[milosz]

Quote:

Ya, I kinda guessed so but I thought I should ask first. Who knows if someone is hiding a pair of these in his cupboard? 

 
I have temporarily glued a pair of O2 pads on these & it actually sounds quite good with them but ofc looks absolutely hideous. Also I am curious how it would sound with the stock pads.
I sent a mail to MB quart, let's see if they have any of the old stock left.

 
MB Quart has gone through many hands and in and out of bankruptcy over the years.  That could mean that spare parts for their old / out of production stuff may be gone.
 
Maybe you can fabricate something from a block or sheet of of foam.

 

[madbull]

Finally got my 009.
 
They are really amazing.

 

[stacker45]

Quote:

Finally got my 009.
 
They are really amazing.

 
Congratulation, i had the chance to hear Sophia Petterson's version of Hallelujah, at the Montréal HI-FI show on a pair of 007, and i tought that they sounded great, so i can only imagine how the 009 must sound, next show, i'll make sure to hear the 009, even if i have to wait in line, at least then maybe i'll know what all the fuss is about.

 

[MacedonianHero]

Quote:

Finally got my 009.
 
They are really amazing.

Congrats!
 
Yes, yes they are amazing! I'm still amazed at the stuff I'm hearing that I wasn't able to with my previous headphones on some of my very favourite recordings with the SR-009s.

 

[Jup-Na-Keeeeeel]

Quote:

Hey, not so fast. Your amp is a WOO Wes, so tubes. I had the exact same problem with my SR-007s fed by my DAC (tubed and my Pre (tubed).
 
I spent quite a while trying to find the source of the static. It was a washy in and out sort of static, and only in the right channel. If it is similar sounding to that, and quite low volume I would say it is one of these:
 
Dirty tube pins (clean carefully with de-oxit or fine rubbing compound, then with pure alcohol)
Dirty RCA connections (clean them with pure alcohol)
Poor case earthing (try a ground wire between the case of the amp and your pre amp or DAC
Capacitor failing in your source (pre amp or WOO Wes) Doubt if its the WOO caps as new
Old tubes (how many hours use?)
Dry solder joint in your source (DAC or pre-amp if used) Would imagine the WOO is ok?
Dirty Mains or radio noise (try at night when everyone else is asleep, and switch the fridge and any satellite TV boxes off)
 
For my money, I would suspect the tube pins or tube itself. They can commonly emit noise. Try swopping the signal tubes round
to the other channel. Also listen to the tubes after warm up (back ground hiss and noise) Does it happen less after warm up?
 
My static was my Caps in my DAC. The old ones leaked, so I bought V-Teflons, which cured it almost. However, 200 hours later,
when the caps were run in, it disappeared. Actually how new is your WOO Wes? If it's still running in 200 or less, it might be that,
and thus should settle down after some more hours use.
 
Hope this hlps.

Thanks for all the great suggestions. You were spot on when you described it as a "washy in and out sort of static".
 
I have a Pefectwave mkII with some nice balanced xlr interconnects coming soon. I'm waiting for them first before I comb through & test. I'm doing the amp and cans absolutely no justice by feeding it an unbalanced signal from an Asus Xonar soundcard through some RCA cables.

It also doesn't help that I can tell that my hearing is not as sharp in my right ear. I keep worrying myself that it's the channel/driver imbalance that plagued the sr-009. That doesn't seem to be the case because the difference is so minute, that I cannot tell if it's my hearing, the source recording, or the amp/headphone combo.
 
Does anyone have a thorough description of what the channel imbalance sounds like or what it does to the sr-009?

 

[dj nellie]

Quote:

Finally got my 009.
 
They are really amazing.

 
Do you have any thoughts about how the 009 and your O2 MKII compare?  I still have another week of waiting for my LL to arrive, so I'd love to hear more impressions from you or any other 009 and O2 owner. 
 
Asr's recent comparison was anything but reassuring to someone who just bought the 009 blind.  I've only heard the O2 briefly at a meet--not sure which version, and it was driven by a tiny Stax amp (not sure which, it was an older model around the size of a DVD-RW drive).  But I was definitely impressed with the clarity I heard, though I found the bass weight a bit lacking.  It made me think of what a full-size version of my UERMs would sound like.

 

[justin w.]

Quote:

 
Do you have any thoughts about how the 009 and your O2 MKII compare?  I still have another week of waiting for my LL to arrive, so I'd love to hear more impressions from you or any other 009 and O2 owner. 
 
Asr's recent comparison was anything but reassuring to someone who just bought the 009 blind.  I've only heard the O2 briefly at a meet--not sure which version, and it was driven by a tiny Stax amp (not sure which, it was an older model around the size of a DVD-RW drive).  But I was definitely impressed with the clarity I heard, though I found the bass weight a bit lacking.  It made me think of what a full-size version of my UERMs would sound like.

 
You won't be disappointed with the 009.  While some people prefer the O2, it's generally only O2 MK1 owners who have been using it as their primary headphone for many years and are very used to its sound.

 

[milosz]

Can anyone describe the differences between the 009 and 007 in some technical detail?  I imagine they use different drivers, but how exactly are the drivers different?  Also, I'm wondering if there is anything in the 009 or it's manufacture that makes it cost twice what a 007 costs, or is mostly  "exclusivity markup" charged by Stax that makes up the difference in price?

 

[arnaud]

Milosz, a search is in order. This has been discussed many times over already... Too lazy to search for you now

 

[sphinxvc]

The 2nd page of this article has a few details...not a comparison to 007, but info on 009 technology in general...
 
http://www.avguide.com/review/stax-sr-009-electrostatic-earspeaker-playback-54?page=1
 
Edit: (oh...looks like that's just a copy/paste from the stax.co.jp info page...)

 

[trudyan]

i have Sr-007 Mk1 and pair with 323s . I want to change my amp ,   i'm interested in BHSE and KGGSHV .  please give me a recommend. Thanks all

 

[spritzer]

Quote:

Can anyone describe the differences between the 009 and 007 in some technical detail?  I imagine they use different drivers, but how exactly are the drivers different?  Also, I'm wondering if there is anything in the 009 or it's manufacture that makes it cost twice what a 007 costs, or is mostly  "exclusivity markup" charged by Stax that makes up the difference in price?

 
I think it would be better to include the SR-Omega in the comparison as it was priced the same as the 007Mk1 (in Yen which is the only yardstick that matters here).  The SR-Omega has very expensive drivers but the rest of the headphone is far less special.  The drivers have a very fine gold plated copper mesh married to a resin structure at great precision with the dust covers and diaphragm supported on brass rings.  The whole assembly is slotted into a resin frame which makes up most of the earcup with the aluminum simply being a shell around it.  This makes servicing hard and there are some major corners cut (hello Lambda headband asked to support those housings...) to make up for the cost of the drivers. 
 
The SR-007Mk1 has a far better housing and headband/arc design with better materials but the drivers are less OTT.  Now we have a fully milled aluminum cup with the driver fully enclosed in a resin frame which is bolted directly to cup for excellent transfer of energy.  The SR-Omega isn't nearly as well constructed in this regard which can be clearly heard at higher volume levels.  The headband is a work of art as it's very cheap to build yet allows unlimited adjustment.  Better materials all around (especially on the later units) but the drivers use PCB material for stators, diaphragm supports and the dust cover rings.  PCB's can be mass produced in large quantities at very high precision plus they are non resonant and very strong.  It also allows to place with openings and where they are placed.  Granted etching copper or brass does allow for this as well but they have their own issues. 
 
With the 009 we have the marriage of these two design principles, expensive housing with a very expensive driver and naturally, double the price.  The housing follows the same principles as the SR-007, milled aluminum though I know they looked into cast magnesium for the frame but it was ultimately too expensive.  It's not as substantial as the 007 housing though.  The driver uses the same resin frame as the 007 but all the parts are high precision metal.  The stators use three pieces bonded together to make it very stiff and strong plus they looked into the thermal issues quite a bit (009 driven hard can dissipate close to 1W in heat, so much for electrostatics not needing power) as the stators could get warped a tiny bit which will increase distortion.  One has to remember just how tight the tolerances are here as the total stator to diaphragm gap for Pro bias is 0.5mm or 500um.  That's very, very small indeed...  As much as I hate the 009 headband it isn't cheap to make even if it is a bit flimsy.  The 009 design also almost bankrupted Stax so that's probably why they made them so bloody expensive.  Such a shame they can't live up to their potential though... 

 

[wuwhere]

(snip)

The 009 design also almost bankrupted Stax so that's probably why they made them so bloody expensive.  Such a shame they can't live up to their potential though... 

Tyll wrote about that here http://www.innerfidelity.com/content/chinese-speaker-maker-edifier-purchases-famous-electrostatic-headphone-maker-stax

 

[madbull]

I remember Jude's comments about the 009 on an episode of Head-fi TV, and I have to agree: with the 009 you'll hear things you never heard before.
 
It's absolutely unbelieavable.
 
Congrats to Stax.
 
To my taste, this is the best headphone ever.
 

 

[Talisker10]

I've got a set of Stax SR-202s that need some refurbishment love. The foam inside the earpads has disintegrated, and the headband itself doesn't retain tension.
 
Is there a reputable business or Stax-loving soul out there who can bring these back to ship shape? The US distributor Yama's Enterprises (or Accutech?) gets all kinds of loathing on this forum, so I wasn't keen to start with them. 
 
I'm in the San Francisco Bay Area - happy to ship anywhere (though for these cans not sure it would be worth shiping outside the US).
 
Many thanks for your guidance.