n3rdling

I've needed a new wallet for a while but everytime I look on amazon I don't find one I think is worth buying. I was gonna wait until I went to rural Mexico again to buy a nice leather wallet, but this is exactly what I've been looking for. Thanks! I'm getting the medium bi-fold in tobacco brown when it's back in stock.

HEV90/Aristaeus

The old me probably would have agreed based on early meet impressions. Those are my 4 favorite headphones so it's not like I think any of them suck or anything. The 007 is the best for poor recordings and probably rock/hip hop/pop. Imaging is super precise and they're super non fatiguing. If I could only have 1 headphone this would rank higher just because a lot of the time I like to just listen to random shit on youtube and the quality can be pretty bad. These aren't as neutral as the HE90/009 though, and that's really evident when you try to listen to any recording where trumpet is present...there's no bite. Ends up ruining some jazz and horn concertos completely. Omega is larger than life with beautiful mids and quite a bit of midbass punch. Imaging is a little diffuse, sub bass doesn't have much weight, and they are the brightest of the bunch. They can be quite goosebump inducing, but can fatigue easily. 009 is kinda a combo of the above two: signature similar to the Omega overall, but with the added imaging precision and sub bass presence of the 007. Downside is they can be a little sterile sounding at times. HE90 is the one headphone I'd say is clear cut better than those three. Similar to the 009 in neutrality, but never sterile or fatiguing. I think they use a different film for the diaphragm than Stax because the treble is more pleasant sounding. They can be a bit on the diffuse side, but the soundstage is super wide, helping to get rid of some 'headphone' sound. I used to think the HE90 was pretty shit because I only heard it from the A-10 and some SinglePower amps, then I heard it properly and ended up using it 90%+ of the time I use headphones.

HE90 >> 009 > Omega > 007

Very interested

In for everything

Happy bday Tyll! Was nice to meet you at the last meet

Nah I didn't want the amp so I just bought the HPs. I heard the KS amps for about 1 or 2 hours and preferred the SS amp.

I've spent some time comparing the KingSounds to a LNS, both driven from a T1S. As the hours passed I definitely preferred the LNS. My biggest complaint with the KS is that they sound super laid back. I noticed this the first time I auditioned them, and ended up having to play them a lot louder than I normally listen. At these higher levels, I noticed quite a bit of compression on loud passages...the drivers didn't seem to like being pushed that much. I actually don't mind laid back phones at all, but these took it a little too far for me. There's also a large difference in soundstaging between the two: the LNS has the typical Lambda soundstage, with decent size and really 'tall' imaging; the KS has a very natural soundstage with smaller but more believable sized instruments/sounds. The KS are quite bass shy, with even less sub bass impact than the Stax which is saying something. The KS also emphasize hissing/pops/ticks on the recording. Comparing the mids of the headphones, the Stax is preferred once again. The KS don't stray too far off neutral, but have a sort of echo'ey sound to the mids if that makes any sense. Strings sound much more right on the LNS especially. The KS are also one of the most veiled sounding electrostats I've heard. I'm sure most people haven't heard the LNS before (plus it's OOP), so I'll try to compare the KS to my 207's later. Note that the LNS is easily one of my favorite Lambdas. I would say the KS actually sound somewhat like a less neutral ESP950 (more treble, less mids), with a slightly bigger soundstage and a bit less detail. Also note that I was running the KS from normal bias voltage so there might be a little change in sound once I put the recommended voltage, though going by past experience it won't change much.

same

Have the KingSounds here on loan right now. Pin out appears to be the same as Stax pro bias. Running from the normal bias jack of my SRM-T1. Spent some time at the dealer's place with the KS amps for about an hour. The SS amp sounded better to me. More control, blacker background, etc. The tube amp sounded wimpier. SS amp got really hot near the top...I think they're gonna have to look at more adequate heatsinking. Both amps were RCA input only (SS had a loop out as well). He popped the top off the tube amp to change the tubes, so I got a peak at that at least. 2x 12AX7, 4x EL84, and 1x dunno. I'm pretty sure it was some kind of rectifier tube. 6-something-something-L I believe. Looks-wise, the headphones scream MADE IN CHINA. The plastic is really cheap toy stuff and I wouldn't try to bend them much. The positive to that is they're super light and quite comfortable on my head. I don't know if somebody with a bigger head can wear these without snapping the headband though. Pad material feels decent (better than ESP950), and they're rather large in diameter so my ears don't really touch anything. Again, comfy. Cups don't have much travel to move up and down, but can swivel from side to side freely so you can fold them flat if needed (think Grado pizza box). Cups don't really seem to be able to tilt much...it looks like they should but I don't want to break them. Cable and connector both pretty nice. You can't really see the stator design unless you hold it up to a pretty bright light. Looks to be standard perforated metal, hole diameter about 60% size of those on the grill. They're also using pinwheel/spoke bracing as found on the SR-Omega/SR-009. Think 009 brace but with a quarter-size hole in the middle and 12 spokes. I'll post impressions of the sound when I have some more time with them.

Cut two notches in the middle foam "pole" on one side and wrap the cable around them in an oval (vertically).

Has anybody actually confirmed that they still use Mylar? The 009 is described by Stax as using something like "super engineering plastics". I kinda have a feeling they're using a different PET film now.

As Birgir said, my BH has a normal bias jack on it which seems to work fine without arcing the drivers. I can't offer much in the way of impressions yet because I can only listen to them for a small amount of time before the humidity in the cups rises and the imbalance gets more severe - at least that's what I think is happening. I will say they sound a bit rolled off in the bass, a little bright, but they still sound very good. Impact is really surprising. I'll try to get some measurements up later.

People were pretty impressed by the one channel they could hear. When I got home I felt like an idiot for not utilizing the volume balance on the T1...it's been too long since I've used a Stax amp. Now that I have that sorted out, they sound great. I plan to clean them up, open them, and restore them so they work as new again. Next meet should be interesting...maybe I'll connect it to the Blue Hawaii

Vintage lambdas are the way to go

Heard it at the LA meet yesterday. c/p from impressions thread: I only really listened to the Abyss (wanted to hear the KingSounds but they were stuck in customs). They looked worse in person than in pictures, especially while adjusting the pivot on top. Fit was unsettling but not painful. I listened through the DNA Stratus and CA LAu. This headphone seemed like it had extremes in strengths/weaknesses. The bass was great, and the soundstage was really big. They were quite detailed for an ortho I think. The imaging was a little strange to me - diffuse for sure, but hard panned sounds were very distracting, perhaps due to the depth of the earpads. Mids sounded a bit off at times, but I'm not sure how to describe it. Purrin asked me if I meant 'hollow' and I guess that kinda describes it. Unfortunately the treble was a mess. The bass was high end, the mids were mid fi, and the treble was low-fi.

Happy bday

I've never heard the ECP amps but I really want to someday since they all have neat ideas behind them. Best amps I've heard for the HD800 so far are probably Balancing Act and Menace.

All

Cash's version of Hurt is prob my favorite cover ever. That Stairway vid is from the annual 'Kennedy Center Honors...' show, lots of good covers from those. This one is probably my favorite: Paul Simon covering 'Surfer Girls' at Beach Boys tribute: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmjj5Orjnl0

Got a link?

Bias line for NB Stax

Headamp: best build quality, parts cost to price ratio very good, wait times very long EC: iffy build quality on some units, parts cost to price ratio very good, decent wait times. I kinda look at Craig a bit different from the rest of the amp makers...he seems to be more about building new designs and moving on to the next, not really in it solely for business. Cavalli: build quality improving (newer stuff looks much nicer), wait times decent, parts cost to price ratio seems to be quite bad. I thought the LF and LL were overpriced based on what's inside...the LAu takes it to another level, almost a joke to me. People say that it costs more to build than it may seem, but that applies to all of these guys and I'm comparing ratios so I'm taking the other guys into account as well. Fact of the matter is that all of them are using custom parts, custom milling, engraving, etc. All three seem to be really nice guys in person and I hope they all do well. None of them make any amps I'd consider bad...I've liked all the HeadAmp and EC amps I've ever heard, and Alex's stuff sounded 'ok' to 'good' to me.

nice