[XVampireX]

Almost ready to pull the trigger on the Immanis, still haven't heard the headphones but I tend to trust people.
Long weekend (Weekend+Holiday) here and need to figure stuff with my finances and then all is good, should happen coming week or the one after.

If anyone with experience on the Immanis can explain the bass a bit further please and maybe compare to something if it's more powerful or less, preferably the headphones I have listed in my signature. I am definitely looking for some head rumbling bass but not too much that it overpowers the rest

 

[normie610]

I was a little bit concerned that the Immanis would be very good 'only' at the genres where my Valkyria are already great, like classical and jazz, with the addition of electronica where the 3-ribbon immediately showed up their talents as well (crazy detail, 3D effects, bass quantity and quality).

My initial source pairing likely was not the most synergistic for my tastes, as the sound signature was too cold for me, detracting from the emotional involvement which is my first and foremost aim with this hobby. After revisiting my DAC with a warmer one, I have achieved a much better balance, and I can now confidently say that the Immanis has become an all-rounder of the likes of e.g. Susvara, HE 1, for my preferences.

Even less than perfect recordings are now ejnoyable as well, as their flaws are still exposed but not in such a punishing way to disrupt the enjoyment of the music.

Few headphones can cope with the variety of material below with consistent prowess, and the Immanis surfed through this playlist with eager enthusiasm and joy.

​

My listening sessions extend to several consecutive hours, and both physical and aural fatigue are a non-issue. I find that the venting astutely implemented by @Aleksandar R. , apart from the open, speaker-like spatial presentation quality it provides to the Immanis, also helps tremendously with listening fatigue, as it relieves significantly the pressure buildup in the pad chamber.

And, to add to the eye-candy lately seen on this thread, here is another shot.

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Very excited to see that new owners are taking delivery of their Magna / Immanis, you are in for a treat

Having a hard time to focus on the picture, Immanis or that bloody sexy Horizon

 

[simorag]

Almost ready to pull the trigger on the Immanis, still haven't heard the headphones but I tend to trust people.
Long weekend (Weekend+Holiday) here and need to figure stuff with my finances and then all is good, should happen coming week or the one after.

If anyone with experience on the Immanis can explain the bass a bit further please and maybe compare to something if it's more powerful or less, preferably the headphones I have listed in my signature. I am definitely looking for some head rumbling bass but not too much that it overpowers the rest

The Immanis bass is deep, clean, articulate and tight. It extends down to the bottom octave nicely, and with the help of some EQ - which these headphones accept extremely well - it can be brought to downright bass-head skull-rattling territory. Double bass, electric bass, percussions have a bounciness, precision of attack, rhythmic drive and volume that are extremely close to the real instruments.

It reaches much lower and has more weight than your HD800S and Utopia (only two headphones in your signature that I have owned), while keeping a similar or better resolution and clarity.

Compared to planar bass champions like the AB-1266 or the LCD4 Immanis does not have the same oomph and subwoofer-like quality (although it can go close with EQ), and compared to best-in-class dynamic drivers like the Valkyria and to a lesser extent the Utopia, it has less forceful slam or punch.

However, for my preferences and favorite music genres (acoustic), the Immanis bass is extremely satisfying in their stock form. So much so that I would put bass / sub-bass among the strengths of the Immanis. If synthetic bass from heavily produced pop, hip-hop, EDM is your thing, should you need a subterranean, voluptuous bass, EQ (e.g. this) can bring you very close to the best out there.

 

[XVampireX]

The Immanis bass is deep, clean, articulate and tight. It extends down to the bottom octave nicely, and with the help of some EQ - which these headphones accept extremely well - it can be brought to downright bass-head skull-rattling territory. Double bass, electric bass, percussions have a bounciness, precision of attack, rhythmic drive and volume that are extremely close to the real instruments.

It reaches much lower and has more weight than your HD800S and Utopia (only two headphones in your signature that I have owned), while keeping a similar or better resolution and clarity.

Compared to planar bass champions like the AB-1266 or the LCD4 Immanis does not have the same oomph and subwoofer-like quality (although it can go close with EQ), and compared to best-in-class dynamic drivers like the Valkyria and to a lesser extent the Utopia, it has less forceful slam or punch.

However, for my preferences and favorite music genres (acoustic), the Immanis bass is extremely satisfying in their stock form. So much so that I would put bass / sub-bass among the strengths of the Immanis. If synthetic bass from heavily produced pop, hip-hop, EDM is your thing, should you need a subterranean, voluptuous bass, EQ (e.g. this) can bring you very close to the best out there.

With the Holo stack, Utopia certainly has really powerful bass slam when called for, but it's not the same textured bass like in my Caldera which slams a bit weaker (70% of the way maybe?) but makes the slam be a part of the instrument more, but then again I haven't heard Utopia much since I've got the Caldera.

What do you mean Weight vs Slam?

I listen to a lot of different genres, but less of that specifically bass heavy music like you mentioned though I don't have a problem putting them on every now and again.
I mostly listen to (in no particular order) Classical, Jazz, Rock, Metal, Electronica/New-Age (Say, Enigma, Era, etc...), Folk, etc...

But I also use my headphones for general PC/Home Theater usage, so both Movies and say, Youtube videos, and Games.
Will be interesting how TOTL headphones deal with Movies and Gaming, in terms of soundstaging/imaging/detail and bass obviously (And everything else, but these are most interesting)

btw, almost literally closed the deal now, but again, it's weekend and holidays, and things are gonna go slow now, but it's a guaranteed purchase for me anyhow, will update my signature when that happens.

 

[simorag]

What do you mean Weight vs Slam?

Weight is more about static properties, density of tone. Bass effects in electronica, massed double bass passages from big orchestral forces are examples of this.

Slam involves mainly transient response, and the ability to convey a high amount of bass energy (moving a lot of air) in a small amount of time. Big percussive instruments twacks is the best example I can think of.

 

[rlawry]

I remember reading somewhere, maybe Stereophile magazine, about bass being described as characterized by 5 tools: weight, dynamics, extension, speed, and pitch definition. So slam in my mind combines weight, dynamics, and extension. My dynamic driver JM Audio Editions XTC-C have bass slam. My SR-1b and DCA Stealth have bass speed and pitch definition. Seems to me every transducer gives you one of the two combinations.

 

[XVampireX]

Closed the deal pretty much, updated signature, heh

I wonder how long though... ya know

@simorag You said that bass slam is lower than Utopia, by how much?
Though I also have to take it with a grain of salt, I see you like tubes, tubes are doing stuff for bass slam, so...

 

[F208Frank]

Could you elaborate a bit more? There is obviously a difference in many things, but are we really talking about just Timbre here?

I only spent a quick 5 min on the headphone so I dont feel qualified to go into detail.

Truth be told I was scared to buy one on the spot and I obliterated my budget for audio already recent.

 

[BTD1]

Please excuse the dumb questions, but I know nothing about ribbon headphones even though I have ordered the Immanis. Will an electrostatic headphone amp work through the interface included with the Immanis? I assume it wouldn't but I have not seen this question addressed directly. Also, again not wanting to sound like an idiot, but will any standard solid state headphone amplifier work well with the Immanis using the interface? I am looking to understand if a standard solid state headlamp will allow all the best aspects of the Immanis to be heard. Sorry, but this is brand new territory for me and I want to be sure I am going to get the best sound possible from these headphones without buying yet another amplifier. I am looking for explicit assurance that a T+A HA200 headlamp plus the interface box and special included cable with give me the full measure of what these headphones are capable of. Thanks in advance to anyone who can make this crystal clear.

 

[BassicScience]

Please excuse the dumb questions, but I know nothing about ribbon headphones even though I have ordered the Immanis. Will an electrostatic headphone amp work through the interface included with the Immanis? I assume it wouldn't but I have not seen this question addressed directly. Also, again not wanting to sound like an idiot, but will any standard solid state headphone amplifier work well with the Immanis using the interface? I am looking to understand if a standard solid state headlamp will allow all the best aspects of the Immanis to be heard. Sorry, but this is brand new territory for me and I want to be sure I am going to get the best sound possible from these headphones without buying yet another amplifier. I am looking for explicit assurance that a T+A HA200 headlamp plus the interface box and special included cable with give me the full measure of what these headphones are capable of. Thanks in advance to anyone who can make this crystal clear.

NO, an electrostatic amp will not work on anything but estats.

Just about any standard headamp should drive the Immanis at least competently. In terms of "best sound possible", that will obviously be subjective. My advice would be to try your existing amp(s) with Immanis, and if you are unsatisfied (or simply wish to explore other options), arrange to demo other amps with it. FWIW, Immanis sounded fantastic to me driven by a "humble" iFi iCAN Pro at CanJam NYC. I can't imagine it will sound less than fabulous driven by your HA200.

 

[BTD1]

NO, an electrostatic amp will not work on anything but estats.

Just about any standard headamp should drive the Immanis at least competently. In terms of "best sound possible", that will obviously be subjective. My advice would be to try your existing amp(s) with Immanis, and if you are unsatisfied (or simply wish to explore other options), arrange to demo other amps with it. FWIW, Immanis sounded fantastic to me driven by a "humble" iFi iCAN Pro at CanJam NYC. I can't imagine it will sound less than fabulous driven by your HA200.

Thanks for the clarifications and suggestions. Yes, I do have a few amps sitting around that I can try along with the HA200. As long as I know that neither the amps nor the Immanis can be damaged by a standard amp through the interface, I will experiment. After a certain age, new technology concepts are not as easy to get hold of!

 

[XVampireX]

Please excuse the dumb questions, but I know nothing about ribbon headphones even though I have ordered the Immanis. Will an electrostatic headphone amp work through the interface included with the Immanis? I assume it wouldn't but I have not seen this question addressed directly. Also, again not wanting to sound like an idiot, but will any standard solid state headphone amplifier work well with the Immanis using the interface? I am looking to understand if a standard solid state headlamp will allow all the best aspects of the Immanis to be heard. Sorry, but this is brand new territory for me and I want to be sure I am going to get the best sound possible from these headphones without buying yet another amplifier. I am looking for explicit assurance that a T+A HA200 headlamp plus the interface box and special included cable with give me the full measure of what these headphones are capable of. Thanks in advance to anyone who can make this crystal clear.

The interface is there specifically to make it so that you can use the headphones on any normal headphone amp, you can also opt for the 8 ohm interface for connecting to speaker amps.
Regarding specifically e-stat amps, I'm pretty sure that's a no.
Regarding the HA200 amp, based on what I've seen it's 1650mW/32 ohms, Aleksandar mentions it's ideal to have 2.5/3W at 32 ohms, so a bit underpowered there, but I could be wrong and that could be enough.

 

[BTD1]

The interface is there specifically to make it so that you can use the headphones on any normal headphone amp, you can also opt for the 8 ohm interface for connecting to speaker amps.
Regarding specifically e-stat amps, I'm pretty sure that's a no.
Regarding the HA200 amp, based on what I've seen it's 1650mW/32 ohms, Aleksandar mentions it's ideal to have 2.5/3W at 32 ohms, so a bit underpowered there, but I could be wrong and that could be enough.

Good to know about the possibility of being underpowered. I have an IFI ICAN PRO and an ICAN Phantom on hand that have more power. I can always pull these out for testing if the Immanis seem underpowered. I suppose a Ragnarock 2 speaker/headphone amp that's in the closet now would provide significantly more power but it's a bulky, heavy beast. I'll hold it in reserve.

 

[rlawry]

From my understanding of power required to drive RAAL phones, at least 2W into either 16 or 32 ohms for the SR-1b is optimal. I believe Aleksander posted that the Magna needs about half that and for the Immanis about 1/4 that, so your HA200 should have plenty of power if you use the Ti-1b at 32 ohms input.

Regarding their sound, only you can determine that based on your listening preferences and associated equipment. Aleksander posted that he used a solid-state amp, the Benchmark AHB2, to voice both new phones. I have a similar sounding HPA4 amp and I think it makes every phone sound glorious. Others here prefer tube amps to warm up and fatten the sound. Since the HA200 is a Class A solid-state amp, it likely will have a warmer sound than your typical Class AB SS amp. If you want to make sure you like the RAAL ribbon driver sound, I concur that you should seek out hearing a pair, even at a dealership or show.

 

[BTD1]

From my understanding of power required to drive RAAL phones, at least 2W into either 16 or 32 ohms for the SR-1b is optimal. I believe Aleksander posted that the Magna needs about half that and for the Immanis about 1/4 that, so your HA200 should have plenty of power if you use the Ti-1b at 32 ohms input.

Regarding their sound, only you can determine that based on your listening preferences and associated equipment. Aleksander posted that he used a solid-state amp, the Benchmark AHB2, to voice both new phones. I have a similar sounding HPA4 amp and I think it makes every phone sound glorious. Others here prefer tube amps to warm up and fatten the sound. Since the HA200 is a Class A solid-state amp, it likely will have a warmer sound than your typical Class AB SS amp. If you want to make sure you like the RAAL ribbon driver sound, I concur that you should seek out hearing a pair, even at a dealership or show.

CanJam 2024 was here in NYC in March, but I wasn't aware of the Immanis then. A missed opportunity. Estimates for delivery are mid to late summer so that gives me time to try to find one to listen to. My regular dealer here in NYC is Audio46. They are very good about demos of equipment. I'll check in with them to see when they will have a set in stock. Great suggestions. Thanks.