monsieurguzel

Thanks so much Kevin! I'd also be super interested in buying a board once they're ready for a run.

Yeah, it was a really tough decision on my part whether or not to wait for the exchange rate to get better. But i'm also in the opinion that the dollar isn't going to be getting substantially better in the next few months.

Couldn't you theoretically daisy chain a bunch of T2s to power each speaker channel? Now that would be an outrageous setup! Probably not as crazy as this setup though "The system, containing 4 separate dipole Subwoofers, (seen in the middle), made from a total of 40pcs of 15" woofers, followed by 1 dipole panel per channel, each containing 24pcs of 8" units, in turn followed by 2 full MF ribbon dipoles per channel plus one HF panel per channel, containing a total of 68 meters of true ribbons, has a sensitivity of +100dB/1W/1meter and can continUously handle 15500W with +3dB headroom. A total of 31000 Watts, equaling 146dB SPL. The system comes complete with its own power amplifiers to match."

See....instant savings! Why bother buying an extra set of speakers, amps, pre-amps etc. when you can just listen to your headphones REALLY loud!

Yeah, I guess it really is all about what's trendy and new now...and in this case it's people wanting to double up their HE-6 headphones as a speaker setup too

And I'll have to make do with my lowly BHSE On a side note, it's pretty funny how some folks on the other side of the fence think that the SR-009 won't need anything more than a stock 727 since you don't have to turn the volume knob as high as with the O2... Somehow headphone amplification has become all about how loud you can play something. If you want to have a chuckle, read this description of RSA's new amp: http://www.raysamuelsaudio.com/ I particularly like this quote " You can literary make your HE-6s sound like a speaker from a distant of 12 feet or more"

I've had the original ipad since day one and also recently got an ipad 2 (the old one was passed down to a family member). This thing never ceases to amaze me what new novel applications developers are coming out with. My two favorite at the moment are the time Warner cable app (the idea if watching live cable on my ipad is mind boggling) and Zite (most innovative news reader / aggregator out there)

Yay! I'm glad the group buy came through and all the hard work people went through to get us a pretty substantial discount ($750)!

?? what new opportunities? Btw, is Elusive Disc require the full sum upfront or do they want a deposit until they arrive?

Last response from PriceJapan regarding shipping insurance and taxes: "Q. My one last question is do you think I will have to pay import tax coming into USA for these headphones? A. Probably 95% not, because we usually declare its value as low as US$200. Q. Also, if the headphones get shipped through DHL, are they insured automatically? A. It is automatically covered by shipping insurance company in Japan. ( not by DHL ) You can claim for shipping insurance, only when its shipment is missing or arrived damaged. ( Malfunction will be covered by warranty in Japan, not by shipping insurance.) Kaneda www.pricejapan.com"

I've been looking around online regarding import taxes into the US and found some information on http://www.usitc.gov/ (US Trade Commission) stating that electronics such as headphones or headphone amplifiers get taxed 4.9% so the $200 Andy was referring to sounds about right.

Yeah, didn't think about taxes coming into the US. I've never had to pay taxes before importing stuff....do they only charge you if it's of $1000? When you do add it all up, it does seem like it will be very hard for overseas distributors to compete with the $4500 group price from Elusivedisc. I'm still in. Now if only someone in LA could lend me an unused SRD-7 or other random crappy amp while I wait for my BHSE to arrive

Ok, so here's a little twist on SR-009 pricing. I contacted PriceJapan regarding their current price of 309,800 and it is correct. Here is what their response to me was: "Thanks for inquiry. We are not allowed to disclose the price source of 309800 Yen, sorry. After you pay $1000 deposit, you will be asked to pay the rest when we get your SR-007 (before shipping). Kaneda www.pricejapan.com" I'm guessing that they might be getting it straight from Stax possibly? Anyhow, this brings the shipped price to the US (DHL) to $4,171.

I'd be perfectly fine with Elusive Disc...they're one of the bigger Stax sellers in the U.S. so I'm comfortable with that. Count me in! Btw, just noticed Stax has a new pdf for the SR-009..have fun using google translate: http://www.stax.co.jp/Japan/SR009_JP.html

So Todd also has a similar deadline of tomorrow for the pre-order price benefit?

Thanks for the awesome score blubliss. Thats really tempting considering that it's $750 off U.S. dealer price and same price as Japanese dealers. Helps that I'm also in Los Angeles to pick them up! Who's the dealer?

Yeah, I'm also confused about the price....does this mean that they is a sort of pre-order price applied? Also, what if the lowest price goes up / down by the time they ship the headphones? Do they charge you the higher or lower amount? Either way, thats a pretty damn good price!

It now seems that Fujiya has them up on their website for $4300: http://www.fujiya-avic.jp/products/detail6910.html They are one of the more reputable Japanese dealers out there, but I'll try to contact them about shipping to the US and the possibility of a group buy. But either way $4300 sounds quite a bit better than $5250 retail in the US.

No luck with PriceJapan...here's what they wrote: "Thanks for inquiry. Because our fee is too thin, we are keeping ONE PRICE policy for any customer. NO discount request will be accepted, sorry. We have not been notifified about SR-009 price. We will list SR-009 when we get its dealer price. Kaneda www.pricejapan.com"

Has anyone else noticed how it the headphone portion of Playback magazine pretty much seems sponsored by Hifiman. The reviews are clearly biased and if you actually download the pdf guide, every headphone has about a page or two while the HE-6 has 6+ pages...not counting all the Hifiman ads in there. I wouldn't take too much written there very seriously...

I'm trying to get in touch with PriceJapan to see what their price will be and if they are willing to have a group buy of sorts. They are a good reseller who has quite reasonable prices for all their other Stax products.

Thanks for all your hard work Blubliss...4750 does seem more reasonable that 5250 from Jack Woo at the moment...plus it helps that it is from a U.S. distributor in case of defects (not that is means much considering Yama's inc is useless). I'm curious how much lower we could get them as a group buy from a Japanese distributor...

Isn't the general threshold for some kind of saving usually 5 or 10 orders for most parts?

Ehhhh, schooling is overrated I think what you really need is a good set of headphones.