RAAL 1995 Immanis

[normie610]

Spent the past 48+ hours with Immanis + XA30.8, IMO (and i only add this as a caveat in case your ears are wildly different to mine) the best auditory experience I've heard to date for a transducer strapped to my head. 100% recommend anyone with Immanis to go find a Pass Labs dealer and have a listen off the taps off of a big boy amp with a decent source. One of those moments where you think how could it possibly get any better.....

Disclaimer: It's been powered on for 24hrs+.

I may have missed it, but which interface box are you using with the Pass? TI-1b, RCD 32 ohm, or the 8 ohm one?

 

[Doug2507]

I may have missed it, but which interface box are you using with the Pass? TI-1b, RCD 32 ohm, or the 8 ohm one?

RCD 32ohm.

 

[nfandi]

Spent the past 48+ hours with Immanis + XA30.8, IMO (and i only add this as a caveat in case your ears are wildly different to mine) the best auditory experience I've heard to date for a transducer strapped to my head. 100% recommend anyone with Immanis to go find a Pass Labs dealer and have a listen off the taps off of a big boy amp with a decent source. One of those moments where you think how could it possibly get any better.....

Disclaimer: It's been powered on for 24hrs+.

You’re not the first person to have this reaction to the XA30.8, Srajan at 6moons bought his review sample after hearing it. My own personal chancellor of finances would give me significant earache if I brought home such a monster. It’s 30W of pure Class A and consumes 375W at idle. I hope you have your own personal hydro-electric power supply up there in haggis land.

 

[number1sixerfan]

Try the CRBN², I know most users say its primary improvement is in the bass (which is important to me), but Audeze themselves claims also improvements in holographic and spatial imaging.

This is also fair. I could see the core base being more excited about the bass as well. So definitely will still give it a shot whenever I get a chance.

 

[saudio7]

Immanis is spectacular in organ music but also in quiet details, good examples from Interstalar OST "Dreaming of the Crash" and "Stay" with wind sound….

 

[CharlyBrown]

Immanis is spectacular in organ music but also in quiet details, good examples from Interstalar OST "Dreaming of the Crash" and "Stay" with wind sound….

I would argue that the Interstellar soundtrack will sound great on every headphone or other transducer (or even better: live). On the other hand, yes, it sounds especially spectacular on the Immanis!

 

[saudio7]

I would argue that the Interstellar soundtrack will sound great on every headphone or other transducer (or even better: live). On the other hand, yes, it sounds especially spectacular on the Immanis!

Not fully agree, especially Stay at the end, most of headphones just play wall of sound, you can’t really hear what is playing and it is quite a lot going on in background.

 

[CharlyBrown]

Not fully agree, especially Stay at the end, most of headphones just play wall of sound, you can’t really hear what is playing and it is quite a lot going on in background.

Yep, Immanis is extremely good at this.

 

[Doug2507]

You’re not the first person to have this reaction to the XA30.8, Srajan at 6moons bought his review sample after hearing it. My own personal chancellor of finances would give me significant earache if I brought home such a monster. It’s 30W of pure Class A and consumes 375W at idle. I hope you have your own personal hydro-electric power supply up there in haggis land.

It's a review I've not read tbh, 6moons page format doesn't pair well with a phone for reading and too lazy to go sit on the pc and read it. Nice to hear a reviewer have the same thoughts albeit I'm guessing with speakers rather than HP's!

 

[nfandi]

It's a review I've not read tbh, 6moons page format doesn't pair well with a phone for reading and took lazy to go sit on the pc and read it. Nice to hear a reviewer have the same thoughts albeit I'm guessing with speakers rather than HP's!

Yes, lot’s of different speakers and in comparison to the previous XA30.5, though I think it was something like 10 years or so ago…Or maybe it was in comparison to one of the First Watt amps….I forget now.

 

[Doug2507]

I'll make the effort and have a read at some point.

 

[nfandi]

I'll make the effort and have a read at some point.

I read a few reviews of it today and there was a general consensus that it sounds like one of the ‘big boy’ amps at a very affordable price….relatively speaking. Srajan asked Nelson Pass what power he could have got out of it if he biased it 5W Class A and then Class A-B instead of 30W Class A and Nelson suggested 300W.

 

[jonchard]

Its bass is very good, but it's flat, like a normal open back planar. Very good quality, but not that much quantity like from a 1266. You would need to EQ it to reach that.
I will post my findings in 1-2 days .

@Exekuhtor A fewof songs for evaluation, I appreciate they may not be your thing.

Limit to your love - James Blake **Watch your volume!! I MEAN IT!!** - What a crazy silly song. Immanis can really make this sound unbelievably knockout and clean. It doesnt quite hit the lows, off the drum hit, there is a depth of note described by Abyss. If you'd never heard it on Abyss, you'd probably be mighty pleased... I listened to this song over 20 times ... each time, Immanis just got better and what i thought was a kicking by Abyss turned out to be a flavour choice. On Immanis, the first time the bass kicks in, that next 10 seconds describes the changing bass tones stunningly, not the little individual changes but the overall tone of it, and that detail is lost on Abyss.

Star Boy - The Weekend. The underpinning bass is lost on Immanis, it makes the song sound empty. (Blinding lights feels similar) These two clearly show me where Abyss can hit a deeper note, those notes underpin the entire song. I even straightened the AByss to give a fighting chance but the Abyss bass was already a masterclass.

Get Lucky - Daft Punk - The difference is far clearer here. Immanis, where is my bass? Abyss, there it is! Again, it completely underpins the song. I wouldn't even describe this as sub bass and yet its almost absent on Immanis. Im hoping LCD4 can give a good rendition of the above too.

Motherboard - DaftPunk - Loved both headphones here... Bass was not a priority, dynamics were and this is a very exciting dance of electronica on both hedphones. Control and Imaging on Immanis is second to none.

These sorts of songs describe my "Other main listening" where Immanis doesn't quite hit the spot in the bass regions. Its also the kind of music that doesnt need technicalities to impress.

My AB'ing was with Abyss off speaker outs, Immanis on XLR out. Both were fairly close volume wise, i'm finding Immanis is more sensitive than Abyss but the change in ouput power on different outputs brings them fairly close in output volume. I'm close enough to have each headphone changed in 5 seconds.

An interesting aside, I find both immanis and Abyss to have a very similarly wide soundstage and this is one thing i utterly love.

Whilst i was burning in my Immanis, i listened to it exclusively for the full week before going back to Abyss. Abyss tonally is really bad for some instruments! Immanis is a spoiler there. But, it still a very fast and incredibly impressive headphone for certain genres. I still hugely enjoy it - which is annoying as i need the LCD4 to take its place!

One last comment, how do 80 year old tubes allow an valve amp to be so incredibly fast, detailed, holographic, bassy, intense, etc etc ... It absolutely blows my mind.

 

[Aetherhole]

Limit to your love is a whole lot of fun. Watching the ribbons flutter on this song is also fun! Of course, watch the volume, for sure.

 

[nwavesailor]

One last comment, how do 80 year old tubes allow an valve amp to be so incredibly fast, detailed, holographic, bassy, intense, etc etc ... It absolutely blows my mind.

Every time I think about my older tubes and how they sound, I'm amazed that many of these were created for a war, not our listening pleasure some many decades later. It is simply stunning!