Thanks I'll definitely give your words a long thought. I didn't find the general clamping force too hard but the pads are too thin so the plastic case dig right into the glasses above the ears.
I actually went out today to try the 007's but they only had 009's. I thought why not 😁 and the fit was actually surprisingly comfortable! They had it setup on a D-50 (I'm not sure what it is, I'm new to Stax) and I was left really underwhelmed. I couldn't put my finger what was exactly wrong, but just like you said it was really dull and almost had no dynamics. If the 007 + 353x are similar in dynamics then you've saved me from making the wrong choice.
Upgrading both headphones and amp is a bit too much for me, but those mods you mentioned are interesting, will read up on those 👍 Also just curious, what type of regular headphones do you enjoy when you're not listening to Stax?