bellhead

I see there is a Carbon mini. What are the dimensions/weight? Thx.

The 009 has more truthiness.

Yep, got the KG HV mini. Great amp; tames the 009 into much less of a wild animal. Listened for hours of fun + excitement w/minimal cringing. For some reason, 'sounds better with the SE inputs on this early model, less shrieky, and every little bit of Quaaludes or Serotinin helps the 009, as long as you don't mess with the tight bass. Nice work Spritzer- big thanks for this creation.

Thanks for that. My 009 is sz9-15xx that I got 3 yrs ago directly from Stax. I don't know what to make of this bass-heavy 009 talk. But FWIW, artificial is the last adjective I would apply to my 009. I hear some amazing Real-ness that I did not hear with my previous SR007 mark 1s or my Lambda Novas many years back. When everything falls into place, my 009 is sweet with the fastest bass on earth.

Any thumbs up/down/sideways or other uncensored comments on the KGSSHV-Mini (Mjolnir) I'm getting to feed my 009? It's a used one from a few years back I think, the one w/ about a foot-square footprint (that's ~ .31 meters square for those who think metric), 400V I'm told. 'finally giving up on the 007t2 amp. Thx.

Well, I got some RCA cleartops for my trusty 007t/ii amp and did the rebiasing, and my SR009 sounds great and real. The new tubes somehow targeted the annoying area of the highs like a bulls-eye and now I'm a happy camper. Still there are loads of little details I can't detect as well with my dynamics (even the Senn HD800), and I would even call the SR009 silky and sweet. The bass has great transparency too, a real see-through quality, and decent impact (not thunderous, but certainly very good enough not to feel thin or missing in action at all). It's a nice delicate sound but somehow the impact and swing-factor is great too, with speed and again, that incredible level of detail now without fatigue. So maybe someone could chime in about why these tubes make such a difference? Were the old ones just worn out? Was the biasing wrong before? Or are these tubes just really good? I've got a new respect for this amp. Food chain: Shunyata Triton power conditioner --> EMM XDS1 cdp --> Steath Sakra IC single ended --> Stax 007t/ii amp (also plugged into the Triton) --> Stax SR009 phones. Older Shunyata Anaconda power cords (Alpha Helix and VX on digital) used throughout. My old SR007 Mk1 I had for 7 years never sounded anywhere near this nice or profound from the 007t amp. I mean, since Justin is ending his run of the BHSE, what else really worthwhile is out there for the SR009 except for KGSS amps that are only sporadically available from private builders?

Sold my early 9xx pair (too bright, no matter what cable), then bought new 133xx pair, and they are much less bright. They sound a lot better with tubes, supplying some bloom in the mids and highs and adding some humanity to the sound. So when LCD3s or other phones pump out some midrange glare on some old crappy CDs, the Senns just hit the spot and squash the annoying peaks (like in vocals). Wish the image size could be a little bigger sometimes. I like the non-lumpy bass a lot.