Has Anyone Found A Tube Amp To Work Well With Raal Requisite SR-1A?
Feb 8, 2020 at 12:52 PM Thread Starter Post #1 of 9

Nightfall

Headphoneus Supremus
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As the title says, I'm wondering if any of you have found any tube amps, obviously of sufficient power, to work really well with the SR-1A's? I'm very interested in potentially purchasing a pair, but most reviews seem to indicate they will tend towards being bright, or strident unless carefully matched with an amp that mitigates that. That would seem to point towards tubes, assuming they had sufficient power. Any information, wisdom or experiences you've had appreciated. Thanks.

JC
 
Feb 8, 2020 at 2:14 PM Post #2 of 9
You may want to drop a PM to @2359glenn and discuss it with him. I know he is building a custom amp for @DecentLevi to drive the HEDDPhone,so perhaps Glenn can put something together that will slay the RAAL. Maybe his 300b amp will do the trick.
 
Feb 8, 2020 at 8:48 PM Post #4 of 9
As the title says, I'm wondering if any of you have found any tube amps, obviously of sufficient power, to work really well with the SR-1A's? I'm very interested in potentially purchasing a pair, but most reviews seem to indicate they will tend towards being bright, or strident unless carefully matched with an amp that mitigates that. That would seem to point towards tubes, assuming they had sufficient power. Any information, wisdom or experiences you've had appreciated. Thanks.

JC

The specs are confusing - it cites

  • Impedance: 0.2 Ohms with cabling. Used in series Ribbon/Amplifier Interface.
  • Ribbon/Amplifier Interface: 6 Ohms. Use with any loudspeaker amplifier.

I'm not sure but it seems like 0.2ohms is the impedance of the drivers themselves and the box it comes with is kind of like what you get with Stax, and if you hooked that up to a speaker amp, that amp will see the "interface's" input as a 6ohm load.

Based on that, maybe try something like the Cayin CS-55a? It has 4ohm and 8ohm output mode as well as Triode and Ultralinear on both EL34 and KT88. Try different combos until you get what sounds flatter and smoother or whatever sound you like. Personally as long as it can get loud without the bass distorting due to a power mismatch I'd tend to go for KT88 triode on speakers, but mostly anything above 89dB/1W at 1m.
 
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Feb 8, 2020 at 11:39 PM Post #5 of 9
The manufacturer specifies 100wpc, per the reviews, ...............thats the difficult part if you want to go with tubes, that much power is limited to a very small segment of amps.

JC
 
Feb 8, 2020 at 11:51 PM Post #6 of 9
The manufacturer specifies 100wpc, per the reviews, ...............thats the difficult part if you want to go with tubes, that much power is limited to a very small segment of amps.

https://www.mcintoshlabs.com/products/amplifiers/MC2152AN


The only other amps I know are either hybrid amps or are monoblocs with each the size and weight of an HEDT PC, the kind Focal distributors use in trade shows to drive a Utopia tower and the amps are sometimes accompanied by the marketing VP of the manufacturer since this is the sort of amp that kind of sells the waysome cars sell.By "the way some cars sell" I mean along the lines of "guy who drove Italian car to autoshow hands over a blank cheque to the Lamborghini exec."
 
Feb 9, 2020 at 12:47 AM Post #7 of 9
That Anniversary McIntosh amp is a beautiful piece of gear but seriously expensive. There are "some" tube amp options out there which put out 100wpc. VAC, Conrad Johnson, Rogue and some others, none cheap, but they could be bought used for far less.

I'm just hoping someone has found a successful tube amp/SR-1a combo. I thought that information would more likely be found on Head-Fi than anywhere else.

JC
 
Feb 9, 2020 at 3:56 AM Post #8 of 9
That Anniversary McIntosh amp is a beautiful piece of gear but seriously expensive. There are "some" tube amp options out there which put out 100wpc. VAC, Conrad Johnson, Rogue and some others, none cheap, but they could be bought used for far less.

I'm just hoping someone has found a successful tube amp/SR-1a combo. I thought that information would more likely be found on Head-Fi than anywhere else.

Maybe so but it's relatively very rare. Even Stax isn't widely used due to relative cost (ie other headphones went down in price ex Massdrop or HiFiMan) as well as the need for a speaker amp or a dedicated electrostat amp, and as much as that isn't all that rare here, keep in mind that the surge in headphone audio was driven by downtown rentals or other domicile downsizing due to rising real estate and worsening traffic, hence why you have a lot of members here from either downtown areas or suburban sprawls near those areas (ex CanJam in NYC or Costa Mesa near LA).

The other driver is audio sources moving towards computers, which means equipment has to fit on a desk, and given that it's easier to put a headphone back on a rack than pushing speakers out of the way, more are trying out and keeping several headphones (other than just one reference, one for a computer, and one for mobile), which then requires either two amps that will fit in that space or if a large one, be good for as many headphones as possible.

All those considered that means there will be fewer people who'd have space (nor money) for a large speaker amp, much less one that uses several power tubes, that will drive only one or one kind of headphone (all of which are expensive).
 
Oct 26, 2020 at 6:45 PM Post #9 of 9
I’d like to resurrect this thread with some insight from the main SR1a thread on here. I know JP is using his Cary 120S mk ii to great satisfaction, and that seems to be one of the few tube amps with the requisite heft to drive these monsters through the converter box.

I’m holding out hope for a direct drive option, but these are not a normal load and surely require some know-how I don’t possess.
 

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