The Stax Thread III

[eee1111]

To be honest, I don't understand while those other points can be considered "objective."

I know the good points of the X9000 (and have read about the CRBN etc.) and I can find those opinions way more easily than any negative ones due to enthusiastic, positive nature that almost anybody likes more.
It's just what people want to hear who are interested in purchasing the product and feel happy, or make people less annoyed that own the product and get triggered if anything negative is pointed out, then it is "only subjective".
I've listed the group of headphones that I find more musically involving that's somehow missing from the X9000 a lot of the times, the technical (objective?) differences became less important to me (big soundstage, firm separation is different. not better. imho). Or I would say it presents itself in an odd way depending on the recording, just because it is more revealing yet smoothened out, it does not mean more pleasing or more natural. And the exact reason why I shared that list is because I compared several times.

At any given time you can go into any topic and see people have negative comments. They post their opinions. They move on.

Look at the lcd5 it came and there were a ton of people who had issues and didn’t buy or bought and sold and made their opinions WELL know in the topic. All the while other people in that topic bought it and immediately loved what they were hearing.

There are not that many X9K out there. The fact that there are a ton of positive impressions this early should be an indication that while you have a negative opinion it’s not worth being upset that you’re reading lots of positive ones.

The more time goes by I’m able to compare what I own and the X9K. I really like the X9K enough I’m contemplating selling some other headphones.

 

[padam]

There are not that many X9K out there. The fact that there are a ton of positive impressions this early should be an indication that while you have a negative opinion it’s not worth being upset that you’re reading lots of positive ones.

lol why would I be upset in any way about any positive opinions.
I already stated long before why I would not want to say anything about this headphone.
People are getting called out for no reason at all, other than sharing their honest opinions.
I can only say about opinions like this one that I can only nod in agreement.
Some more valuable thoughts about new TOL models in general can be found here.

 

[eee1111]

lol why would I be upset in any way about any positive opinions.
I already stated long before why I would not want to say anything about this headphone.
People are getting called out for no reason at all, other than sharing their honest opinions.
I can only say about opinions like this one that I can only nod in agreement.
Some more valuable thoughts about new TOL models in general can be found here.

Kinda sound angry upset

With those memes and all that writing about not understanding others opinions

But I could be wrong lol
Feels like we are goin in circles here

 

[catscratch]

Meh the only way to not make people upset is to not post anything at all, or maybe only post positive things. But that's of no use to anybody. So go ahead and say what you really think, and if it ends up stepping on some toes, so be it. I made some people upset with my negative comments on the Utopia, and what happened as a result of that? Absolutely nothing. Everything's still fine. Besides, as a fan of the 007 I value the perspective of someone else who has similar preferences.

Regarding objectivity and consistency in impressions, that's a topic for a 3 hour rant, but in general data seems to be pointing to people generally hearing similarly up to about 2khz, then after that our hearing starts to diverge. Between 2-4khz differences start to emerge, and past 4khz it's a total crapshoot with many people hearing the treble very differently. And it only gets worse with age. Also, even though under 2khz impressions are more consistent, there are differences in preference, so while we might be able to listen to something and agree objectively on what we heard with a relatively high consistency, there's no guarantee that we'll like what we heard the same.

Does this mean the hobby is entirely subjective? No, of course not. But there are limitations to the reliability of listener impressions and we need to be aware of them. When judging someone else's impressions I always ask: what else do they like? Do they like the same headphones as I do, or listen for similar things? And when I find someone who likes what I like, then I pay attention. And - here's the real kicker - there's nothing personal in that.

 

[protoss]

How to remove the 009S earpads?

Do I have to unscrew the screws inside the drivers?

 

[droido256]

After listening to both the L-300, and L-700 through both the D-10, and 252s for a while now. Yep no going back . Metal on these things is a whole other experience. Def glad I decided to spring for them. Wish I had sooner.

 

[padam]

How to remove the 009S earpads?

Do I have to unscrew the screws inside the drivers?

"It is not a complicated operation. The inner mesh must be removed. Remove the six screws and the earpad is released. Installing a new one takes a little more time. These little screws are hard to screw in."

 

[protoss]

That's a horrible operation! STAX wants amateurs to put a screwdriver inside the cups to remove 4 screws. Without damaging the drivers, getting dust inside and hopefully not doing anything else to them! They must fire the earpad developers. This is some trashy operation. Could of kept the same earpad design as the 007.

 

[bearFNF]

That's a horrible operation! STAX wants amateurs to put a screwdriver inside the cups to remove 4 screws. Without damaging the drivers, getting dust inside and hopefully not doing anything else to them! They must fire the earpad developers. This is some trashy operation. Could of kept the same earpad design as the 007.

LOL, no, what Stax probably wants is for us to either leave them as is and not mess with them or send them to Stax repair shop to have the job done by their technicians.

 

[Tugbars]

Question, the L-700 mk2 I have, on the outside of the stator is this star shaped structure, with a hexagonal ring in the center that isn’t present on the L-300……. What is it? Decoration? Support structure? Part of the sound generation? Just curious.

Those areas/shapes on stators apply different amount of push pull forces to diaphragm in order to deal with resonances/or simply boost some frequency areas. It is part of the tuning of headphones.

areas on stators with low perforation density: stronger push pull
areas with no perforation: very strong push pull.

 

[droido256]

Those areas/shapes on stators apply different amount of push pull forces to diaphragm in order to deal with resonances/or simply boost some frequency areas. It is part of the tuning of headphones.

areas on stators with low perforation density: stronger push pull
areas with no perforation: very strong push pull.

Ohhh I see, I wonder if that’s what helps with the soundstage size and projection.

 

[Tugbars]

Ohhh I see, I wonder if that’s what helps with the soundstage size and projection.

definitely, stators ideally should be as open as possible to minimize diffractions. (but a very open stator design can't hold diaphragm under control too, thus, engineers strive to find a perfect balance) Less diffractions mean higher high frequency fidelity and better soundstage accuracy. Planars have big magnets between their diaphragms and ears, that's the main reason why estats have superiority in detail & imaging. (potentially) Fang Bian addressed this problem of planars in one of his early interviews.

 

[droido256]

definitely, stators ideally should be as open as possible to minimize diffractions. (but a very open stator design can't hold diaphragm under control too, thus, engineers strive to find a perfect balance) Less diffractions mean higher high frequency fidelity and better soundstage accuracy. Planars have big magnets between their diaphragms and ears, that's the main reason why estats have superiority in detail & imaging. (potentially) Fang Bian addressed this problem of planars in one of his early interviews.

It’s amazing the step ups. From dynamic to planar mag, to estat. Before I got the L-300, the LCD-2 and the HE-5xx were the best sounding headphones I’ve ever had…… and the L-300 blew them all away in every way except bass, the LCD-2 still is the most subwoofer like headphone I have.

 

[martin778]

You know I can't help myself, just brought home a new pair of X9000's and have a T8000 on the way, currently using the SRM-700T and Terminator II DAC playing Qobuz hi res material through Roon, all upsampled to DSD512.
First impressions - more neutral, insane macro detail (the 007 is already amazing in that regard) and the obvious midbass thickness of the 007mk2 is absent with the X9000. Acoustic instruments sound extremely lifelike on the X9000 but what surprised me the most is that the X9000 seem to have better subbass than the 007mk2, probably due to a larger diaphragm.

While the X9000 is superior, the 007mk2 still offers a bit more pleasant, laidback sound to sit back and relax. I just wish Stax would release a MK3 version with pivoting earcups like the 009 series.

Anyone knows if it's possible to plug/unplug the HP on the second port when the amp is running and there is already a HP connected to the first output? I wonder if there is any sound difference with 2 HP's connected...since it's voltage driven, I don't expect it.

 

[KDS315]

Congrats! But I wouldn’t waste my $$$ on a T8000, there are much better amps!!

Two STAX headphones are no issue if you have a good amp! No issues to plug/unplug while on. Just short circuit the headphone connector with your thumb after unplugging. Discharges the stators!