[billqs]

My RR 1's arrived today from VRacer. Playing Massive Attack through my KGSSHV Carbon and the bass is memerising!

 

[Krassi]

Hi!

I did some "pimp my RR1" and optimized some things on it..


#First i got a nice customs Cable from Mjölnir that is based on a Stax cable and really nice

#Then i had to do something about that aluminium headband assembly..
its a nice design but for me it was a haptic nightmare because i dondt like sharp corners (those are more than sharp like a knife )

... so i took my dremel for the rough work and beveled and then polished all corners by hand mostly with sandpaper.
Now they are perfectly polished now and feel amazing.
It looks a bit like a wireframe now and i love it...

The best thing.. now if i take it in my hands its the best feeling headphone i have ever had.. it feels amazing now when you grab them and the haptic nightmare turned into a haptic dream now.. (my arm hurt for 3 weeks because 5 hours polishing by hands...was like winning the wank Olympics gold medal.. twice.)

I also polished the surfaces with micromesh, used some polishing powder from my japanese natural sharpening stones and stuff i use for my kitchenknives.


#Last thing one of my head strap broke because its built in a way that it has to tear instantly if you accidentally put to much force on it.. so i went to a leather crafts man and went for a a leather version with some soft but durable white leather some foam layer and a layer of cloth so that it will not tear again..


Now its simply amazing! Next to the AKG K340 still my most favorite headphone.
Instead of doing something with the cups i went for the headband assembly

They feel like 2-4k now.. ah even more! )

i made some cellphone shots in the sunshine so could be better.

 

[Q Mass]

Hi!

I did some "pimp my RR1" and optimized some things on it..


#First i got a nice customs Cable from Mjölnir that is based on a Stax cable and really nice

#Then i had to do something about that aluminium headband assembly..
its a nice design but for me it was a haptic nightmare because i dondt like sharp corners (those are more than sharp like a knife )

... so i took my dremel and mostly sandpaper and beveled and then polished all corners .. all.. and in a way that they are perfectly polished now...
it looks a bit like a wireframe now and i love it...

The best thing.. now if i take it in my hands its the best feeling headphone i have ever had.. it feels amazing now when you grab them and the haptic nightmare turned into a haptic dream now.. (my arm hurt for 3 weeks because 5 hours polishing by hands...was like winning the wank Olympics gold medal.. twice.)

I also polished the surfaces with micromesh, used some polishing powder from my japanese natural sharpening stones and stuff i use for my kitchenknives.


#Last thing one of my head strap broke because its built in a way that it has to tear instantly if you accidentally put to much force on it.. so i went to a leather crafts man and went for a a leather version with some soft but durable white leather some foam layer and a layer of cloth so that it will not tear again..


Now its simply amazing! Next to the AKG K340 still my most favorite headphone.
Instead of doing something with the cups i went for the headband assembly

They feel like 2-4k now.. ah even more! )

i made some cellphone shots in the sunshine so could be better.

Well worth the effort, that looks great, congrats!
(Kaldas should offer that as an optional finish!)

 

[quintoben]

what are the same tier headphones comparing to these?

 

[arteom]

Honestly I would pay decent money for a new headband assembly and headstrap. While these aren't exactly uncomfortable, if I put on my set of HD-650's after wearing the RR1, it feels like I've taken my head out of clamping device and instead put it between two pillows. I have tried bending the headband in the middle, as well as where it bends to go to each cup. These headphones punch way above their price in terms of sound, if comfort can be increased, it would mean quite a bit!!

 

[TYATYA]

Honestly I would pay decent money for a new headband assembly and headstrap. While these aren't exactly uncomfortable, if I put on my set of HD-650's after wearing the RR1, it feels like I've taken my head out of clamping device and instead put it between two pillows. I have tried bending the headband in the middle, as well as where it bends to go to each cup. These headphones punch way above their price in terms of sound, if comfort can be increased, it would mean quite a bit!!

There is a pin and groove at position the arrow pointed to.
Unscrew 2 small bolts and take out plastic piece to see.
Can modify the groove abit to enlarge rotating angle. It helps improving comfortness because flexible increasing.

 

[billqs]

what are the same tier headphones comparing to these?

They have great bass but I'm not so sold yet on their mids and highs. I would say their tier in STAX would be the Lambda series and the Koss 950. My opinion may change for the better after using them more, this is just initial.

 

[billqs]

Update: With the right recordings these phones really do come alive! I was listening to P J Harvey's Rid of Me album and the vocals were incredibly lifelike... had me turning my head as I was sure someone was calling me in the room. Definitely better top end I"m noticing now versus a few days ago. These are wondeful phones especially for the price!

 

[arteom]

Update: With the right recordings these phones really do come alive! I was listening to P J Harvey's Rid of Me album and the vocals were incredibly lifelike... had me turning my head as I was sure someone was calling me in the room. Definitely better top end I"m noticing now versus a few days ago. These are wondeful phones especially for the price!

They have this equalized, quiet, quality to them. Nothing sounds any louder than it should, all things fit in their place, and can be heard in full detail. Switch to a dynamic headphone, and the sound is louder, has a popping-out quality to it (had switched to Dharma DH-1000 and HD-650, just to see what the effect is). When I did this I found myself turning up the RR1 louder, going to as far as 3 o'clock on my amp. That being said, I hadn't listened to headphones for a bit and put on my RR1, found 11 o'clock to be plenty loud.

 

[arteom]

I had an album on and noticing this edge/distortion in the right channel. Thinking it's the driver, but before getting ahead of myself I turn off amp, swap the L/R cables on the headphone, turn it all back on. The problem followed followed the cable swap, went to to left driver! The same album I've heard many times, and I knew it was not a great recording, but was listenable as the music was good. The RR1 showed how truly terrible it was . Before I get ahead of myself I should listen to the original CD on a cd player though. The copy I listen to is the same disc recorded to FLAC using EAC.

 

[Zoide]

Today is a bit of a personal history post about how Kaldas Research started. Nobody asked for it but I'm a Head-Fi Sponsor for only one reason : the ability to post my stories. I could care less about using those posting privileges for marketing garbage that nobody cares about.

It all began with my HD650 around 7-8 years ago, technically with my Uncle's Sennheiser HE60 (Baby Orpheus) around 9 years ago. As with most enthusiasts, there's a limit to an obsession, not for me. I was hooked. The HD650 was followed by another Headphone and then yet another until I had to ask myself if I really wanted to invest so much time and money into it.

Currently, my personal collection includes over 150 and mostly vintage Headphones. I like the historical aspect of it hence I own the STAX SR-1 (First production Electrostatic Headphone) - only a handful that might have survived today. The Beyerdynamic ET1000 - the first Electrostatic to be manufactured in Europe with a very interesting sintering process used in the design which till date remains one of the most ingenious design elements to be incorporated into an Headphone.

At some point during being just an enthusiast, there was always the question of making one myself at the back of my head. This notion cemented when I visited Beyerdynamic in 2015.






Beyerdynamic is a company close to my heart, among the oldest companies still in business today, not to mention Eugen Beyer's contribution to Electrodynamic technology. In my personal opinion, the importance of Beyerdynamic is highly ignored in this industry.
The Heilbronn visit was a very instrumental moment in my life and I do miss the people I knew there, some have left due to the Management shift that took place very recently.

After the Beyerdynamic visit. I founded Kaldas Research. Kaldas is named after my Grandfather - Mr. Gokaldas Chandan, a man who started literally from zero to support his family and grew a business from absolutely nothing. Something, I won't ever be. In comparison, my hardships are a joke.

As the name suggests, we are a Research company and do a lot of private contract based R&D and Manufacturing. It's all mostly confidential hence I don't really talk about that aspect of my business. With Kaldas Research established, it wasn't completely unfathomable to make my own Headphone, there were some personal clauses I had set -

1) 100% Manufacturing and R&D to be done in-house
2) Not to outsource Drivers from China
3) Approach vertical integration

RR1 is very close to being a 100% in-house Manufactured product which is extremely, extremely rare in the current industry.
From Raw Material to Manufacturing to Assembly to Distribution. We do all of it ourselves. Hence, it takes time. We might be doing all of it but we aren't particularly large, our operation is small with mostly skilled labor.

In the end, we are working on the RR1 day and night. This is a complete passion project, I'm not doing it for the money. The industry is over-crowded with people trying to sell lackluster products and ramping out revisions every other month. R&D and being methodical is what I've learnt from the great Scientists and people I have met during the development of the RR1. Here are some more photos from when I visited Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Klippel and Klippel GmbH in Dresden for their 20 years celebration. Dr. Klippel is among the greatest living minds in the Audio industry today.





The incredible Mathematisch-Physikalischer Salon - Klippel's 20th Anniversary celebration.



Some more photos from when I visited G.R.A.S Sound & Vibration in Denmark for the European delivery of our KEMAR and other Measurement equipment.



I wish I could show more of G.R.A.S. but no cameras are allowed inside their incredible R&D and Manufacturing facility.

As we increase our production output and start delivering units to our first domestic customers, I just want to say thank you to the community here. The response and demand for the RR1 is more than I ever expected, we didn't really plan for such enthusiasm and hence we are in production hell but, to see my own Headphone come to life like this makes me a really happy boy. R&D guys like us don't really have a very social life hence this is all we have got.



Lastly, the CEO of Audeze was very kind enough to message me about the RR1 which I thought was a very nice gesture. I still remember when I was at RMAF 2016, it was my first time there and only two people who stood out as being absolute Gentleman's were Tyll and Sankar. Both took the time to talk and were unbelievably nice. In the end, products are irrelevant. The men and the story behind it is KING.

I'm still reading through the thread and haven't yet made up my mind about whether to replace my beloved L700 with an RR1. However, just seeing what an open, humble, and passionate guy you are makes me want to get one

 

[MrTechAgent]

I'm still reading through the thread and haven't yet made up my mind about whether to replace my beloved L700 with an RR1. However, just seeing what an open, humble, and passionate guy you are makes me want to get one

Thank you, Sir.
I wouldn't bother with the RR1 if you already have the L700.

 

[Zoide]

Well, most of our current customers are domestic out of which only maybe 35% might be in the Audiophile community, others are industry professionals who are oblivious to Head-Fi.
Our production is stronger than what it was and deliveries have started since last month, in fact we are going to be shipping out our first International batch this month to Germany and California. One of our Customer is going to be taking his RR1 to the ZMF fest in October.
I've discussed this many times but here it is again - https://www.head-fi.org/threads/kal...00-electrostatic.900147/page-11#post-15047278




I have requested some of my Customers to post some impressions soon but till then I will try to answer it myself. Even though I make the RR1's, at the end of the day I'm an enthusiast. I don't really care about promoting my Headphone.

The RR1 as discussed by Spritzer and Jude and many others who have posted their opinion is a slightly different take on the signature associated with E-Stats.
The RR1 has improved LF extension than most STAX, apart from the Supra-Aural SR-X but I haven't measured that yet. Also, the treble is less pronounced.

Most of our Dynamic and Isodynamic customers have praised the sound including some STAX Mafia members on a different forum although out of all the Headphones we have sold, only one Customer has disliked the RR1 who happens to own a SR-009S, he thinks the SR-009 is superior in fidelity, on the other hand we have another three Customers owning a SR-009 again and say they have replaced from the SR-009 to the RR1 for their desktop setup.

So, what does that mean? Nothing. Some may like something, some may not. That's why we have posted Measurements against SR009, Meze Empyrean, HD600, AEON, SR007MK2 etc.

In fact, I'll be posting some more graphs in a couple of days of the RR1 VS SR007MK1 VS ESP950. Furthermore, I'm leaving for Bangkok to meet @chinsettawong, the Electrostatic master himself soon.

Nobody has asked me what I, the maker of the RR1 thinks of the RR1, so I'll tell my opinion. I own over 150 Headphones, including some of the most prolific Headphones ever Manufactured and I only use one - the Bose QC35, so in my book, the RR1 is a failure.

Thank you, Sir.
I wouldn't bother with the RR1 if you already have the L700.

You're "too" honest!

Why do you say I shouldn't bother with the RR1? The bass/sub-bass performance is very intriguing, as it's what I miss most about moving from the HE-500 to the L700.

There's also these glowing endorsements...

Most of our Dynamic and Isodynamic customers have praised the sound including some STAX Mafia members on a different forum although out of all the Headphones we have sold, only one Customer has disliked the RR1 who happens to own a SR-009S, he thinks the SR-009 is superior in fidelity, on the other hand we have another three Customers owning a SR-009 again and say they have replaced from the SR-009 to the RR1 for their desktop setup.

I feel like you're a reverse-psychology ninja or something. "Don't buy my headphones!"

 

[MrTechAgent]

You're "too" honest!

Why do you say I shouldn't bother with the RR1? The bass/sub-bass performance is very intriguing, as it's what I miss most about moving from the HE-500 to the L700.

Electrostatic drivers being limited by the displacement won't be able replicate that experience you had with the HE-500, which is known to be one of the finest Isodynamic headphone of its time. Just being honest.

 

[Zoide]

Any comparisons between the Kaldas and the Perun?

Or whether it would be worth saving up for a used 007mk2 if I'm not willing to spend a fortune upgrading my SRM-323S to a fancy amp like the KGSS?

Thanks