RAAL 1995 Immanis
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Immanis – The Journey
Imagine having a headphone that has electrostatic speed and articulation, macro dynamics of dynamic drivers, and bass extension of planar magnetics. That is how I’ve described RAAL 1995’s Immanis many times before. It’s accurate and, it not only exhibits those characteristics, the Immanis rivals the best each of those driver types have to offer. So, what’s the catch? There must be trade-offs, because there always are. There are, but that statement comes with an asterisk… price, no doubt is one. It’s tuning, is going to be the aspect of this headphone is the most off-putting. I will detail that more later in this review. However, for those who don’t have problems with its tuning, Immanis is going to likely be one of the very best offerings you’re likely to come across. I clearly fall in the latter category. Preemptively speaking, you will have to forgive the overall enthusiasm, excitement, and positivity; it’s not often a headphone comes along that revolutionizes the already saturated market. There’s a lot more to say about the Immanis that cannot be summed up into one sentence, though.
My introduction to the Immanis began in June 2024. Danny McKinney of RAAL/Requisite one of the many attendees to a local head-fi gathering. Danny brought the Immanis, Magna, and Feliks Envy, and SAEQ Armageddon for people to demo. I had heard some about the new offerings from RAAL, but my previous experience with the ribbons such as the SR-1a/b or CA-1a/b didn’t leave me overwhelmingly enthusiastic. Don’t get me wrong, they were great, and I valued them for what they were, but were sonically just not my cup of tea. So, when we were at the meetup, I didn’t get around to listening to the Magna and Immanis until much later in the meet. It wasn’t until nearly an hour before the meet was supposed to end that I did, partially because I was expecting to not like it. In fact, I was bracing and hoping NOT to like it. Boy was I wrong. I first listened on Danny’s Envy with both Sophia Electric and WE tubes. A couple brief moments later, I blurted out, “holy hell…” thinking where’d that bass come from? After listening a little bit, I asked Danny if I could try it on my system that I brought. I brought the Holo May, Woo WA23 Luna. I listened to a couple tracks and then pulled a friend over and had him listen. We were enamored. What a great pairing that was. I took the Immanis around to a couple of other systems to get brief impressions, including Cavalli Liquid Glass and Zahl HM-1. I didn’t want to monopolize the Immanis much more, so I returned it to Danny and his listening station. I was more than impressed, but I wanted to spend more time with it.
A friend who already had his on order prior to the meet up said he was going to be getting his in a week or so and he would bring it over to try more on my system at home (same system I brought to the meetup). I gladly jumped on that offer. We were able to listen a bit on my system, but he also borrowed a DNA Stellaris, so we listened on that, paired with his Chord Dave/MScaler. I was again impressed, so much so, the very next day, I reached out to Danny to put my name down to get one here. For the sake of saving the readers from too much exposition, I will just mention that I was able to listen to the Immanis on several additional occasions after first outreach to Danny, including extensively listening to it on numerous systems at CanJam SoCal 2024. So, fast forwarding to nearly four months later, which included an unforeseen delay that pushed it back nearly a whole month, it arrived safe and sound.
Leading up to the arrival, I was a bit worried when I pulled it out of the case, it would be underwhelming. Danny had explained that the ribbons were tuned/tightened so that they would settle/break-in to the full frequency response after about 100 hours. My worry was unfounded, it sounded full and weighty and had powerful bass from the get-go. It made me eager knowing that it would only get deeper. So, I let it break-in continue, but I did listen consistently while it was burning-in.
Aesthetics, Build, & Comfort
I really liked the looks of the headphone the first time I’d seen pictures of them. Admittedly, I am not a huge fan of gold color ways in general, I did concede that it really looked striking and it’s even more striking in person. I was quickly told by my friend that you can get it in silver instead of gold, which immediately piqued my interest. When he came over with his silver Immanis and I got to see it in person, I was sold. I really dug the silver grill and the silver headband. Well wait, but most of the pictures are all the gold Immanis. What happened? Long story short, because of the unforeseen delay and the acquisition of the Cayin Soul 170HA amplifier, I decided I wanted to match the gold of the Cayin with the Immanis. Alex was extremely courteous and obliged my request to switch, so now I have the gold color way. Realistically, the gold is understated, not gaudy, and exudes classiness.
The cups of the Immanis feature a wooden finish, assuming it’s a faux wood of sorts, but it does not look or feel cheap like the Hifiman faux-wood cup offerings. While it’s not a direct color match to the side panel of the Cayin Soul, which is more of a reddish hue, they still look nice together. The pads are hybrid suede, perforated leather with a pronounced angle. They are stiff, but comfortably sit on the sides your head. The inner cup size is massive, cavernous even. I have tall ears which often end up touching either the top or bottom (or both) of the cups of most headphones. My ears don’t touch the inside of the pads at all.
The headphones themselves are quite heavy, too, at 610 grams, but weight distribution really doesn’t make these uncomfortable to wear. Adjusting accordingly to fit your own head, it becomes even more comfortable. Right out of the case, the clamp of the headphone was tighter than I remember. It put a little pressure on the sides of my cheek and temple area, but after a day, I adjusted the metal tension band to lessen the clamp. I also really love the way the metal tension band flairs out and bends from flat to perpendicular to frame the cups. The leather padded headband looks fantastic with the name “RAAL 1995” embossed on top. The gold-colored stitching on the underside is an extremely nice touch and the texture and feel of the padding and suede are wonderful.
The Star-8 silver cable feels sturdy, yet malleable enough to coil and uncoil. The cable between the headphones and the Y-splitter is a little bit more rigid, but I really like that it is. I never feel the cable on my neck, which is not something you think about until it doesn’t. The actual connectors on the cups themselves are quite solid and snug, so inserting and pulling the 3.5mm plugs out requires intent. This is a welcome change to the 3.5mm connectors that are on the Hifiman Susvara, which pull out a little too easy, but additionally wiggling them could even make audio very briefly cut out.
Also included is a cloth stamped with the RAAL 1995 logo in the corner, metallic screw-type stopper for the RCD interface should you opt not to use it as a headphone stand as I am, and a hex wrench to tighten/loosen the earcup adjustment mechanism.
RCD Interface
To drive ribbons properly from regular amplifiers, the RCD Interface is required. RCD stands for Ribbon Current Drive. It houses a toroidal transformer designed to convert the voltage from the amplifier to the current signal necessary to drive the ribbons. This is effectively the same as the RAAL|Requisite TI-1b brick. The new RCD interface, however, does not have the 16 Ohm and 32 Ohm options readily available and you must choose between them (or an 8 Ohm option) upon ordering. The other difference is the RCD interface is now cylindrical, and it has the option to also work as a headphone stand. Clever and, honestly, convenient! That said, I ended up swapping out the headphone stand extension for the included screw cap for the interface so I could tuck it away.
It is very well built and solid feeling all around. The cylinder is anodized on the outside. On the top is a matching wood finish. On the bottom of the unit it is a cork material, which adds padding and protects surfaces it is placed on. The headphone stand portion is made of metal and finished in the same leather on top as the headband of the headphone with the same wood finish on the underside.
RAAL 1995 Suitcase
Most cases that headphones come in are functional and maybe have a flair of style. Some are just industrial looking going more functionality, like pelican or pelican-style cases. Some are more display pieces and not transportable, like a wooden box like some of the ZMF cases. Some are questionably supposed to be display pieces, Hifiman’s Susvara or Susvara Unveiled boxes immediately come to mind. Slightly underwhelming as such, though. Then there are some cases that are functional, transportable, and have flair and a more premium quality to them. Meze Empyrean I, II, and Elite come to mind for those. The Immanis comes in such a case but takes it to the next level. Internals of the case are well cutout and house the headphone and the RCD Interface and lined with a satin material, not uncommon or unlike what Hifiman does with the Susvara, but it feels less haphazardly done here. There’s also space for the two cables (amp to RCD cable and then the RCD to headphone cable).
The outside, however, extremely premium looking and feeling. It’s finish in a silver metallic finish that, if you catch the light right is subtly rainbowy. The hinges and closing snaps each are high quality. Embossed on the outside of the case is the RAAL 1995 logo. The carrying handle, even, is not just one that simply flops over. No, handle design has tension springs that when you let go, it slowly falls back into place. Quite classy overall and something that I only see on premium luggage and suitcases. RAAL could have easily opted for lesser quality components here, but I am sure glad they didn’t. It just additionally shows the attention and care that went into making the entire experience feel substantial.
Enough With Aesthetics. How Does It Sound?
How does it sound? Unlike any headphone I’ve heard. Tonality is unlike other headphones, for better or for worse. Immanis is a divisive headphone because of its tuning. There are other headphones that are tuned untraditionally that have the same split in opinions, like the Abyss 1266TC or the Heddphone 1 and 2. I admire headphones that deviate from traditional tunings, but in most those cases, I don’t find the tuning at all to my preference. Immanis tuning works extremely well for my personal preferences, my ears, and my HRTF. Areas where I am sensitive to peaks, both in the treble and the midrange are absent of issues. However, I know that there are some peaks in the midrange and treble that may bother others. To my ears, it is just supremely smooth sounding and not all fatiguing. Let me get a little granular in the various aspects, though.
*Note for reference, my extensive evaluation was done on my desktop system: DMP-A6 Streamer -> Holo Audio May KTE -> Cayin Soul 170HA -> RAAL 1995 Immanis.
Soundstage & Holography
I’m starting with soundstage and holography because Immanis is huge sounding. Live recordings like orchestras or concerts sound appropriately big. Recordings in churches or very live-sounding venues also give appropriate spacing and reverberation and feel like you are in the middle of that hall. Stepping into studio recordings, I do feel like the space does get a little smaller still. Vocals and instruments closely mic’ed feel closer and even to the point of feeling intimate. The unique thing about Immanis’ presentation though, is it doesn’t ever feel so intimate that vocals or instruments feel so much in your head, like traditional headphones do. Intimate vocals feel appropriately close, as if they were within inches or feet of you. Additionally, having both aspects all at once is really cool. An album that showcases this duality is “Sessions from the 17th Ward” by Amber Rubarth. Amber’s vocals are center stage and close, while the guitar, fiddle, percussions, and cello have very distinct positions in the soundstage, with each feeling slightly different in distance from the listener.
I feel part of how large it sounds is just how open it feels while on your head. Yes, you physically feel the earcups and the weight of the headphone on your head, but your ears really don’t “feel enclosed.” I think that’s partly because there is a portion within the earcups, in front of the ribbons that is completely open, which you can see straight through. This allows ventilation primarily for the ribbon’s sake, so you’re not creating pressure when putting on or taking off the headphones, which could over-exert the ribbons. Because of that space, you can hear your surroundings as if headphones weren’t on your head, even more than any other traditional headphone.
Instrument separation and layering is extremely convincing, too, especially with the right gear. Positioning sound cues and instruments around the sound stage is easy to do and getting a sense of three-dimensional depth is equally easy. Immanis also stages vertically, too. An example is the song, “Digital Ripples” by Ludvig Forssell that give you that height immersion. Of the headphones and systems I’ve heard so far, Immanis does size, depth, and positioning best. I’m told the Shangri-La Sr. is even better, but the very brief experience I had with it, I really couldn’t get a gauge that.
I will also say that the Immanis can sound/feel flatter, depending on the source chain. For example, for kicks and giggles I tried it off the iBasso DX320MAX Ti using a 4-pin XLR to 4.4mm adapter. While the iBasso DAP can run the headphone to decent volumes, soundstage was pulled in. Honestly, it was just more surprising that the iBasso does as good job at running the Immanis that I think it fills a gap allowing me to enjoy it in transportable fashion! Bass was slightly lighter, compared to the Cayin Soul, though surprisingly not devoid. Speaking of bass…
It's All About the Bass
As I mentioned in my first impressions paragraph, bass was one of the first things that I noticed with Immanis. I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect, given previous experience with the SR-1a/b and CA-1a. Additionally, people also have raved about other headphones having great bass, e.g. Stax SR-X9000. I eagerly listened to the X9000 for the first time in CanJam So Cal 2023, but when I listened for bass, my first thought was, “where is it?!” So, color me thoroughly impressed when I heard the bass on Immanis. Upon first listen, I owned the Susvara OG and the Atrium Open, both of which are known for their bass characteristics. I wasn’t expecting the overall experience to exceed my experience with those, but it certainly did.
As I’ve now gotten a lot more time with the Immanis in my home, I can say without a doubt that this is some of the bass reproduction I’ve heard to date from a headphone. Sure, a couple headphones slam harder, like the Abyss 1266TC or even a very well driven Atrium Open or Closed, but I think that the bass on the Immanis strikes a balance of everything. Its bass can be classified as a “Jack-of-all-trades” and a master in most (areas).
I’ve not heard bass be as authoritative and well-controlled as I have on this headphone. Again, my previous reference headphone, Susvara, is extremely good in bass speed. However, the lift in amount of articulation and kick, even in the busiest passages, is astounding. The recovery and attack of double kick drums had me repeating sequences in songs numerous times just to hear it again and again. Being able to even delineate bass instruments and drums during some of these passages so many other instruments and vocals going on is remarkable. For example, I listened to the entirety of Michael Giacchino’s “Incredibles 2” OST, just because each track had something new to listen for. So many great tracks on that album where you get bass articulation, along with so much more, but everything sounds impeccably balanced. Punch, weight, speed, depth, it has it all. The track, “Devtechno!” has some fun weighty bass that showcases just the balance of all the aspects of the bass. Even the acapella songs at the end of the album are engaging to pay attention to, for bass reproduction.
I’d be remiss to not articulate just how deep the Immanis can play. Nowadays I find myself listening to a lot more music that requires the ability to play deep, deep sub-bass. Hans Zimmer’s soundtracks often have a good mixture of sub bass, but hip-hop, rap, EDM, electronic, all have made more of a presence in my regular rotation. Tracks like, “Limit to Your Love” by James Blake, “Me and Your Mama” by Childish Gambino, “Redrum” by 21 Savage, “Kill Jill” by Big Boy, “It Goes in Waves” by Inzo are great examples of heavy, deep bass. Immanis isn’t the last authority when it comes to the ability to pressurize your noggin, but it truly doesn’t leave me wanting much more from a headphone.
Another benefit to the driver technology is that it does not rely on the seal to maintain bass depth and integrity. The icing on the proverbial cake here is the bass texture. It seems no matter the frequency in the bass, you still get texture and clarity. A great track that features rich, rich bass-guitar texture and prominence is “Half-Life” by Peter Weniger. It seems to always retain its bass composure. The summation of all of this is remarkable, really.
Treble
I don’t end up talking about treble as much as other aspects of a headphone, but its importance is as equally weighted as all other sonic aspects, especially with consideration to the bass. They often are the bookends to my sonic experience and the truth of it is, treble can make or break that overall experience. If treble is too sparkly, it can feel like the energy is just lobotomizing my skull. If a headphone is rolled off in the treble, the sound often feels muffled and claustrophobic. The Sennheiser HD600 series exhibits this trait to my ears. With Immanis, I find the treble to be quite smooth and natural. It does sound quite neutral to my ears. To my ears, I find it similar in energy to the Susvara OG. I know others will hear it differently, though.
When I first heard it along with the Magna, I found neither to be piercing, but Magna to my ears was a little bit peakier and uneven. Not largely so, but Immanis just sounded more consistent throughout the treble frequencies. Tracks that have a lot of treble energy, like “Hit the Lights” by Bensley, retain its clarity without getting excessively edgy. It always stays on the correct side of sharp here.
One thing I often am listening for is tonality and timbre of the upper registers of drum kits. One of the quickest ways to turn me off from a headphone is weird drums reproduction. Hi-hats, crash, and cymbals need to have the right energy to not come off too forward or too recessed. A track that I often use to test this is “Chocolate Chip Trip” by Tool, where Danny Carey’s skills are the focal point. I also really like using songs from the band 311. The tone of the drums is quite unique and can equally show irregularities in the treble energy. The cymbal energy can either retain excess splash on brighter headphones or feel devoid, but the balance on the Immanis is squarely in between and sounds quite right to my ears.
I’ve mentioned texture already, but the application of texture in the treble region is yet another a standout feature to this headphone. Despite having treble detail and articulation of an electrostatic headphone, it doesn’t exhibit the weightlessness and wispy nature those headphones typically do. Even the treble frequencies have a tangible characteristic. There’s also plenty of air frequencies that add to the spatial presentation. A track that I listened to that took me by surprise was “Together Again” by Janet Jackson. At the beginning of the track there’s a couple of harp glissandos along with some sparkly textures layered on top. The first time I heard this, I could practically feel the strings of the harp as they were plucked. The harp notes themselves traveled back and forth from ear to ear with the shimmer of the sparkle just chimed and floated out of nowhere.
Midrange
This is where the headphone becomes the most divisive, its midrange. It’s a bit recessed and it does affect how the sound presents itself. Some are going to find it quite distant sounding, which I understand the criticism. While it can feel/sound recessed comparatively to other headphones, Immanis is leaning heavily into that difference. Despite the recession, I find the overall tonality of the midrange still quite pleasing. Vocals and instruments still sound and feel correct to my ears. I also don’t entirely subscribe to the notion that its midrange presentation makes everything sound far away. That is one of my biggest complaints about the Sennheiser HD800, Immanis doesn’t do that. I think a bit of adjustment, or even brain burn-in, might be necessary to fully appreciate the difference.
There’s more nuance to the midrange and its presentation. It can sound large, it can sound far away, however, it can sound quite intimate… appropriately so. For example, Sarah McLachlan’s “Angel” and “Adia” can sound like she is right in front of you. Other instances where vocals can sound a bit further away, “High and Dry” by Radiohead. Chamber groups can sound further still, positioned equidistant around the listener, like many tracks by the vocal chamber group Voces8. Pushing things further back, larger choral works and orchestras can sound expansive and like they’re on the other side of the theater. Again, I think this is different than we are accustomed to experiencing, especially on headphones and it’ll be up to the user to determine whether it’s something they can grow accustomed to or not.
Even with the tuning and distance perception differences, I did make mention that I do think vocals and instruments sound correct to my ears. This is extremely important to me. Tonality and weight to voices sound balanced to my ears. Male vocals feel naturally weighted, not overly hefty nor thin. A modern male acapella group, Home Free, has a rich bassist and a light agile tenor that I’ve used to test vocal weight. Home Free’s covers of “Man of Constant Sorrow” and “Ring of Fire (feat. Avi Kaplan)” are great examples that showcase the different vocal timbres, deep, rich vocal bass and lighter tenors adding top end harmony. Home Free is more studio recorded, so for more live-recorded male vocals, I turn to Chanticleer. Many wonderful examples from that group for extensive male vocal ranges often recorded in livelier, more natural acoustics. I also really liking using tracks and albums from the vocal group Voces8 and Voctave, covering both extreme vocal ranges for both males and females.
Guitars and string instruments are engaging on Immanis. A friend introduced me to some fantastic guitar-focused rock groups, like Night Verses or Syncatto that have been on regular rotation during my listening sessions. A couple tracks are “8 Gates of Pleasure” and “No Moon” by Night Verses. The electric guitar and its unique character and distortion is tangible even with heavy drums being played. On the more classical string instruments side, there was a track that was featured in the movie “Arrival” with Amy Adams that I enjoy listening to. The track is called “Richter: On the Nature of Daylight” that struck an emotional connection I’ve only previously experienced while watching that movie. Part of that emotional engagement is the connection to the movie, sure, but part of it certainly came from the texture of the bow strings moving across the strings that I could feel as I closed my eyes. The entire “Oppenheimer” soundtrack by Hans Zimmer is also a great showcase for string-focused listening.
Other instruments, including pianos have just the right amount of presence and correct timbre. Horns, such as when trumpets blare have just the right amount of forwardness. Using the track, “Copland: Fanfare for the Common Man” off the Classic at the Pops album by Erich Kunzel & Cincinnati Pops Orchestra showcases this beautifully. Other mid-forward transducers tend to have a bit too much shout and forwardness for my taste. For a piano track that I like listening using, “Piano Concerto No. 2, Allegro, Opus 102” off the Fantasia 2000 film soundtrack showcase Immanis’ ability to articulate the frantic piano soloist and its timbre, while being backed by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. At moment you can focus on the piano and swap focus to individual instruments in the orchestra and back with no problems. There’s just no smear or muddiness.
The midrange is fascinating to me, partly because I can get that emotional engagement, but also get the wide range of intimate to large presentation. The bonus to me with Immanis’ midrange characteristic is just how long I can listen to it at a time. Because of the recession I don’t get shout, and I don’t get thin vocals or instruments, yet retain tonally correct mids.
Detail & Articulation & Timbre
Another big draw for me to this headphone is its resolving capabilities. Even in the busiest passages detail separation and layering sound effortless by Immanis. Its ability to exude near-instantaneous onsets and decays allow more detail and texture to come through. One of my favorite tracks to test articulation is Daft Punk’s “Giorgio by Moroder.” The natural progression of the song escalates with more and more sample layers that it can become a muddy mess. The numerous times I’ve heard this track on Immanis, I catch myself paying close attention to all the intricacies of the track. It’s not just that it sounds effortless because it certainly does, it’s also that I can hear these intricacies in different layers, near and far away.
Busy passages also don’t hinder instrument timbre either. There are several tracks that I’ve been introduced to that showcase this fantastically. I’ll start by mentioning “Adam & Eve” by Cameron Graves. Jazz at it’s most aggressive. Hearing the various instruments in this track has never been easier. “Aurora” by Syncatto & Bernth, “Playing God” by Polyphia, & “Mediterranean Sundance / Rio Ancho (Live at Warfield Theater, San Francisco, CA – December 5, 1980)” by Al Di Meola, John McLaughlin, Paco de Lucia are some amazing tracks for detail, speed, and articulation, without supplanting the timbral integrity of the various instruments (Thanks to those of you who introduced me to those tracks, you know who you are!). The technicalities of this headphone are quite engaging really, and I really have enjoyed experiencing the timbre differences of every instruments. Subtleties and nuances are ever present. There have been many times I’ve found myself playing back a passage just making sure I heard an audial cue in the music that I’d never heard before. It is just so detailed through the entire frequency range.
Supplemental Thoughts
The areas I’ve clearly gushed about are not going to be for everyone. The technical prowess is going to be a bit distracting to some. The tuning, especially in the midrange, will be off-putting to some. Same goes for its bass and treble reproduction. Its soundstage presentation will also not be everyone’s cup of tea. Sound leakage is among the most from a headphone I’ve encountered, both inwards and outwards, which is another thing to consider. The drawback though is this can add to the sense that the presentation is too spacious to some.
One of the biggest benefits of this is ventilation and airflow. Not requiring a seal for bass extension allows this free airflow. I’ve had a handful of 8+ hour listening sessions, nearly nonstop, with the Immanis and my ears barely got warm. This was even during some of the hotter-than-usual Southern California Fall days running my tube amp, effectively turning my office into a relative oven.
Prior to Immanis, my reference headphone was the Hifiman Susvara. Its technical capabilities found of a happy balance that was everything I wanted— articulate, deep rich bass, neutrally tuned with no excessive peaks in the upper range. It also seemingly scaled infinitely. All the appealing aspects of the Susvara that made that headphone my daily driver Immanis takes even further. Drivability-wise, I’m told that it only needs about 1.5W of power, but I’d say that they are not the easiest headphones to drive. From my experience, I had to turn my volume pots to about the same position as I would with the Susvara OG. That said, Immanis is a different beast in drivability. In some ways it’s easier to get to sound good, but it scales infinitely just like the Susvara does. Where I think it differs even more than Susvara, is it is even more source chain revealing and changes even more with different sources.
If you are additionally looking for a more intimate headphone experience, Susvara OG is still a fantastic choice. I think Susvara OG is also a great complimentary headphone to the Immanis. The Susvara Unveiled is also a great alternative, if you are looking for an alternative or complimentary headphone.
Wrapping Up
Immanis in Latin means immense, enormous, huge, vast, monstrous. I could not think of a more aptly named product, because it truly embodies its name. Immanis’ release earlier this year has made enormous waves. It’s not too often I get as excited about a product as I have with the Immanis. And I do still. It’s now been two months since Immanis has arrived here and I am just as eager to put it on and begin listening as I was the first day it arrived.
Immanis’ technical capabilities are among the best on the market. It just about out-resolves everything I’ve heard but does so without sounding thin or losing out bass performance. It’s not a perfect headphone, as I detailed earlier, the midrange is going to be divisive and spatial presentation, too. Though, for me it hits all the right notes. Especially in this hobby, you’ll be hard-pressed to find something that sounds and feels as complete, but Immanis certainly is that product for me.
It has become my daily driver headphone because I’ve not found a genre that this doesn’t do well. I truly have a hard time taking these headphones off my head once they are on. Hours go by while I am listening. Individual headphones might outclass it in specific genres, but as an amalgamation, I don’t find myself wanting anything else. For me and my ears, I don’t feel like I am giving anything up. This headphone has character, top to bottom. So much so, this has become my only headphone, having parted ways with my other headphones. I am just that enamored by them. At this point, I’ve decided that I am no longer looking for a complimentary/supplemental open back headphone. Granted, I’m not one to rotate through headphones much and a bit of a minimalist when it comes to gear, so take that for what you will. I may add a closed-back to the mix just to change things up, but I am in no hurry, and it has to be the right one (Alex, I’m looking at you to make a closed-back version happen!).
There are still going to be plenty that this doesn’t quite fit the same large space it does for me. There are also plenty of people who won’t be as enamored by its tuning. Absolutely valid positions and opinions because we all hear things differently and need different things. However, those who know me here know that I’ve said this since I first experienced this headphone, everyone interested in it, should hear Immanis to determine whether its sonic signature is their cup of tea or not. As I close this review, I’m sure there’s no doubt how much I like this headphone, but my hope from this rather lengthy review, it articulates just what about it that I am hearing and why I enjoy it as much as I do.
(reusing this picture when I first listened to the Immanis on the Cayin Soul at CanJam So Cal)
Imagine having a headphone that has electrostatic speed and articulation, macro dynamics of dynamic drivers, and bass extension of planar magnetics. That is how I’ve described RAAL 1995’s Immanis many times before. It’s accurate and, it not only exhibits those characteristics, the Immanis rivals the best each of those driver types have to offer. So, what’s the catch? There must be trade-offs, because there always are. There are, but that statement comes with an asterisk… price, no doubt is one. It’s tuning, is going to be the aspect of this headphone is the most off-putting. I will detail that more later in this review. However, for those who don’t have problems with its tuning, Immanis is going to likely be one of the very best offerings you’re likely to come across. I clearly fall in the latter category. Preemptively speaking, you will have to forgive the overall enthusiasm, excitement, and positivity; it’s not often a headphone comes along that revolutionizes the already saturated market. There’s a lot more to say about the Immanis that cannot be summed up into one sentence, though.
My introduction to the Immanis began in June 2024. Danny McKinney of RAAL/Requisite one of the many attendees to a local head-fi gathering. Danny brought the Immanis, Magna, and Feliks Envy, and SAEQ Armageddon for people to demo. I had heard some about the new offerings from RAAL, but my previous experience with the ribbons such as the SR-1a/b or CA-1a/b didn’t leave me overwhelmingly enthusiastic. Don’t get me wrong, they were great, and I valued them for what they were, but were sonically just not my cup of tea. So, when we were at the meetup, I didn’t get around to listening to the Magna and Immanis until much later in the meet. It wasn’t until nearly an hour before the meet was supposed to end that I did, partially because I was expecting to not like it. In fact, I was bracing and hoping NOT to like it. Boy was I wrong. I first listened on Danny’s Envy with both Sophia Electric and WE tubes. A couple brief moments later, I blurted out, “holy hell…” thinking where’d that bass come from? After listening a little bit, I asked Danny if I could try it on my system that I brought. I brought the Holo May, Woo WA23 Luna. I listened to a couple tracks and then pulled a friend over and had him listen. We were enamored. What a great pairing that was. I took the Immanis around to a couple of other systems to get brief impressions, including Cavalli Liquid Glass and Zahl HM-1. I didn’t want to monopolize the Immanis much more, so I returned it to Danny and his listening station. I was more than impressed, but I wanted to spend more time with it.
A friend who already had his on order prior to the meet up said he was going to be getting his in a week or so and he would bring it over to try more on my system at home (same system I brought to the meetup). I gladly jumped on that offer. We were able to listen a bit on my system, but he also borrowed a DNA Stellaris, so we listened on that, paired with his Chord Dave/MScaler. I was again impressed, so much so, the very next day, I reached out to Danny to put my name down to get one here. For the sake of saving the readers from too much exposition, I will just mention that I was able to listen to the Immanis on several additional occasions after first outreach to Danny, including extensively listening to it on numerous systems at CanJam SoCal 2024. So, fast forwarding to nearly four months later, which included an unforeseen delay that pushed it back nearly a whole month, it arrived safe and sound.
Leading up to the arrival, I was a bit worried when I pulled it out of the case, it would be underwhelming. Danny had explained that the ribbons were tuned/tightened so that they would settle/break-in to the full frequency response after about 100 hours. My worry was unfounded, it sounded full and weighty and had powerful bass from the get-go. It made me eager knowing that it would only get deeper. So, I let it break-in continue, but I did listen consistently while it was burning-in.
Aesthetics, Build, & Comfort
I really liked the looks of the headphone the first time I’d seen pictures of them. Admittedly, I am not a huge fan of gold color ways in general, I did concede that it really looked striking and it’s even more striking in person. I was quickly told by my friend that you can get it in silver instead of gold, which immediately piqued my interest. When he came over with his silver Immanis and I got to see it in person, I was sold. I really dug the silver grill and the silver headband. Well wait, but most of the pictures are all the gold Immanis. What happened? Long story short, because of the unforeseen delay and the acquisition of the Cayin Soul 170HA amplifier, I decided I wanted to match the gold of the Cayin with the Immanis. Alex was extremely courteous and obliged my request to switch, so now I have the gold color way. Realistically, the gold is understated, not gaudy, and exudes classiness.
The cups of the Immanis feature a wooden finish, assuming it’s a faux wood of sorts, but it does not look or feel cheap like the Hifiman faux-wood cup offerings. While it’s not a direct color match to the side panel of the Cayin Soul, which is more of a reddish hue, they still look nice together. The pads are hybrid suede, perforated leather with a pronounced angle. They are stiff, but comfortably sit on the sides your head. The inner cup size is massive, cavernous even. I have tall ears which often end up touching either the top or bottom (or both) of the cups of most headphones. My ears don’t touch the inside of the pads at all.
The headphones themselves are quite heavy, too, at 610 grams, but weight distribution really doesn’t make these uncomfortable to wear. Adjusting accordingly to fit your own head, it becomes even more comfortable. Right out of the case, the clamp of the headphone was tighter than I remember. It put a little pressure on the sides of my cheek and temple area, but after a day, I adjusted the metal tension band to lessen the clamp. I also really love the way the metal tension band flairs out and bends from flat to perpendicular to frame the cups. The leather padded headband looks fantastic with the name “RAAL 1995” embossed on top. The gold-colored stitching on the underside is an extremely nice touch and the texture and feel of the padding and suede are wonderful.
The Star-8 silver cable feels sturdy, yet malleable enough to coil and uncoil. The cable between the headphones and the Y-splitter is a little bit more rigid, but I really like that it is. I never feel the cable on my neck, which is not something you think about until it doesn’t. The actual connectors on the cups themselves are quite solid and snug, so inserting and pulling the 3.5mm plugs out requires intent. This is a welcome change to the 3.5mm connectors that are on the Hifiman Susvara, which pull out a little too easy, but additionally wiggling them could even make audio very briefly cut out.
Also included is a cloth stamped with the RAAL 1995 logo in the corner, metallic screw-type stopper for the RCD interface should you opt not to use it as a headphone stand as I am, and a hex wrench to tighten/loosen the earcup adjustment mechanism.
RCD Interface
To drive ribbons properly from regular amplifiers, the RCD Interface is required. RCD stands for Ribbon Current Drive. It houses a toroidal transformer designed to convert the voltage from the amplifier to the current signal necessary to drive the ribbons. This is effectively the same as the RAAL|Requisite TI-1b brick. The new RCD interface, however, does not have the 16 Ohm and 32 Ohm options readily available and you must choose between them (or an 8 Ohm option) upon ordering. The other difference is the RCD interface is now cylindrical, and it has the option to also work as a headphone stand. Clever and, honestly, convenient! That said, I ended up swapping out the headphone stand extension for the included screw cap for the interface so I could tuck it away.
It is very well built and solid feeling all around. The cylinder is anodized on the outside. On the top is a matching wood finish. On the bottom of the unit it is a cork material, which adds padding and protects surfaces it is placed on. The headphone stand portion is made of metal and finished in the same leather on top as the headband of the headphone with the same wood finish on the underside.
RAAL 1995 Suitcase
Most cases that headphones come in are functional and maybe have a flair of style. Some are just industrial looking going more functionality, like pelican or pelican-style cases. Some are more display pieces and not transportable, like a wooden box like some of the ZMF cases. Some are questionably supposed to be display pieces, Hifiman’s Susvara or Susvara Unveiled boxes immediately come to mind. Slightly underwhelming as such, though. Then there are some cases that are functional, transportable, and have flair and a more premium quality to them. Meze Empyrean I, II, and Elite come to mind for those. The Immanis comes in such a case but takes it to the next level. Internals of the case are well cutout and house the headphone and the RCD Interface and lined with a satin material, not uncommon or unlike what Hifiman does with the Susvara, but it feels less haphazardly done here. There’s also space for the two cables (amp to RCD cable and then the RCD to headphone cable).
The outside, however, extremely premium looking and feeling. It’s finish in a silver metallic finish that, if you catch the light right is subtly rainbowy. The hinges and closing snaps each are high quality. Embossed on the outside of the case is the RAAL 1995 logo. The carrying handle, even, is not just one that simply flops over. No, handle design has tension springs that when you let go, it slowly falls back into place. Quite classy overall and something that I only see on premium luggage and suitcases. RAAL could have easily opted for lesser quality components here, but I am sure glad they didn’t. It just additionally shows the attention and care that went into making the entire experience feel substantial.
Enough With Aesthetics. How Does It Sound?
How does it sound? Unlike any headphone I’ve heard. Tonality is unlike other headphones, for better or for worse. Immanis is a divisive headphone because of its tuning. There are other headphones that are tuned untraditionally that have the same split in opinions, like the Abyss 1266TC or the Heddphone 1 and 2. I admire headphones that deviate from traditional tunings, but in most those cases, I don’t find the tuning at all to my preference. Immanis tuning works extremely well for my personal preferences, my ears, and my HRTF. Areas where I am sensitive to peaks, both in the treble and the midrange are absent of issues. However, I know that there are some peaks in the midrange and treble that may bother others. To my ears, it is just supremely smooth sounding and not all fatiguing. Let me get a little granular in the various aspects, though.
*Note for reference, my extensive evaluation was done on my desktop system: DMP-A6 Streamer -> Holo Audio May KTE -> Cayin Soul 170HA -> RAAL 1995 Immanis.
Soundstage & Holography
I’m starting with soundstage and holography because Immanis is huge sounding. Live recordings like orchestras or concerts sound appropriately big. Recordings in churches or very live-sounding venues also give appropriate spacing and reverberation and feel like you are in the middle of that hall. Stepping into studio recordings, I do feel like the space does get a little smaller still. Vocals and instruments closely mic’ed feel closer and even to the point of feeling intimate. The unique thing about Immanis’ presentation though, is it doesn’t ever feel so intimate that vocals or instruments feel so much in your head, like traditional headphones do. Intimate vocals feel appropriately close, as if they were within inches or feet of you. Additionally, having both aspects all at once is really cool. An album that showcases this duality is “Sessions from the 17th Ward” by Amber Rubarth. Amber’s vocals are center stage and close, while the guitar, fiddle, percussions, and cello have very distinct positions in the soundstage, with each feeling slightly different in distance from the listener.
I feel part of how large it sounds is just how open it feels while on your head. Yes, you physically feel the earcups and the weight of the headphone on your head, but your ears really don’t “feel enclosed.” I think that’s partly because there is a portion within the earcups, in front of the ribbons that is completely open, which you can see straight through. This allows ventilation primarily for the ribbon’s sake, so you’re not creating pressure when putting on or taking off the headphones, which could over-exert the ribbons. Because of that space, you can hear your surroundings as if headphones weren’t on your head, even more than any other traditional headphone.
Instrument separation and layering is extremely convincing, too, especially with the right gear. Positioning sound cues and instruments around the sound stage is easy to do and getting a sense of three-dimensional depth is equally easy. Immanis also stages vertically, too. An example is the song, “Digital Ripples” by Ludvig Forssell that give you that height immersion. Of the headphones and systems I’ve heard so far, Immanis does size, depth, and positioning best. I’m told the Shangri-La Sr. is even better, but the very brief experience I had with it, I really couldn’t get a gauge that.
I will also say that the Immanis can sound/feel flatter, depending on the source chain. For example, for kicks and giggles I tried it off the iBasso DX320MAX Ti using a 4-pin XLR to 4.4mm adapter. While the iBasso DAP can run the headphone to decent volumes, soundstage was pulled in. Honestly, it was just more surprising that the iBasso does as good job at running the Immanis that I think it fills a gap allowing me to enjoy it in transportable fashion! Bass was slightly lighter, compared to the Cayin Soul, though surprisingly not devoid. Speaking of bass…
It's All About the Bass
As I mentioned in my first impressions paragraph, bass was one of the first things that I noticed with Immanis. I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect, given previous experience with the SR-1a/b and CA-1a. Additionally, people also have raved about other headphones having great bass, e.g. Stax SR-X9000. I eagerly listened to the X9000 for the first time in CanJam So Cal 2023, but when I listened for bass, my first thought was, “where is it?!” So, color me thoroughly impressed when I heard the bass on Immanis. Upon first listen, I owned the Susvara OG and the Atrium Open, both of which are known for their bass characteristics. I wasn’t expecting the overall experience to exceed my experience with those, but it certainly did.
As I’ve now gotten a lot more time with the Immanis in my home, I can say without a doubt that this is some of the bass reproduction I’ve heard to date from a headphone. Sure, a couple headphones slam harder, like the Abyss 1266TC or even a very well driven Atrium Open or Closed, but I think that the bass on the Immanis strikes a balance of everything. Its bass can be classified as a “Jack-of-all-trades” and a master in most (areas).
I’ve not heard bass be as authoritative and well-controlled as I have on this headphone. Again, my previous reference headphone, Susvara, is extremely good in bass speed. However, the lift in amount of articulation and kick, even in the busiest passages, is astounding. The recovery and attack of double kick drums had me repeating sequences in songs numerous times just to hear it again and again. Being able to even delineate bass instruments and drums during some of these passages so many other instruments and vocals going on is remarkable. For example, I listened to the entirety of Michael Giacchino’s “Incredibles 2” OST, just because each track had something new to listen for. So many great tracks on that album where you get bass articulation, along with so much more, but everything sounds impeccably balanced. Punch, weight, speed, depth, it has it all. The track, “Devtechno!” has some fun weighty bass that showcases just the balance of all the aspects of the bass. Even the acapella songs at the end of the album are engaging to pay attention to, for bass reproduction.
I’d be remiss to not articulate just how deep the Immanis can play. Nowadays I find myself listening to a lot more music that requires the ability to play deep, deep sub-bass. Hans Zimmer’s soundtracks often have a good mixture of sub bass, but hip-hop, rap, EDM, electronic, all have made more of a presence in my regular rotation. Tracks like, “Limit to Your Love” by James Blake, “Me and Your Mama” by Childish Gambino, “Redrum” by 21 Savage, “Kill Jill” by Big Boy, “It Goes in Waves” by Inzo are great examples of heavy, deep bass. Immanis isn’t the last authority when it comes to the ability to pressurize your noggin, but it truly doesn’t leave me wanting much more from a headphone.
Another benefit to the driver technology is that it does not rely on the seal to maintain bass depth and integrity. The icing on the proverbial cake here is the bass texture. It seems no matter the frequency in the bass, you still get texture and clarity. A great track that features rich, rich bass-guitar texture and prominence is “Half-Life” by Peter Weniger. It seems to always retain its bass composure. The summation of all of this is remarkable, really.
Treble
I don’t end up talking about treble as much as other aspects of a headphone, but its importance is as equally weighted as all other sonic aspects, especially with consideration to the bass. They often are the bookends to my sonic experience and the truth of it is, treble can make or break that overall experience. If treble is too sparkly, it can feel like the energy is just lobotomizing my skull. If a headphone is rolled off in the treble, the sound often feels muffled and claustrophobic. The Sennheiser HD600 series exhibits this trait to my ears. With Immanis, I find the treble to be quite smooth and natural. It does sound quite neutral to my ears. To my ears, I find it similar in energy to the Susvara OG. I know others will hear it differently, though.
When I first heard it along with the Magna, I found neither to be piercing, but Magna to my ears was a little bit peakier and uneven. Not largely so, but Immanis just sounded more consistent throughout the treble frequencies. Tracks that have a lot of treble energy, like “Hit the Lights” by Bensley, retain its clarity without getting excessively edgy. It always stays on the correct side of sharp here.
One thing I often am listening for is tonality and timbre of the upper registers of drum kits. One of the quickest ways to turn me off from a headphone is weird drums reproduction. Hi-hats, crash, and cymbals need to have the right energy to not come off too forward or too recessed. A track that I often use to test this is “Chocolate Chip Trip” by Tool, where Danny Carey’s skills are the focal point. I also really like using songs from the band 311. The tone of the drums is quite unique and can equally show irregularities in the treble energy. The cymbal energy can either retain excess splash on brighter headphones or feel devoid, but the balance on the Immanis is squarely in between and sounds quite right to my ears.
I’ve mentioned texture already, but the application of texture in the treble region is yet another a standout feature to this headphone. Despite having treble detail and articulation of an electrostatic headphone, it doesn’t exhibit the weightlessness and wispy nature those headphones typically do. Even the treble frequencies have a tangible characteristic. There’s also plenty of air frequencies that add to the spatial presentation. A track that I listened to that took me by surprise was “Together Again” by Janet Jackson. At the beginning of the track there’s a couple of harp glissandos along with some sparkly textures layered on top. The first time I heard this, I could practically feel the strings of the harp as they were plucked. The harp notes themselves traveled back and forth from ear to ear with the shimmer of the sparkle just chimed and floated out of nowhere.
Midrange
This is where the headphone becomes the most divisive, its midrange. It’s a bit recessed and it does affect how the sound presents itself. Some are going to find it quite distant sounding, which I understand the criticism. While it can feel/sound recessed comparatively to other headphones, Immanis is leaning heavily into that difference. Despite the recession, I find the overall tonality of the midrange still quite pleasing. Vocals and instruments still sound and feel correct to my ears. I also don’t entirely subscribe to the notion that its midrange presentation makes everything sound far away. That is one of my biggest complaints about the Sennheiser HD800, Immanis doesn’t do that. I think a bit of adjustment, or even brain burn-in, might be necessary to fully appreciate the difference.
There’s more nuance to the midrange and its presentation. It can sound large, it can sound far away, however, it can sound quite intimate… appropriately so. For example, Sarah McLachlan’s “Angel” and “Adia” can sound like she is right in front of you. Other instances where vocals can sound a bit further away, “High and Dry” by Radiohead. Chamber groups can sound further still, positioned equidistant around the listener, like many tracks by the vocal chamber group Voces8. Pushing things further back, larger choral works and orchestras can sound expansive and like they’re on the other side of the theater. Again, I think this is different than we are accustomed to experiencing, especially on headphones and it’ll be up to the user to determine whether it’s something they can grow accustomed to or not.
Even with the tuning and distance perception differences, I did make mention that I do think vocals and instruments sound correct to my ears. This is extremely important to me. Tonality and weight to voices sound balanced to my ears. Male vocals feel naturally weighted, not overly hefty nor thin. A modern male acapella group, Home Free, has a rich bassist and a light agile tenor that I’ve used to test vocal weight. Home Free’s covers of “Man of Constant Sorrow” and “Ring of Fire (feat. Avi Kaplan)” are great examples that showcase the different vocal timbres, deep, rich vocal bass and lighter tenors adding top end harmony. Home Free is more studio recorded, so for more live-recorded male vocals, I turn to Chanticleer. Many wonderful examples from that group for extensive male vocal ranges often recorded in livelier, more natural acoustics. I also really liking using tracks and albums from the vocal group Voces8 and Voctave, covering both extreme vocal ranges for both males and females.
Guitars and string instruments are engaging on Immanis. A friend introduced me to some fantastic guitar-focused rock groups, like Night Verses or Syncatto that have been on regular rotation during my listening sessions. A couple tracks are “8 Gates of Pleasure” and “No Moon” by Night Verses. The electric guitar and its unique character and distortion is tangible even with heavy drums being played. On the more classical string instruments side, there was a track that was featured in the movie “Arrival” with Amy Adams that I enjoy listening to. The track is called “Richter: On the Nature of Daylight” that struck an emotional connection I’ve only previously experienced while watching that movie. Part of that emotional engagement is the connection to the movie, sure, but part of it certainly came from the texture of the bow strings moving across the strings that I could feel as I closed my eyes. The entire “Oppenheimer” soundtrack by Hans Zimmer is also a great showcase for string-focused listening.
Other instruments, including pianos have just the right amount of presence and correct timbre. Horns, such as when trumpets blare have just the right amount of forwardness. Using the track, “Copland: Fanfare for the Common Man” off the Classic at the Pops album by Erich Kunzel & Cincinnati Pops Orchestra showcases this beautifully. Other mid-forward transducers tend to have a bit too much shout and forwardness for my taste. For a piano track that I like listening using, “Piano Concerto No. 2, Allegro, Opus 102” off the Fantasia 2000 film soundtrack showcase Immanis’ ability to articulate the frantic piano soloist and its timbre, while being backed by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. At moment you can focus on the piano and swap focus to individual instruments in the orchestra and back with no problems. There’s just no smear or muddiness.
The midrange is fascinating to me, partly because I can get that emotional engagement, but also get the wide range of intimate to large presentation. The bonus to me with Immanis’ midrange characteristic is just how long I can listen to it at a time. Because of the recession I don’t get shout, and I don’t get thin vocals or instruments, yet retain tonally correct mids.
Detail & Articulation & Timbre
Another big draw for me to this headphone is its resolving capabilities. Even in the busiest passages detail separation and layering sound effortless by Immanis. Its ability to exude near-instantaneous onsets and decays allow more detail and texture to come through. One of my favorite tracks to test articulation is Daft Punk’s “Giorgio by Moroder.” The natural progression of the song escalates with more and more sample layers that it can become a muddy mess. The numerous times I’ve heard this track on Immanis, I catch myself paying close attention to all the intricacies of the track. It’s not just that it sounds effortless because it certainly does, it’s also that I can hear these intricacies in different layers, near and far away.
Busy passages also don’t hinder instrument timbre either. There are several tracks that I’ve been introduced to that showcase this fantastically. I’ll start by mentioning “Adam & Eve” by Cameron Graves. Jazz at it’s most aggressive. Hearing the various instruments in this track has never been easier. “Aurora” by Syncatto & Bernth, “Playing God” by Polyphia, & “Mediterranean Sundance / Rio Ancho (Live at Warfield Theater, San Francisco, CA – December 5, 1980)” by Al Di Meola, John McLaughlin, Paco de Lucia are some amazing tracks for detail, speed, and articulation, without supplanting the timbral integrity of the various instruments (Thanks to those of you who introduced me to those tracks, you know who you are!). The technicalities of this headphone are quite engaging really, and I really have enjoyed experiencing the timbre differences of every instruments. Subtleties and nuances are ever present. There have been many times I’ve found myself playing back a passage just making sure I heard an audial cue in the music that I’d never heard before. It is just so detailed through the entire frequency range.
Supplemental Thoughts
The areas I’ve clearly gushed about are not going to be for everyone. The technical prowess is going to be a bit distracting to some. The tuning, especially in the midrange, will be off-putting to some. Same goes for its bass and treble reproduction. Its soundstage presentation will also not be everyone’s cup of tea. Sound leakage is among the most from a headphone I’ve encountered, both inwards and outwards, which is another thing to consider. The drawback though is this can add to the sense that the presentation is too spacious to some.
One of the biggest benefits of this is ventilation and airflow. Not requiring a seal for bass extension allows this free airflow. I’ve had a handful of 8+ hour listening sessions, nearly nonstop, with the Immanis and my ears barely got warm. This was even during some of the hotter-than-usual Southern California Fall days running my tube amp, effectively turning my office into a relative oven.
Prior to Immanis, my reference headphone was the Hifiman Susvara. Its technical capabilities found of a happy balance that was everything I wanted— articulate, deep rich bass, neutrally tuned with no excessive peaks in the upper range. It also seemingly scaled infinitely. All the appealing aspects of the Susvara that made that headphone my daily driver Immanis takes even further. Drivability-wise, I’m told that it only needs about 1.5W of power, but I’d say that they are not the easiest headphones to drive. From my experience, I had to turn my volume pots to about the same position as I would with the Susvara OG. That said, Immanis is a different beast in drivability. In some ways it’s easier to get to sound good, but it scales infinitely just like the Susvara does. Where I think it differs even more than Susvara, is it is even more source chain revealing and changes even more with different sources.
If you are additionally looking for a more intimate headphone experience, Susvara OG is still a fantastic choice. I think Susvara OG is also a great complimentary headphone to the Immanis. The Susvara Unveiled is also a great alternative, if you are looking for an alternative or complimentary headphone.
Wrapping Up
Immanis in Latin means immense, enormous, huge, vast, monstrous. I could not think of a more aptly named product, because it truly embodies its name. Immanis’ release earlier this year has made enormous waves. It’s not too often I get as excited about a product as I have with the Immanis. And I do still. It’s now been two months since Immanis has arrived here and I am just as eager to put it on and begin listening as I was the first day it arrived.
Immanis’ technical capabilities are among the best on the market. It just about out-resolves everything I’ve heard but does so without sounding thin or losing out bass performance. It’s not a perfect headphone, as I detailed earlier, the midrange is going to be divisive and spatial presentation, too. Though, for me it hits all the right notes. Especially in this hobby, you’ll be hard-pressed to find something that sounds and feels as complete, but Immanis certainly is that product for me.
It has become my daily driver headphone because I’ve not found a genre that this doesn’t do well. I truly have a hard time taking these headphones off my head once they are on. Hours go by while I am listening. Individual headphones might outclass it in specific genres, but as an amalgamation, I don’t find myself wanting anything else. For me and my ears, I don’t feel like I am giving anything up. This headphone has character, top to bottom. So much so, this has become my only headphone, having parted ways with my other headphones. I am just that enamored by them. At this point, I’ve decided that I am no longer looking for a complimentary/supplemental open back headphone. Granted, I’m not one to rotate through headphones much and a bit of a minimalist when it comes to gear, so take that for what you will. I may add a closed-back to the mix just to change things up, but I am in no hurry, and it has to be the right one (Alex, I’m looking at you to make a closed-back version happen!).
There are still going to be plenty that this doesn’t quite fit the same large space it does for me. There are also plenty of people who won’t be as enamored by its tuning. Absolutely valid positions and opinions because we all hear things differently and need different things. However, those who know me here know that I’ve said this since I first experienced this headphone, everyone interested in it, should hear Immanis to determine whether its sonic signature is their cup of tea or not. As I close this review, I’m sure there’s no doubt how much I like this headphone, but my hope from this rather lengthy review, it articulates just what about it that I am hearing and why I enjoy it as much as I do.
(reusing this picture when I first listened to the Immanis on the Cayin Soul at CanJam So Cal)
1oad3r
Wonderful writing and beautiful photos - thank you for sharing!
227qed
Great review, especially about the bass. Once you get a taste of the ultra low frequencies done well, you just can’t live without them.
These are my impressions on the Immanis, very big shoutout to @ThanatosVI for lending me his unit for a week.
Chain is a May KTE -> Serene KTE (for adjusting the volume) -> Envy Custom (AE) with Elrog TM's and the brutally honest and revealing Melz1578:
- Very light and comfortable.
- Build Quality is sublime and the looks are gorgeous.
- Y-splitter could be a bit further down but it's fine.
- No problem with the interface that also acts as a headphone stand.
- The Envy Custom (AE) drives it phenomenally well, it needs a lot of power though, the same as an OG Susvara.
- Details are nuts, same as speed. A step up from Susvara OG.
- The texture is also the best i've heard, voices and basically everything else sound hyper realistic with all its microdetails.
- Separation is also extremely good, allthough it has a weakness that makes separation a bit weird. I'll go into that a bit later.
- Soundstage is extremely big, it's gigantic. I sold my HD800S long ago, but this is one of the two headphones where i really think that it reaches that level. It stages almost on like 1266, which is extremely large.
- Tonality is... neutral laid-back. Bass seems to be dead flat, even on my subbass test track "Have You Ever" - Leprous everything gets rendered beautifully.
The midrange is recessed, probably too much, i will talk about that a whole lot in a bit. Maybe not enough pina gain, maybe too late pina gain, there are no measurements yet of the Immanis.
The treble seems neutral, very pleasing, not spikey or harsh, but with plenty of details, it's very enjoyable. It could actually be a bit recessed aswell. "Bijou - Queen" sounds magnificent, no matter the volume. Very impressive.
- Not a single frequency i've heard is in any way annoying, the tonality is extremely pleasent. No shout, harshness, too much peaky treble, sibilance, you name it. OG Susvara is brighter and warmer.
- That also means that this thing is an extremely good allrounder for all music genres. OG Susvara is less ideal for hardrock / metal because of its elevated treble for example.
- Bass is outstanding from a quality perspective, it still won't compete with the 1266TC / old Valkyria in terms of body / slam / dynamics.
- I think it has equivalent or very slightly more slam / better dynamics than a perfectly driven OG Susvara. Which is kinda nuts. Shouldn't ribbons have a weakness here compared to planars? That's cheating! Bass is very controlled and transparent, just like a planar bass, and it can slap you very hard in the face when called for it. It's sooo snappy and can truly kick and punch, like you would not expect.
- It's so fast, notes fly by in an instant.
- Texture of every instrument / voice is most likely the best i've ever heard.
- I actually also hear new details that were hidden, not that often, but it's shocking for me that there is another step up from the Susvara.
- Imaging is a mixed bag, here i think is a weekness of the Immanis: It (can) places things far away, very often. Nothing is right up your face, it's always at least a few meters away. You can take any heavily vocal focused song that should sound very intimate, and the Immanis is not able to place the singer right in front of your face and hit you with that emotional attachment, at least for me. Examples are numerous:
Nadir Rustamli - Fade To Black
Reinhard Mey - Über den Wolken
Malukah - The Dragonborn Comes
With the last example it's very impressive, you're in a very big concert hall, and you listen to Malukah playing her song for thousands of people in the audience, but with the Susvara it's truly an emotional connection with just you and her.
This effect is immanent with both male and female voices, but i think it's worse with male ones. Voices can get somewhat close, but never truly intimate. The Susvara handles that beautifully.
If you have an Immanis, you might think that voices are actually quite close in all of my examples. You should try switching to a different headphone for a comparison and realize how much more intimate and personal the songs actually sound.
This problem of distance in voices gets exaggerated when a song actually switches the positioning of the singer from a close distance to a further away one. On the Immanis, the singer is already a few meters away, and then when the effect hits, voices are just so far away that i found them a bit lost in space (literally, because the soundstage is so big).
Let's dive really into this, because this is my #1 gripe:
Example:
Queen - Too much love will kill you
1.
At 0:37: "I feel like noone ever told the truth to me"
2.
At 0:44: "About growing up and what a struggle it would be"
3.
At 1:05: "Too much love will kill you, if you can't make up your mind"
4.
At 1:25: "Too much love will kill you, every time."
Freddys voice at 1. should be somewhat up close, on the Immanis it's not, it's a few meters away.
At 2. it should be a bit further away, on the Immanis it's way further away.
And then at 3. when that distance effect fully comes into places, his voice is so far away that he sounds small in a very spacious concert hall.
Finally at 4. his voice comes closer again when he sings "...kill you, every time". When that "everytime" hits, his voice is close up again. On the Immanis it does come closer, but it is, again, just like at the first step, nowhere near intimate. On the Susvara you clearly hear the different distance levels while they are separated in three distinct layers, being close up, medium range and far away. The difference between all three steps is so much more apparent on the Susvara than on the Immanis.
It's not that voices are per se so much shoved into the background that they are not enjoyable, far from it, but you won't get a really intimate experience with the Immanis, ever.
Keep in mind that this is nitpicking, i absolutely know that, you only notice this spacious effect on this song on better, more expensive gear. With IEM's i have a hard time distinguishing the distance levels (especially on cheaper ones), but the Susvara displays them easily.
I just wish the Immanis would do the same, and there is a difference there, but it's just not that big in comparison and lacking in intimacy.
We should not forget that the Immanis is ten thousand bucks. It has to compete with the very best headphones, period.
I am the person that will dissect every single flaw so people know what to expect. People want to know the bad things, because the good things will be pleasantly surprising anyway, while the drawbacks might be a dealbreaker.
On rare occasions this gets much more problematic. So much, that you wonder why the lead singer is so far in the background and gets almost covered up by the guitars and drums. The worst example i have found so far is Through the Fire And Flames, the lead singer almost gets too mixed up / basically overshadowed by the shredding guitars.
- With all of that discussed, i think separation is a bit weird. The Immanis can places things so far away that you almost need to search for them when they are in the background in that midrange guitar / voice frequency.
Example: Beatles - Help
Listen to the acoustic guitar from 0:03 onward which is placed at ~3-4 o'clock to the right, it's quite far away. You can clearly make it out from 0:10-0:30. On the Immanis, this guitar is so far gone to the right and also so quiet that you really have to search for it. It's there, 100%, but it almost gets lost.
I mean, is that a case of too much separation because the soundstage is so huge and the headphone is so laid-back?
Nevertheless, the resolving abilities like the "click" sound at 5 o'clock at the very start of Robbie Williams - Feel being so far away, but also very distinctly separated in the giant stage, it's very impressive.
- Big sounding orchestral albums, be it Lord of the Rings or Star Wars, are sublime and most impressive, they truly wow me. I like them better than on the Susvara.
- It is really addicting how technical this headphone is and at the same time it's so enjoyable from a tonality perspective, you will not skip songs with the Immanis.
- I have not found a single song that sounded bad in terms of annoying / fatiguing tonality. Even very problematic songs are enjoyable: House of the rising Sun - The Animals has a harsh and aggressive midrange and will easily sound sibilant, shouty and simply not good, but the Immanis smoothens it up completely while also displaying every last bit of detail, it's truly impressive. On the Susvara for example, even with sweet tubes "of many a poor boy" at 0:26 makes me flinch, the Immanis does not care.
- I can fully understand selling all other headphones and only keeping this one as an allrounder.
- If you are ok with not having intimate vocals (or even prefer it, or have an HD6XX / Utopia as a counterpart), the Immanis is truly remarkable.
- Because of its extremely large soundstage and snappy dynamics, it's a super impressive headphone.
- I really think this is not an aggressive headphone, it's the opposite, very laid-back, because of the very laid-back midrange. There are also zero problematic frequencies in the treble for me. It could also be the case because i use it on a tube amp which softens it a bit, but as i stated at the beginning, i have really technical (and solid state) sounding tubes socketed in.
- The attack of notes is so fast, they appear out of nowhere in an instant. I sometimes wish the decay was a bit slower though, it's probably a bit too fast. I have to say i can't really judge that, so i won't held it against the Immanis.
- I cannot state enough how enjoyable this headphone sounds, i never would have thought that. You can crank it up and it keeps its cool being super enjoyable. Keep in mind that listening to too loud music for a longer period of time is not advised, and the Immanis makes you often want to listen louder than other headphones, i will talk about why a bit more in a later paragraph.
- Dynamic range is probably higher than on the Susvara, it gets loud in an instant without losing track of anything quiet, the Star Wars OST never sounded so impressive. Of course the Susvara is no slouch either.
- With some OST's i just fall into the music and enjoy it and get immersed so much that it makes me wonder if i ever would need another headphone again. It trumps the Susvara in that regard, which is already very immersive.
- This headphone will produce truly outstanding moments that just leave you speechless with you wanting nothing more but to lay back, close your eyes and enjoy the music.
- It can sound so soft and smooth, and one track later extremely dynamic, energetic and fast, wow.
- Every single genre and song will sound impressive and outstanding if the recording is good enough.
After having spent more time with the Immanis, i have to say that i personally prefer my OG Susvara to it. For only that lush romantic intimacy reason. The Immanis is objectively the more technical capable headphone though.
On the second day i swapped the tubes to the way more intimate and warm pairs of Western Electric 300B's and Brimar CV1988 6SN7's. I wanted to see if i could get the Immanis to sound intimate after all.
In the end, it barely helped to transform the headphone into a more warm, lush and intimate version of itsself. The tonality shifted, but voices were still too far away to feel intimate, no matter the song.
When further thinking about it, the OG Susvara is far from having too intimate voices, it is a laid-back headphone in the midrange with its delayed pina gain. It's nowhere near close the typical extremely intimate sounding headphones like an HD6XX or a Focal Utopia where voices are just so close that you almost can't breathe.
In comparison, voices on the Immanis are a big noticable step more laid back than on the OG Susvara, so much that i'm thinking that a few more db in the eargain region would have been ideal. Increasing the overall volume won't help because everything will get louder, you will have to use EQ (which i don't).
The Susvaras ability to place things right in front of your face, but also way further away, depending on the track, is the one thing i wish the Immanis would do better.
The more i listen to the Immanis, the more times i think that the singer is really too much in the background for me, like with "Lay it all on me" - Those Damn Crows, and i have to say that i am very sensitive with vocals being too shouty or aggressive, the Immanis is the very first headphone that has the opposite problem that it's too laid-back (maybe together with the Meze Elite, it's been some time, but i remember that this one was also extremely laid-back).
On the other hand, the Immanis uses this effect to create its gigantic soundstage, which is really impressive and rivals that of an HD800S. Still, you got a lot more empty space between you and the singer on the Immanis, which is not the case on the Susvara which also has a nice soundstage.
Another point that dawned on me: The Immanis is so laid-back and non-aggressive, that its tuning is rather safe. Very safe. Too safe. It's not exciting. Now, it has that enormous soundstage and hefty dynamics, so calling it boring would be simply not true, but a song needs to be interesting to sound interesting. That may sound dumb, but let me explain. Anything will sound exciting on my 1266 TC, even when the song is normally not. Anything will have a very thick textured body with a lof of noteweight on my Valkyria, no matter the track. Even on my Susvara, the treble gets sparkly because it is boosted, and the midrange gets seductively sweet, independant of the song i'm playing. On the Immanis, because of its extremely laid-back neutrality, if a song doesn't have anything special to offer, it just sounds bland. It sounds spacious, but it lacks any form of spices. It's like if you order a meal, you get that exact same meal, but it tastes bland because you didn't explicitely told the waitress to include numerous spices, salt and pepper, so the cook just didn't put them in. You need to order the right song to appreciate the Immanis' capabilities to bring out its technicalities. Again, you might turn up the volume to seek out "more", but if the song cannot offer any spice, the Immanis won't do anything to make it more interesting. A lof of people will want exactly that, high-fidelity, as true to the source as possible. I know a portion of my poorly recorded library too well that i noticed the tediousness more than a few times.
With decently recorded music, the Immanis will bring out the very best and it will leave you speechless, guaranteed.
Needless to say that movies and gaming are also top tier with this headphone, though with competitive gaming you will need a few matches to estimate the footsteps of the enemies because of that "distance quirk". The huge soundstage will certainly keep you immersed all the time, and the dynamics do their parts to easily satisfy you aswell.
- In the end the OG Susvara gives me a special romantic lushness which i can't describe other than magic, the Immanis does not. Maybe it's that lack of emotional attachment with voices being a bit further away. Maybe it's the bit of added warmth of the Sus. The Immanis sings for me as a person, but the Susvara sings for my heart and soul.
- For me it could not replace the Susvara only for that one reason. The 1266TC and the Valkyria are just too different and unique in terms of sound that i'll not compare them to the Immanis. They both have very big strengths, but also very big weaknesses.
- Honestly, at the point where we are now with technicalities, be it "only" of the Susvara OG, for me it really is a personal preference of other things, how i like the tonal balance / strengths / weaknesses of the headphone. While the Immanis has better technicalities, i truly don't feel like missing out on anything with my Susvara OG next to it.
- Having said that, it is truly impressive sounding, i know i'm repeating myself, but it's truly magnificent sounding when playing for example some Yosi Horikawa.
- Needless to say that the pricepoint is extreme, but the Immanis will be worth it for a lot of people.
- I have never listened to the Magna, i've read that it stages more intimately. No idea if it always stages more intimately, or if it has the ability to do so.
If the Immanis did not have that lack of emotional intimacy i would immediately get it instead of the (OG / Unveiled) Susvara. For me personally i'll try my luck with the Susvara Unveiled next.
Honestly, if the Susvara Unveiled is not for me, for whatever reason, i will think again and get an Immanis instead of my OG Susvara and then just use my Valkyria as my "intimate headphone". The Immanis left an impression that left me wanting one. But i've not heard the Unveiled yet...
I praised the Immanis a lot, and probably went overboard with talking about the intimacy-quirk, but for me personally it mattered a lot, and quite frankly, i have nothing more to criticize about this headphone, it's easily one of the very best headphones available now, period.
In the end, i am super impressed with the Immanis and if you're fine with laid-back voices then i highly recommend the Immanis. The combination of the super enjoyable tonality together with its insanely capable technicalities is truly a work of art. Because it's an allrounder, it doesn't do anything special to spice things up, but it's the very best allrounder that i've heard that truly works with everything i throw at it, while also sounding incredible.
I will miss it, i truly will, its effortless sound is addicting.
Thanks for reading!
Edit:
To clarify, for me "laid-back" is equivalent to "very recessed vocals", for me the term laid-back has nothing to do with dynamics or the energy that the headphone can produce, it's purely the recessed vocals + no spike / harshness / anything uncomfortable in the frequency reponse which i refer to with this term.
For me "laid-back" is only the lack of any forwardness in the frequency reponse, especially mids (shouty / harsh vocals etc) and treble (sibilance, annoying peaks).
Edit 2:
Testing the Immanis on my Mass Kobo 475:
It sounds sharper, so less laid-back. More incisive. More precise. Even snappier, and also a little bit more intimate.
It's a different flavoured sound.
Soundstage seems smaller, still very large.
Dynamics are still very nice.
It actually gained some aggressivenes and has some bite now.
The midrange with vocals changed, it's not as smooth now.
It did not get rid of the lack of intimacy though, it only got slightly better.
Well, it seems like the Envy does soften it up, even with very technical sounding tubes.
I highly prefer the Immanis on the 475 to the Susvara on the 475.
You not only want to check out the Immanis, but also if you prefer a solid state or a tube amp.
I can clearly hear that the pairing is not ideal, but it gives me an impression of a solid state with the Immanis.
Very interesting. You might prefer the Immanis on a clean, powerful solid state amp.
Edit 3:
Could not have said it better than:
ThanatosVI :
This was the most interesting Immanis review I've read so far.
You described well, why the Immanis is the perfect continuation, for someone who loves Meze. A laid back sound signature but with technicalities turned up to 11.
Regarding the recessed vocals, I always compare it to the sound of speakers that are 3m away. Even on the most intimate tracks, the speakers are still 3m away, and that's how the Immanis sounds.
This gets magnified on 300B Tube amps. So those seeking closer vocals might prefer solid state, or different tube types like KT88 or something.
Edit 4:
I bought one. It just left such a stunning impression that i really wanted one.
You can get a sweet intimate seductive midrange with a lot of cans, but the speaker-like experience is something that the Immanis is unique in. For all people that want a more traditional headphone experience, i highly suggest taking a look at the Magna, i think it outperforms not only the Susvara, but also the new Susvara Unveiled - in everything but vocals. It has a very OG Susvara - like tonality and does not lack that intimacy factor like the Immanis, but it also is a step down in layering and bass performance versus its bigger brother. It's still a beast though. Check out the Magna thread for my impresions of it.
IgeNeLL
The lush of Susvara is actually the result of distortion and interference, which prevent user from transparency and depth.
Leto Dal
Was rereading your review (still on the fence) and in regard of distant vocals - could Elrogs contribute to that? Since recessed mids was one of my main complains about Elrogs, did you try Immanis with We300b?
Exekuhtor
@Leto Dal still the case, but it will sound a bit sweeter and warmer now. As i wrote in the Immanis thread: I think it's only a problem if you want an intimate song sounding intimate, because that won't happen. I think the new best top combination is Immanis + Unveiled, because the Susvara Unveiled has the best (intimate) vocals i've ever heard.
The Golden King
What is the gap between flagships? That is something I always felt to grasp with, with everyone claiming to be the next best headphones. What if there is truly something above the current flagships? Today we will look at the non-electrostatic headphone that truly supersedes my Abyss 1266, the new golden king for me, the Raal 1995 Immanis.
Video Review
This is a Ribbon Headphone. As such specs do not really say much as there is a need of a transformer in between. Unless you have a HSA-1X series amplifier, the lost of power is expected.
Note: This is on loan to me from SLT Technologies. I got to know them during the last CanJam. They were kind enough to lend me this demo copy here. I have this copy only for a few days, so all impressions are for that few days in comparison with headphones I own.
TLDR:
This is probably one of the best headphones one can buy. It has a great build, a great sound and it is actually comfortable without quirks. The only issue is it needs a lot of power and either a transformer or specialized amps. Considering the flagships out there, this to me is probably the most balanced in all aspects in delivering a great headphone experience.
Introduction:
Ribbon headphones have been in the market for quite some time. Raal Requisite introduced the SR-1A/B series followed by the CA-1A. Both are true ribbon headphones and require an interface to operate due to their ultra low impedance. Raal decided to spin up a new group, named RAAL 1995 and with it launch 2 ultra premium headphone, the Immanis and Magna. Today we will look at the Immanis, which to me since CanJam Singapore, was the better Raal.
Build
The demo I had came in a hard case that holds the headphones and the transformer. The Ribbon headphones will need a transformer to run via a normal amplifier unless you own one of the specialized HSA-1X amplifiers which I just happened to purchase last week. What a coincidence!
Back to the build, let's first look at the transformer. This is technically the box transformer put into a more classy container with only 32 ohm choice. The older T1-B had both 32 ohm and 16 ohm input options. The good thing about the new transformer is that it looks way better and can also act as a headphone stand. If this headphone is your goto everyday, this transformer will be its throne on the table. The stand can be removed if you just want a paperweight on your table.
The Immanis headphones are really classy look with a luxurious nearing pompous feel. The golden grills, blackened metal headbands, the luxurious leather head support with stitchings that match the color scheme, the plush perforated leather earcups and lastly the really large housing and its triple ribbon driver that can be seen. Everything is well built and put together to convey its luxury status. One of the best thing I like is how forward facing the input plugs are. This ensures even with the big earcups, they will clear my shoulder unlike something like Warwick’s Bravura. Overall, build quality is just superb.
Power Requirement
The Immanis is not as power hungry as the older CA-1A. From the volume knob perspective, it takes ⅙ less turn of the knob for similar loudness. Additionally when trying out with the broadway which is specced for 1.5w at 32 ohms, the CA-1A distorts when played at a peak volume of 91db while the Immanis only start distorting over 94db. Just note on the HSA-1C, both won’t distort before your ears give up .
Sound Quality
Tested with
Chord Hugo TT (DAC)
SAEQ HSA-1C (Amplifier)
Isotek V5 Sirius (Power Conditioner)
M17 (Transport)
Songs
Backlight by ADO
Ibara by ADO
Unravel by ADO
Eien no Akuruhi by ADO
Yuusha by Yoasobi
Heart Beat by Yoasobi
The Witch from Mercury Sound Track
Diamond Crevasse by May’N
Ultima Soundtrack FF14
Compared against
Abyss 1266
DCA Stealth
Raal Requisite CA-1A
Tonality/Timbre
Neutral with a touch of warm, a full bodied sound thats relatively balanced throughout all frequency. Very good timbre with instruments sounding very natural with good extension. This is noticeable in tracks like The Witch from Mercury, where the instrument feels like you are sitting in a live concert with very good accuracy, especially when compared to other headphones.
Sound Stage:
One of the larger sound stages for headphones. Its characteristics are more of a big sounding mids with a good amount of extension to the edges. Listening to Diamond Crevasse, you can hear the singer sounding as if you are in a large concert hall, where the vocals surround you and the vocals just extend outwards. Similarly instruments are spread relatively wide apart giving you a “In the music at a large hall” experience.
Separation and Positioning
For both of these parameters, I feel they are Ok. Very similar to my experience with CA-1A, when listening to soundtracks where instruments are placed all around, the Immanis portrays a large wide sound, but not very precise in terms of its positioning. You can tell where all the instruments in large bubbles spread around you and what they are doing, but you can not tell exactly where they are in those bubbles. Separation is just OK in comparison with other flagships. They are distinct enough in a track where you can focus on them, but not separated enough that you can follow them constantly. Do note that no details are lost, it's just that at times it can sound like multiple instruments placed in very close proximity to each other.
Dynamics
The Immanis does very well in dynamics. From really quiet regions to those blasting with energy, it cleanly showcases the range of sound the headphone is able to. From soundtracks like ultima to wild tracks like unravel, the Immanis showcase great control and dynamics from low to high regions,
Bass
The bass is really good on the Immanis. It has decent quantity and really good quality of bass, with a good amount of slam in the mids region and lows that are clear and well texture. The mid bass slam sounds responsive and precise, with good control and no flabby or bloated feel to it. Bass detail and texture is great. Listening to rock songs like Backlight by Vaundy is highly enjoyable with bass guitars playing in the background and drums thumping at the side, all the while maintaining great clarity and separation at the bass region.
Mids
The Immanis have a slightly forward and full body sounding mids. The first impression while listening to songs like Heart Beat was how full the female vocals were yet still sounding big and full of air extension. It makes everything in the mid region carry weight with good realism. One thing I did notice in regards to mids is that it does not have a very tight focus, which means all the sound is slightly dispersed throughout making it sound bigger but less precise in positioning. That creates an atmosphere very similar to a large hall that makes the mids a little more soothing and smooth to listen to.
Highs
The highs are very well extended. Giving air to female vocals and realism in treble instruments and their decay. Things like cymbals and bells are bright but smooth sound, with minimal harshness in their sound signature. Compared with headphones like abyss, you can tell how good those treble extensions are without ever turning too hot and spicy. But that said, this headphone does have some emphasis in the upper mids/lower highs, and in some tracks it may come in the form of sibilance or over emphasis in the trailing edges of certain higher pitched vocals.
Other Notes on related sound quality items
Using the new provided transformer and the old one do not provide any sonic differences when compared. The new one is fixed at 32 ohms and when compared to the 32 ohm input of the older T1-B, it sounds nearly identical both in loudness and quality.
Listening on the HSA-1C direct ribbon out was great with a better separation and sound stage. However using the transformer will allow some freedom of utilizing other amplifiers and inheriting their sound signature. Also notable is using the transformer requires more power then the direct ribbon out on the HSA-1C, though both never quite ran out of power to drive the Immanis.
Cables for the Immanis and Ribbon based headphones are tricky due to their really low impedance requirement. RAAL has the standard copper and star 8 series cable. This test has been done with the star 8 series of cables which gives a slightly more focused and bodied mids. I personally own the CA-1A and the standard cable there is actually more enjoyable to me. On the Immanis, it exchanges a drop in focus and body for a larger, wider and more relaxing sound. It is a personal taste but at least for me, the cheaper (it's still pretty expensive cable) SC2 standard cable is my preferred choice.
Comparison
Abyss 1266:
The Abyss has a wider soundstage and better positioning of sound that stretches out more. It also does have more bass and impact then the Immanis. However when listening to it side by side, the Immanis made the Abyss feel like many things were lacking, such as body of sound, smoothness of highs, the tight and natural sounds of the bass, and depth of sound in terms of front and top. Overall I think the Immanis is ahead of the Abyss 1266 and with better comfort.
DCA Stealth
A close back pros and cons are quite obvious here. In general tonality, the sound is quite similar. The amount of bass is more on the stealth though less defined. Both mids are full bodied and large sounding but the Immanis felt more effortless and a touch bigger. The highs are extended but the Immanis feel like they have a touch more air up top though I feel the stealth maybe at times a touch clearer. If anything the choice between them is a close back vs open back, but given a quiet personal space I will pick the Immanis, though the stealth is not a far behind.
Raal Requisite CA-1A
This to me is the predecessor with very similar feels to the sound. Large sounding with very good treble extension. The Immanis just improves over the CA-1A in terms of body of sound, an overall better bass and a generally better timbre for instrument sound. The Immanis is also more comfortable to wear. That said, the CA-1A may still be your choice if you like a lighter and airier sound, with a sound stage that sounds more forward, likely due to the tilting of the drivers and less sealed pads.
Summary
The Golden King. This is what I feel about the Raal 1995 Immanis. To me Susvara has never moved me enough to purchase it. Even the latest version to me wasn’t really special enough to get me thinking. But the Immanis is different. It got me thinking about which equipment to release so that I can have one on my hands. To me it's the sound perfection I've been looking for in a form factor that does not tie me down to a single amp. The perfect balance of a large soundstage with mids and highs that outpaces most other headphones and still performing well in every other matrix. The only challenge really is its price, which today just got superseded by the Susavara Unveiled. The Immanis is definitely the new king of headphones for me.
What is the gap between flagships? That is something I always felt to grasp with, with everyone claiming to be the next best headphones. What if there is truly something above the current flagships? Today we will look at the non-electrostatic headphone that truly supersedes my Abyss 1266, the new golden king for me, the Raal 1995 Immanis.
Video Review
This is a Ribbon Headphone. As such specs do not really say much as there is a need of a transformer in between. Unless you have a HSA-1X series amplifier, the lost of power is expected.
Note: This is on loan to me from SLT Technologies. I got to know them during the last CanJam. They were kind enough to lend me this demo copy here. I have this copy only for a few days, so all impressions are for that few days in comparison with headphones I own.
TLDR:
This is probably one of the best headphones one can buy. It has a great build, a great sound and it is actually comfortable without quirks. The only issue is it needs a lot of power and either a transformer or specialized amps. Considering the flagships out there, this to me is probably the most balanced in all aspects in delivering a great headphone experience.
Introduction:
Ribbon headphones have been in the market for quite some time. Raal Requisite introduced the SR-1A/B series followed by the CA-1A. Both are true ribbon headphones and require an interface to operate due to their ultra low impedance. Raal decided to spin up a new group, named RAAL 1995 and with it launch 2 ultra premium headphone, the Immanis and Magna. Today we will look at the Immanis, which to me since CanJam Singapore, was the better Raal.
Build
The demo I had came in a hard case that holds the headphones and the transformer. The Ribbon headphones will need a transformer to run via a normal amplifier unless you own one of the specialized HSA-1X amplifiers which I just happened to purchase last week. What a coincidence!
Back to the build, let's first look at the transformer. This is technically the box transformer put into a more classy container with only 32 ohm choice. The older T1-B had both 32 ohm and 16 ohm input options. The good thing about the new transformer is that it looks way better and can also act as a headphone stand. If this headphone is your goto everyday, this transformer will be its throne on the table. The stand can be removed if you just want a paperweight on your table.
The Immanis headphones are really classy look with a luxurious nearing pompous feel. The golden grills, blackened metal headbands, the luxurious leather head support with stitchings that match the color scheme, the plush perforated leather earcups and lastly the really large housing and its triple ribbon driver that can be seen. Everything is well built and put together to convey its luxury status. One of the best thing I like is how forward facing the input plugs are. This ensures even with the big earcups, they will clear my shoulder unlike something like Warwick’s Bravura. Overall, build quality is just superb.
Power Requirement
The Immanis is not as power hungry as the older CA-1A. From the volume knob perspective, it takes ⅙ less turn of the knob for similar loudness. Additionally when trying out with the broadway which is specced for 1.5w at 32 ohms, the CA-1A distorts when played at a peak volume of 91db while the Immanis only start distorting over 94db. Just note on the HSA-1C, both won’t distort before your ears give up .
Sound Quality
Tested with
Chord Hugo TT (DAC)
SAEQ HSA-1C (Amplifier)
Isotek V5 Sirius (Power Conditioner)
M17 (Transport)
Songs
Backlight by ADO
Ibara by ADO
Unravel by ADO
Eien no Akuruhi by ADO
Yuusha by Yoasobi
Heart Beat by Yoasobi
The Witch from Mercury Sound Track
Diamond Crevasse by May’N
Ultima Soundtrack FF14
Compared against
Abyss 1266
DCA Stealth
Raal Requisite CA-1A
Tonality/Timbre
Neutral with a touch of warm, a full bodied sound thats relatively balanced throughout all frequency. Very good timbre with instruments sounding very natural with good extension. This is noticeable in tracks like The Witch from Mercury, where the instrument feels like you are sitting in a live concert with very good accuracy, especially when compared to other headphones.
Sound Stage:
One of the larger sound stages for headphones. Its characteristics are more of a big sounding mids with a good amount of extension to the edges. Listening to Diamond Crevasse, you can hear the singer sounding as if you are in a large concert hall, where the vocals surround you and the vocals just extend outwards. Similarly instruments are spread relatively wide apart giving you a “In the music at a large hall” experience.
Separation and Positioning
For both of these parameters, I feel they are Ok. Very similar to my experience with CA-1A, when listening to soundtracks where instruments are placed all around, the Immanis portrays a large wide sound, but not very precise in terms of its positioning. You can tell where all the instruments in large bubbles spread around you and what they are doing, but you can not tell exactly where they are in those bubbles. Separation is just OK in comparison with other flagships. They are distinct enough in a track where you can focus on them, but not separated enough that you can follow them constantly. Do note that no details are lost, it's just that at times it can sound like multiple instruments placed in very close proximity to each other.
Dynamics
The Immanis does very well in dynamics. From really quiet regions to those blasting with energy, it cleanly showcases the range of sound the headphone is able to. From soundtracks like ultima to wild tracks like unravel, the Immanis showcase great control and dynamics from low to high regions,
Bass
The bass is really good on the Immanis. It has decent quantity and really good quality of bass, with a good amount of slam in the mids region and lows that are clear and well texture. The mid bass slam sounds responsive and precise, with good control and no flabby or bloated feel to it. Bass detail and texture is great. Listening to rock songs like Backlight by Vaundy is highly enjoyable with bass guitars playing in the background and drums thumping at the side, all the while maintaining great clarity and separation at the bass region.
Mids
The Immanis have a slightly forward and full body sounding mids. The first impression while listening to songs like Heart Beat was how full the female vocals were yet still sounding big and full of air extension. It makes everything in the mid region carry weight with good realism. One thing I did notice in regards to mids is that it does not have a very tight focus, which means all the sound is slightly dispersed throughout making it sound bigger but less precise in positioning. That creates an atmosphere very similar to a large hall that makes the mids a little more soothing and smooth to listen to.
Highs
The highs are very well extended. Giving air to female vocals and realism in treble instruments and their decay. Things like cymbals and bells are bright but smooth sound, with minimal harshness in their sound signature. Compared with headphones like abyss, you can tell how good those treble extensions are without ever turning too hot and spicy. But that said, this headphone does have some emphasis in the upper mids/lower highs, and in some tracks it may come in the form of sibilance or over emphasis in the trailing edges of certain higher pitched vocals.
Other Notes on related sound quality items
Using the new provided transformer and the old one do not provide any sonic differences when compared. The new one is fixed at 32 ohms and when compared to the 32 ohm input of the older T1-B, it sounds nearly identical both in loudness and quality.
Listening on the HSA-1C direct ribbon out was great with a better separation and sound stage. However using the transformer will allow some freedom of utilizing other amplifiers and inheriting their sound signature. Also notable is using the transformer requires more power then the direct ribbon out on the HSA-1C, though both never quite ran out of power to drive the Immanis.
Cables for the Immanis and Ribbon based headphones are tricky due to their really low impedance requirement. RAAL has the standard copper and star 8 series cable. This test has been done with the star 8 series of cables which gives a slightly more focused and bodied mids. I personally own the CA-1A and the standard cable there is actually more enjoyable to me. On the Immanis, it exchanges a drop in focus and body for a larger, wider and more relaxing sound. It is a personal taste but at least for me, the cheaper (it's still pretty expensive cable) SC2 standard cable is my preferred choice.
Comparison
Abyss 1266:
The Abyss has a wider soundstage and better positioning of sound that stretches out more. It also does have more bass and impact then the Immanis. However when listening to it side by side, the Immanis made the Abyss feel like many things were lacking, such as body of sound, smoothness of highs, the tight and natural sounds of the bass, and depth of sound in terms of front and top. Overall I think the Immanis is ahead of the Abyss 1266 and with better comfort.
DCA Stealth
A close back pros and cons are quite obvious here. In general tonality, the sound is quite similar. The amount of bass is more on the stealth though less defined. Both mids are full bodied and large sounding but the Immanis felt more effortless and a touch bigger. The highs are extended but the Immanis feel like they have a touch more air up top though I feel the stealth maybe at times a touch clearer. If anything the choice between them is a close back vs open back, but given a quiet personal space I will pick the Immanis, though the stealth is not a far behind.
Raal Requisite CA-1A
This to me is the predecessor with very similar feels to the sound. Large sounding with very good treble extension. The Immanis just improves over the CA-1A in terms of body of sound, an overall better bass and a generally better timbre for instrument sound. The Immanis is also more comfortable to wear. That said, the CA-1A may still be your choice if you like a lighter and airier sound, with a sound stage that sounds more forward, likely due to the tilting of the drivers and less sealed pads.
Summary
The Golden King. This is what I feel about the Raal 1995 Immanis. To me Susvara has never moved me enough to purchase it. Even the latest version to me wasn’t really special enough to get me thinking. But the Immanis is different. It got me thinking about which equipment to release so that I can have one on my hands. To me it's the sound perfection I've been looking for in a form factor that does not tie me down to a single amp. The perfect balance of a large soundstage with mids and highs that outpaces most other headphones and still performing well in every other matrix. The only challenge really is its price, which today just got superseded by the Susavara Unveiled. The Immanis is definitely the new king of headphones for me.
Introduction
Do you know that feeling when you hear a headphone for the first time—something special—and you can’t help but mutter under your breath “holy #&%$!”? But often, after you’ve had it for a few weeks, that reaction fades, and maybe it even gets old? What if I told you it was possible to have that reaction every time you listened to a headphone, now and forever? Let me introduce you to the RAAL 1995 Immanis.
In virtually every category, the Immanis trounces the best of the TOTL competing offerings, including those which are one-trick-ponies and make a lot of compromises to achieve the throne for one particular characteristic. Indeed, the very few headphones that can best the Immanis in a particular category do so only by a hair, and are glaringly flawed in most other respects. The Immanis, on the other hand, makes no such compromises. It is at a minimum masterful, and in most cases better than anything else, in every conceivable category. This means that, overall, the Immanis is the best headphone I have ever heard, by a considerable margin.
Background of Review and Reviewer
This review is based on about 300 hours of listening on the Immanis using RAAL’s old Star8 cable and, except where an interface isn’t needed or as otherwise noted, using the old TI-1a interface. Amps used include the RAAL-requisite VM-1a, Zahl HM1 (both with and without a Supratek preamp in the chain), RAAL-requisite HSA-1b, CFA3, Viva Egoista 2A3, SAEQ Armageddon, and (briefly) Felix Envy. A Chord DAVE was used for all, with an ethernet-connected laptop running Roon as the source. No upsampling (other than in the DAVE) or EQ.
I listen quieter than most—listening tests were done at 68 dBa. I do not have testing equipment and comments on the frequency response are based on level-matched listening to sine sweeps.
Music Used: Intervals (Memory Place—whole album); Night Verses (Every Sound Has a Color in the Valley of Night—whole album & track No Moon); Syncatto (Fiction—whole album, esp. Now Sink, and tracks Mobius, Smoke & Mirrors); Polyphia (tracks Playing God & Chimera); Bernth (tracks God Complex, Delusionary, Fuego); Dune 2 Soundtrack (track Southern Messiah); Queen (song Killer Queen), Frozen 2 soundtrack (song Into the Unknown); Manuel Gardner Fernandes (track First), plus a random assortment of tracks from Dream Theater, Animals as Leaders, Modern Day Babylon, Jardin de la Croix, Yes, and Rodrigo y Gabriela.
I paid the same price as everyone else for my Immanis, and have received nothing in exchange for this review. However, I was predisposed to like the Immanis, as I had already owned and loved the SR-1a and CA-1a. Based on my previous experience with ribbon drivers, I blindly placed a preorder and received an early unit—one of the first two Immanis to ship to North America.
This review does not cover the history, specifications, or engineering design of the Immanis, which have been well-documented above and elsewhere. (And this review is already long enough as it is). This review does cover amplifier pairings, however, as the Immanis can sound like a different headphone depending on the amp used.
Sound Quality Assessments
Transparency: The Immanis is a chameleon. It is remarkably transparent and resolving, and more than any other headphone I have heard, transmits everything up the chain, from the amp to the DAC to the source to the recording, straight to your ears without any coloration or influence at all. It is as clear a window into your system and recording as you can find. It is malleable and can sound like a different headphone based on what’s driving it. It can expose everything—good or bad—or be smooth and mild mannered, depending on how it is fed.
The Immanis focuses a microscope on everything upstream. Its incredible resolving power and transparency means it’s also incredibly revealing. Pair it was a highly resolving and transparent amp, and it may be more revealing than you really want. Recording flaws you never knew existed will suddenly be hard to ignore. If you want to listen to imperfect recordings, you may want to pair the Immanis with a less revealing amp. The Immanis will not itself aid in fixing problematic recordings. That said, playing perfectly recorded and engineered music on the Immanis, driven by a super resolving and transparent amp, is . . . like meeting God.
Staging: With the right amp, the Immanis sounds quite expansive—everything sounds big. More accurately, it stages grand—the instruments fill a huge space, but also appear to themselves get bigger and grander, so nothing is lost in the perceived distance. It is not cavernous, like the HD800S, which seems to lose some tonal density and texture from the perceived distance. But it is bigger in both depth and laterally than most other headphones. However, it can become significantly more intimate paired with a different amp. Not quite reach-out-and-touch-the-instruments like the Spirit Torino Valkyria, but certainly of at least average intimacy, and possibly even more intimate than the median, if the amp so provides.
Dynamics/Punchiness: Dynamics and punchiness start off great, but improve slightly as the Immanis racks up some hours. Initially, but especially once settled in, the Immanis will knock your socks off. Dynamics are simply incredible. The expansive staging on the Immanis (on some amps) does mean the instruments can sound farther away, yet rather than that perceived extra distance making the notes sound more diffuse, it’s as though they are shot at you with a laser beam. As the stage on the Immanis expands, the instruments themselves also get bigger, leading to no loss of dynamics.
The Immanis is an extremely energetic headphone. To call it ‘lively’ understates it. The Immanis does need a bit of volume to come alive. 68 dBs will do it, but it sounds lackluster at, say, 63 dBs.
Dynamic Range: The Immanis has incredible dynamic range, competently reproducing the quietest and loudest notes in any track with apparent ease, though that obviously will vary with different amps. Overall, though, I have not heard another headphone with better dynamic range.
Timbre: Wow. The timbre on the Immanis is not just stunning, but better than any other headphone I’ve heard, by a noticeable margin. The Valkyria has excellent timbre, and previously held pole position. With the arrival of the Immanis, the Valk has been dethroned. Every note on the Immanis is reproduced with so much information—so much accurate information—that every drum strike and guitar pluck, every piano note and the vibration from every violin string, is incredibly lifelike and is beamed directly to your ears. The texture of everything is astonishing. Nothing is more life-like.
Resolution & Clarity: In my experience, the SR-1a owned the resolution and clarity space, with competition coming only from the best e-stats, and (for resolution only) the DCA Stealth. Move over SR-1a, because the Immanis has you beat. This might not immediately jump out at the listener, I suspect because the Immanis is less fatiguing and sounds less “etched” than the SR-1a, and thus might be perceived as sounding smoother. Avoid falling into that trap, though, and the exceptional resolution and clarity is apparent. Instruments vividly erupt out of nowhere, from a completely black background. In comparison, e-stats like the STAX SR-X9000 and SR-009 may match the Immanis on resolution and, at least from the mids up, may match on clarity, but at the expense of tonal density and dynamics. However, the STAX offerings also sound like they may have more distortion in certain parts of the frequency range and are less balanced, so the Immanis might still come out ahead.
Instrument Separation: Instrument separation on the Immanis is ridiculous, especially with the right amp that leans into its expansive soundstage. The Immanis is perceived as pulling the instruments apart in space, and that has exactly the effect you would expect on separation, particularly when that extra distance doesn’t make instruments sound more diffuse, which it doesn’t on the new RAAL. I have not heard another headphone that can compete with the Immanis on instrument separation, and that includes e-stats like the X9000.
Holographics / Imaging: Holographics and spatial effects are absolutely ridiculous, though again are affected by the amp used. With an amp that really leans into it, the layering of instruments is something to behold. Not even e-stats can compete here, as all those I have heard stage more intimately than the Immanis, creating overlap that affects holographics and imaging.
Speed: This is a known strength of ribbon drivers, and the Immanis does not disappoint. It’s blindingly fast, with the only competition coming from the best e-stats.
Bass: Ribbon drivers can’t do bass. Right? The SR-1a certainly isn’t a bass monster. With some EQ or a convolution filter, it improves, but still is lacking. The CA-1a, with the right amp (VM-1a) or a good filter, isn’t bad—maybe even slightly better than average. But mediocre bass performance is just a drawback of ribbons. Not anymore. The bass on the Immanis is exceptional. And I don’t mean exceptional for a ribbon. I mean better than any other headphone on the market. Yes, overall, it is even better than the Abyss 1266 TC—the (until now) undisputed bass king. Bass extension, texture, detail, control, and—once the ribbons are broken in after about 200 hours—slam, are simply amazing on the Immanis. It extends all the way down to 25 Hz to my ears, which is lower than I can discern on any other headphone. And the quality of that bass is simply absurd. The 1266 does have more tonal density in the bass than the Immanis, and you’ll find more bass quantity on the Abyss. And it might have slightly more bass slam, though it’s perilously close. But for every other bass characteristic, the Immanis comes out on top. The subbass in Polyphia’s Playing God, Audacity, and Chimera, and in Manuel Gardner Fernandes’ track ‘First’, are really something to behold. And the subbass and slam in Intervals’ new album really shocks. Since when did a ribbon driver beat all others for bass? Now. That moment is now.
Mids: The Immanis has great mids and the balanced frequency response means that the mids aren’t being overshadowed by the bass or treble (I’m looking at you 1266). Again, the texture, timbre, and instrument separation are so impressive top to bottom, that you know you’re getting all there is to get out of the mids.
Treble: The treble on the new RAAL is exquisite. Clarity, texture, timbre are all top notch, yet without any fatigue. To my ears, it extends just past 12 kHz. A few other headphones can pull ahead on treble extension, but not with the treble quality the Immanis provides. A good e-stat can present the treble with a bit more air, but that comes at the cost of tonal density and texture. A couple early impressions mentioned something about “treble irregularities” with the Immanis. I could not detect anything remotely resembling any irregularities. The treble is terrific.
Vocals: The detail and texture conveyed on the Immanis is out of this world, and that means vocals sound more realistic than ever before. The breaths, changes in pitch and volume, vibrato, is all there in all its glory, whether male or female vocals. And the balance on the Immanis means they aren’t overshadowed by anything else. A few headphones have more tonal density than the Immanis, which can make some vocals sound more lush. But they also then sound less textured and agile.
Musicality: The Immanis is certainly detail-forward. But it’s not analytical to the point of losing musicality. For example, I don’t often listen to Jardin de la Croix (e.g., tracks ‘Challenger’ or ‘Ciclos’) because it’s not as technically masterful as most of my preferred music and can be a little oppressive—like preparing for an epic battle in which you know you’re probably going to die (ok, yes, I admit that’s a little hyperbolic). But for that reason, it can be captivating if I’m in the right mood. On the Immanis, it’s so captivating it’s impossible to pull away. And the guitar riff starting at about 6:38 on Yes, Yessongs, ‘Yours Is No Disgrace’—ugh, just gets me on the Immanis.
Frequency Response / Balance: The Immanis sounds incredibly balanced when listening to music. I don’t have any testing equipment and wouldn’t trust myself to set it up and run tests correctly even if I did. I can, however, listen to a sine sweep. That, of course, will expose as much about the limits of my own hearing as the limits of the headphone. And, while I did this at the higher end of my preferred volume, that’s still very low compared to pretty much everyone else (68 dBs). With those caveats, the sine sweep bears out how balanced the Immanis is. I can sense something starting around 22 Hz, and actually hear it audibly starting at 25 Hz. I hear a small peak around 3 kHz, small dip around 3.8-4.2 kHz, quite noticeable dip around 6.2-6.7 kHz, small peak around 8.8-9.7 kHz, and a very pronounced rolloff starting at 11 kHz until I can’t hear anything just past 12 kHz. Something like the 1266, by contrast, sounds like a hot mess on a sine sweep.
The Immanis sound signature is that it doesn’t have a sound signature. It transmits everything that’s upstream of it without smoothing over or coloring any of it.
Fatigue: For some music, on some amps, and for some people, the SR-1a could get a bit fatiguing, particularly in the treble. The Immanis removes that fatigue without losing any detail. I’ve heard the Immanis described as “smooth”. That sometimes means loss of resolution and dynamics. Thankfully, that’s not a problem at all with the Immanis. Instead, “smooth” just means not harsh or fatiguing. On really resolving amps like the Zahl HM1, the leading edges of percussive notes in particular have quite a sharp impact. That is not necessarily fatiguing, but you will want a different amp—preferably a tube amp—if you prefer a softer attack.
Like the SR-1a, the Immanis can be ruthless in exposing flaws. Again, it’s not fatiguing per se, but imperfect recordings, particularly distortion-heavy passages in some metal tracks, may not sound their best if you’re using a really transparent solid state amp. If you listen to flawless recordings, no problem. If you listen to imperfect music, you’ll want to pair the headphone with a tube amp or a smoother solid state (e.g., the HSA-1b does a better job mitigating this issue than the Zahl HM1).
Comparisons to Other Headphones
Versus the RAAL 1995 Magna: As you might imagine, the Immanis and Magna share a lot of characteristics. Both are highly resolving, fast, dynamic, and balanced. The Immanis stages larger, which means the Magna might be perceived as slightly punchier as a result. Both have great dynamic range, but the Immanis pulls a bit ahead, as it does on instrument separation, resolving ability, and timbre/texture. Bass is excellent on both, but the Immanis extends deeper, and has superior bass texture, detail, and control. Perceived slam I would put at about equal, with the intimacy of the Magna balancing out the Immanis’ advantage in moving more air with its larger driver surface area. Both have great mids and are balanced top to bottom. Clarity is top notch, though the Immanis runs a bit ahead. Neither headphone is fatiguing—assuredly thanks to the multiple ribbon drivers—but the Immanis is a touch smoother in the treble. Interestingly, the Magna seems to have slightly better treble extension, but it’s very hard to notice that when enjoying music. Vocals on both are excellent, and will come down to whether you want intimate vocals (Magna) or big venue vocals (Immanis).
Versus the Abyss 1266 TC: The Abyss is almost universally regarded as the bass king. Not anymore. The Immanis actually extends deeper, has more bass texture and better timbre, and slightly better bass control (the 1266 is no slouch, but can sound a bit bloomy in comparison). The Abyss might have more bass slam, but it is very close, and hard to tell if it only seems that way because of the hollowed-out mids or actually does have more slam. The Abyss does have more bass tonal density and bass quantity. It sounds richer down low. Bass notes also take longer to decay on the Abyss. The Immanis is slightly more holographic. Clarity is great on both, though the Immanis pulls ahead—the Abyss can occasionally sound a tiny bit congested in comparison. The Immanis is faster, but not by a lot. It is much more balanced, with great midrange, which the Abyss lacks. On mid-centric tracks, the Abyss can sound less dynamic as a result (otherwise, dynamics are stellar on both). Treble is great on both. The Immanis has slightly better treble timbre, but the Abyss actually extends a bit higher. Neither the Immanis nor the Abyss are very forgiving of poor recordings.
Versus the Spirit Torino Valkyria: The Valkyria stages much more intimately than the Immanis (or any headphone, really). The Valk’s timbre is great. It is even with the Immanis on upperbass and mids timbre. On bass and treble timbre, though, the Immanis nudges ahead. The Immanis has better texture, as well. The Valk has more bass decay, but the Immanis digs substantially deeper, with better bass control. The Immanis slams a bit harder. The Valk extends just a touch higher than the Immanis in the treble. Instrument separation is superior on the Immanis. The Valk midbass has some slight bloom, while the Immanis has none. Compared to the Immanis, the Valkyria can exhibit a bit of smearing on some tracks. The Valk has more tonal density across its entire frequency response range—from midbass (it doesn’t have much subbass) through the treble. The Valk has such tonal density with such intimate staging it’s like the notes take physical form and you interact with them through touch. You hear notes with the Immanis—but they are so vivid you can almost see them visually. Immanis is like seeing every feature of every note with more detail and clarity than you ever thought possible. Notes just explode out of nowhere. The Valk is all about power. It’s Mike Tyson, while the Immanis is a much faster middle-weight MMA fighter. The Valk will smooth out bad recordings better than the Immanis.
Versus the DCA Stealth: The over-damping on the Stealth usually isn’t too bothersome. Until you listen to something like the Immanis. The Stealth sounds like it is holding back, and is sometimes a little hollow, in comparison. The Stealth sounds downright slow compared to the Immanis. Immanis has better timbre, better dynamics, more dynamic range, better instrument separation, bigger staging, and much better holographics. The Immanis extends noticeably deeper and slams harder. Treble extension is about even. The Stealth is at least as balanced as the Immanis, however, and maybe more. Its resolving ability also gives the Immanis a run for its money. Of course, the isolation on the Stealth is much better.
Versus the RAAL-requisite CA-1a: The CA-1a sounds its best off the VM-1a (by a considerable margin). It’s a fantastic headphone off that amp. Its bass and dynamics take a huge step up. Its bass extension is actually remarkably good, but still falls behind the Immanis. The Immanis bass is richer and has more slam. The CA-1a extends slightly higher in the treble. Its tonal density, texture, timbre, and dynamic range are all behind the Immanis. It sounds more 2D, and has less instrument separation. It also stages more intimately than the Immanis. Though by no means bad, the CA-1a can sound a bit more congested than the Immanis on some tracks. Dynamics overall are great but not Immanis level.
Versus the RAAL-requisite SR-1a: The open-baffle design of the SR-1a is unique and remains that way. While the leakage zones in the Immanis make it sound much more open than your average circumaural, the open and adjustable earspeaker panels on the SR-1a are just different and always will be. The SR-1a is more open sounding than the Immanis. With the baffles swung all the way out, it stages larger as well (but sounds very thin). With them swung closer to your ears, the Immanis stages larger than the SR-1a. The SR-1a is slightly more incisive, as well. But it also is more fatiguing in the treble, is comparably thin sounding, and suffers from very weak bass. The bass response and tonal density is considerably improved with the Mitch filters, but it can’t come remotely close to the Immanis in those categories. The SR-1a does not dig nearly as deep as the Immanis, and rolls off a bit sooner in the treble as well. Timbre on the SR-1a is excellent, but better on the Immanis. Surprisingly, the SR-1a can sound a touch more congested on certain imperfect recordings than the Immanis. Additionally, while the speed and clarity of the SR-1a make for great dynamics, the Immanis is just as fast with slightly better clarity, and has noticeably better dynamics deriving from more tonal weight, much deeper bass extension, and much better slam. The SR-1a is Bruce Lee after drinking a lot of coffee, while the Immanis is an astonishingly fast and powerful middle-weight MMA fighter.
Versus the Sennheiser HE1: Based on a 10-minute demo of the HE1 at CanJam in Sennheiser’s separate room (admittedly not a fair comparison), I actually like the Immanis more. The HE1 has absolutely incredible technicalities and competes with the Immanis on all fronts, except I think the Immanis digs deeper and has more bass texture, tonal density, and slam. The HE1’s tuning strikes me as safe. It tries so hard to be polite and diplomatic that I think it falls too far over that line for some listeners. The Immanis has similar technical prowess but seems to strike a better balance between polite and bold. It clearly does not take the risks the SR-1a, and to a lesser extent the CA-1a, do, but it seems to let loose more than the HE1. It might be possible to drift off to sleep wearing the HE1. That would never happen with the Immanis—too lively. My take is that the Immanis is essentially a less laidback HE1, but with better bass, better dynamics, more energy, and a much cheaper price. Those who like a laidback listen may have a different opinion. But if you are thinking about an HE1, you should audition the Immanis before pulling the trigger.
Versus the STAX SR-X9000: (X9000 was driven by a Mjolnir Carbon CC, and this is based on a shorter demo—about half a day). Dynamics and dynamic range are substantially better on the Immanis. The X9000 stages noticeably more intimate. But, strangely, it inverts the staging on some tracks. For example, on the Immanis, Freddy Mercury’s vocals in Killer Queen sound more intimate than the vocals in Into the Unknown on the Frozen 2 soundtrack. On the X9000, it’s the opposite. The X9000 sounds more 2D. Tonal density is surprisingly great on the X9000, but behind the Immanis. The Immanis also extends a little bit deeper (though the X9000 is remarkably good), with more slam, and with slightly better bass control—the X9000 could sound a little bloated. Surprisingly, the Immanis may also be clearer—there seems to be some slight smearing and background noise on the X9000 that isn’t present with the Immanis. Instrument separation is great on both, but Immanis might actually be a tiny bit ahead, perhaps because it stages larger. Holographics are great on both. The treble timbre on the X9000 might pull a tiny bit ahead of the Immanis, though the Immanis has more treble texture. The treble sparkle on the X9000 is lovely—something the Immanis can’t quite capture. And the X9000 is so lightweight it is one of the few headphones that reminds you that the Immanis is on the chunky side.
Versus the STAX SR-009: (Again, driven by a Mjolnir Carbon CC, and based on a shorter demo—about half a day). Remarkably, the 009 stages much more intimately than the Immanis, but is competitive on instrument separation regardless. Again, the 009 has a lot more tonal density than expected, and more bass body than expected, but neither are as good as the Immanis. Timbre is not quite as good as Immanis, but pretty close. Great dynamics, though behind the Immanis a bit. Some softer parts of tracks can sound a touch smeared compared to the Immanis. Immanis has a stronger attack. Immanis extends much deeper.
Versus the STAX SR-007A: (Again, driven by a Mjolnir Carbon CC, based on a shorter demo—about half a day). The 007A seems to be mid-centric compared to the Immanis. Great tonal density for an e-stat, falling only slightly behind the Immanis. Stages much smaller, especially side-to-side, and sounds 2D compared to the Immanis. Timbre is competitive with the Immanis, but the 007A has a bit of bloom and the upper bass bleeds into the mids.
Versus the STAX SR-007: (Again, driven by a Mjolnir Carbon CC, and based on a shorter demo—about half a day). Some tracks sound echo-y compared to the Immanis. But again, tonal density is more competitive than expected. The 007 can sound smeared and congested compared to the Immanis. It stages much more intimately and dynamics are not as impressive as on Immanis. It is more fatiguing than Immanis as well.
Amp Pairings
Since the Immanis is such a chameleon, it can sound like a completely different headphone depending on the amp driving it.
Zahl HM1: Unmatched precision. Incredible holographics—almost matching the VM-1a. Imaging and layering are phenomenal. The Immanis stages grander on the Zahl than on any other amp I have heard. Tonal density is not quite as high as on some other amps. Bass is extremely deep, textured, well controlled, and with great slam, but with less body than other amp choices. No noise floor at all. Notes explode out of total blackness. If you crank the analogue bass adjustment up all the way on the Zahl, the Immanis pretty much matches the Abyss unadjusted on bass slam and tonal density. (But if you crank it up on the Abyss, the Abyss then pulls ahead on those categories again).
The Zahl really leans into what makes a ribbon a ribbon. If you love the SR-1a and CA-1a, you would love the Immanis on the Zahl (at least with good recordings).
If you weren’t as enamored with the SR-1a and CA-1a because you found them too ribbon-y, you might still like the Immanis, but probably not on the Zahl. You’d probably want a different amp.
The Immanis is a very neutral and transparent headphone. The Zahl is a very neutral and transparent amp. Combined, that’s a whole lot of neutral and transparent. While the Viva, SAEQ, and Envy (and to a much lesser extent, the VM-1a) will add some coloration, the Zahl does not at all. It will expose absolutely everything on a recording. Before I got the Immanis, I thought Night Verses’ album ‘Every Sound Has a Color in the Valley of Night’ was one of the best recorded and engineered I had ever heard. For 70% of the tracks on it, I still think that. But I noticed some bothersome distortion, slight boomyness, and sibilance in certain tracks that have the sort of distortion you’ll often find in metal, like on ‘Karma Wheel’, and about a minute into ‘Phoenix V Invocation’. I initially thought something was up with the Zahl. I tried a different power cable, different power filter, different settings, and nothing helped. Then I stumbled upon Intervals’ new album ‘Memory Place’. It has the same sort of distortion that typifies a lot of metal, but it sounded absolutely perfect. After more experimenting, I realized the problem was the recording on the Night Verses album, not the amp. I had just never noticed it before with other headphones, but the Immanis is so transparent and resolving I could now hear it clearly. The Immanis isn’t going to fix a bad recording for you, so you’ll need to rely on the amp for that. The Zahl is not that amp. A tube pre ahead of the Zahl can mitigate the issue, though not solve it. Switching between Class A and Class A+Servo doesn’t help. Turning the soundstage adjustment all the way to the left does, but by making everything other than the center image sound diffuse—not worth the tradeoff in my estimation.
But make no mistake—with flawless recordings, the Immanis + Zahl pairing is simply mind-blowing. It squeezes every tiny bit of musical information from the recording and beams it into your ears. Some listeners might have an information overload reaction and need time to adjust. Most will grow to love it, as it is truly transcendent.
RAAL-requisite VM-1a: Holographics are great on the VM-1a—a small step up from the Zahl. The VM-1a also does a very good job mitigating the annoyances of flawed recordings. Pentode mode has terrific dynamics. Ultra-Linear mode is nearly as good on dynamics and slightly cleaner. Triode mode does a great job with bad recordings, but by smoothing things over, so resolution takes a hit. Slightly more tonal density than on the Zahl, but less than the Viva, Envy, or SAEQ. The VM-1a is also slightly less clean than the Zahl, with slightly less clarity and resolution, but the VM-1a drives the Immanis with a bit more precision than the Viva, Envy, SAEQ, or CFA3. Texture on the Zahl is slightly better, but it still absolutely phenomenal on the VM-1a. The VM-1a drives the Immanis with a little more finesse than the Viva, Envy, or SAEQ, but also sounds less muscular. Nothing sounds more real than the Immanis driven by the VM-1a—timbre is breathtaking. Bass slam is also excellent—better than on the Zahl and getting close to Abyss-levels. Dynamics overall are at least Zahl level and maybe slightly better, and bass extension is equaling or the tiniest bit behind the Zahl. Overall, this might be the most balanced amp for the Immanis.
RAAL-requisite HSA-1b: The HSA-1b has surprisingly good synergy with the Immanis. In fact, it may synergize better with the Immanis than it does with the SR-1a. It flows extremely well with the Immanis. Holographics, staging, resolution, and dynamics are not quite at Zahl or VM1a level, but certainly not bad. Not as much impact or tonal density as the Viva or SAEQ. But music just sounds effortless. Somehow, this amp does the best job dealing with bad recordings I’ve heard from a solid state.
CFA3: Great slam, terrific dynamics. Slight noise floor. There can be some boomyness and stridency in the bass on some tracks, and some slight smearing and congestion compared to the Immanis off the Zahl. Very high energy and very good tonal density, though that same tonal density imparts a thickness that can make the Immanis sound a touch slower on the CFA3 than on other amps. The Zahl has more precision, speed, and texture. The Immanis on the CFA3 seems to lean a little darker than on the Zahl or VM-1a. Very good bass extension and the bass has a pleasing reverb. The staging, dynamic range, timbre, and resolution are a bit behind on the CFA3 compared to the Zahl or VM-1a.
Viva Egoista 2A3:
- Through the TI-1a Interface: I hooked up my TI-1a interface to the Viva first. My immediate reaction was shock—it is remarkably holographic, with incredible tonal density, but mostly, insane bass quantity . . . and the bass slam kicks like a friggin mule. Literally more bass quantity and slam than I had ever heard before, including from the Abyss 1266 TC (until I put the 1266 on the Viva, though the 1266 didn’t pull ahead by much). The bass and subbass seem to linger longer before decaying, too. This does appear to come at the expense of a bit of texture, timbre, and resolution, though, and there is noticeable bass bloat. It also sounds a touch smeared and congested in busy passages compared to some other amps, like the Zahl or VM1a. I love great bass, but I don’t consider myself a basshead. The bass quantity and impact on the Immanis driven by the Viva with the TI-1a is a bit too much for me—a little distracting. But if you’re truly a basshead, you owe it to yourself to check this out, as it’ll knock your teeth loose. The Viva is bold and bombastic. It stages more intimately than, say, the Zahl or VM1a. The Viva has more of a noise floor than those amps, too (but by no means bad). The Viva moves the Immanis away from the classic ribbon or e-stat signature and toward what I imagine an excellent planar/dynamic hybrid would sound like.
- Through the Viva-specific Interface: Next up, the Viva-specific interface. WHOA, it makes a dramatic difference! The bass quantity and slam is brought under control; gone is the bloat, bloom, and boomyness, but the bass still reaches incredibly deep and is incredibly rich. Timbre and resolution are top notch, and the holographics are just amazing. Great tonal density top to bottom (though less in the bass compared to using the TI-1a interface). Better grip over the drivers, especially in the bass. With the Viva-specific interface, the Viva still makes the Immanis sound a bit less like a ribbon, and more like an excellent hybrid between a planar and dynamic, than do other amps, but less so than on the Viva with the TI-1a interface. Texture, resolution, clarity, and speed are great, though probably a touch behind the Zahl and VM-1a. Staging is less intimate than with the TI-1a, but still more intimate than with some other amps (like the Zahl or VM-1a). The Viva does a good job with bad recordings. Great vocals—remarkably clear. If you are more into musicality than technical prowess, this may be as good as it gets.
SAEQ Armageddon: The Armageddon infuses the Immanis with more tonal weight and bass slam than any other solid state I’ve heard. It just sounds fuller, especially but not only with subbass, and plays with more authority. Staging is more intimate, though, especially with stage depth, which is lacking. Bass extension and holographics are really superlative. Timbre is very good, but a touch behind the Zahl and VM-1a. Great instrument separation. Treble is very good, but can be a tiny bit fatiguing on some tracks. On flawed recordings, the flaws can be bothersome with this amp—more so than with the Zahl, and much more so than with the HSA-1b. Of course, tube amps handle flawed recordings better than any of these solid states. The Armageddon is very energetic and is great with vocals. It sounds very powerful, but doesn’t have quite the same control over the drivers as the Zahl or VM-1a.
Felix Envy: I only got a 5-minute demo at a meet of the Immanis driven by the Envy, but that was enough to be impressed. Using Elrog 300B-MOs, there was fantastic tonal richness, powerful yet controlled bass, and timbre, texture, and resolution all seemed terrific. Bass quantity and slam were great, but probably less than with the Viva or Armageddon.
Overall, while the Immanis sounds great on every amp I tested, it also sounds very different on every amp I tested. It may require some experimentation to determine which amp is the best fit for your particular preferences.
Non-Sound Quality Assessments
Comfort: The Immanis has what I consider to be the perfect amount of clamp. Enough to get a seal but not uncomfortable, even after long listening sessions. No hot spots on the head. The pads are quite comfortable and stay that way over hours of continuous listening, never feeling clammy. The headband is a lovely leather on top and quilted suede on the inside. It has little padding, but also doesn’t need it. The Immanis feels quite balanced. It is on the heavy side at 626 grams, but I never noticed the heft while listening to music. (Though I’m also used to the Abyss 1266 TC and Valkyria). However, move from the Immanis directly to the CA-1a or one of the recent STAX offerings, and the gossamer weight of the latter is quite apparent. Those with large heads might find the size adjustment range lacking, though I understand RAAL 1995 may have fixed that on more recently built units. The sizing adjustment on the Immanis can occasionally shift on its own when you put it on, but is easy to adjust back. Update: A fellow Head-Fi'er helpfully pointed out it is possible to adjust the tension on the adjustment mechanism with an allen key to fix this.
Isolation: The Immanis has large leakage zones in the cups. It definitely does not isolate—those around you can hear the music, and you can hear surrounding noise. Nonetheless, while it might have a little more leakage than an average open back, it isn’t a night and day difference. Keep in mind, though, that the Immanis needs some moderate volume to come alive. 68 dBs works, for example, but 63 dBs sounds lackluster. If you’ve gotten away with listening to open backs in bed next to your partner by turning the volume way down, that may not work as well with the Immanis.
Quality: The Immanis exudes quality. It uses premium materials with great attention to detail. No worries about material quality or longevity, as far as I can tell. I wouldn’t say it’s built like a tank, as is the Abyss. But it radiates quality like a Bently.
Aesthetics: Appearance obviously comes down to personal preference. I will say that gold usually strikes me as too gaudy. Not so with the Immanis, though. To me, the gold grilles match the wood veneer on the cups extremely well and it comes across as classy and luxurious without stepping over the line toward ostentatious. I also like the very subtle sun at the top of the grilles. It’s the little things.
Case: The aluminum case is very nice. I like the monochrome embossed branding. It’s prominent enough to reflect that RAAL is proud of its work, but not flamboyant. The case appears identical to the Audeze aluminum case, except for the inside, embossing, and color. That’s a good thing—the Audeze case is fantastic. My RAAL case locks, but did not come with any keys. The Audeze keys work on it, though.
In Conclusion
The Immanis doesn’t just do everything well. It does everything better. It takes every recording and turns it up to 11 in every conceivable respect. It is extremely energetic. If you like a laidback presentation and listen to music to relax and let your mind wander to other things, you’ll need to choose a romantic sounding amp and very relaxing music. By nature, the Immanis will make you sit up and pay attention. Yet, it is fatigue-free. It can provide so much detail and nuance that it can be a bit like drinking from a fire hose of musical information for the uninitiated (though that can be toned down with a different amp). But once you get used to it, the Immanis is absolutely transcendent. It makes no compromises to achieve its strengths. Everything is its strength.
Meet the new standard in musical reproduction. No other headphone I’ve heard can compete.
Attachments
Hiker816
There's sort of a baby version already--the CA-1a, which might be the best value in audio!
innocentblood
I enjoyed reading this review, since I am using my Immanis with the SAEQ Armageddon, with the Chord BluDAVE 
when you were listening to the Armageddon, were you using the RCA or XLR inputs? I personally prefer the RCA input on the Armageddon. Also, what was the volume on your DAVE in this scenario? Thanks once again for a very thorough and informative review. I can see myself keeping the Immanis for many years to come.
when you were listening to the Armageddon, were you using the RCA or XLR inputs? I personally prefer the RCA input on the Armageddon. Also, what was the volume on your DAVE in this scenario? Thanks once again for a very thorough and informative review. I can see myself keeping the Immanis for many years to come.
Hiker816
Glad you liked the review! I'm about 95% sure I was using the XLR inputs on the Armageddon when I was demo'ing it. Should have thought to try the RCA as well--sorry. On the DAVE, I was at -21 db (I listen weirdly low, so I have to attenuate on the DAVE to keep amps at a normal-ish level).
Aleksandar Radisavlievic ushered in a new era of true ribbon drivers under the newly founded RAAL brand in 1995. He has been involved in the development of ribbon drivers since the early 1990s, initially mainly in the loudspeaker segment and later also for headphones. This is how the first SR-1a true ribbon headphones came about 5 years ago. This catapulted RAAL-requisite to one of the hottest headphones ever virtually overnight. Today, the SR-1a is still one of the best resolving headphones with a speed that is second to none. A domain in which the ribbon drivers are simply a bank and cannot be beaten, not even by electrostatic headphones such as Stax. The SR-1b, which I also tested extensively about 2 years ago, was for a long time my absolute reference when it came to spatial imaging in combination with resolution and speed. However, this SR-1b has one major disadvantage. The bass response does not achieve the pressure and punch that you are used to from other TOTL headphones such as a Utopia 22, JPS Abyss 1266 TC or Hifiman Susvara. Depending on the recording, it also sounds a little tiring in the treble range when delivered. However, the Mitch Convolution filter is a very good way of dealing with this, making the bass range a little punchier and making the SR-1b appear smoother overall without suppressing its technical skills such as speed and resolution.
With the newly developed true ribbon drivers in the Magna and Immanis models, the two disadvantages of the SR-1a/b have virtually vanished into thin air. And I can already say that the Immanis no longer has much to do with the SR-1a/b in terms of bass and treble response. The newly developed R³ drivers of the Immanis use an incredible 3 ribbon units per side, which together achieve a surface area of 25.2 cm. This corresponds to twice the surface area of a CA-1a and 1.45 times the surface area of the SR-1a/b. For comparison, the Magna uses 2 ribbon units per side with its R² driver. Not only has the driver area increased, but the Immanis can also be driven more easily and therefore achieves a higher sound pressure level. For comparison: the Immanis achieves the identical level of the SR-1a/b at 6 watts at 1.5 watts!
As with all true ribbon drivers, the Immanis cannot be driven directly by a conventional headphone amplifier. This is because at an impedance of significantly less than one ohm, any headphone amplifier, regardless of its power reserves, would be brought to its knees and, in the worst case, would no longer make a sound if the automatic switch-off function did not take effect. For this reason, the Immanis is supplied with an interface which provides a stable impedance of 32 ohms at the input and is specified for up to 6 watts@32 ohms. More than enough! The headphone amplifier is connected to this interface via a 4-pin XLR and the Immanis is connected to the other end of the interface. The highlight of this new interface is its round shape and the possibility of using the interface as a headphone stand for the Immanis. Of course, you can also use the old interfaces such as the TI-1b with the Immanis. In addition to the possibility of using a "normal" headphone amplifier for dynamic and orthodynamic headphones with the interface, you can also use the amps specially designed for true ribbon headphones such as the VM-1a or HSA-1b. In this case, neither an interface nor special adapters for open baffle compensation are required. The latter is no longer necessary with the two RAAL 1995 models anyway.
How are the three ribbon drivers actually synchronized? The use of crossover networks is familiar from the IEM sector. RAAL 1995 does not use one. The three ribbon drivers always reproduce the entire frequency spectrum without the use of crossovers. The trick here is the slightly different length of the drivers, which avoids unwanted resonance frequencies. In addition, the specially developed acoustics inside the cabinet ensure that no compression effects or similar can occur.
While the connection from the amp to the interface is not so important, the connection from the interface to the Immanis itself is. For this reason, the Immanis is supplied with a specially developed cable, the Star-8 in the second generation MK2. Thanks to its specially selected inductance, capacitance and conductor length, this ensures that the treble response is always at the very highest level. If the Star-8 MK2 cable were to be extended from 1.8 m to 2.5 m, for example, the Immanis would suffer losses in the treble range. For this reason, the cable is not available in a different length.
How the new circumaural Immanis with open back and ventilated front chamber sounds and whether it is the technology that makes all other TOTL headphones on the market look old, more on that later, after I will now go into the design and comfort of the Immanis. For a handsome price of €10,000 for the complete Immanis set (headphones, interface and Star-8 MK2 cable), you should be able to expect a lot and so my expectations were nothing less than "huge" right from the start!
The complete Immanis set is delivered in a silver aluminum case with the company logo "RAAL 1995" on it. Two velvet bags contain the two connection cables, one for connecting an amp to the interface and one for the Star-8 MK II headphone cable. A silk cloth, also with the company label, is included for the careful handling of the devices. Now we come to the last two most interesting pieces of equipment in the aluminum case. These include the round interface with walnut interior and a screw-on attachment to act as a headphone stand. If you don't need this, you can simply remove the attachment by turning it. When I saw the first pictures on the Internet, I thought the headphone stand wouldn't work so well and would put too much pressure on the ear pads, which would suffer after a while. But I have to say the concept works perfectly. Because the Immanis has enough diameter inside the ear pads so that the interface above it fits completely inside them. The lower part of the ear pads rests on the interface, but due to the low contact pressure of the metal bracket and the inward inclination of the ear cups, no pressure is exerted on the pads. In terms of design, both components also fit together beautifully.
The Immanis impresses me with its high-quality workmanship and elegant golden design. The Immanis can also be ordered in a silver version, but the golden design fascinated me the most from the very beginning. The Immanis is made entirely of metal and walnut wood and has specially developed ear pads that were created in collaboration with Dekoni. With a very large opening of 110 mm, they really do offer enough space for every ear geometry. The ear pads with filled memory foam are also very soft and comfortable. Perforated leather is used on the outside, as is the case with the JPS Abyss 1266 TC, for example, and ensures an even more open appearance. The insides are lined with soft suede, which increases comfort. The elegant-looking golden outer grilles are made of metal and are adorned with the lettering "RAAL 1995" and the model name "Immanis". The ear cups on the metal headband can move freely. If there is one negative point, it is the contact between the ear pads and the headband construction that occurs if you turn them too far outwards. A brake or other auxiliary construction would have been better here. If you know about it, you can of course avoid this contact so as not to shorten the life of the ear pads unnecessarily. However, I assume that these can also be reordered. The very soft genuine leather headband can be easily adjusted to any head shape using a 5-step adjustment mechanism. Thanks to the pleasant contact pressure, the good weight distribution and the very large and soft ear pads, I can wear the Immanis for longer periods of listening without it becoming too uncomfortable, despite its relatively high weight of 610 grams.
For the sound test, I mainly use my stationary setup consisting of the Topping D90 III and the Niimbus US4. In order to check to what extent the Immanis can also be used as a mobile device due to the fact that it is easier to drive than the SR-1a/b, I use my iBasso DX320 MAX Ti once solo and then in combination with the Korg-based iBasso PB5 amplifier. To connect the RAAL interface to the DAP and PB5 via 4.4mm I use a Lavricables Grand Silver adapter. For comparison with other headphones, I use my Hifiman Susvara with the Lavricables Grand Silver and the JPS Abyss 1266 TC with a matching UPOCC cable. Compared to the standard Alumiloy cable, the latter sounds more high-resolution and more natural overall, with less of a peak in the treble. The Grand Silver cable lifts the Susvara in terms of dynamics, liveliness, resolution and bass a clear class above the Hifiman standard cable.
There is no doubt that you can hear the genes of the true ribbon drivers in the Immanis, but everything is technically a step above the SR-1a/b. The Immanis can easily keep up with the SR-1a/b in terms of resolution and speed, but its sound is much more accurate and it doesn't overdo it with the treble reproduction. In terms of bass and spatial imaging, the SR-1a/b can't even begin to keep up, a striking improvement! I didn't think it was possible for a ribbon driver to make bass sound so powerful, simply brilliant! And then there's the very good level stability. Classical concerts at live volume are no problem for the Immanis. An SR-1a/b would have to give up much earlier, especially if an EQ is used to boost the very thin bass range. In my opinion, an EQ is no longer necessary with the Immanis. It sounds so natural and balanced that no frequency range needs any improvement. In operation with the Niimbus and volumes up to the ear-splitting 3 o'clock position, I really couldn't detect any distortion at all - absolutely amazing!
Tonally, it is largely a neutral, slightly warm tuning and a bass range with a slight focus on the mid-bass range. The Immanis definitely needs to be played in for at least 24 hours at high volumes, because out of the box it doesn't sound as smooth as it should and the mid-bass hump is also more pronounced at first. Overall, it sounds a little brighter than the Susvara. You have to get used to the treble response if you haven't heard a true ribbon driver before. The illumination is simply breathtaking and yet so smooth and gentle at the same time. The SR-1a/b is more demanding here and still offers no more detail. I don't know of any other headphones that offer such an illuminating and smooth treble range. Perhaps a Stax SR-X9000, but I have not yet been able to test this. However, others who have already compared the two reported advantages in favor of the Immanis. In terms of speed and resolution, the Susvara and Abyss 1266 TC are certainly among the best headphones money can buy. But in these two disciplines, they can't hold a candle to the Immanis either. The Susvara sounds a little more intimate than the Immanis in terms of stage imaging and doesn't quite offer the laser-sharp pin point localization of the True-Ribbon driver. The Susvara, on the other hand, scores with its somewhat more romantic tuning with the more splendid sound colors in the mids. The Immanis, on the other hand, reproduces pure reality without any coloration. What is immediately noticeable is how open and airy the Immanis is. The Susvara is certainly not lacking in this discipline, but it does not have the same openness as the Immanis. I even think that the Immanis leaves even the 1266 Abyss TC behind in this discipline. In terms of speed and resolution, the 1266 Abyss TC comes closer to the Immanis than the Susvara, but still has to admit defeat by a wide margin. The mid-range doesn't even come close in terms of authenticity. But this is also one of the criticisms of the 1266 Abyss TC. What about the bass range? The Immanis hits in the Niimbus chain like Thor's hammer when it has to. And with an impulse response that almost makes my heart stop - absolutely world class! In terms of visceral impact, it almost reaches the level of the Abyss. The latter remains the king in this discipline, albeit by a small margin. To summarize, it can be said that the Immanis offers much of what the Abyss does and at the same time does it one step better. This makes it one of the first choices in the headphone segment for metal heads like me.
Chocolate Chip Trip by Tool, you simply have to hear it with the Immanis! This grandiose room illumination where everything happens around your head with an impulse response in the drums that makes your jaw drop completely. I've never heard it this good at such a high volume. EDM, rock, metal - this Immanis really masters everything with flying colors, not just classical music and jazz. The bass on Paul Van Dyk's Touched By Heaven is so strong that I feel like I've been transported back to a trance club in my youth. I would never have thought that the bass range was one of the Immani's most outstanding features. With really well-recorded material like Fates Warning and Ray Alder, it really gets going.
It's amazing how well the Immanis is driven by the mobile chain consisting of DX320 MAX Ti + PB5. In the PB5's high gain mode, I can barely get past the 12 o'clock volume setting for my normal listening volume. Even directly on the DX320 MAX Ti there is still enough power available if you use the highest gain level. The combination with the PB5 sounds really good. The more technical approach of the Niimbus chain, which really offers every last detail of the recording, paired with the bass a la Thor's hammer, is offered here by a presentation with more melting in the mids. Directly on the DX320 MAX Ti, the Immanis sounds even better in terms of openness, stage and timbre, but then it loses too much in terms of bass quantity, which I simply don't want to do without.
The Immanis are incredibly good headphones. The best in the world? Well, I'd have to listen to the Sennheiser HE-1 again to find out. It outperforms all the headphones I know. From memory, the HE-1 doesn't offer the gigantic spatial imaging of the Immanis. Only a direct comparison can show the rest. Whether the price of €10,000 is justified is for everyone to decide. In any case, it is clear that the Immanis is currently one of the absolute top headphone, with no ifs or buts!
With the newly developed true ribbon drivers in the Magna and Immanis models, the two disadvantages of the SR-1a/b have virtually vanished into thin air. And I can already say that the Immanis no longer has much to do with the SR-1a/b in terms of bass and treble response. The newly developed R³ drivers of the Immanis use an incredible 3 ribbon units per side, which together achieve a surface area of 25.2 cm. This corresponds to twice the surface area of a CA-1a and 1.45 times the surface area of the SR-1a/b. For comparison, the Magna uses 2 ribbon units per side with its R² driver. Not only has the driver area increased, but the Immanis can also be driven more easily and therefore achieves a higher sound pressure level. For comparison: the Immanis achieves the identical level of the SR-1a/b at 6 watts at 1.5 watts!
As with all true ribbon drivers, the Immanis cannot be driven directly by a conventional headphone amplifier. This is because at an impedance of significantly less than one ohm, any headphone amplifier, regardless of its power reserves, would be brought to its knees and, in the worst case, would no longer make a sound if the automatic switch-off function did not take effect. For this reason, the Immanis is supplied with an interface which provides a stable impedance of 32 ohms at the input and is specified for up to 6 watts@32 ohms. More than enough! The headphone amplifier is connected to this interface via a 4-pin XLR and the Immanis is connected to the other end of the interface. The highlight of this new interface is its round shape and the possibility of using the interface as a headphone stand for the Immanis. Of course, you can also use the old interfaces such as the TI-1b with the Immanis. In addition to the possibility of using a "normal" headphone amplifier for dynamic and orthodynamic headphones with the interface, you can also use the amps specially designed for true ribbon headphones such as the VM-1a or HSA-1b. In this case, neither an interface nor special adapters for open baffle compensation are required. The latter is no longer necessary with the two RAAL 1995 models anyway.
How are the three ribbon drivers actually synchronized? The use of crossover networks is familiar from the IEM sector. RAAL 1995 does not use one. The three ribbon drivers always reproduce the entire frequency spectrum without the use of crossovers. The trick here is the slightly different length of the drivers, which avoids unwanted resonance frequencies. In addition, the specially developed acoustics inside the cabinet ensure that no compression effects or similar can occur.
While the connection from the amp to the interface is not so important, the connection from the interface to the Immanis itself is. For this reason, the Immanis is supplied with a specially developed cable, the Star-8 in the second generation MK2. Thanks to its specially selected inductance, capacitance and conductor length, this ensures that the treble response is always at the very highest level. If the Star-8 MK2 cable were to be extended from 1.8 m to 2.5 m, for example, the Immanis would suffer losses in the treble range. For this reason, the cable is not available in a different length.
How the new circumaural Immanis with open back and ventilated front chamber sounds and whether it is the technology that makes all other TOTL headphones on the market look old, more on that later, after I will now go into the design and comfort of the Immanis. For a handsome price of €10,000 for the complete Immanis set (headphones, interface and Star-8 MK2 cable), you should be able to expect a lot and so my expectations were nothing less than "huge" right from the start!
The complete Immanis set is delivered in a silver aluminum case with the company logo "RAAL 1995" on it. Two velvet bags contain the two connection cables, one for connecting an amp to the interface and one for the Star-8 MK II headphone cable. A silk cloth, also with the company label, is included for the careful handling of the devices. Now we come to the last two most interesting pieces of equipment in the aluminum case. These include the round interface with walnut interior and a screw-on attachment to act as a headphone stand. If you don't need this, you can simply remove the attachment by turning it. When I saw the first pictures on the Internet, I thought the headphone stand wouldn't work so well and would put too much pressure on the ear pads, which would suffer after a while. But I have to say the concept works perfectly. Because the Immanis has enough diameter inside the ear pads so that the interface above it fits completely inside them. The lower part of the ear pads rests on the interface, but due to the low contact pressure of the metal bracket and the inward inclination of the ear cups, no pressure is exerted on the pads. In terms of design, both components also fit together beautifully.
The Immanis impresses me with its high-quality workmanship and elegant golden design. The Immanis can also be ordered in a silver version, but the golden design fascinated me the most from the very beginning. The Immanis is made entirely of metal and walnut wood and has specially developed ear pads that were created in collaboration with Dekoni. With a very large opening of 110 mm, they really do offer enough space for every ear geometry. The ear pads with filled memory foam are also very soft and comfortable. Perforated leather is used on the outside, as is the case with the JPS Abyss 1266 TC, for example, and ensures an even more open appearance. The insides are lined with soft suede, which increases comfort. The elegant-looking golden outer grilles are made of metal and are adorned with the lettering "RAAL 1995" and the model name "Immanis". The ear cups on the metal headband can move freely. If there is one negative point, it is the contact between the ear pads and the headband construction that occurs if you turn them too far outwards. A brake or other auxiliary construction would have been better here. If you know about it, you can of course avoid this contact so as not to shorten the life of the ear pads unnecessarily. However, I assume that these can also be reordered. The very soft genuine leather headband can be easily adjusted to any head shape using a 5-step adjustment mechanism. Thanks to the pleasant contact pressure, the good weight distribution and the very large and soft ear pads, I can wear the Immanis for longer periods of listening without it becoming too uncomfortable, despite its relatively high weight of 610 grams.
For the sound test, I mainly use my stationary setup consisting of the Topping D90 III and the Niimbus US4. In order to check to what extent the Immanis can also be used as a mobile device due to the fact that it is easier to drive than the SR-1a/b, I use my iBasso DX320 MAX Ti once solo and then in combination with the Korg-based iBasso PB5 amplifier. To connect the RAAL interface to the DAP and PB5 via 4.4mm I use a Lavricables Grand Silver adapter. For comparison with other headphones, I use my Hifiman Susvara with the Lavricables Grand Silver and the JPS Abyss 1266 TC with a matching UPOCC cable. Compared to the standard Alumiloy cable, the latter sounds more high-resolution and more natural overall, with less of a peak in the treble. The Grand Silver cable lifts the Susvara in terms of dynamics, liveliness, resolution and bass a clear class above the Hifiman standard cable.
There is no doubt that you can hear the genes of the true ribbon drivers in the Immanis, but everything is technically a step above the SR-1a/b. The Immanis can easily keep up with the SR-1a/b in terms of resolution and speed, but its sound is much more accurate and it doesn't overdo it with the treble reproduction. In terms of bass and spatial imaging, the SR-1a/b can't even begin to keep up, a striking improvement! I didn't think it was possible for a ribbon driver to make bass sound so powerful, simply brilliant! And then there's the very good level stability. Classical concerts at live volume are no problem for the Immanis. An SR-1a/b would have to give up much earlier, especially if an EQ is used to boost the very thin bass range. In my opinion, an EQ is no longer necessary with the Immanis. It sounds so natural and balanced that no frequency range needs any improvement. In operation with the Niimbus and volumes up to the ear-splitting 3 o'clock position, I really couldn't detect any distortion at all - absolutely amazing!
Tonally, it is largely a neutral, slightly warm tuning and a bass range with a slight focus on the mid-bass range. The Immanis definitely needs to be played in for at least 24 hours at high volumes, because out of the box it doesn't sound as smooth as it should and the mid-bass hump is also more pronounced at first. Overall, it sounds a little brighter than the Susvara. You have to get used to the treble response if you haven't heard a true ribbon driver before. The illumination is simply breathtaking and yet so smooth and gentle at the same time. The SR-1a/b is more demanding here and still offers no more detail. I don't know of any other headphones that offer such an illuminating and smooth treble range. Perhaps a Stax SR-X9000, but I have not yet been able to test this. However, others who have already compared the two reported advantages in favor of the Immanis. In terms of speed and resolution, the Susvara and Abyss 1266 TC are certainly among the best headphones money can buy. But in these two disciplines, they can't hold a candle to the Immanis either. The Susvara sounds a little more intimate than the Immanis in terms of stage imaging and doesn't quite offer the laser-sharp pin point localization of the True-Ribbon driver. The Susvara, on the other hand, scores with its somewhat more romantic tuning with the more splendid sound colors in the mids. The Immanis, on the other hand, reproduces pure reality without any coloration. What is immediately noticeable is how open and airy the Immanis is. The Susvara is certainly not lacking in this discipline, but it does not have the same openness as the Immanis. I even think that the Immanis leaves even the 1266 Abyss TC behind in this discipline. In terms of speed and resolution, the 1266 Abyss TC comes closer to the Immanis than the Susvara, but still has to admit defeat by a wide margin. The mid-range doesn't even come close in terms of authenticity. But this is also one of the criticisms of the 1266 Abyss TC. What about the bass range? The Immanis hits in the Niimbus chain like Thor's hammer when it has to. And with an impulse response that almost makes my heart stop - absolutely world class! In terms of visceral impact, it almost reaches the level of the Abyss. The latter remains the king in this discipline, albeit by a small margin. To summarize, it can be said that the Immanis offers much of what the Abyss does and at the same time does it one step better. This makes it one of the first choices in the headphone segment for metal heads like me.
Chocolate Chip Trip by Tool, you simply have to hear it with the Immanis! This grandiose room illumination where everything happens around your head with an impulse response in the drums that makes your jaw drop completely. I've never heard it this good at such a high volume. EDM, rock, metal - this Immanis really masters everything with flying colors, not just classical music and jazz. The bass on Paul Van Dyk's Touched By Heaven is so strong that I feel like I've been transported back to a trance club in my youth. I would never have thought that the bass range was one of the Immani's most outstanding features. With really well-recorded material like Fates Warning and Ray Alder, it really gets going.
It's amazing how well the Immanis is driven by the mobile chain consisting of DX320 MAX Ti + PB5. In the PB5's high gain mode, I can barely get past the 12 o'clock volume setting for my normal listening volume. Even directly on the DX320 MAX Ti there is still enough power available if you use the highest gain level. The combination with the PB5 sounds really good. The more technical approach of the Niimbus chain, which really offers every last detail of the recording, paired with the bass a la Thor's hammer, is offered here by a presentation with more melting in the mids. Directly on the DX320 MAX Ti, the Immanis sounds even better in terms of openness, stage and timbre, but then it loses too much in terms of bass quantity, which I simply don't want to do without.
The Immanis are incredibly good headphones. The best in the world? Well, I'd have to listen to the Sennheiser HE-1 again to find out. It outperforms all the headphones I know. From memory, the HE-1 doesn't offer the gigantic spatial imaging of the Immanis. Only a direct comparison can show the rest. Whether the price of €10,000 is justified is for everyone to decide. In any case, it is clear that the Immanis is currently one of the absolute top headphone, with no ifs or buts!
