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Yummy chow! HS

Ukraine accuses Putin of humiliating Trump with devastating attack on Kyiv. Russia launches record number of drones and ballistic missiles in seven-hour assault shortly after its leader spoke to US president.

Re: The 'old guard', that's the theory.. in practice, well, it's never quite been implemented (lest we factor in certain companies that literally took what came before them but wasn't patented and re-made it with cheaper mats [and a worse audible outcome!]). I can only give younger generations kudos and salutations in 3 sectors and 3 sectors alone: - Speaker/headphone drivers, cartridges and tonearms. And all 3 came with direct consequences. Not the thread to expand on that though. As to ES labs specifically? - I'm still waiting for the "new" electrostatic that has the magic the old STAXes did; think Hayashi's time. Thinner diaphragms and unicorn dust fused diaphragms aside, the magic was lost after 1995. Slight, occasional, strictly technical improvements aside, they were also noticeably dryer, up to a lot, downright clinical in recent all out efforts; and noticeably forward/direct, all of them. Compare the original Lambda nrm/pro to anything releasing after '95. Folks don't seem to get it the way i do maybe, but part of what made STAX what it was? Was that magical character. Never since, other makers like ES labs included. If you've heard a decent pair of OG Lambdas or Sigmas (non-arced, non-imbalanced, driven well but not obscenely well), you know what i'm talking about. It was never about the outmost fidelity; never. It was about the character. Which's been lacking ever since. ES didn't tick that mark either. Was lucky to "get" one from the usual channels, would have regretted paying for it personally. - And at 2K a pop? With Chinese manufacturing costs? You're kidding me? Do forgive me for not crowning the man as a "savior", of anyone's. Yes? *2K for the cans+shipping mind. Customs fees on top, lest we neglect. Say 2.5K a pop? So no, i don't do see where ES Labs "comes in" to save the day. Unless of course we yet again go back to "i -personally- can". An ever-decreasing niche of individuals. And again, it lacks the magic the old STAXes did. Not even close, sorry.

I felt obligated to post this. Drinking Onyx Coffee Lab's Columbia Jairo Arcila Lychee. No....just no. I literally just wrote Onyx. First time in over two decades of making coffee that I very much felt the need to provide the feedback. I believe they added actual lychees during the fermentation process and the result is I will likely toss the remaining beans in the bin. WTH?!? Save yourselves....LOL. HS

I for one don't mind prices going up, might be the Icelander in me as having one of the smallest currencies in the world means we are in for a wild ride. Inflation targets here are usually around 3.5% but seldomly reached so loosing 50% of value in 10 years is perfectly normal. That being said, something has to come along with that price increase. The SR-Omega build quality is terrible so when moving to simpler drivers and housing with the 007, we got nicer parts. Actual leather earpads and they were not terribly expensive either. The fact that the SR-Omega was 180K Yen in 1993, the SR-007 again 180K Yen in 1998 and finally rising to 192k Yen in 2007... that is not good in terms of the economic health of the company. That was indeed always the issue with Stax, not enough capital to work with. I'd even call the price increase to the 009 justifiable. I may not be a fan of the sound signature but they did bring some impressive improvements, fused stators, nice housings, back to wooden boxes, new arc design (even if it is a bit crap) and a new cable design. Then we come to the earpads... nice leather but the nastiest pleather possible on anything not touching the head so the pads degrade quickly. We were back to the crap foam used in the 007Mk1 pads so they don't last either but now you can't just replace the foam. How much would it have cost to make them entirely out of leather? My favorite part though is the "made in japan" piece next to the cable entry as it's just a flat piece of plastic that is bent and glued into shape to cover up the hole. Yeah.... The 007A ended at 200K Yen and now we are up to 250K Yen (plus tax) and aside from any voicing issues, worse cable and cheaper earpads/headpad for a large premium. It's not exactly progress is it... On another note, I recently got a NOS L500mk1 and the earpads on those are such utter shit it isn't even funny. The L700 pads aren't much better as again, same cheap material used where they don't touch and it just falls apart.

That's why they call them spirits...I think.

The hobby is fucked, but it also opens up the opportunity for others to come in and sell stuff that isn't bullshit. That's kinda where we see stuff like ES Labs come in (though here in the US the tariffs make it harder, but that's another brand of bullshit). Basically, the old guard can go ahead and price themselves into the stratosphere, but smart people will take advantage of it and outcompete them. Or so I hope. Maybe it's just the booze talking. I'm usually not optimistic.

Not Leno. Leno hates Ferrari. Pretty epic stable whoever it is.

Didn't know Jay Leno was an audiophile.

"a bit of a car guy" Where did you learn such understatement? Would you like a Nice Cup of Tea?

Not yet open but I have one client, and he just happens to be a bit of a car guy. Every time I show up at his garage some new amazing car shows up. Came in today and these showed up. They also arrived with a new 911 Turbo S, but that was at his house.

Only this hobby? I'm at about 32% of my buying power, even though my income has actually increased; on top of a steady pension, i do work for select customers again, complimenting it. And i'm still at 32% of where i was 15 years ago (this in EU). Inflation may be steady in Japan, but prices have skyrocketed everywhere, in everything and impact them too. Was seriously doubting high quality given the MRSP, so this is the one thing i personally won't judge them on. Don't forget it's 2-3 grand in our local currencies, VAT in. In their local currency it's 275 grand. You think folks rush to buy it over there? Brands like Zanden, Kondo, Airtight, Ikeda, they're only for rich Westerners by now.. i'd rather STAX did not follow (no offense to anyone here, most really are high rollers, but the 9000's pricing was an insult to me; nice big middle finger for me to sit on).

RIP to a good one. Such a beautiful tribute by Virginia, who is beautiful herself.

Basically they found ways to make it a cheaper product to produce and are calling it a facelift. Makes sense why they couldn't even bother to make the cable color match. Pathetic. Between this and Audeze deciding to charge $1500 for a space port , this hobby is so fucked.

They are a bit more sensitive than a recent 007A when doing A-B comparisons but seem to be just as power hungry. I'd pick the two ES Lab sets over them at the current state of the set, they are both superior and better made too. I'd rather say the whole driver structure and diaphragm would impact the detail. It's not top end detail or something like that, it's small details which are buried deep in the mix... simply aren't there and readily apparent on the 007A. I could measure them but it's just a pointless exercise and tells just a part of the picture. Right now they are okey with the Kennerton pads and indeed, the difference in quality is staggering compared to the Stax. Thick leather that actually smells like it even though I've had these for years. One part I haven't touched on is the headpad... yeah it isn't great either and I suspect it might be a problem for some users. There is only about 10mm of travel for it until it reaches the arc, and that's after I've been bending it upwards. It's also way too thick and doesn't bend easily to the shape of the head. It also feels very cheap, worse than the 009 and X9000 pads.

That' true, this kind of ultrasonic edge-sealed earpads must be produced in Dongguan. They can be bought on 1688.com for about 100 Chinese yuan, customized earpads are also cheap, but I don’t like these industrially produced earpads, they all don’t sound good. This is indeed the role of kennerton pads, making OG 007 sound less dark and sharpening sound a bit, the Asia region does prefer brighter and sharper sounds, like hifiman and some audio-technica are of this type. But I usually don't change OG 007 pads when listening, cause OG earpads from manufacturers like Stax and Sennheiser are usually designed for specific tuning purposes, I regard them as various brand house styles. The residual value in the second-hand market can show some clues. The transaction price of 007A/mk2 in the second-hand market in China is usually around $1,000 or even lower, which is much cheaper than the price in Europe and US on head-fi. The price of 009 in China is generally $1,600-1,800, which is similar to Europe and US.

Welp. There goes that I guess. Be careful what you wish for. Hopefully it's mostly a pad issue and we'll find something that works eventually. How hard are these to drive compared to the older versions? How do they compare to the two new ES Labs headphones? Seems like that's going to be the closest competition. Also, would the increased acoustic damping, if that's indeed the case here vs the last gen, reduce resolution? Hopefully someone with a squiggle machine can post some squiggles. Technically I have one, but I'm not going to jump on these just yet.

The sound and the smell finally got to me so now they are like this: I believe these are Kennerton earpads and I fitted the dust screens from a set of old 007 pads inside them (as they didn't have anything at all). They are more aggressive now due to the smaller opening but at least the smell isn't killing me. I must say I'm a bit shocked by the stock Stax earpads as they are clearly just made by some Chinese OEM, the look and the feel is exactly like those 20$ pads you can find on Aliexpress. Same elastic material inside as dust cover too and they are not well made at all. The left and right pads don't match up fully with one being about 5mm off. Now knowing Stax these will be sold as replacement parts for 300$...

RIP Michael Madsen. Only 67. Enjoyed him in Quentin Tarantino movies in particular. https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/03/entertainment/michael-madsen-death

I think I'm forced to replace the earpads simply because of the foul stench... but they are clearly an issue. Everything sounds too boomy and hollow.

Thanks. I'm going to guess the larger inner diameter opening vs the 007mk1/A is contributing to the increase in brightness. If it fits, i have a sneaky feeling that putting the 007A earpads on this may get you back a lot closer to the tuning you usually love...worth a shot

The pads are slighly angled, similar to the older 007 ones and they are perfectly circular on the inside. I'm not thrilled with the quality of them (aside from the smell) and that vinyl back lip does point to a specific OEM in China. The pads simply pull off like the older units but are a bit more of a pain to install even though there is no spring as the housing doesn't rotate. That makes the top next to the headband rather annoying to deal with. Still no 009/X9000 in terms annoyance though. I've taken to doing A-B comparisons against the 007A and yeah, the older unit is much smoother and more coherent. Still the bass on the 007S is tuneful and "fun" plus the bright nature isn't overly annoying.

thanks for the early impressions. Are the earpads angled like the 007mk1/A? and is the inner opening circular (unlike the D shaped usual 007 pads openings)?

I don't think this is heat related as they've gone on at least 5 flights to get here and that cools anything right down. They are also factory fresh as they can be so no... this is from the earpads. The smell is bad enough that I've stopped listening to them.