mine haven't ever squealed

Mine never squealed - bought from Spritzer and sold to Blutarsky, but as far as I know they still don't squeal.

Two non-squealers here..

Mine has a bit of a squeal. Still gotta send it back.

Mine that I had before only squealed with the Stax T1 on the right side. The ones I have now also don't squeal with the Koss amp.

Well, I just sent mine back to Koss. Here's hoping they won't be squealing when they're back.

Pair #2 landed today with no squeal from the stock amp...

Pair #2? I thought you were trying to sell pair #1?

yah, well, you know

Brand new ESP950 arrived - and there's something weird going on.

Set it up, turn it on, and for the first 20 seconds or so everything is fine. Then this severe clipping-type distortion sets in as if the amp is running out of headroom, and progressively gets worse until everything is a distorted mess. In both channels, at all volumes. This is with the E90, AC-fed, Opus 21 as source.

Turn the amp off, wait a minute, turn it back on, same story. First 15-20 seconds are fine then distortion sets in.

I'm guessing some component in the E90 is burned out somewhere? The headphones themselves seem fine, but I don't have a Stax-to-Koss adapter to try them with the 717. I have no idea what's going on really, but oh well, next week back you go.

That sucks.

Hope you can get the problem resolved quickly.

That's one messed up amp.

bumpy up as I've now joined the ranks of ESP owners.

Initial impressions are mixed as I don't have a decent amp for them, just the koss amp and stax srd-7mk2 and neither are ideal. They sound ok so far and show promise but still not sure if they're keepers yet. My orthos are roundly kicking them in all the right places so if a decent amp doesn't pull them up they may be departing again but I'll give them a chance.

I like the overall balance, they are certainly better than most phones I've heard and have the type of sound I like a lot. The bass is a bit lacking in quantity and depth though that may be cured with and amp to some extent but wont know until later. Comfort and fit is ok, a little more mass wouldn't hurt (I actually like beefy phones) and better pads. I'm looking forward to having a good play with them to get a better grip on their sound and we'll see from there.

I thought the bass extended pretty deep and the treble had decent presence, but I thought there was something wrong with the tonality the times I briefly auditioned the 950. It was always out of an SRM-1/Mk2. Also, I agree that the 950 seems a bit fragile, since the frame is mainly made of thin plastic. The cord is pretty short, too.

bumpy up as I've now joined the ranks of ESP owners.

Initial impressions are mixed as I don't have a decent amp for them, just the koss amp and stax srd-7mk2 and neither are ideal. They sound ok so far and show promise but still not sure if they're keepers yet. My orthos are roundly kicking them in all the right places so if a decent amp doesn't pull them up they may be departing again but I'll give them a chance.

I like the overall balance, they are certainly better than most phones I've heard and have the type of sound I like a lot. The bass is a bit lacking in quantity and depth though that may be cured with and amp to some extent but wont know until later. Comfort and fit is ok, a little more mass wouldn't hurt (I actually like beefy phones) and better pads. I'm looking forward to having a good play with them to get a better grip on their sound and we'll see from there.

Get rid of the stock cable and the dampening behind the driver, and try them again off the SRD-7 Mk2 with a really nice amp. They can compete with or slightly beat the Lambda Sigs at that point.

it has a stax cable and no damping and I'm running it from the EHHA amp

hmmm...

they're up against my fave phone ever so it's unsurprising they're not matching up just yet. I have plans for them so things will improve I'm sure.

they're up against my fave phone ever so it's unsurprising they're not matching up just yet. I have plans for them so things will improve I'm sure.

Well, I have to admit that while the ESP-950 and Lambda Signature got the axe, I still love the Smegma Pros.

I have a pair on the way, Is there any other source for the ESP to Stax adapter besides Apuresound? Thanks.

Its a very easy DIY.

Thanks, I'll do some reading about DIY'ing one. I'm guessing the recommended method is re-terminating the extension cable to a Stax connector?

Indeed. Cut the extension down to whatever length you want and put a WPI plug on it. All the info you need is here.

after a bit more listening today I feel the smegma pros still have the edge on them for overall balance. The 950 is a bit shouty in the upper mids and are pretty bright. All from the E90 amp and SRD-7Mk2. I'll wait until the eXstata gets here for proper full evaluation but so-far the Stax still have it.