop I tried the Abyss 1266 Phi TC, Audece LCD-5, Focal Utopia, and Meze Elite. The amp for all headphones was the Formula S from XI audio, and the DAC the Chord Dave. These were my PERSONAL impressions:

-Abyss: Bass was amazing, the best one I heard all day. You can feel in your body like if you were using speakers (that was a surprise). The spacing and soundstage were great, the timber of all instruments very natural. Almost everything was great BUT in some of the pieces I played I found that certain parts that should be prominent became recessed in the mix (normally lead voices, or instrument in the mids section), making the songs sound weird. I found this defect in enough tracks to be bothersome.

-Audece LCD-5: Bass was great but I didn’t like the soundstage (every sound seemed to came from inside my head, too close) and the timber of the instruments was not natural at all, especially on guitars.

-Focal Utopia: Timber of all instruments sounded very natural, but I didn’t like them very much. Music seemed to lack energy with them. Just the opposite of the Audece, everything sounded too far.

-Meze Elite: a nice surprise, since I wasn’t aware of their existence, and I found that they did everything quite good. Timber, Bass-Midi-Treble, spacing, soundstage… everything was good and nice. But nothing truly outstanding or superb (like the Bass or the soundstage with the Abyss)


The construction of all 4 was amazing. Very very high quality on all the parts.

But to be honest I walked out of the first shop a little disappointed. What I heard, to me it’s not worth the price of admission, and I think I can do better with a good chosen speaker system that would cost the same of any of the headphones.

Second stop: STAX retailer.

They had the 009s, the new X9000 (only the one for audition, not examples to sell for at least another month), the 007 mkII and a bunch of older ones for audition. Only Stax amps, but with good variety. Apart from the 700s, they had all the rest of the current Stax offering.

So I choose the T8000 as an amp, and reproduced the music through a PS Audio Direct Stream DAC.

After 30 seconds of listening to the 009s, I knew why you guys are referred as a cult. In 30 seconds I have completely forgotten all previous headphones I tried during the morning and knew that it’s going to be a Stax. That’s it. This things sound celestial to my ears, it’s really something else. I really wasn’t expecting something as great like this. Pure Bliss.

I only tried the 009s and the X9000, but since I know the new ones aren’t widely available yet, I think you might like to read a small comparison.

Construction wise, I found the X9000 to be much better. Every part was made with good steel, no cheap plastic parts apart from two small pieces used to adjust the height of the headphones (not the whole pieces, only the part you have to press). It’s way prettier in real life that in photos. The 009s in comparison, although good looking, seemed somewhat “cheap” because all the plastic parts used (the cheaper feeling of all the headphones I tried during the day).


Sound-wise, both earphones sounded AMAZING to me. Timber:10, soundstage:10, spacing:10, on both.

The 009s is kind of light in bass, but that allows to discern a lot of details of the meds and treble parts of the music without any effort. Music doesn’t sound busy at all with this one even with full orchestras. I would say Highs 10, Meds 9, Bass 7 resolution 10. Very ethereal sounding, I just loved them.

The X9000 has much more bass (sorry I didn’t tried the 007 for bass comparison, but I was mesmerized with he two I was already using) which changes the character of the headphone. It’s a harder to drive earphone than the 009s, you need to turn up more the volume. Things seems to have more weight to them in this one, and that seems to rest just a little bit of resolution in the highs. Just a tiny bit. Bass 9, Meds 9, High 9, Resolution 9. Also heavenly sounding.

If I were to buy only one, right now I think I would go for the X9000, because the construction is that much nicer, and overall I might prefer how it sounds. But that’s not the plan.

The new plan is to get both, and the amp. I might need to save money for a little more time, but I don’t care.

About the amp, I found the T8000 fantastic. I have read a lot about the BHSE, the Carbon the HGSSHV, T2 etc, and how Stax amps fall short in comparison, but to be honest, I wont buy anything of that price without trying first when I have available an option I have tested and that sounds this incredible. I loved that it allows to connect both headphones at the same time, so I would be able make listening sessions with a friend or with my girl.

Stax earphones definitely make the cost of admission worth it. The music was presented to me like I have never heard in my whole life. They have floored me, I have seen the light, and now I’m a convert.

What I heard yesterday was lovely. Simply perfect.

Really great set of impressions, especially for just a new comer. Absolutely agree with the TC and LCD-5 remarks. And fully echo the 009 comments. It's good to see another comparison between it and the x9000. It sounds like they are both somewhat closer in performance, which is something I've been trying to pick up on from the various posts. In either case, welcome to Stax (and the hobby ). The clarity and resolution is just amazing and generally unrivaled.

 

[Petergrifindor]

Really great set of impressions, especially for just a new comer. Absolutely agree with the TC and LCD-5 remarks. And fully echo the 009 comments. It's good to see another comparison between it and the x9000. It sounds like they are both somewhat closer in performance, which is something I've been trying to pick up on from the various posts. In either case, welcome to Stax (and the hobby ). The clarity and resolution is just amazing and generally unrivaled.

Thanks mate.

Yeah the overall character of the 009s and the X9000 is not that distant, one is more light an ethereal and the other one more grounded. If they were people, they would be a pair of brothers that you can tell come from the same family just by looking at their face, but you would never mistake one for the other.

People that would have liked the 009s to have more bass will love the new ones, because it's like exchanging just a tiny bit of clarity and resolution in highs for gaining a good deal of bass and weight in mids.

 

[eskamobob1]

A few possible points of interest for the Stax Lover. Mal Valve now has 3 headphone amplifiers to drive Stax, other electrostatic headphones,
dynamic cans, planars and in the case of the new Head Amp One and Head Amp Five, the RAAL SR1A as well.
Adding to the well known Mal Valve Head Amp Three V.4 are the new Mal Valve Head One and their new king of the hill, the Mal Valve
Head Amp Five...a headphone amplifier like no other. We are stocking units and are proud to be handling the US on their behalf. We were so
impressed that we will also be carrying their own electrostatic headphone, sources, amplification, loudspeaker and turntable. (everyone should hear
magnetostatic bass and midrange coupled to an electrostatic tweeter.) Feel free to come look at our site for further information.

Do you by any chance work with any dealers that may have demos of your amps in the socal area?

 

[buzzlulu]

Just a quick reply (on vacation) from someone who owns both the 009S and X9000 running off a Mjolnir Carbon (with a Kerry T2 inbound) fronted by a Linn Klimax DS.

I am just starting to come to grips with my X9000. Initially one may think it is slightly less resolving than the 009S as it now presents a fuller bass response. In reality if one listens the X9000 is just as resolving - do not let the increased bass “mask” the detail - it is all there.

My EARLY impression is the X9000 are more musical and involving. They now offer a complete response much in the same way the addition of a subwoofer does in a 2 channel system. This results in more musicality and it draws one into listening even more.

There is enough of a difference between the two that I found them to be complimentary - bad for anyone who thought they would sell the 009S on the upgrade. I am definitely keeping both.

PS also agree with the comments that the X9000 puts you several rows back in the audience

 

[Chefguru]

Just a quick reply (on vacation) from someone who owns both the 009S and X9000 running off a Mjolnir Carbon (with a Kerry T2 inbound) fronted by a Linn Klimax DS.

I am just starting to come to grips with my X9000. Initially one may think it is slightly less resolving than the 009S as it now presents a fuller bass response. In reality if one listens the X9000 is just as resolving - do not let the increased bass “mask” the detail - it is all there.

My EARLY impression is the X9000 are more musical and involving. They now offer a complete response much in the same way the addition of a subwoofer does in a 2 channel system. This results in more musicality and it draws one into listening even more.

There is enough of a difference between the two that I found them to be complimentary - bad for anyone who thought they would sell the 009S on the upgrade. I am definitely keeping both.

PS also agree with the comments that the X9000 puts you several rows back in the audience

Is the soundstage not a big difference between the st009s and srx9k?

 

[FredSD]

Do you by any chance work with any dealers that may have demos of your amps in the socal area?

We're currently deciding what distribution will look like for Mal Valve. It will likely be a satellite situation where their headfi is concerned. We don't have someone picked out for Socal just yet.

 

[FredSD]

We're currently deciding what distribution will look like for Mal Valve. It will likely be a satellite situation where their headfi is concerned. We don't have someone picked out for Socal just yet.

 

[number1sixerfan]

PS also agree with the comments that the X9000 puts you several rows back in the audience

I keep hearing this and it's the only thing concerning me. Everything else sounds amazing and it seems like it's going to be a good complement to what I have.

When mentioning this, is it similar to vocals or mids sounding recessed? I'm trying to understand what people really mean when saying this. Again though, besides that it sounds like it's amazing and I can't wait to get my pair.

 

[Petergrifindor]

I keep hearing this and it's the only thing concerning me. Everything else sounds amazing and it seems like it's going to be a good complement to what I have.

When mentioning this, is it similar to vocals or mids sounding recessed? I'm trying to understand what people really mean when saying this. Again though, besides that it sounds like it's amazing and I can't wait to get my pair.

Not at all.

To me the soundstage between them is just the same. Flawless, 10 out of 10, with every instrument or voice sounding where and with the level I would want it to do.

 

[buzzlulu]

I keep hearing this and it's the only thing concerning me. Everything else sounds amazing and it seems like it's going to be a good complement to what I have.

When mentioning this, is it similar to vocals or mids sounding recessed? I'm trying to understand what people really mean when saying this. Again though, besides that it sounds like it's amazing and I can't wait to get my pair.

Maybe initially concerning because it is DIFFERENT from what the 009S is. Different can mean just as good - and it also can be better. The important thing is that it Is not worse. That is why I think one will want to keep both the 009S and X9000.

I still have a lot of listening to do as I am at the very beginning (even though my pair arrived in November).

Then again for me all things will change once I start listening with the T2 in place of my Carbon. The T2 definitely changed my 009S when I demoed