Yup, diaphragms. Was thinking about how much I like bouncing off the stators.

my SRM1/mkII is back with a Koss to Stax extension cable custom built by the man who did the service for the amp.






Who gave so much coke to my Koss ? it seems it woke up from the dead   

Interesting. Mind elaborating?

A bit soon to be really trustable and precise in my description.  I think the koss has a kind of soft sound with an inoxxuous attack . As said  before, it rounds the corner. with the E90 , those characteristics lead to a somewhat imprecise, blurry and boring sound (tisane) . With the SRM1/MkiI , the sound is still a bit soft but in a better way. Notes have more impact in the whole spectrum, everything is more lively (coke).  The old granny woke up and dance. The speed is more noticeable especially in the bass area and treble offers more excitement.  Everything seem more focused , precise, delineated.   The HD800 has definitely a more merciless and precise attack/impact , deeper bass , a better way to present the music and its environement ( imaging, ambiance) as a whole and stays more involving to my ears  but the with the Stax amp the ESP-950 gave it a round for its money due mostly to this slight warmth that adds a special soul once you get it. 

My 2 cents from one or two hours of listening . Needs more time and serious A/B comparison to be really accurate but I feel the change is more than subtle. it's like the difference between an underpowered and well amplified HD600 in my mind. Not Night and day but more something like "Hey not bad" to "wow, this sing competes Higher than I would have thought" . Maybe I'm wrong and it's a only the new toy effect.

Not compared to the Stax SR404 yet. My HD800 will travel to Colorware during next month so I'll have enough time to play with the two stats. 

Currently listening to that :

OK . it's time for the final impressions. As you've alreadey seen, my Koss is for sale so you know the end of the story.

Currently, my HD800 is at Colorware for a full pain job. So these last ten days, I listened music with the SR404 and the Koss . I'm amping them with the SRM1-Mk2 and I have the Meier DACCORD as dac. My Octave is almost sold.

So i could compare the Stax and the Koss.  Despite the improvement brought by the Stax, I still find the Koss lacks attack and bite. It was obvious against the HD800 but it's still obvious the Stax. The SR404 seems (to my ears) to have more precise, clean and fast attack . K sounds like K ( hard attack fast decay) but with the Koss K tend to become T. Attack is softened. Corners are rounded as it was said before. I struggled with that, my music sound like it was photoshoped to sound more vintage . I don"t know how to describe it better in english sorry. For some blues, classic rock, old classic Jazz , bebop and such music , it's really good but not for what I listen too mostly.

Still in my opinion, despite its abilities to be clean , fast with a great reproduction of the Music and macro details, the stax falls short to reproduce micro dynamics. Each time I switch from the SR404 to the Koss , I felt an improvement in soundstage , ambiance . Spaces between the notes are better filled. Each time I switched from the Koss to the SR404, I heard the lack of resolution, the forwardness and the etch. The Stax SR404's music reproduction is bit "poor"(relatively speaking) in my opinion ;

Thanks to the better attack, the SR404 offers a more defined and more readable sound in every range . I think the Stax offers better extension too. More clear and crisp bass , more air.  For mids , especially low and high mids , I think the Koss is more balanced and meatier. The Stax is too lean in low mids. Harder attack + high mids emphasis + treble emphasis + lack of low mids/ high bass cause the shoutiness I noticed  at the first time and IMO cause the etch.  But after hours and days of listening (and brain burn in) , I haven't too much trouble with this etch ,neither with the Midrange shout.

Finally, for my music enjoyment the SR404 won and stayed on my head while the Koss went to its box. It's not to say that the Stax is better. In my mind the two stats are equal but the Stax match better my sound preference while the Koss is too soft and centered around its mids. It reminds me a bit my Shure SE535 . Good, refined, technically capable but it does not suck me into music.

The Stax amp definitely helps the ESP-950 but IMO does not transform it the E90 + ESP950 is really enjoyable and give a good idea of how the headphone sounds. I presum that People who don't like the Koss from the E90 won't like it much more from a Stax amp . ESP 950 lovers will love it more from a better amp. That's my own experience.

To be fully Honest, I struggled a bit with the seal of the Koss and i'm not so convinced I managed to find the best one. I tried many positions though and they didn"t change so much the overall result.

Conclusion ; Koss = 

Sorry for all mistakes, I wrote this quickly.