Bjorn

*Do not waste your money on Amarra for Tidal*, my gosh what a piece of shit this software is. It's pathetically slow and very heavy on memory. Does it improve the sound? Not sure, not by a lot in any case. Irrelevant I'd say when it works this poorly. It shouldn't be that hard, I think the Sonic studio folks just don't care. Their customer support sure doesn't care about you if you have a problem, that's for sure.

Got a quick ears-on with both of Focals new front-runners. Really unfair of me to say anything really as the conditions were the worst, stressed and with gear & music I wasn't at all familiar with. The Elear is certainly a lot richer sounding with the Utopia sounding more reserved and refined. Both sounded tonally balanced to me with no obvious annoyances to them. Can't say either one had that "magic" my O2s do though. But need more time with them to say for sure. I'm liking Focal's new direction. The Sopra speakers sound pretty sweet as well, velvety smooth and with a nice richness to them. Also, Lamborghini orange!

Man, these new ones sound really good. Treble is much better, coherent and refined. The warmed-up bass is a welcome addition, I can't say I found it distorted sounding compared to the 800. It still can't hit the lowest notes though but hey... science I guess. It's still an HD 800, but in a good way.. without the most troublesome flaws. The precision with which they image the details and the acoustics of the recording through the soundstage is really something to behold, Sennheiser did a phenomenal job there and there is no headphone that can match it. And now, you can focus on that spectacular trait without having to deal with piercing treble and anemic bass notes. *Checks wallet* *Bites lip*... Nah, some other time.

Right, if you are used to how the 009 sounds (and provided the sound agrees with you) and you move over to the 007, it will most likely sound a bit lean and "lacking" in detail at first. But when you are used to the 007, the 009 just sounds fucked up in comparison IMO. As mentioned above, how we perceive and appreciate sound has much more to do with psychological factors than our actual hearing ability. If you are mentally set on the 009 being the optimum for whatever reasons - which really I can understand, as it's the most expensive offering in STAXs lineup, has been almost universally praised to the clouds and also considering that many people seem to agree better with what I'd like to call the more "modern" standard of HiFi (bright, thin) - then naturally the 007 won't sound better if you don't want it to.... or something. And vice versa. But I'd like to think I know how an organ sounds, how a trumpet sounds, how a violin, a choir, a double bass and a female soloist sound. And I recon many 009 users do as well to some agree, which I what I keep scratching my head about. The 009 just doesn't portray those instruments accurately. Surely you can tweak the 009 should you wish, the resolution is there and FR is easy to deal with using a good EQ. But for the price asked, things should sound more right out of the box. Oh and about the punch, the 007 needs lots of clean power to really get that punch. Fed correctly it has bass that is as fast, extended and punchy as on the 009, but with more body and heft.

To me, the "electrostatic characteristics" are the resolution, the smoothness and the precise, effortless transient response. The 007 has em all. It's just not bright, which is a flaw in many STAX headphones.

I agree with the above. Some claim how the SR-009 is a refinement from the 007. Build wise it is, sound wise it's a miss-step. It's FR is certainly smoother than any of the Lambdas, but it has a surgical quality to it and it just doesn't sound natural.

Weird. Definitely find the Lambda Pro to be a bright headphone. Not as bright as the Signature though. Can't stand that crap What about the 202 and 207s?

Sorry to break the subject a little but what Lambda models to go for if one wants a smooth sound? The Lambda Signature, Lambda Pro and 4/507 are too bright to my ears. I do recall the Nova Signature (Or was it classic? They all look the same) as sounding quite nice. Opinions? Spritzer?

$9999? Well that's bullshit. Remember the good ol' days when the HD 800 was expensive? Good times.

Ok I'll correct myself a bit. Certainly different amps with different topologies will add their own little touches. But when the amp or source adds enough character that it changes the headphone into something different than intended, then I personally consider that component ill qualified for judging the performance of the headphone. I'm not blaming people for customizing the sonics of their chain, but don't enter a discussion about how something sounds without having the right basis for it. If you get what I mean. I wouldn't drive a sports car in a blizzard and then get into a discussion arguing about poor traction.

It's funny because, I know a guy just like that. That 009 has spent more time in its box than it has plugged into anything. And I'm vomit-inducingly sick of this source + amp bullshit as an excuse. It's no news a better source and a better amp pays of, especially with revealing electrostatics. But while some claim how the 009 can scale its way to Saturn and back, I've always found the 007 to be the more demanding - and rewarding - of the two. By far. And these people who use gear that intentionally changes the sound of their headphones to make them "shine". Really good gear doesn't change anything, an amp should be a wire with gain and a source should be at least close to transparent. If it's not, then there is no point anymore in arguing about the sound of the headphones now is there.

On that I agree.

Seriously? I actually like the HE1000, I'd even rate it as my favorite non-electrostatic thus far. I did hear some slight oddities though, it's not completely neutral.

Ah, the W5000 yes. Just awful

*Nods, exhales slowly and wipes the tears*.

Well as this ain't head-fi (and all that means), I would assume one would be able to run a thread like this without having the hate brought down from the sky. Plus, roasting stuff is always fun so... 1. Ultrasone Edition 10. ~$3500(?). The most repulsive >$100 headphone I've ever heard, period. Couldn't stand more than 20 seconds of it. 2. Pioneer SE-Master1. ~$2500. Artificially boosted, distorted bass that interferes with the midrange and a tizzy, metallic top end sums it up quite nicely. And this piece of shit actually got quite a solid reception from magazines and some (apparently, deaf) headphone users. Was just recently measured by Tyll though and his measurements cohere with my impressions. 3. Grado PS-1000. ~$1600. U-shape exemplified, with a razor-blade of a treble. As a bonus, unnecessarily heavy with poor weight distribution. GS1000 is the same, maybe worse. 4. Beyerdynamic T1. ~$1100. Quite good sounding until you get to the high notes, where everything falls apart. Typical Beyer. 5. Sennheiser HD 700. ~$700. Like above, to a lesser extent. 6. Ultrasone Edition 8. ~$1000. May be the best Ultrasone, but that sure as hell don't make it good. 7. JVC DX1000. $???. Sounds like having a pair of coke-cans attached to your head. 8. AKG K701. ~$250. Very popular in its price range along with its different-colored siblings (Q701, K702) but I've never understood why. The older k501 is far better. 9. The Denon D7100. ~$800. A failure for sure, same goes with the rest of that range. 10. Ok, here it comes. The STAX SR-009. ~$4000. No, it doesn't suck. Yes, it's miles better than anything else on this list and better than all but a few headphones in this world. And hell, with some music it's even quite a nice listen. But, it's certainly the most overrated headphone ever sold IMHO. My god, the raves about this one. Certainly ain't nothing wrong with the clarity or the engineering/construction, but to me it just sounds off tonally. Upper mids/lower treble brought forward and lower midrange & bass thinned out compared to the 007. Damn shame as it's such a beautifully built and packaged piece of headphone. I would mention the HD 800, but then I figured - flawed or not - it might actually be the best moving-coil dynamic driver headphone in the world. And it's not obnoxiously expensive... not by todays standards. All subjective of course. Anyone else?

Yeah, definitely a solid pair of closed-backs. Best in class I'd say. If I didn't have the IE800s and liked the practicality of in-ears I'd think about getting a pair. Did improve considerably with an amplifier though while the in-ears are comfortable with just my iPhone.

Time to abandon head-fi I felt. There really seems to be no room for differentiating opinions in that SR-009 worshipping STAX thread. There is a whole lot of talking and not enough reason there I think. This place seems a whole lot nicer