Years ago I had the upscale Stax with their top
SS amp. I loved them. Had no headphones for many years. Moved to Focsl Utopia when I purchased my first Naim system.
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These over ear pads are made of sheep’s leather and are very comfortable. As to what size they are I have no idea.
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@WolF I too remember the pads to be quite comfortable. Also I could wear them without sweating and they had a great extension cable.
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Yes, I bought a pair about one year ago, to use with my Activo P1 DAC. I took some time before purchasing as I was reluctant to spend three times the DAC cost on IEMs. However, I really enjoy them. I find they have an excellent soundstage, with accurate and realistic bass and a really full midrange and treble. For me they are endgame IEMs as they work extremely well and I love their small and comfortable fit. Highly recommended.
Cheers…P
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I have the IE600, which I use with my Astell & Kern personal player. They too are good once you get the earbuds right.
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Outdoor listening to a Qobuz playlist of different versions of „one last cold kiss“ with my mobile headphone setup and accompanied by a glass of cold cider 
Cheers!
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My new headphone setup. I’m really using this to plug the gap between my new amp and speaker build.
Abbas OPT Headphone Amplifier
Sennheiser HD58X user modified.
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“I’m currently thinking about buying back my old SOLARIS and Shangri La Jr. combo…”
It´s back again… 
atb, Tom
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Been a bit carried away with the late night listening / mobile setup lately. Currently enjoying newly acquired Sony DMP-Z1 with Muxicbox Steranko 40 IEM and their Golden Voice cable
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Stepped up from my Sennheiser Momentum 4’s.
Wowee and strewth and stone me that’s an ear opener and no mistake, guvnor.
Mark Lev No. 5909.
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It’s no doubt me but isn’t the AQ Dac the wrong way round?
Weird, but no. The “right” way round, it just turns off the headphones when you plug it in… 
The Heddphone 2GT connected to my Phonitor SE, is a good step forward.
The Crossfield switch make some badly recorded albums, with hard right/left channel stereo effects listenable on headphones.
The Lehmann Audio HP amp is now relegated to backup duties. Or I might just set up a streamer HP setup un another room.
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Clearly a mirror pic…
There are headphones in that photo?
Surely the primary focus is on the kitty?
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My wife took the photo of the cat but said this would probably make a great photo to share about the headphones as well.
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I’ve seen good reviews on the ML No. 5909, though I haven’t heard them myself.
However, I agree that the wired connection looks strange. How is the other end connected?
Unless I’m missing something, the DAC is backwards (as @Neilb1906 pointed out), and is not actually conveying an audio signal to the headphones.
Are you sure that you aren’t connected wirelessly via Bluetooth?
I was curious and downloaded 5909 user manual. Per the manual, the USB-C port can be used in the following ways:
-
Charge the battery.
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Listen to audio via (wired) USB audio. For example, with a USB-C to USB-C cable, plug one end into the headphones and the other end into a computer. The user manual refers to that as “USB Digital Direct”.
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There’s also something that the user manual refers to as “Passive”, where a “proprietary” Mark Levinson cable accepts an analog signal and passes it to the headphones via the USB-C connector. The manual states that “When connecting passively, none of the electronic or app functions are operational.” I can’t find any more details on “Passive” mode. The drawing of the cable in the manual isn’t very enlightening either. So I have no idea how it works.
Otherwise, you can connect the 5909’s wirelessly (assuming the battery is charged) via Bluetooth.
So…
Unless the Dragonfly can operate in reverse as an ADC (doubtful), and somehow this ties in with feature #3 (which I don’t actually understand), I suspect that your hard-wired connection isn’t actually doing anything.
BTW, AFAICT, there’s no analog input connector on the 5909’s. So again, unless I’m missing something, there’s no way to use an external DAC, like an AQ Dragonfly, with them.
I found a discussion about 5909’s “passive” mode. They are apparently repurposing the USB-C connector in this mode to pass the analog signal straight into the headphones.
There’s more information about “passive” mode on pages 2 and 3 of the downloadable FAQ document.
Including that the headphones power-off when passive mode is initially detected. You can use the headphones like that, powered off. Or you can turn them back on and engage ANC.
HOW DO I LISTEN IN TRUE PASSIVE MODE (WIRED)?
For airplanes or analog listening, plug 3.5mm audio plug into headphone audio input to engage passive (wired)
audio. Headphones power off when audio cable is plugged in. Passive audio listening will work even if battery is
depleted. Microphone and buttons are disabled during passive mode.
NOTE: The No 5909 is only compatible with the Mark Levinson proprietary passive audio cables included.
DOES THE ANC FEATURES WORK WHEN USING THE ANALOG CABLES INSTEAD OF BLUETOOTH
WIRELESS?
Yes, if your battery is not depleted in your No 5909, the ANC settings that you selected as your default settings in
the app can be accessed when connected in a true passive mode (wired).
With your No 5909 powered ON, connect either the 1.25m or 4m, USB-C to 3.5mm proprietary audio cable
between your source device and your No 5909. Once the cable is connected, the power LED on the left ear cup will
turn off indicating that Bluetooth is no longer engaged and by pressing the ANC/AWARENESS button on the left ear
cup, you will cycle you through the default modes associated in the app.
DOES THE No 5909 HAVE A PASSIVE MODE THAT BYPASSES THE ANC AND DSP??
Yes, with your No 5909 turned OFF, connect the headphone to your source device’s headphone connection using
either the 1.25m or 4m USB-C to 3.5mm proprietary audio cable (included).
In this situation, all electronics; Bluetooth, internal amplification, and DSP are turned off and you
Yes, it’s all a bit puzzling. One of the reasons that I picked the 5909’s is that it can be used passively with ANC and phone calls still operational, “Active/Wired”.
In a YouTube video by a hifi store in the States done in 2022, the presenter is shown wiring to 5909’s to a smartphone in exactly the way I’m trying to: headphones USB-C out to jack plug into the Dragonfly red, attached then to the phone with a USB-A port to USB-C pin adaptor, into the phone.
When I try this, all that happens is the headphones turn themselves off. I don’t know what phone he’s using, but it could be an iPhone which may have some bearing on the situation. My phone is a Xiaomi 13. I’ve seen mention of some level of incompatibility here.
As I say, when I reverse the directionality, there is an immediate and obvious jump in SQ from using Bluetooth LDAC. This is as big a jump as that between LDAC with these headphones compared to my Sennheiser Momentum 4’s with aptX Adaptive, good though that is for the price.
Available volume is somewhat restricted, I have to take it to nearly maximum for any listenable level. I wonder, as the Dragonfly isn’t doing anything in this config, if it’s only enabling a connection instead of the power down, in some peculiar way to do with the Chinese phone.
Also, as the Dragonfly is not functioning as anything other than a signal carrier, is it the phone DAC or the 5909 DAC that’s doing the work? Such was the level of SQ improvement over the LDAC playback that I strongly suspect it is the 5909 DAC.
Anyway, I’ve ordered a 3.5mm/USB-C adapter to connect to the phone (no jack port on the phone) without the Dragonfly and see if that gives me “Active/Wired” with a decent adjustable volume. In the meantime, I’m using the “USB Audio Pro” app to sort the volume problem, although the way it works when it’s piggybacked on to Qobuz is a bit of a faff.
Hey ho.