spritzer

Indeed... ?

Ok... To think this was 5 years ago is nuts.

...more like replacement...

The new earpads are much stiffer.

Liquid sound is desirable...

Makes sense with those earpads...

So they have a vented version on top of this? This is beyond all the stupid shit we see with dynamics.

I like that a lot. Interesting heat sink for the output devices.

That is quite shocking level of technical ignorance...

What the actual fuck is up with that??

Indeed, a used set of 007's can be had for 1300$ or so.

JH is out...all hail the KSE1500.

Nahh, I just mostly have poor impulse control. One is still sitting in Japan so it will either be sold at some point or just kept in the box. Yup I did that but it is still annoying.

Ok for the record...changing pads on the 009's is a epic fucking pain. Even the SR-Omega is easier and that says a lot... So not wanting to mess with the 009S just yet I took my vengeance out on the 009's instead. Now I've always disliked the stock 009 earpads, they are too soft and thus too shallow. I propped mine up with some foam inside the pads which helps but not by much. So off the pads went and in their place some EP-007's. They have to be customized which makes them unusable for 007 use so beware of that. I also improved the seal with blu-tack as Stax did a piss poor job of that. The end result is interesting, some of 009's issues are alleviated. They are still bright but not as forward sounding as they used to be. The seal is also much improved and so is the bass. They also sound more focused and "real". I need to plug them into a Carbon as I doing the testing on a KGSS Klassik which is a bit warmer but I don't hate my 009's now... I should have done this years ago.

These are similar to the pins we use on the Stax sockets so not a problem to solder to them.

Yeah, that is a large handicap...

That might work for a short test but I might just as well swap them out. I did find some good candidates here so I'll try it first on the old 009's.

The main reason why I bought a first production unit now was the L300 and zero issues with that run. Figured I'd give them another chance not to fuck this up. Any driver worth its salt will be run for a large number of hours before it ever sees an enclosure. Then run in again in the enclosure but none of this is done to loosen it up or anything like that. It is simply done to prevent and sort out any defective or marginal units. To think that adding some hours on top of that will change anything is pretty preposterous. So let's say this is real and if the drivers are matched into pairs after 50 hours and continue to change...wouldn't they have to be matched again? To think this is some linear change is irrational at its core so anything matched during production would have to be matched again. Now back to impressions, over all the 009S is a nice improvement over the 009. That bass issue bothers me but I also don't want to rip them off my head anytime something remotely bright pops up. They just lack the impact and power of the SR-Omega and 007's. The sound is more ethereal and not as grounded. I don't really want to rip these apart to change the earpads but I might take my regular 009's apart and try some new pads on them.

Nothing is going to change in either speakers or preamps. The drivers have been run for a few hours at the factory and so has the preamp so if anything changes...something is wrong. I just changed my mind.

I'll get the Voce soon but I've spent a bit on headphones recently. Shangri-la jr, L700, two L300 LE, 009S and KSE1500.... The Voce has been getting horrendous impressions from actual users so I'm not optimistic. Plenty of positive "reviews" from the fluffers but we all know it is bullshit. There is no such thing and break in, burn in or run in. Anybody who claims such things are real needs to have their head checked and taught some basic physics. What is real is would be amplifier warmup and our crappy hearing/brain which is really slow to pickup some things. Our impressions change as our senses are slow, it's not the electronics which are somehow magically changing. As for them being a disappointment... not quite the T8000 level but Stax had the chance here to create something spectacular. There are a lot of mehhh products out there, the Shangri-la, HE-1 spring to mind as something you walk away from very unimpressed. I like the Shangri-la Jr's but they don't do anything new, one walks away fairly unimpressed which is really not an option at this price point. Here I think the earpads are the issue. There is a lot of open area in them and that is death to electrostatics. It creates all kind of weird artifacts but I'm not sure if I have some other earpads in stock which could work as replacements. One other thing, the headphones smell in a bad way. It's not the nice smell of leather one would expect but some weird small. Seems to come from the earpads but I'm not sure.

...in other news I have the SR-009S sitting on my head. This is one of the very first sets shipped out and I only plugged them in just over an hour ago so first impressions only. It's funny to see what is essentially SR-007's parts on them and they do look very nice. Those stators always should have been gold plated as it looks so much better. In terms of sound my reaction is more mixed. Now the good...that horrible forward balance on the old 009's is gone. The treble is extended but well controlled, more like a refined version of the L700's without their slight bright nature. This is a massive change to the better. Now for the less great part...the bass suckout which is present in a part of the spectrum. When I got them I just plugged them into my office system (regular Carbon fed by a Denafrips Ares) and put the player on random. Don Henley - The boys of summer came on (fitting given the lack of a summer here) and the track just sounded thin and distant. I also tried one popular Icelandic song which starts with all the focus on the snare drum (Das Capital - Blindsker in case it is online) and it just sounds weird. They should sound powerful and heavy but on the 009S it is weak and distant sounding. I need to do some digging as to what is causing this but two things spring to mind, a port hidden in there or those awful earpads. The 009 earpads are a terrible design so that will probably be my first stop. I will need to do a bunch more listening but I'm a bit disappointed now...

That's too funny as they certainly have gold plated pins and sockets. I've already cut some up to use in headphones...

All of the PC-OCC cables have gold plated connectors dating back to 1987.

The extension cables are still the same wide pc-occ with the white line despite that they updated them to 725H The 007's should see an update soon as it is the oldest model still in production.

Also the 212 has already been used.