I am planning to buy the Stax x9000, but my friends say that the x9000‘s driver is easily to be malfunctioning, and the cost of repairing it outside of warranty is very high as we know. Therefore, I want to do a survey to see what the failure rate of the x9000 really is.

Thanks in advance for participating in the survey

My first pair suffered the imbalance issue within a year. The replacement pair have been solid for over three years. My dealer was astonished that Stax sent me a new pair. I chose to interpret this as meaning they knew they'd manufactured a faulty batch of headphones.

6 minutes ago, velomane said:

My first pair suffered the imbalance issue within a year. The replacement pair have been solid for over three years. My dealer was astonished that Stax sent me a new pair. I chose to interpret this as meaning they knew they'd manufactured a faulty batch of headphones.

Thx for replying. So you mean the early batches of x9000 may have some durability issues and stax have fixed that. That's good news I think

1 hour ago, Asphodel said:

Thx for replying. So you mean the early batches of x9000 may have some durability issues and stax have fixed that. That's good news I think

The durability issue was only my interpretation of what happened. I may be wrong. Let's wait for more results before drawing that conclusion. Still, these things make me so happy. Such a great set of cans.

@velomane did your dealer or stax inquire about the amp you were using? I am debating whether to go grey market or US dealer, because of what happened to my japan-purchased SR-009 just before COVID. It developed a hum on the right channnel just after two years of use, so I just shelved it. I tried contacting Stax USA last month if they can repair it, and radio silence so far. I am worried that even If I get the X9000 from a US dealer this time, I might not be able to get service from Stax USA if I use my KGSS-HV.

Edited 12 hours ago12 hr by PATB

1 hour ago, PATB said:

@velomane did your dealer or stax inquire about the amp you were using? I am debating whether to go grey market or US dealer, because of what happened to my japan-purchased SR-009 just before COVID. It developed a hum on the right channnel just after two years of use, so I just shelved it. I tried contacting Stax USA last month if they can repair it, and radio silence so far. I am worried that even If I get the X9000 from a US dealer this time, I might not be able to get service from Stax USA if I use my KGSS-HV.

I don't know the situation of the US dealer, but my friend in China confirmed that the Chinese dealer offers warranty service only when you use a STAX amp, and they don't provide cross-regional warranty services. Considering STAX is theoretically a Chinese company now, maybe this goes the same for the US market.

12 hours ago, PATB said:

@velomane did your dealer or stax inquire about the amp you were using? I am debating whether to go grey market or US dealer, because of what happened to my japan-purchased SR-009 just before COVID. It developed a hum on the right channnel just after two years of use, so I just shelved it. I tried contacting Stax USA last month if they can repair it, and radio silence so far. I am worried that even If I get the X9000 from a US dealer this time, I might not be able to get service from Stax USA if I use my KGSS-HV.

No, neither the dealer nor Stax inquired about the amp (a @GeorgeP DIY T2). BTW, I'm in Canada, so a different service network. I can't comment on any of your service concerns.