[Hiker816]

Hi Hiker 816,

Sorry to hear about the undone sleeve.

The wire sure should look like that

It's a Silver wrapped in Kapton foil so that's the color of Kapton over the shiny Silver underneath. If you have a loupe, you will see how the foil is wrapped in spiral over the wire. Maybe even a Macro mode on a cellphone camera might show that.

Anyway, drop a little drop of some glue on the thread to prevent unscrewing of the sleeve. I was always reluctant to do that, to facilitate easy checks on the wires and connector...

Cheers,

Alex from RAAL-requisite

Thanks, Alex! I appreciate the response and explanation. That makes sense. Thanks again--the cable is terrific!

 

[dirtrat]

Has anyone actually received a tracking number and verified the RAAL VM-1a amplifier has shipped from Headamp.com? They did the actual real credit card charge 4 days ago but I feel they are giving me the run around. I have simply asked them twice now if they have received their shipment from Danny and if the order has shipped to me yet and they are 100% evasive and have not answered anything. The best answer they have provided is they will check and try and find a tracking number. They did tell me Danny did ship to them and one of those amplifiers is mine. How hard can giving me accurate information be? I just want the truth about what's going on. If it's going to take longer then fine, just tell me. I understand this was a pre-order!

 

[RickyV]

Yeah the waiting time is always so slow but it will arrive soon.… Hopefully sooner then later.
For me it’s the same I can’t wait for mine to arrive too.

 

[Somatic]

I realized that I can run the preamp out on the Jot-R simultaneously with the headphone out, so I got myself a KEF KC62 mini sub to plug into that. It should arrive next week, and I'll report back!

How do you like it?

 

[dirtrat]

Received my Headphones last week and FedEx just delivered my New VM-1a amplifier this afternoon. I haven't really had any listening time yet, but initial impressions are that it did sound better at the CanJam despite all of the noise. This is completely expected since these items are brand new with no burn in and I'm using and old DAC I had in the closet (Yulong Sabre DA8) compared to the Chord DAC at the show. Two surprising things for me was the amplifier had JJ EL34 tubes instead of the Mullard EL34 tubes they had in the Amplifier at the CanJam show. This was a bit disappointing for me. The EL34 tubes were all APEX matched. Also they claim the weight of this amp at 29 pounds on their web site.

Full weight of the amp for me came in at 21.6 pounds. My guess is the boxes could possibly add another 2-4 pounds to this total. Another possible factor in my sound is I'm taking USB straight out of my gaming computer. I will be buying a new DAC (Much higher quality) and possibly a new streamer right after I attend the AXPONA show next month. My guess is this will greatly improve the sound. I'm using a brand new Zavfino Fusion (1.5 meter) interconnect and the stock power cord with the amplifier. Also just using a standard computer grade USB cable. I do plan on doing upgrades to both cables very soon. My streaming is being done via Tidal on my computer. What's exciting is with all of these exceptions I know things will improve significantly after I've made upgrades and tweaks. So far I've only listened to Triode mode. Very exciting!

​

 

[Shahrose]

Received my Headphones last week and FedEx just delivered my New VM-1a amplifier this afternoon. I haven't really had any listening time yet, but initial impressions are that it did sound better at the CanJam despite all of the noise. This is completely expected since these items are brand new with no burn in and I'm using and old DAC I had in the closet (Yulong Sabre DA8) compared to the Chord DAC at the show. Two surprising things for me was the amplifier had JJ EL34 tubes instead of the Mullard EL34 tubes they had in the Amplifier at the CanJam show. This was a bit disappointing for me. The EL34 tubes were all APEX matched. Also they claim the weight of this amp at 29 pounds on their web site.

Full weight of the amp for me came in at 21.6 pounds. My guess is the boxes could possibly add another 2-4 pounds to this total. Another possible factor in my sound is I'm taking USB straight out of my gaming computer. I will be buying a new DAC (Much higher quality) and possibly a new streamer right after I attend the AXPONA show next month. My guess is this will greatly improve the sound. I'm using a brand new Zavfino Fusion (1.5 meter) interconnect and the stock power cord with the amplifier. Also just using a standard computer grade USB cable. I do plan on doing upgrades to both cables very soon. My streaming is being done via Tidal on my computer. What's exciting is with all of these exceptions I know things will improve significantly after I've made upgrades and tweaks. So far I've only listened to Triode mode. Very exciting!

​

Congrats, great setup. I had the Yulong DAC and man digital has come a ways since then. I bet the Chord was adding a lot to the setup you heard.

 

[musicman59]

All that you mentioned has a lot of negative influence in the sound specially the tubes in the amplifier.

 

[RickyV]

All that you mentioned has a lot of negative influence in the sound specially the tubes in the amplifier.

So you do not like the JJ tubes? Which el34 do you prefer?
I thought I could pick up my VM-1a today but for some reason customs postpone delivery till Thursday.

 

[RickyV]

This might be of intrest for the VM-1a tube rolling.

https://wallofsound.ca/audioreviews...-with-tubes-supplied-by-www-thetubestore-com/

 

[dirtrat]

I know many of you have owned your headphones for some time. I was wondering if you could tell me what DAC's you are using so I can better understand what works with these headphones. I want a higher end DAC and have been looking at the Holo Audio May DAC. The downside of this DAC is the size, but one thing I really like is its exceptional USB module that has Titanis 2.0 USB circuit and galvanic isolation. This could possibly allow me to stream from my desktop computer without worrying about compromising the sound. It would also save me money from not needing to purchase a separate streamer. I'm not opposed to making a streamer purchase and I'm open to all solutions. I was also looking at the Chord DAC's and possibly even the MH-DA005.

 

[yyzSB]

I know many of you have owned your headphones for some time. I was wondering if you could tell me what DAC's you are using so I can better understand what works with these headphones. I want a higher end DAC and have been looking at the Holo Audio May DAC. The downside of this DAC is the size, but one thing I really like is its exceptional USB module that has Titanis 2.0 USB circuit and galvanic isolation. This could possibly allow me to stream from my desktop computer without worrying about compromising the sound. It would also save me money from not needing to purchase a separate streamer. I'm not opposed to making a streamer purchase and I'm open to all solutions. I was also looking at the Chord DAC's and possibly even the MH-DA005.

I have tried the following DACs with the SR1a and various gear. This was over the course of 14 months.

1) Benchmark DAC3B
2) AudioMirror Tubadour SE III
3) Gustard X26 Pro
4) Matrix Audio Mini i-3 Pro
5) Topping D90SE

The very best by a massive amount, especially on the SR1a, was the Musetec 005 DAC ($3000). the Mustec is compared favorably with the Halo May KTE (see Audiogn)

For streaming, I use my computer as a ROON Core, and stream using the incredible sounding Sonore OpticalRendu. I recently added a Sonore OpticalModule in front of the OpticalRendu and there was improvement. I did this OpticalModule based on the streaming white paper by the streaming guru, John Swenson. If you are interested, I can post a link.

 

[Hiker816]

I did this OpticalModule based on the streaming white paper by the streaming guru, John Swenson. If you are interested, I can post a link.

Please do post the link! I'm interested. Thanks.

 

[FLTWS]

Anybody know if KT88/6550's can be used in the VM-1a? Or just KT77/EL-34's.

 

[MokhaMark]

Anybody know if KT88/6550's can be used in the VM-1a? Or just KT77/EL-34's.

No idea yet.

Aleksandar just signed up over at the headphones.com forum so maybe he'd answer that question there. https://forum.headphones.com/t/raal-requisite-the-official-vm-1a-thread/17247/4

I'll ask Danny next time I speak to him as I have an outstanding question re: rolling in tubes, specifically the splitter pair vs quartet of power tubes. Where will any difference be made? I just picked up a quartet of NOS Siemens dimple tops and wondering if I should use as quartet or matched pairs. I'll ask about KT88s if/when I get to chat with him again. I think they are busy testing amps now!

I'll report back here if I learn anything.

 

[MokhaMark]

This might be of intrest for the VM-1a tube rolling.

https://wallofsound.ca/audioreviews...-with-tubes-supplied-by-www-thetubestore-com/

thetubestore appears to have TungSol EL 34s still, I just got a sextet as a back up set. Brent Jesse is sold out of EVERY EL 34 except some NOS Chinese tubes. He's trying to match some up for me this week and if he does I'll try those too. The EL 34 is becoming scarce and guitar amp buyers will also be grabbing them now that the main source for new production is sanctioned.....it was a bad time to buy an expensive tube amp!