[MokhaMark]

I completely understand why you say that, but just to throw out another opinion: I hope RAAL continues to make the cable detachable because I really don't want to have to send the entire headphone in for repair if just the cable gets damaged.

point well taken. And of course it makes storage a PITA.

 

[rlawry]

I completely understand why you say that, but just to throw out another opinion: I hope RAAL continues to make the cable detachable because I really don't want to have to send the entire headphone in for repair if just the cable gets damaged.

Not to mention that the stock cable currently offered can be significantly improved through the aftermarket purchase of their relatively expensive Star 8 cable. I would imagine RAAL would not wish to add $1100 to the purchase price of their less expensive headphone offerings so they have made the Star 8 optional.

 

[MokhaMark]

Not to mention that the stock cable currently offered can be significantly improved through the aftermarket purchase of their relatively expensive Star 8 cable. I would imagine RAAL would not wish to add $1100 to the purchase price of their less expensive headphone offerings so they have made the Star 8 optional.

Yes of course, I was thinking more in the Magna and Immanis which come with the specifically developed "upgrade" cable already, if you buy it that way. I suppose it was a flawed rhetorical point, LOL.

 

[TheAbyss2022]

Do you mean Raal SR-1a with Cayin HA-3a? CA-1a works just fine with Cayin Ha-3a and TI-1b although it gives only 850mW per channel. SR-1a sounds about 4 db quieter , if I've understood right, but I tend to remember that in a headfonia review the reviewer was astonished how well the "underpowered" Ha-3a worked with Raal SR-1.
With CA-1a the 12 o'clock vol pot position is usually enough. With SR-1a perhaps 14 if you have more gain from DAC's balanced output's.

Yes I meant with the SR-1a with the Cayin HA-3A.

The HA-3A outputs A LOT of voltage which is the reason it powers my LCD 4 really great and people say it powers the Tungsten great so it all depends if a headphone requires more power or more voltage. I was also worried about the background hissing as there is a lot of background noise with dynamic headphones so I have no idea if a ribbon based headphone will have more of a planar or dynamic type of hissing potential with tubes.

 

[Majuto]

If I may try to contribute based on earlier entries deep in other threads by @Aleksandar R.

Because of the extremely low impedance of the ribbons, all of them, the cable becomes a critical part of the chain. Raal designs the cables specifically for each different headphone to give a full frequency response. Conventional headphones do not have this requirement and so exotic cables and designs can simply have the right terminations applied and they can be marketed as better (and maybe they in fact are).

With the ribbons, simply applying the right pinouts and terminations to what may otherwise be an astonishing cable for conventional headphones may not work well with the very specific demands of the ribbons.

Unless a cable maker has consulted with and/or already knows the targeted impedance for the cable, or knows how to calculate it for the impedance of the ribbons as Aleks does, then everything is just a roll of the dice.

For this reason, the Raal cables are not simply a fancy "upsell" to the headphones, but more or less part of the headphone. Speaking for myself, I'd be fine if they soldered them strait into the headphone as is done with the Valkyria for example.

I may be stating something you already know, but I'd be wary buying a 3rd party cable simply terminated and pinned correctly not to blow up with the ribbons unless it is verified the cable's impedance was well considered for the Raal headphone. In fact, early in my ribbon adventure I spend $$$ on a famous Japanese cable and it was not successful with the SR1a, to my ears.

Just my two cents.

Thanks! This might well explain the differences between this 3rd party- and Raal cable. This particular cable is slightly used with SR1a and JotR by previous owner.
When I get my JotR from voltage-, toggle switch -and fuse change service I can test it properly. The cable might be not-faulty in a sense, but with TI-1b and my other amps the cable sounds too quiet. We'll see, if I have to return it or not.

 

[LucyWu]

Ribbons being such low impedance require lots of current, very little voltage. As I recall JotR can deliver 13 amps (at low voltage). OTL tube amps tend to be quite high resistance, so are current-limited, swinging higher voltages to deliver what power they can muster. Transformers are a great way of matching circuits with one set of output characteristics with circuits demanding the obverse.

Tube amps with transformer output stages will, in general, have an easier time driving ribbons via the transformer interface of course, but you can still run into impedance mismatches between the amp's output impedance and the primary of the Raal interface box.

What actually works well is very much a matter of trial and error. Fortnately there are lots of people here with experience of what amps make the Raal ribbons sing.

(Tongue in cheek hint - Mostly expensive ones)

 

[TheAbyss2022]

Ribbons being such low impedance require lots of current, very little voltage. As I recall JotR can deliver 13 amps (at low voltage). OTL tube amps tend to be quite high resistance, so are current-limited, swinging higher voltages to deliver what power they can muster. Transformers are a great way of matching circuits with one set of output characteristics with circuits demanding the obverse.

Tube amps with transformer output stages will, in general, have an easier time driving ribbons via the transformer interface of course, but you can still run into impedance mismatches between the amp's output impedance and the primary of the Raal interface box.

What actually works well is very much a matter of trial and error. Fortnately there are lots of people here with experience of what amps make the Raal ribbons sing.

(Tongue in cheek hint - Mostly expensive ones)

Thank you, great explanation.

My HA-3A does have an impedence switch which helps with headphones like the LCD 4 but I am now worried about the potential background hissing as its quite prominent with dynamic headphones like the HD800S. Does the SR-1a behave more like a planar or dynamic when using a tube amplifier? As there is no background hissing with planars for me.

 

[Majuto]

Yes I meant with the SR-1a with the Cayin HA-3A.

The HA-3A outputs A LOT of voltage which is the reason it powers my LCD 4 really great and people say it powers the Tungsten great so it all depends if a headphone requires more power or more voltage. I was also worried about the background hissing as there is a lot of background noise with dynamic headphones so I have no idea if a ribbon based headphone will have more of a planar or dynamic type of hissing potential with tubes.

I haven't found any sorts of noise problems with Raal Ca1a and Cayin Ha3a. Of my headphones only the 300ohm Atrium open gets some noise, why I usually use the attenuated 4.4mm connection, which helps. This is a bit ironic, because I bought Ha3a especially for Atrium. Off topic, sorry.

 

[TheAbyss2022]

I haven't found any sorts of noise problems with Raal Ca1a and Cayin Ha3a. Of my headphones only the 300ohm Atrium open gets some noise, why I usually use the attenuated 4.4mm connection, which helps. This is a bit ironic, because I bought Ha3a especially for Atrium. Off topic, sorry.

Dynamic headphones like the Sennheiser HD700 & 800S produce a fair bit of background hissing with the HA-3A.

I feel comfortable that SR-1a will not produce any background noise based on your experience as both headphones are ribbon based so should produce the same results.

 

[rlawry]

Thanks! This might well explain the differences between this 3rd party- and Raal cable. This particular cable is slightly used with SR1a and JotR by previous owner.
When I get my JotR from voltage-, toggle switch -and fuse change service I can test it properly. The cable might be not-faulty in a sense, but with TI-1b and my other amps the cable sounds too quiet. We'll see, if I have to return it or not.

I believe Aleksander postulated that your third party cable has a relatively high impedance, especially compared to the Star 8 cable whose impedance is deliberately targeted and built to 0.25 ohms. To prove this, you could measure the impedance of your cable with an electrical multimeter and confirm its impedance is indeed higher than targeted, resulting in the attenuated levels you are experiencing. There could be other problems as well. I use some magnetic cables which can attract small bits of metal to their connectors and one time after a cable change I found the levels to be vastly attenuated which required the cleaning of the metal bits to cure the problem.

 

[MokhaMark]

Thank you, great explanation.

My HA-3A does have an impedence switch which helps with headphones like the LCD 4 but I am now worried about the potential background hissing as its quite prominent with dynamic headphones like the HD800S. Does the SR-1a behave more like a planar or dynamic when using a tube amplifier? As there is no background hissing with planars for me.

In my experience, give the open baffle nature of the SR1a, they are LESS likely to show hiss/noise than any over ear headphone of similar sensitivity. When I had all three in possession briefly, the new over ear (also more sensitive) Raal showed more noise than the SR1a in the same configurations.

 

[KaiSc]

While waiting for the Immanis I took the opportunity to buy a used SR1A with a TI-1b. I needed some hours to adapt to the enormous soundstage (even if my Meze Elite with angled pads are not slough in this regard either). But as much as I tried - i became stressed listening to vocal music with the SR1A and got a feeling that something was wrong in the way the SR1A was presenting just voices.

I never have eq-ued my headphones before but this time it was clear for me that I had to do it - as I am especially sensible to peaks in the 2000Hz region. I tried Amirs EQ (at the ARS forum) in Roon-player with a drop of 3dB at 2000Hz and bass correction - and I was surprised over the results. Before I liked my Elite more in most regards but after using Amirs parameters I clearly favoured the SR1A in almost every regard (except for the warmth and the fluid sound of the Elite).

And I understand that the Raal will sound even better with a Star-8 cable and a new "unbilical" cable (maybe I will try a Lavricables Grand which I even use as XLR-cables in my chain). I will see if I will sell the SR1A again (and keeping the TI-1b) at the time I get the Immanis. Therefore I don´t try Mitch´s filter just now. For 50 dollar I would have bought it without knowing if I will keep the SR1A.

BTW - I like my Cen.grand Silver Fox with the SR1A. It adds some warmth without loosing any details and is highly musical.

Here’s my take on how to handle and EQ the Raal SR1a/b:
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/raal-ribbon-headphones-srh1a.890603/post-17233113

The major first step is experimenting with the various degrees of freedom in head placement.

The short video from the Raal website is sure worth a look in this regard:

I would not call myself a bass-head, but do like solid base and fundamentals in my music.
At the same time I’m generally not listening very loud, vocals in the music are a bit louder than normal humans talking.
Typical music level ca. 65-70 dBA Leq (long term average), with peaks up to 95 - 100 dB SPL.
The power amp is not challenged much: ca. +20 dBu or 10 W / 6 Ohm Peak typically is the very highest I observe.

I love music with lot’s of dynamic, try to avoid contemporary, dynamically over-squashed remasters.


First based on measurements (on my own head, mic inside my ears), then hours of fine-tuning I made an EQ setting that adresses all mentioned Issues, without overdoing it or killing SR1a’s character.

Specially the bass becomes viceral in a way I did not expect from SR1a.

The EQ slighty addresses midrange and treble too, this is very personal I guess.
Doing more in the mid/treble range sounds too much for me.
Treble is better controlled by positional variations, than excessive EQ.

With the EQ the bass and fundamentals sound punchy, compact and present in a way I did not expect from SR1a.
The fastness stays, combined with a significant gripe on the related instruments.
No hint of tizzy or thin sounding any more.


Positioning, probably quite personal, but another person found similar settings favorable too.
• Driver flaps angle: L 27 ° R 27 ° few millimeters away from pinnae contact. I made little card-box angle stencils to set this up.
• Driver horizontal position: usually ca. 5 mm to the front from the back-most possible position, very tiny bit more forward than the upper-mid-hottest position. I do use this to regulate the treble amount.
• Driver height: center driver ca. aligned with ear-canal entrance.
• Wearing angle (seen from the side): upper part, headband, slightly backwards, ca. 10 °.
• Fit: tight fit, still comfortable, don’t need the back-strap.


Raal SR-1a EQ04
RME ADI-2 Pro.

THE EQ DOES NOT CONTAIN BAFFLE COMPENSATION as the standard SR1a amp interface already has it.
There are EQ bands left to do this, in case needed.

Gain / Freq / Q / Type / (comment)
.. dB / Hz
+5.5 / 130 / 0.8 / Shelf / (adjust gain to taste)
.. n.a. / 25 / 1.8 / High Pass / (High Q boost the lows SR1a is capable, removes below)
-2.0 / 2.1k / 1.5 / Peak / (vocal presence)
-1.0 / 6.3k / 3.5 / Peak / (harshness)
-2.5 / 9.1k / 5.0 / Peak / (Sibilants)

 

[MokhaMark]

Hi all, I am sharing a quick update on a new configuration that relates to some impressions I gave over on the Raal 1995 forum. This is primarily directed to @chrisnyc75 and any other Donald North Amplifier owners, Stratus or Stellaris.

In my early impressions of the new Magna and Immanis here:

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/raal-1995-headphones-magna-and-immanis.971610/post-18035899

I mentioned my listening with the Stratus using the TI1a adapter had yielded disappointing results vs. the other two amplifiers I had to try them with. I suggested others with higher output DACs or an active preamplifier might get a different result.

I recently bought a Schiit Kara to test this myself with the SR1a. Using a full 4 volt XLR output from DAC into the Schiit Kara, single ended out to the Stratus, in the highest active stage on the Kara, I am getting exceptional sound and plenty of gain. I have maxed the volume of the Stratus and using the Kara for volume control, I am typically at 12:00-1:00 on the Kara volume knob. Also note, I am using the "SR1b with bass" convolution filters. This would of course be unnecessary with the new Raal 1995 headphones. I am also using the TRS output in Low setting into the 16 ohm input on the TI1a. The "K1000" XLR output on the Stratus also sounds great, but I am hearing something even more special from the lower impedance output of the low TRS.

This is incisive, detailed, holographic, with incredibly present vocals.

I share this info as a follow up/correction to my first impressions which did not benefit from a preamplifier in the mix. Given the significantly greater sensitivity of the new Magna and Immanis, I predict that the Stratus/Stellaris can be successfully adapted to drive the new ribbon headphones. If it sounds this good with the SR1a, I can only imagine it will simply rock the new ones.

I hope that is interesting to a few of you.

Happy listening.

 

[yyzSB]

I got the Schitt Mjolnir V3 preamp/headphone amp a few months ago and it also sounded excellent with the SR1a and a Schitt Aegir amp. Only issue was that the built-in headphone amp was not powerful enough to drive the SR1a or CA-1.

I even use the Mjolnir V3 with my 2-channel system on occasion.

I am almost certain that the Mjolnir V3's headphone amp will have enough power for the new RAAL 1995 phones.

 

[Aleksandar R.]

Here’s my take on how to handle and EQ the Raal SR1a/b:
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/raal-ribbon-headphones-srh1a.890603/post-17233113

The major first step is experimenting with the various degrees of freedom in head placement.

The short video from the Raal website is sure worth a look in this regard:

I would not call myself a bass-head, but do like solid base and fundamentals in my music.
At the same time I’m generally not listening very loud, vocals in the music are a bit louder than normal humans talking.
Typical music level ca. 65-70 dBA Leq (long term average), with peaks up to 95 - 100 dB SPL.
The power amp is not challenged much: ca. +20 dBu or 10 W / 6 Ohm Peak typically is the very highest I observe.

I love music with lot’s of dynamic, try to avoid contemporary, dynamically over-squashed remasters.


First based on measurements (on my own head, mic inside my ears), then hours of fine-tuning I made an EQ setting that adresses all mentioned Issues, without overdoing it or killing SR1a’s character.

Specially the bass becomes viceral in a way I did not expect from SR1a.

The EQ slighty addresses midrange and treble too, this is very personal I guess.
Doing more in the mid/treble range sounds too much for me.
Treble is better controlled by positional variations, than excessive EQ.

With the EQ the bass and fundamentals sound punchy, compact and present in a way I did not expect from SR1a.
The fastness stays, combined with a significant gripe on the related instruments.
No hint of tizzy or thin sounding any more.


Positioning, probably quite personal, but another person found similar settings favorable too.
• Driver flaps angle: L 27 ° R 27 ° few millimeters away from pinnae contact. I made little card-box angle stencils to set this up.
• Driver horizontal position: usually ca. 5 mm to the front from the back-most possible position, very tiny bit more forward than the upper-mid-hottest position. I do use this to regulate the treble amount.
• Driver height: center driver ca. aligned with ear-canal entrance.
• Wearing angle (seen from the side): upper part, headband, slightly backwards, ca. 10 °.
• Fit: tight fit, still comfortable, don’t need the back-strap.


Raal SR-1a EQ04
RME ADI-2 Pro.

THE EQ DOES NOT CONTAIN BAFFLE COMPENSATION as the standard SR1a amp interface already has it.
There are EQ bands left to do this, in case needed.

Gain / Freq / Q / Type / (comment)
.. dB / Hz
+5.5 / 130 / 0.8 / Shelf / (adjust gain to taste)
.. n.a. / 25 / 1.8 / High Pass / (High Q boost the lows SR1a is capable, removes below)
-2.0 / 2.1k / 1.5 / Peak / (vocal presence)
-1.0 / 6.3k / 3.5 / Peak / (harshness)
-2.5 / 9.1k / 5.0 / Peak / (Sibilants)

Thank you for the very detailed EQ explanation!

Given the levels that you are listening at, this bass boost is certainly within the capabilities of ribbon excursion.

If you're coming to Munich High-End this year, please drop by our floor in Halle 4 on Thursday, or to Marriott Schwabing from Fri-Sun at Hifideluxe Show.