[BTD1]

Have you tried the 009?

I have not tried the 009, but if I find it on demo I will give it a listen.

 

[dukeskd]

I have not tried the 009, but if I find it on demo I will give it a listen.

I think you should try it. I would prefer it over the 007 for classical as the sound stage is much improved. The question of amplification will be crucial to temper somewhat the higher end but I personally never had a problem with it since I prefer brighter headphones.

 

[Fidelity King]

Benson is the owner of ES Labs, really nice guy who clearly has a love and expertise for estats.

I have the 404 drivers in mine. I got them a while back, I had an obsession with hearing a Sigma but the OGs were too hard to find and expensive and of questionable lifespan. These are practically brand new. They really only work for acoustic and classical music, but for those they work really really well. They don't get much head time for me and I always toy with the idea of selling them to put towards something that would get more use, but they're so unique I look at them also like functional works of audio art. And jazz sounds amazing with them (particularly on the Carbon).

Pics incoming.

How would you describe the sound of the Bottlehead estate amp?

 

[Fidelity King]

I've been meaning to post an update for a long time, but the months fly by. I recently came across a used ES Labs ES-1a and got help from Benson at ES to fix the broken headband and wanted to share my experience with that headphone and compare it to my L300 LE and a little mod project of mine, where I took an L300, applied the SOCAS Pad Mod (and ZMF Lambskin Ovals, along with the full blu-tak mod (to both the driver housing and to the ported SOCAS bracket) - my goal was to try to bass the hell out of the L300. I've run them on a CCS-modded 006t (Dominik's) and the Bottlehead Stat.

First the headphones: the L300 was my best-in-class headphone and to some degree it still definitely is, but it's also the one that's most directly comparable to the ES-1a and suffers in some ways from the comparison. My Lambda NBs (or my Sigmas) are just apples and oranges to the ES-1a, their use cases don't overlap. I love my NBs on the Stat (and on the SRD-7, which drives really nice bass out of them). On the 006 the NB is a little harsh on the high end (I think the CCS mod really pushes the 006 into Solid State-like zones). As I've spent time with the ES1a, the L300s got the biggest hit in headtime, so let's start there.

ES-1a vs L300 Limited Edition
The ES has a much more expansive soundstage (and the L300 LE itself has a bigger soundstage than the L300). I came back to the LE's recently, and I think they still paint a picture of the music like a big, detailed, colorful tapestry, but everything is threaded together and connected. A blended soundscape. Whereas the ES-1as have much sharper edges, more incisive cuts (which sometimes can be a little harsh on the 006, too). It's like that tapestry was cut up into multiple bits and hung across a really big, wide and tall soundstage. Less cohesive and more separated. Better Git it in Your Soul by Charles Mingus is a good example, the horns and bass and drums and crowd noise are so totally separated and distinct, and the horns just jump right through my ears - in a good, vibrant way (wow). The LEs present things more cohesively, more connected but more intimately too. None of those are bad things, but they lack the wow factor of the ES1a to me - but they are still damned amazing. You might say the LEs are a well-choreographed dance ensemble while the ES1a is like some mad breakdancing freak of electrostatic nature.

Now with bass, it's not really a competition, at least with sub-bass. The ES-1as, I crap you not, approach LCD-2C levels of sub-bass (I suspect if I forced a seal, like I get with the LCDs, it would be a near-tie). I am trying to get a Lokius, but I've been testing our digital EQ via SoundSource, and they really do take the bass as I EQ it in. Most will disagree, but I don't like software EQ (don't hate, it's just how I feel) and so I'm really keen to get Lokius in (though moreso for the ZMF/SoCas L300 project). LE bass is nice - I like the Lambda levels of bass just fine, but the ES-1a's really bring that planar level of sub-bass). I had the Kaldas RR-1s once (actually, twice) and the ES-1a beats them in the sub-bass, to my recollection.

Note on 007/009 comparisons: I have only heard the 007 and 009 at the most recent CanJam, on a BHSE. It's not the best place to get a solid impression or foundation with those cans (at the same time, I listened to them on a freaking BHSE, so it's better than my setup... maybe that cancels it out and I got a balanced experience). I preferred the 007 on the BHSE, I heard the weird tonal balance on the 009. Based on my limited experience, I would say that the ES1a was what I call the 008 - it had the bass and tone of the 007 but had the fast and forward nature of the 009 without its tonal character. Also to be fair, I listen to the ES1a on my Stat and CCS'd 006t, which are NOT BHSE's.

The ES1a is really fast, even for an estat. It suffers in the mid-bass from that, relative to the LEs. Mid-bass is great for an estat, but I think of this as more of a v-shaped estat. For electronic music, I really like the way the ES1a places and highlights all the detail. That changes, though, when I put it on the Stat. That placement and detail get fuzzed away on the Stat but you get something akin to the NBs - warmer, sweeter, syrupy and definitely a more intimate, musical and less detailed stage. Different, not better for worse (at least depending what you're looking for). I have way too many Staxen but I just love them - for now, my ES-1a is my most technically-adept and impressive estat. The other Staxen have their magic moments too, this just allowed me to finally hear what the 007/009 people were experiencing and open up the aperture of the estat experience for me.

I was going to compare to the modded L300s (the ones with the orange SoCas yokes in the pics), but this is already too long of a post so I'll save it. I really had been meaning to sing the praises of Benson over at ES Labs. I have one of his replica Sigmas (with 404 drivers) that I bought directly from him - it doesn't get a lot of head time because it's suitable for very specific genres - but Benson was amazingly helpful and patient with me with that. I bought my ES-1a's used, yet he was still as gracious and helpful as ever as I sorted through some questions and repairs. For that matter, Paul from Bottlehead was a saint when dealing with my "estat shipping disaster" issues for a used buy, too.

There is way too little info on the Stat. It has been one of my favorite pieces of gear and turns my estats into warm, detailed and airy cans - at least the Lambdas (particularly the NBs, but also the Pros and the L300s). It's not cheap (what quality amp is in electrostatics, anyways? maybe the SRD-7 with a good speaker amp). It is a great amp, I love tube rolling it (you don't really need matched pairs). Anyways, I shall never part with it. One day, I will have a BHSE or Carbon and a 007 or Perun, but for now the gear I have gives me a lot of options and, most importantly for me, fun.

Do you ever plan on publishing a review on the Bottlehead Estat amp?

 

[eskamobob1]

Do you ever plan on publishing a review on the Bottlehead Estat amp?

I would love to see this comparison

 

[bigjako]

I’ve posted a bunch of impressions over the year I’ve had it, but I don’t know how good I’d be at a real “audiophile” review talking about 7Khz shelves and such. But it does deserve a better profile in estatland so I will try to do something more comprehensive before it sells. I’m a marketer so maybe a review will help ship it! Some quick notes for now (I’m out of town at the moment so this is from memory.).

- It’s surprisingly powerful for such a small footprint. One of the reasons I considered keeping it and selling the Electra, it’s just much more practical in terms of real estate. It has a CCS, which I think serves to maximize efficiency. It also means you don’t have to use matched tube pairs, because it’s also self balancing, or so I was told.
- it responds amazingly well to tube rolling, which to me is a big positive. It’s nice to distract my “grass is greener” needs with tubes instead of headphones or amps.
- it is perfect with Lambda NBs. I planned to keep it forever because of how it synergizes with them. I have two NBs. One is is securely stored until the day my primary dies. They are not technically great, the X9000 would pulverize it in a head to head, but there’s something so sweet and musical and analog about them that nothing compares. Birgir once told me to appreciate them, that they were special with no contemporary analog, and he was right. I wish I could hear them on my Mjolnir Carbon but alas…
- it sounds better with my ES-1a than the Electra does. I can’t really explain it. It’s absolutely not as detailed as the CCS modded 006 (also for sale) - it rolls them off to some degree, but they sound wonderful and musical and analog. They almost make them sound like an NB. I won’t even listen to the ES-1a on the Electra but I would on the Stat. However, the ES-1a on the Carbon is near perfect. TOTL. If I didn’t have the Carbon, I’d sell the Electra instead of the Stat or the 006. I really wish I could hear an 007 on it.
- it works really well with all Lambdas. More explanation of what that means below but it drives them perfectly well
So why am I selling it, you may ask? I would be fine if I didn’t. It could be my perfect second setup if I ever really needed one. Sadly I have no lake house so it just sits unused. But it is a beautiful audiophile work of art, an electrostatic statue.

The sound signature is more in your head, less expansive than the Electra, which really blows everything out. As I said, it responds to tube rolling but it’s very full bodied in general. It adds a lot of warmth and roundness and musicality to estats. It makes them sound a lot more organic. Strangely, both the Stat and the Electra were originally owned by Dcnexus and he described it perfectly to me. The BHSE, as a hybrid, had a brighter signature. Closer to solid state than either the Stat or the Electra, which are both pure tubes. He said the Electra was the direct step up from the Stat and I would agree. But it’s less about “better” or even more detailed, and more about grander and more expansive. Which I like. It’s a cliche but the Stat is like you’re on stage, the Electra is like you’re in some large, high ceilinged theatre or concert hall and about ten rows deep.

The Stat is basically half the price of the Electra and based on price/value, the Stat wins hands down.

Wife is telling me I have to go to dinner immediately, it’s 8pm, so sadly I can’t expound any more.

 

[martin778]

Well, no more headphone stands of any kind for me anyways, even the Stax HPS2 damages (dents) earpads in no time, what a stupid design. Really wanted to have a place to hang / place multiple headsets without damaging them but it seems near impossible

1. HPS dents earpads and stretches out the headbant
2. Omega stretches the whole thing out.

 

[Aspirant Audiophile]

I received very helpful guidance on Head-fi.org, and as my excitement mounts about my Stax, I thought I'd ask another question, specifically about the l700mk2 "versus" (note the ironic quote marks) a 9000x setup.

But first, some context:

I am not an expert in anything related audio. I just like quality. I used to be an indie rock DJ. My wife is a well-regarded classical composer, and she teaches me how to use my ears. So any setup is for two people, an authentic expert and a fanboy.

I WAS looking for 1000-dollar audio when I started this venture... But given that it's possible in theory to afford a Stax 9000 with all the fixins, ie Blue Hawaii etc etc etc, I'm considering taking that big step.

A month ago, I'd never heard of Stax, and I hadn't bought a new set of headphones/earspeakers in 15 years, the previous ones being about eighty bucks.

Two weeks ago, I listened to the l300, l500, l700 and 007 for the first time.

This week, I have a streamer (Node), DAC (MX-DAC), Stax (l700 MK2), driver/amp (SRM-400s), and streaming subscription (Qobuz) that put a smile on my face with regularity.

Neither of us like the 007--at all--we couldn't understand why someone would buy estats that don't sound a whole lot like estats (yes, I know I'm probably being obtuse). We haven't tried the 009 and don't have access to one. We can try out the 9000 in a couple days though.

What we definitely don't want is to pay ten or fifteen grand for The Best Headphones and then feel like we traded in exceptional clarity (current setup) for a "best of the l700, 007 and 009" package that winds up not feeling like a massive upgrade in any area.

My question is very broad and totally subjective. I hope folks won't shy away from personal opinion though: if we're listening with highly trained ears, what are we getting with the 9000 that we don't get with the aforementioned setup we're already happy with, and how much "happier" (5%? 10? 24.7?)?

And no, we don't want to spend a few months getting more used to what we have. If we're gonna do it we're gonna do it now.

 

[zomkung]

I received very helpful guidance on Head-fi.org, and as my excitement mounts about my Stax, I thought I'd ask another question, specifically about the l700mk2 "versus" (note the ironic quote marks) a 9000x setup.

But first, some context:

I am not an expert in anything related audio. I just like quality. I used to be an indie rock DJ. My wife is a well-regarded classical composer, and she teaches me how to use my ears. So any setup is for two people, an authentic expert and a fanboy.

I WAS looking for 1000-dollar audio when I started this venture... But given that it's possible in theory to afford a Stax 9000 with all the fixins, ie Blue Hawaii etc etc etc, I'm considering taking that big step.

A month ago, I'd never heard of Stax, and I hadn't bought a new set of headphones/earspeakers in 15 years, the previous ones being about eighty bucks.

Two weeks ago, I listened to the l300, l500, l700 and 007 for the first time.

This week, I have a streamer (Node), DAC (MX-DAC), Stax (l700 MK2), driver/amp (SRM-400s), and streaming subscription (Qobuz) that put a smile on my face with regularity.

Neither of us like the 007--at all--we couldn't understand why someone would buy estats that don't sound a whole lot like estats (yes, I know I'm probably being obtuse). We haven't tried the 009 and don't have access to one. We can try out the 9000 in a couple days though.

What we definitely don't want is to pay ten or fifteen grand for The Best Headphones and then feel like we traded in exceptional clarity (current setup) for a "best of the l700, 007 and 009" package that winds up not feeling like a massive upgrade in any area.

My question is very broad and totally subjective. I hope folks won't shy away from personal opinion though: if we're listening with highly trained ears, what are we getting with the 9000 that we don't get with the aforementioned setup we're already happy with, and how much "happier" (5%? 10? 24.7?)?

And no, we don't want to spend a few months getting more used to what we have. If we're gonna do it we're gonna do it now.

It took me three months to love 007.

at first impression, I do agree that 007 is somewhat muddy and doesn't have a wow factor.

 

[Aspirant Audiophile]

I get that, but we don't want our ears to get conditioned and normalized to any one sound. Yet.

 

[eee1111]

I received very helpful guidance on Head-fi.org, and as my excitement mounts about my Stax, I thought I'd ask another question, specifically about the l700mk2 "versus" (note the ironic quote marks) a 9000x setup.

But first, some context:

I am not an expert in anything related audio. I just like quality. I used to be an indie rock DJ. My wife is a well-regarded classical composer, and she teaches me how to use my ears. So any setup is for two people, an authentic expert and a fanboy.

I WAS looking for 1000-dollar audio when I started this venture... But given that it's possible in theory to afford a Stax 9000 with all the fixins, ie Blue Hawaii etc etc etc, I'm considering taking that big step.

A month ago, I'd never heard of Stax, and I hadn't bought a new set of headphones/earspeakers in 15 years, the previous ones being about eighty bucks.

Two weeks ago, I listened to the l300, l500, l700 and 007 for the first time.

This week, I have a streamer (Node), DAC (MX-DAC), Stax (l700 MK2), driver/amp (SRM-400s), and streaming subscription (Qobuz) that put a smile on my face with regularity.

Neither of us like the 007--at all--we couldn't understand why someone would buy estats that don't sound a whole lot like estats (yes, I know I'm probably being obtuse). We haven't tried the 009 and don't have access to one. We can try out the 9000 in a couple days though.

What we definitely don't want is to pay ten or fifteen grand for The Best Headphones and then feel like we traded in exceptional clarity (current setup) for a "best of the l700, 007 and 009" package that winds up not feeling like a massive upgrade in any area.

My question is very broad and totally subjective. I hope folks won't shy away from personal opinion though: if we're listening with highly trained ears, what are we getting with the 9000 that we don't get with the aforementioned setup we're already happy with, and how much "happier" (5%? 10? 24.7?)?

And no, we don't want to spend a few months getting more used to what we have. If we're gonna do it we're gonna do it now.

I get that, but we don't want our ears to get conditioned and normalized to any one sound. Yet.

I can tell you with certainty you gotta trust your own ears. My response to what you are hearing is different from what I think you want me or others to tell you.

 

[martin778]

The 007(mk2) is quite different to the X9000, I feel the 007 has a more 'triangular' soundstage - there are sounds on the left / right right at the ear but the vocals appear to come from a narrow point somewhere in front of us, in the distance. Hard to explain it but this is how they feel for me.
For the X9000 it's more 'evereything is in the distance' kind of feel, with more air and spaciousness.

 

[number1sixerfan]

I received very helpful guidance on Head-fi.org, and as my excitement mounts about my Stax, I thought I'd ask another question, specifically about the l700mk2 "versus" (note the ironic quote marks) a 9000x setup.

But first, some context:

I am not an expert in anything related audio. I just like quality. I used to be an indie rock DJ. My wife is a well-regarded classical composer, and she teaches me how to use my ears. So any setup is for two people, an authentic expert and a fanboy.

I WAS looking for 1000-dollar audio when I started this venture... But given that it's possible in theory to afford a Stax 9000 with all the fixins, ie Blue Hawaii etc etc etc, I'm considering taking that big step.

A month ago, I'd never heard of Stax, and I hadn't bought a new set of headphones/earspeakers in 15 years, the previous ones being about eighty bucks.

Two weeks ago, I listened to the l300, l500, l700 and 007 for the first time.

This week, I have a streamer (Node), DAC (MX-DAC), Stax (l700 MK2), driver/amp (SRM-400s), and streaming subscription (Qobuz) that put a smile on my face with regularity.

Neither of us like the 007--at all--we couldn't understand why someone would buy estats that don't sound a whole lot like estats (yes, I know I'm probably being obtuse). We haven't tried the 009 and don't have access to one. We can try out the 9000 in a couple days though.

What we definitely don't want is to pay ten or fifteen grand for The Best Headphones and then feel like we traded in exceptional clarity (current setup) for a "best of the l700, 007 and 009" package that winds up not feeling like a massive upgrade in any area.

My question is very broad and totally subjective. I hope folks won't shy away from personal opinion though: if we're listening with highly trained ears, what are we getting with the 9000 that we don't get with the aforementioned setup we're already happy with, and how much "happier" (5%? 10? 24.7?)?

And no, we don't want to spend a few months getting more used to what we have. If we're gonna do it we're gonna do it now.

It's a hobby, it's totally up to you how slow or fast you'd like to upgrade. Based on what you seem to enjoy, plus Classical sounding like a major genre of focus, I would say the 009 (or S version) might be really worth checking out. You don't have to leap to the x9000 for a good performance boost--and especially considering the delay in order fulfillment right now.

As for your last question about ROI, I would honestly say that as you climb the ladder, you certainly start to approach the land of diminishing returns. You certainly pay a premium the higher up you go.. only you can really answer that by trying them out.

 

[tjlindle]

Anyone here have recommendations for where to source replacement pads for an SR-X Mk3? Not necessarily stock pads, just anything that will fit the cups and sound good.

 

[Aspirant Audiophile]

Just a quick response to the respondents to my post--comments about trusting my own ears and enjoying the journey are totally valid...that said, I really would welcome subjective opinions.

I may be misrepresenting how I make an audio (or any) decision. To clarify: I don't copy and paste the opinions of others, then go buy what someone else tells me to do. I'm one tier higher than that in the "fool and his money" spectrum

The opinions of people with more experience don't create my own opinion--they provide indicators for what I should look for when listening. I've read several reviews on the HeadCase forum, for example, that the x9000 has imaging and brightness issues, but that it's also of better build and neutrality than the 007 or 009. I'm going to look out for that, and doing so will surely help me train my ears.

There's an x9000 sitting in the shop down the street, so there's no concern about shipping delays. I'd just feel more comfortable doing the demo with more experienced, non-bot observations.