Please find the excuses for me not to buy Stax 009S headphone

@geoffkait 
Yes, I have read Stax was claiming at least 150 hours of burn-in (SR-009 headphones) at the factory. This was said to be done not for sonic development, but for weeding out early-failure drivers, known by consumers as the infamous driver imbalance issue - which became problematic during early runs of the 009 several years ago. There was speculation the problem became worse with the new PEEK diaphragms used in the 009.

My original 009S (one of the very first) actually still developed the imbalance issue after several hours. It was immediately replaced by my dealer, and the 2nd pair has been perfect - it's possible they truncated the burn-in during the rush to fill pre-orders? I didn't have the issue with any other Stax headphone, but by the numbers the 009 production seems to have had the worst bout of it. 

I had been happy with my dynamic speaker Lansche 4.1 since 2007.

But I wish to try electrostatic one.

Stax 009S will not be played so loud as to hurt my hearing.

As former Apogee user, I am also attracted to  Raal Requisite SR1a ribbon headphone.

https://www.superbestaudiofriends.org/index.php?threads/raal-requisite-sr-1a.7283/page-4

Empire Zeus IEM(earphone) sound pretty nice overall with nice dynamics and details.

Out of curiosity I pulled the trigger for Stax009s and Carbon amp last Saturday.

But the statement below got me a little bit upset.

Shall I have had tried Rall Sr1a instead of Stax on 14 days return guarantee?

I have to wait until July 9th to find out how Stax009s and Carbon amp will sound with Dave and Mscaler.



MrCypruz
1
2d

I got the SR1a on Friday along with the Vidar and the Performer s800 but did not have a lot of time to do a proper evaluation other than quickly running through @Torq‘s suggested songs. In a nutshell, the SR1a provide the very best sound that I’ve heard to date coming from headphones, period.

The bass response is the most detailed and well textured I’ve ever heard to date. None of the HPs that I own (009S, Utopia & Empyrean) can match its speed, attack, decay. As @Torq stated, the SR1a takes no prisoners, it reveals everything upstream as it is with unparalleled realism and accuracy without any coloration. Neutrality is one of its main personality traits, I guess that’s why it’s very highly regarded in the professional realm for music production.

In less than 2hrs of listening time, the SR1a made me reach a state of audio nirvana for the very first time, therefore I don’t want to go back to anything less than this. I’ll spare my other 3 headphones because I like the looks, comfort and still enjoy their capabilities.
I’m officially done with headphones for now…until the release of the SR2a!!!

https://forum.headphones.com/t/raal...ld-monitor-headphone-official-thread/3220/265


https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipMtNSB4H5MbCvLRW_yUOEOl3WRBxcf--Jdo_iBJFwEeTH1i-rg4WsWWn5tp03-W1Q/photo/AF1QipO_LtxteP3OFSd1YopAtfSuuDWFPWgEEsTI_Ubh?key=VjN1SHRiUWYxUGd0dk5qWTVQOEJNNXdMaEZ0RGZB

I guess that Rall SR1a has tighter bass than Stax 009S.

But I am not sure whether SR1a has refined mid range as latter.

I have not got Stax yet.

Probably I will give Stax and Carbon amp more than one month to tune the sound using different power cable and interconnect.

After fully tuning 009S, I will order SR1a to compare with 009S.

Since I have excellent 2 channel system with powerful bass up to 20hz, refined midrange out of headphone is more important to me.

In the meantime I would like to collect information how to get the best sound of Stax 009S and Rall SR1a .

If I find Rall not to have as refined midrange as Stax, then I may return it in within 14 day's of grace period.