[Aleksandar R.]

Also one benefit a lot of people overlook about the transformer is it completely removes the noise floor of your amp. Since transformers are air gapped there's actually no physical connection between your amp and RAAL headphone so no electrical noise can pass through. Completely isolated. If there is distortion in the signal, that will pass through but electrical noise will not.

So you can use RAAL headphones with noisy tube amps and it will be perfectly clean. I've personally seen this benefit, I can't use my Utopia on my one 300B tube speaker amp because it's so high gain and I can hear the constant noise floor on it. But with my CA-1a, there's zero noise.

gammy, this is completely wrong.

 

[Aleksandar R.]

Vitaliy from Flux Lab Acoustics has heard it from the Envy in the Munich High End show, based on the photos he shared it seems like the regular wooden Envy (And maybe the AE as well but I'm not sure), he thought the headphones are interesting, but sort of overpriced, and he was wondering if the interface was not doing it justice / limiting it in any way. Just sharing his impressions here, don't think he's gonna post here soon.

Interface is OK.
Of all things that make the listening at Show less than optimal, he was wondering that...gee...

 

[Aleksandar R.]

I'd be willing to bet the center tap on the output is connected to the ground on the input side.
They don't technically need to do this since they are dealing with low voltages anyway, and nothing is likely to float at 100's of volts, but it's pretty standard practice.

No center tap.

 

[Aleksandar R.]

You're now making me think... would it work with OTL tube amps also?

The ones for speaker, yes.
OTLs for headphones, no.

 

[chrisnyc75]

Your ears are the only ones that matter.

I am finding this truer and truer the longer I'm in this hobby. Pay heed to other people's opinions at your own peril.

 

[gammi]

gammy, this is completely wrong.

Can you explain why at all?
And why does my amp hum go away when I use transformers with RAAL or STAX but none of my other headphones?

Here's a wiki segment to back up my point:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isolation_transformer

 

[Aleksandar R.]

The Munich shows are over and coming home is very nice, indeed!

The best presentation was at Hifideluxe in Marriott. A quiet room, selected sources, SAEQ, Solaja, Viva, Riviera amps...a truly exceptional listening experience.

The next best was at Felix Audio's quiet room at High-End. Who hadn't entered, had missed a lot.

The rest of presentations were in open floor space with high noise pollution, like my table at "headphone shop" floor with Felix Envy, then at Viva, Riviera and Auris booths.
Thursday and Friday were OK, B2B days and not much crowd and noise. Saturday was a circus and almost useless for listening.

Most people who engaged in a conversation with me (while I was there on Thursday) told me that Immanis was the best headphone at High-End, so that eased my pain of presenting headphones in open spaces.

All I can say is THANK YOU to all the people who bothered to visit us at Hifideluxe!

 

[Aleksandar R.]

Can you explain why at all?
And why does my amp hum go away when I use transformers with RAAL or STAX but none of my other headphones?

Here's a wiki segment to back up my point:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isolation_transformer

First, these are not isolation transformers (narrow pass-band made to supress anything that isn't 50-60 Hz).

Second, think of why you hear the noise from a tube amp in the first place...It is clearly passing through its output transformers, isn't it?

There are transformers for many different purposes. Ours has the same purpose as a tube output transformer, but because it has a much smaller turns ratio and far smaller number of windings, it is superior to any tube amp output transformer and will not take away anything audible from headphones, be it music or noise, whatever the level.

 

[Aleksandar R.]

Can you explain why at all?
And why does my amp hum go away when I use transformers with RAAL or STAX but none of my other headphones?

Here's a wiki segment to back up my point:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isolation_transformer

RAALs has low sensitivity. 15-20dB lower than other headphones, which is more than enough to throw low hum noise below the threshold of hearing.

I don't know what are the ratios with STAX.

 

[gammi]

First, these are not isolation transformers (narrow pass-band made to supress anything that isn't 50-60 Hz).

Second, think of why you hear the noise from a tube amp in the first place...It is clearly passing through its output transformers, isn't it?

There are transformers for many different purposes. Ours has the same purpose as a tube output transformer, but because it has a much smaller turns ratio and far smaller number of windings, it is superior to any tube amp output transformer and will not take away anything audible from headphones, be it music or noise, whatever the level.

I think we both agree, I also said that it doesn't remove anything from the signal, even noise.
I'm only saying it blocks DC hum, which is something all transformers do, whether they're isolation transformers or not.

As for output transformers, sometimes they are the source of the noise, they can hum themselves.
And is CA-1a less sensitive than Susvara? I thought it was more sensitive. I can hear the noise on Susvara but not on CA-1a.

Anyway, sorry for the detour, just wanted to share a benefit I've had with RAAL. None of the 10 or so headphones I've tried on this tube amp are noise free except RAAL and STAX and I was attributing that to the transformers. Perhaps it's something else. Thanks for the response.

 

[BassicScience]

I think we both agree, I also said that it doesn't remove anything from the signal, even noise.
I'm only saying it blocks DC hum, which is something all transformers do, whether they're isolation transformers or not.

As for output transformers, sometimes they are the source of the noise, they can hum themselves.
And is CA-1a less sensitive than Susvara? I thought it was more sensitive. I can hear the noise on Susvara but not on CA-1a.

Anyway, sorry for the detour, just wanted to share a benefit I've had with RAAL. None of the 10 or so headphones I've tried on this tube amp are noise free except RAAL and STAX and I was attributing that to the transformers. Perhaps it's something else. Thanks for the response.

Not to keep beating a dead horse, but your hum is quite possibly due to a grounding issue (loop). You should probably unplug everything from your amp except your headphones and see if it goes away. If not, maybe plug the amp into a different outlet (and by itself) to see if that fixes it. In any case, the noise floor of an amplifier is (by definition) not correlated to the signal, as it's measured at quiescence. And DC doesn't produce hum, since we can't hear 0 Hz.

 

[KaiSc]

I think we both agree, I also said that it doesn't remove anything from the signal, even noise.
I'm only saying it blocks DC hum, which is something all transformers do, whether they're isolation transformers or not.

As for output transformers, sometimes they are the source of the noise, they can hum themselves.
And is CA-1a less sensitive than Susvara? I thought it was more sensitive. I can hear the noise on Susvara but not on CA-1a.

Anyway, sorry for the detour, just wanted to share a benefit I've had with RAAL. None of the 10 or so headphones I've tried on this tube amp are noise free except RAAL and STAX and I was attributing that to the transformers. Perhaps it's something else. Thanks for the response.

There is no such thing as “DC hum”.
DC is 100% inaudible.
Hum is AC, typically at mains frequency or it’s harmonics.


You are right that audio transformers themself can pickup hum by magnetic coupling to power supply mains transformers.

Raal uses ring-core audio transformers that are NOT prone to this effect.


The “no audible noise”-effect you are experiencing is simply due to low sensitivity of Raal and STAX headphones systems.
The fact that both are using transformers is purely coincidental.

You might have noticed that you have to dial a higher volume for Raal and STAX than with typical dynamic ‘phones.

 

[yyzSB]

This post is a FYI for anyone with CD's and SACD's gathering dust.

My great Sony SCD-1 (modded) died after 20+ years and I had about 300 CD's and SACD's that I no longer could play. I had some great SACD's that I could not stream from TIDAL or Qobuz. I did not want to spend too much to buy a SACD player since playing discs would not be a primary concern.

I had a used $250 OPPO PDB-83 Blu-ray player also gathering dust. I ended up buying the geerfab D.BOB digital breakout box for $675. With this device I can hook the OPPO via HDMI into the D.BOB and then output SPDIF to my Benchmark DAC3B. The DAC3B is connected to my RAAL VM-1a tube amp. The D.BOB allows for the transfer out of the pure DSD signal into the D.BOB (I thought that was illegal). PCM is also supported.

https://geerfab.com/audio/

My old Sony SCD-1 is a classic SACD player and one of the best SACD players ever made, especially after the Vacuum State mods. A well know mod back in the day. The D.BOB was great on my 2-channel system, more detailed than the old Sony SCD-1. However, the SCD-1 still won out for me since it had an overall magical sound after the mods.

Now the D.BOB | DAC3B | VM-1a has that SCD-1 magic but with more details. I am definitely going to brush the dust off my disks and play them a lot more.

I also have fibre optical streaming setup into the Benchmark DAC3B. That is a great quality stream, but playing those disks is also amazing (maybe better than streaming).

 

[Axel]

The Munich shows are over and coming home is very nice, indeed!

The best presentation was at Hifideluxe in Marriott. A quiet room, selected sources, SAEQ, Solaja, Viva, Riviera amps...a truly exceptional listening experience.

The next best was at Felix Audio's quiet room at High-End. Who hadn't entered, had missed a lot.

The rest of presentations were in open floor space with high noise pollution, like my table at "headphone shop" floor with Felix Envy, then at Viva, Riviera and Auris booths.
Thursday and Friday were OK, B2B days and not much crowd and noise. Saturday was a circus and almost useless for listening.

Most people who engaged in a conversation with me (while I was there on Thursday) told me that Immanis was the best headphone at High-End, so that eased my pain of presenting headphones in open spaces.

All I can say is THANK YOU to all the people who bothered to visit us at Hifideluxe!

Raal was EVERYWHERE in Munich.
Truely exceptional!
The Feliks room in MOC and the “Serbian” room in Hifideluxe allowed to properly experience the Raals.
So much experience and a lot to talk about in the Hifideluxe room. Wonderful people and highly professional.
After the show I’m very much looking forward to receiving my Immanis!

 

[fredfung28]

Been busy with opera concerts and finally have time, recently tried to compare the Odin 8 wires to Mundorf gold silver 1mm 12 wires.

The speaker tap affect the sound quite obviously, it’s a good place to fine tune the sound.

Mundorf has more emotion and density comparing to nordost while nordost has more 3D texture, both are good cables but in my system seems like mundorf suits better for now.

Waiting for an upgrade cable from Invictus to see the final evolution of Immanis

Sol P has advantage in emotional presentation, it’s more musical than Immanis. But in texture, density, sub bass and dynamic , Immanis is better.

Sol p is a better headphone when facing poor recordings, it kinds of photoshopped the recording to a more refined one.

Immanis bass is really impressive , for people who worried to compared it with sr1b that immanis is lacking of bass, it’s won’t happen. The bass of Immanis has very great resolution with crazy details.

It’s the first time I hear a drum set with this kind of resolution in headphone

It’s simply impressive.

If you like to listen to the music with texture that’s close to real instruments, I really think Immanis is a very very very good option