Voltron

I have only had a couple of hours of listening time with the 009, but I can see (hear) why people would make the bright/fatiguing/etc. arguments especially in comparison to the 007. It is clear and detailed and definitely voiced much more like the SR-Omega, so the possibility is there. That is good for me because the Omega is more to my liking and the 007 too muted and subdued. In my system and with what I have heard so far, I did not find any of the 009's traits to be negatives. To be fair, though, I have neither analyzed it deeply or for enough time, nor have I challenged its bass or tested whether stuff I don't listen to would sound bad. I definitely look forward to trying them in tandem with the other top Stax, and wish that my BHse had two Stax jacks. One of these days I will have my T2, and that will help. All in all, listening to the 009s have made me more interested in spending some time with headphones than I have been in a long while.

Whoa whoa whoa, stop the clock. You just gave some actual advice to Theunbrained. What were you thinking?!

Dear Sleepless in Cayman, Good luck and keep a stiff upper lip, but just not a stiff throat! Regards, Abby Seriously, Wayne,I hope you get that sorted quickly.

It's you. I stopped by Cask Store today and was shut out for Gran Classico (2 month wait for stock apparently) but I did manage to find some other stuff including No. 3 gin, which sounds really good, plus some cute 200ml sample bottles of the new St. George gins. They also have their monkey absinthe in the 200ml bottles, which was very cool.

Yep, I have the 4070 and it should be an interesting comparison. More later.

I met up with Brian/BHJazz and his lovely wife Lisa at Jasper's Corner Tap for a couple of drinks. I started with a Cloudkicker, which is a confection of gin, cynar, chartreuse, and campari and then I had an End of the Affair, which has Dry sherry, Hennessey Cognac, Rocky’s Bitters, honey, and champagne or something like that. Brian started with a rum swizzle and then had an Old Speckled Hen, while Lisa stuck to white wine. Good times catching up after four years since I last saw them at HeadFest in 2007. Now having a High Water Hop Riot back in Mayberry. Cheers Brian and Lisa! And nice looking cocktails and whiskies tonight, btw!

Willis Jackson & Pat Martino -- Gravy

Nite Nite Biggie.

St. Vincent now playing here as well.

I'm not sure how the transducer is supposed to make shitty sounding music into anything but shitty sounding music. But I agree -- as I think Andy would -- that if the 009s sounded terrible with all rock music then they wouldn't be great cans. I did not have that experience last night. And I have not done any kind of side-by-side comparisons with other Stax, but I intend to do so with the SR-Omega and SR-007BL. I still do not understand your love of the 007, and even though it sounds good on the BHse it feels muted and distant in comparison to the Omega or the 009. K--XR indeed, although M-XR monoblocks into one of your custome transformer boxes might be pretty cool.

I think those are Ulrasones, for the OP's benefit.

You're right. I'm so stupid!

These older Grados are cool, and they come with a hat:

Damn, I hope this cake tastes better than it looks! Have a good one listening to some Bill Evans 45s. Cheers!

Been listening all night with the Ayre C-5xeMP > Ayre M-XR > BHse w/ xf2 Blackburn EL34 > SR-009 and I have not heard anything I did not like. Fleet Foxes CD, Dave Alvin SACD, Eugene Raffalo SACD, Bill Evans SACD, Joe Satriani SACD. Beautiful, simply beautiful.

So, you're liking the vinyl effect, then? I know you love you some Pavement and have the digital realm covered and recovered, so it's good to see you comparing analog.

Thanks for reminding me!

The 3-way made the cover of Stereophile! You're so cutting edge out there on the bottom of the world.

Those Scarjo pics have really sexed up the Slower Forum. NTTAWWT

Satan's Whiskers (enroulée) Makes 1 drink 1 1/2 ounces gin 1/2 ounce dry vermouth 1/2 ounce sweet vermouth 1/2 ounce Mandarine Napoléon 1/4 ounce fresh orange juice 2 dashes Angostura bitters Instructions: Place all ingredients in a mixing glass. Add ice, shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Yep, that is a 375ml bottle and it is almost gone. I need to stop by Cask and get some vermouth and chinato and whatever else jumps out.

"A Fudgesicle is a frozen, ice cream-like snack." Necessary, or just hilarious?

Satan's Whiskers (marcelled) Adapted from a recipe by William Eichinger, Finnegan's Wake, San Francisco. 1 1/2 ounces gin 3/4 ounce sweet vermouth 1 1/4 ounces fresh orange juice 1 teaspoon falernum syrup 2 dashes Fee Brothers Old-Fashioned bitters Instructions: Place all ingredients in a mixing glass. Add ice, shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Read the article: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/09/09/FDHH1KL8RM.DTL#ixzz1XzF7M8yy Lacking any sweet vermouth I used Chinato to good effect. I will try some of the other variations too, but this one with Falernum seemed the most interesting. My favorite Regan quote: "I found that, if I simply called for more gin, rather than pedestrian, Satan's Whiskers can be rather intriguing. More gin tends to have that effect on many drinks, I think."

I hope that cheeses are wrapped up.

Is Prague coming up still, Colin? You should hit the Americky Bar (http://www.americkybar.cz/ http://prague-stay.c...1-americky-bar/) and the Strahov Monastery brew pub (http://www.klasterni-pivovar.cz/en/) and go on the Segway movie locations tour (http://www.praguetou...Date=09/30/2011) with Rene ( Brazilian dude).

^Lucky!