spritzer

The thump shouldn't do any damage but it might be a good idea to follow the original and add some relays to the output. Stax used a 4PDT Omron relay but it is rated to nowhere near the specs we really need.

Awww...I didn't want to do any work!! I have something special planned for those 009's so yeah, I still want them. Hint, I'll replace the diaphragms and retune them completely.

I was going to offer new diaphragms for the 009's so yeah...they needed to be fixed. Justin you know what to do... I'll take one.

The construction is ok but nothing more than that. As a contrast, the SR-007 drivers are in a resin case which is then screwed directly into the aluminum shell. This here reminds me more of the SR-Omega construction where the aluminum chassis is more for show. The extra cable inside the cups has to be there to protect the drivers should the cable be pulled out of the entry...but it's still a silly solution. I'm prepping the new cable for them so I'll do the swap soon.

Well... I dug out the screwdrivers... Sorry for the crappy pictures, I just had the iphone to hand. First off, the true quality Stax plug: So that disk there normally sits flush with the plug as the pins are too long. They had that problem with the Jade so nothing has changed in a decade... Pure class. It is also incredibly crude. Funny how King Sound could make a ribbon cable and a proper plug at 1/8th the price... Speaking off the cable, you can barely make out the loose wires in there when I press it together. Here's the earpads...well one of them. They are pretty comfy but they do stink quite badly. No expense spared here... I did order some new pads to try out. Here is the baffle and the cable entry. The latter seems to not be molded around the cable so I might be able to remove this cable and put in a proper ribbon. Very long screws... They go all the way to the back of the housing which is plastic and has nice metal inserts. Now the baffle is off and it has this nice rubber gasket to maintain baffle seal. Now we can see the cable and the metal frame which provides the bulk of the assembly. Here is the back of the protective mesh. These are not the stators so why Hifiman uses this in the promo's as the stators is beyond me... Another gasket here which is good. Here we have the driver. There is a protective mesh but it is odd. It's not a solid sheet but some sort of a porous membrane. Copper mesh stators and the pitch is very fine. Finally the back of the drivers and the second protective mesh. You can also see the plastic frame which holds it all together. The drivers are glued together so I didn't want to mess with them more at this time. One funny thing, the cables inside the cups are really long. Like 10cm even though they would need only about 2cm or so... Over all, I'm impressed by the build quality. It's not Stax quality but they are getting better. I eagerly wait for the Mk2 version next month...

Ok that makes them a bit more reasonable but still... the parts are crap at this price.

The imbalance issue is still real and one set I know of is now on the fourth set of drivers. Every time it was sent back to Japan and it failed again. There were also issues with the new drivers being installed incorrectly so something is clearly going on. I do get about one email every month asking for advice with imbalance issues and the same thing stands, hit them gently on the offending side while not energized and they should spring back to life. As for the amps doing damage, you can bet your ass that amps out there will do just that. Woo amps with no output protection and laughably small ballast resistors, Cavalli amps with bias supplies which can fry the diaphragm. All those amps with a cap right on the diaphragm which is a very bad idea. Best was the Rudistor crap where he just placed huge caps in the bias supply to get rid of some hum and it had enough potential to burn it all too hell. Great plan...

Well they aren't identical as Stax did fuck with it a little bit but if you look at the schematic it is easy to see where it came from. There is also a much bigger part of this story which involves some people appropriating this circuit as their own that I'm not going into.

Always...

No mods except the 717 is actually a licensed KGSS...

It's always worth it to DIY something.

That's a loaded question but over all...no. In theory they should be the best, effectively open stators with a massive open area with none of the inevitable turbulence you get with hole stators. The downside is rigidity, how do you make them flat and make sure they remain flat when they are pushed hard (pun intended... ) . Since Stax are the only company which have tried these and have some engineering standards, let's take a look. So the first SR-X had mesh stators built into the same frame as the SR-3 drivers. They were tiny and had no support which caused reportedly massive issues so the Mk2 arrived very quickly. Then we have the SR-Omega. Large copper mesh on a resin frame and cartwheel spokes to try and keep it flat. Well anybody whose opened up an Omega knows how strong that resin is (it isn't) so after they were reborn (Stax that is) they tried aluminum cartwheels but that clearly wasn't enough given how very different the 007's were.

Stax are still stuck in the distributor model but slowly embracing e-commerce. There is a certain comfort level in only dealing with a limited amount of customers world wide and having them be your reps with anything customer related. Things are changing though as Stax now has a proper online shop in Japan where everything they sell is listed, including the spare parts.

Maybe there is already a Mk2 looming? The drivers in these are circular so I guess that is the only real difference. The odd shape of the housings is just for show as circular earpads would fit perfectly. I do have some in mind which have similar height and might improve the sound quite a bit. I just need to get some of those hifiman mounting rings...or just glue the fuckers.

Stax with proper English would not be the company we all know and love...

https://stax-international.com/products/sr-009s/ Here it is in English. I do find them funny, gold stators like the 007's and the same round protection mesh as the 007's as well...

No, the Susvara uses all the same crappy parts as this one so I need to find somebody to make real leather parts for these. These just stink, badly enough that I don't want to put the headphones on. I mean people who paid 6K$ for the Susvara can't be happy about this or are they all HF sheep without a clue? HFM claim the dust cover is "nanometer" for the best signal transmission but dust will always get through. They are likely the same as this one or at least very similar. Same headband, same cable, same fake leather earpads but quite a bit more money... The MSRP of the system is 8K$ and the headphones are 6K$. Have you seen them somewhere for 4K$? I was more referring to the HE90 parts, the finest quality vinyl used there for everything.

Focal being cunts is sadly nothing new but this is pretty deplorable...

I've been listening to them for the last few hours on and off getting to grips to how they sound. The system is a Carbon fed by the Denafrips Ares so just about as transparent as they come. Over all I quite like the sound, they are inoffensive which is something I'm a huge fan of. Any transducer should just get the fuck out of the way of reproducing the music. They are certainly a far cry from the turd which was the Jade in terms of sound so no major issues but still some small ones. The highs can be just a tiny bit too harsh, not like the 009's which are just aggressive. Here this is more of a slight sibilant edge where the recording is not perfect. The sound stage is perfectly find if just a bit distant and imprecise. It's far more subtle than say on the HE90, HE60 etc. and really depends on the recording how much you pick up on it. Bass....well the crap pads are really an issue here as they are just the standard Hifiman mount (i.e. 4 flimsy as all hell clips) and cost maybe about 1$ to make. The bass has nice presence but there is a dip in the upper midbass which makes them sound just a tad thin at times. I need more time with them but over all, not bad. No issues have cropped up, the drivers have no squealing and the coating seems solid with steady volume levels. They are also pretty comfy over all with my melon head. Now the stuff that annoys me...they stink, they stink real bad of that cheap pleather crap. I feel like I'm stuck in H&M hell with them on my head. The earpads and headpad have to go so does anybody know of any replacements for the Susvara? They seem identical so parts should be interchangeable. The cable is too short so the first job will be to replace it. I do have a nice 950 Stax extension which I could fit so that's probably what I'll do. Don't remind me...

So...Justin knows how to make me do crazy shit so I'm now the proud owner of a set of these. What strikes anybody holding these is just how fucking cheap they feel, they make even the old Jade feel well built in places. So let's start to examine them, I'll take some pics later when I have some time. The drivers are metal (copper?) mesh on a spacer ring. I'll get a better look at them when I take these apart. No solid dust covers on the back, clearly woven nylon so a huge fail there. The earpads are woeful... some odd mix of what feels like fake leather and cloth. They are also very badly fixed to the phones which means the baffle seal could be compromised. They feel ok on the head but are just so fucking cheap looking... They also smell like cheap fake handbags from China aka. a whole isle at Marshall's or HM... The headband is the standard HFM fair with the same fake leather headpad. These cost 6k$ so leather was out of the question? Seriously...no money left over for that? Very Sennheiser in 1991... The housings are aluminum and feel solid enough but they are not a one piece unit as Stax would do it. The back is a separate plate and how it fits with the rest of a the housing is a bit of a joke. No gap on the bottom...1mm at the top. Pure quality here. Now the for the best part, the cable. This thing is so fucked... Now the plug is a clone of the Stax one but they used the wrong pins (look identical to the old Jade pins) so they had to make a spacer which fits over the end of the plug to shorten the pins. Such quality and attention to detail... Now the actual cable is clad in the cheapest tech flex from the 90's that money could buy which makes it look a bit like something which would be shipped with a cheap computer PSU. You can see the wires through the techflex if you push it together and they are super tiny with transparent insulation. Not formed into a proper ribbon either so this is not good at all. I wonder if this cable would last a year with normal use, it's just that flimsy. I'll report later on the sound but spoiler...there are issues I don't hate them.

The HE-1 meaty? Nahh... mosfet flabby sure but that's it... In other news, I just got a care package from Justin...

Litz cables for electrostatics are all kinds of stupid so Stax would never do that. Nice gold plated stators and hopefully they fix the bloody voicing.

Nope...and it has been delayed for about a year now.

That shit is just too funny!! I'll send in an offer for 200€...

The KSA1156 should work and then there is the 2SA1627 which is in current production in China. They are either a TO126 and Dpak which is just annoying...