New Stax: SR-X9000 :)

Would love to hear these. Still miss my SR-007mk1s, which were about as good as I’ve heard audio get (when driven by the Mjolnir). But these are quite spendy….

 

I should have bought them 007s back off you. Bugger.

As for the new ones, I dare not even look.

 

The guy who bought them from me didn’t get on with them. He may still have them?

 

Listen to STAX's amazing electrostatic headphones "SR-X9000"

https://av.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/review/review/1355511.html

 

I recently traded in a pair of original sr-009 for a new sr-x9000 . Ordered in August but only received just before Christmas ( about 4 months waiting list ) . I'm driving them with a Mjolnir KGSSHV I bought from a guy on pinkfish who lives in the next county to me and was able to deliver personally .
My initial impressions are -

The tone is less bright but that took away some of the sense of air and space .
Imaging is less LCR with more accurate positioning of instruments and more speaker-like soundstage .
There is still some occasional hint of glassiness - but a lot of the brightness of the sr-009 settled over time ( or I got used to it ) so this may also settle .
There is much more upper bass giving a more conventional tonal balance but I'm less convinced that they go as low as the sr009.
I needed to up the volume somewhat to get what I thought was a similar listening level to the sr-009 so I suspect they benefit from a more powerful amp .
Not convinced they give any more detail than the sr-009 but that may need a better amp - next year maybe move to a mjolnir KGSSHV carbon .

Overall it's a nice easy listen a bit like a HD650 with much more detail and a proper soundstage but maybe a bit less low end kick .
Probably a return to the sound balance of the original sr007 mk1 with more detail .
As I say the sr009 seemed to improve over time so it's still early days to be definitive.

 

Update
now had these for approx 2 months . Sense of air and space seems to be there - perhaps just got used to less brightness . No hint of glassiness / hardness in treble . Seem to be at least as detailed as the sr-009 .
Still seem to need the volume a little higher than the sr-009 . Occassional sibilance on female vocals on a digital source - but maybe only one in 50+ tracks - not sure if this is actually revealing a slight problem in the digital source .
The vast majority of the time you just forget they are there and enjoy the music .

 

I think that was me . You still enjoying the Mjolnir? I miss it and my 007mk1s from time to time...

 

I was trying to remember - the strange man offering me cake ? The mjolnir is better in terms of dynamics , detail and bass than a stax 717 ( which is actually very good in its own right ) but I suspect the higher current delivery can emphasise the 6khz peak in the sr-009 ( and lesser extent sr-z9000 ) causing occassional sibilance . I think the mjolnir guy redesigned the KGSSHV and carbon to cater for this so I might treat myself to a carbon next christmas .

 

I built a KGSSHV Carbon and can recommend it thoroughly, can't compare to the non carbon version but it was an improvement on the 717 that was driving my SR-007s before. If you ever plan to build one yourself let me know I have quite detailed info that would help.

 

I didn't realise the Mjolnir guy had published the circuit diagram - I know the chinese have tried to produce some clones but they had poor reliability as they tried to cut corners on the parts spec . While my soldering skills are reasonable I don't think I would want to risk spoiling several thousand pounds worth of components so would probably just buy direct from Mjolnir although the VAT would be a bit annoying.