Thanks for adding the detail fanboy N3rd.  I'm surprised that you're finding them bass light, that was something everyone was expounding over when hearing pre-prodcution models at shows.  Maybe it explains why Drew hasn't commented on them since the production models arrived? 

You're certainly making me think I should have considered the SS amp!  It will be interesting to see the tube amp topology and see if some rolling can do anything to help things out. 

Unfortunately my office forwarded my KS's on without checking with me so they are skipping the CEE TEE leg of the tour.  Unless customs decides to ruin my day I should be rocking them early next week.

Oh, and I guess I'll be a headband test because I've got a decent sized melon to squeeze these bad boys over... 

Interesting comments so far!

My take:What baffles me is the following: How can the light diaphragm of an electrostatic driver produce such a large amount of resonances in the mids?  Resonances in the sense of a very wet sound, reverb-like in a way. Where is the dry delicacy and transparency of the classic ELS transducers, the famous “window to the consert hall”?  (The main attraction of the ELS principle, so to speak!). Is this resonant sound perhaps the ideal of the manufacturer? Is it the amp? Has he made the amp to sound this way? In addition I find the low mids level much too high, relatively speaking, so that the treble seems almost missing. (where is the sparcle of musical sounds?!). How is it possible to make an ELS driver so weak in the treble department?!
Questions remain: Will it improve over time; for example? The suspension -which I suppose is the rim of the membrane itself- may become less stiff over time, say. Its stiffness may prevent linear movement of the whole thing when new. Can it explain some of its behaviour? Or has the driver unit been given too low  weight, giving too little support to the pushing force on the diaphragm? (everything else is set in motion instead?).
To try to say something positive: It has more substance to the sound than the ESP950, and is perhaps not much worse than the Koss, all over. In general ( and otherwise) the system as a whole seems well made IMO,  except perhaps for the meaningless heat produced by the SS amp. The amp itself looks very nice, is functional and stylish imo. (Designed with good taste). Olaf .

P.S I: Sorry about my English  ( but my Norwegian is probably worse, since I know how to distort it).

P.S.II
While writing this I have been listening to a local classical station, and after a while almost started to find the cans acceptable (go figure!) Now it is Alladin Suite by Carl Nielsen, undeniable some energy in the timpani blows in the “Negro Dance”!  (Blomstedt/San Fransisco SO/Decca, very recommended )

From the descriptions, they sound like ESP950s but more rolled-off in the treble.

shipsupt: I really don't see how anybody could find these to have a lot of bass, electrostat or otherwise.  I think they were probably just playing them really loud.  The guy did tube roll some better stuff in and I *think* the amp sounded a little clearer but I wouldn't be surprised if that was just my mind playing tricks on me.

Curious indeed.

I'd say the KingSounds are rolled off at either end, so in that sense I can hear how the relative lack of treble extension makes them sound more laid back compared to various Lambdas. I'm hearing the KingSounds as more solid overall however, with a less airy and more grounded sound, and so I think that's what contributes to their sounding more "real" to me.

Sub bass is not bowling me over on these, but overall bass quantity seems good for a stat to me. Their sounding more weighty than the Lambdas is less about bass though and more about the overall character of the sound, the weight of notes in general I guess. Kind of the way some orthos' weightier sense of presence is across the whole spectrum and not just bass. In that area though the Jades are still some of the best stats IMHO.

I do absolutely agree about having to turn these up more tho. The KingSounds don't seem well suited for low volume listening.

I agree these don't have the typical 'airy' Lambda sound.  I've never understood what people meant by 'grounded', thanks for clearing that up.   I don't really think these sound weightier than the Lambdas.  Actually I think we need to be more specific here as there are a lot of Lambdas and they vary quite a bit in terms of weight and bass.  I would say these probably have more weight than the original series of Lambdas (NB/Pro/Sig), but not as much as the latest generation. 

I also think it's kinda cheating to play these louder than your normal listening levels when doing comparisons.  I suspect this is the reason my impressions changed a bit between the dealer's place and when I got them home.  I was playing them loud there so they didn't sound so distant.  When I compared them to the LNS though, I volume matched them so I could compare signatures.  I figure if you play them louder than the other headphone, they're definitely gonna get a boost in terms of weight.  The louder headphone also usually sounds more impressive at first. 

I pretty much agree with all of that.  Are you hearing a lot of tape hiss and other high frequency anomalies?  When I pushed them kinda hard they seemed to be struggling a bit. 

I only bought them because they were made by another company...if they were made by Stax I'd never buy them.  I think I'm gonna open them up and look inside    Btw, let's see an internal pic of that tube amp!