TMoney

Now if only someone had some HE60/HE90 they wouldn't mind parting with... It'd be nice to have those measured as well.

I'm honestly shocked how much my impressions of the headphones you used in the review matched yours, Tyll. I've never owned or spent extensive time with the HiFiMan gear so I won't comment on those, but I agree with you on almost everything else. Lambda/Omega 1/O2 mk2 owners, time to get this man moar gears to measure!

Awesome job on the review Tyll! I remember getting back from seeing a jazz quartet at the Village Vanguard a few weeks ago and throwing on the 009s to listen to one of the quartets older albums. Seriously... after listening to a 90 minute live set it was hard to tell the difference between the live set and the 009s playing the album. On Jazz they just seemed that good. The detail and tonality the 009s can present make them very hard to distinguish from the real deal. I didn't want to post about it at the time because it sounded way too corny and because I'm generally skeptical of my own impressions, but after reading your review it's nice to know that I'm not totally crazy. They really are Jazz monsters.

Wonderful work so far, Tyll. Can't wait to see your full written review. I'm hoping to see a bit of a comparison between the current contenders for King of the "Headphone" Hill if you have the time to work one in to your review. Given that the 007s, 009s, LCD2s and HD800s all seem to measure exceptionally well, I'd be particularly interested to hear any thoughts you might have on how they compare to each other in both measurements and subjective impressions. In particular, I love to read your explanations of how your subjective impressions match up (or contrast with) with the objective measurement data. As others here have mentioned, to the untrained eye it looks like the 007 is outperforming the 009 on the two square wave tests and in impulse response tests you posted earlier this week. I would think the greater overshoots by the 009 would give it an edgier sound than the 007, yet in your subjective impressions the opposite is true. I'm wondering something similar about the LCD-2s as they seem (again to the untrained eye) to have the best square and impulse measurements of any headphones you've tested. Wouldn't that suggest that they should seem faster than the Stax? I've personally found the opposite to be true, but I'd love to hear your 2 cents. Any explanation you could give would be really helpful in the context of the current review as well as in interpreting your future data. I've been listening exclusively to the HD800s since I sent the 009s in to you. Could you include them in a compare and contrast section if you end up writing one? While I almost always found myself reaching for the 009s over the HD800s when both were here, I'm impressed by how well the HD800s have carried the load while the 009s have been away. Again, many thanks! Can't wait to see more 'stat measurements in the future.

^ Sweet! Thanks. I'm sure he'll let you know when to send them once he's done with the 009 extravaganza. In the meantime, don't forget to put your info on the spreadsheet on the first page.

Not one, but two SR-009s? Tyll's cup runneth over! Time for some lambda and OII mk1s to materialize and keep up the momentum.

Tyll et all, I just shipped the 009s out to Montana this morning. I hope the BHSE is on its way too. I'm excited to see how they measure. Hopefully we can get others to start volunteering to send in their Stax gear as well. Arnaud, Could you link to some kind of primer for understanding the waterfall type plots you've been posting about? The information sure looks pretty, but I don't really understand what I'm looking at. Thx.

The rains have already started here in NYC with the Hurricane expected to hit sometime early Sunday morning, so I'll plan on shipping the 009s out on Monday once the Hurricane is over.

Good luck, Monkey! You live in Battery Park City, right? Thats like 20 blocks south of where I'm at in the West Village. I heard they are evacuating most if not all of the Battery Park/Financial District Area.

Cool. If the BHSE ships on Saturday then I'll plan on shipping out my 009s on Monday.

SO and Tyll, once you guys are ready to send and receive the amp, I'll go ahead and send along the 009s to get the ball rolling on this project. Might as well get it kicked off with a bang. Short of having a DIY T-2 to measure, the 009-BHSE combo ought to produce results that rival or surpass anything Tyll's measured so far. It'll be especially interesting to put the "009s are bright" claim to the test. I don't really hear it myself, but the measurements should give us a definitive answer. At this point only time will tell. N3rdling... thanks for the advice on the ear pads. I hope once the project gets underway you might consider volunteering a few highlights from your collection if you are feeling up to it.

Thanks again for doing this, Tyll. Once we get you an amp we can start assigning specific dates for people to send their gear on the spreadsheet so you don't end up with a glut of gear sitting around idle.

Gu Sensei's post of measurements of the SR-009s from a Japanese Stax thread raised some interesting discussion. While the measurements he posted are interesting as a conversation piece, there are questions about the quality of the data and methodology of the testing. The measurements are not nearly as useful as the type of through headphone measurements that our very own Tyll Hertsens has been making and posing over on the Inner Fidelity site. In the want for more objective data on stats, Tyll has graciously agreed to measure electrostats if we can send them out to him in Montana. The plan will be to coordinate people sending in their gear so that Tyll can measure the electrostatic lineup we are able to get to him off of a single electrostatic amplifier. As Tyll does not presently have an electrostat amp, we are going to have to send one. Voltron has volunteered his 007t, but if anyone has a higher end amp they'd like to send we can use that instead. I'll be sending along my 009s as well as helping coordinate the effort. As Tyll is only able to measure a few headphones at a time, we will be assigning shipping dates via PM and the spreadsheet.. If this sounds like a good idea, and if you are willing to send in some electrostat gear to Tyll for measurement, please leave your information in the spreadsheet here. It will be great to have some quality measurements for the Stax range.

Yes, I'll take point on this. I think the best course of action would probably be to start a separate thread with a spreadsheet where people can sign up to contribute their various gear for measurement. I'll set it up later this evening unless someone has a better idea. The plan will be to coordinate people sending in their gear so that Tyll can measure whatever electrostatic lineup we are able to get to him with all the measurements taken off a single electrostatic amplifier. If you are game Voltron, then your 007t seems as good a choice an amp as any unless some of our other members want to send Tyll something higher end.

Thanks for responding, Tyll. If this is going to happen, lets see if we can round up some other electrostats while we are at it. It'd be nice to be able to measure them all on the same amplifier to remove that variable from the equation. Does anyone have some 007s and Lambdas they wouldn't mind sending along? I'm obviously in to send my 009s.

Hmm... I wonder what the issue could be as far as measuring stats other than amplification? Given Tyll's known aversion to stats and the fact that this is a stat thread I'll bet it he hasn't seen (and won't see) these posts unless one of us clues him in.

Just floating this out there... As long as we are on the subject of how the 009s measure, I wouldn't mind sending my 009s to Tyll if he'd be willing to measure them. I'm thinking that Tyll probably doesn't have a stat amp on hand. As I'm stuck using an old SRM-T1 until I can get going on a KGSSHV, I wonder if anyone would volunteer to send Tyll a nice amp to borrow and use for the measurements. Does that sound like something that might work?

ED just moved the date on their website back to 8/23. At this point October doesn't seem like such a bad guess.

Did you ever hear anything back from ED? It looks like the Japanese sellers have some fresh supply (See price japan) so maybe there is some hope for the rest of us in getting our 009s soon.

Converted the stock HD800 cable from SE to 4-Pin XLR. Because when it comes to DIY we all gotta start somewhere.

And the new elusivedisc date is up: 7/29/11. Ugh. Maybe that date applies to new orders and not to existing orders? Either way, I'm not holding out much hope in receiving the SR009s any time soon.

Yeah, I'm thinking about doing exactly that at some point down the road. Lets source-roll when our 009s finally come in.

I fully expect to get killed for saying this given the hatred on this site twoards the Amphora. I think the RWA pre will be an "adequate" source for the BHSE -> SR-009 whenever they arrive. I'll let you hear it with the Siemens CCA tubes I have in there the next time there is a bay-area meet-up. It sounds quite different from Bobcn's Isabellina. Still, the RWA is no Perfect-Wave. Then again, what is? Horio and I are talking about working together on building a KGSSHV to drive the SR-009s until the BHSE shows up. I only put down my BHSE deposit a few weeks ago, so I don't expect to see it until the fall. As much fun as it would be for you to have an O2 around as well, unless your BHSE comes early I'd probably just stick with the Lambdas and the 323. I agree though, it might be a long wait.

I was originally planning on purchasing some mono-block amps for my speakers, but I changed my mind and decided to "go Stax." I had a chance to hear the Omega IIs again... they are incredible. I used the money I had set aside for speaker amps for the SR-009s and the BHSE deposit. <blasphemy/> For whatever reason, your Lambdas didn't really do it for me, </blasphemy> but the Omega IIs sure did, even out of a Woo GES. It also seems that most (if not all) of the head-fiers/head-casers who's posts and thoughts I most respect are all already in the Stax Mafia. Given many of the Mafia members' high expectations of the SR-009 and high opinions of the BHSE, I was sold on both.

Thanks for the updates, blubliss. I've got these on order from ED as well. The mafia finally got to me.