[yyzSB]

Last night, I was listening to some amazing pop music via the CA-1a | Benchmark DAC3B | VM-1a. I am going to play this again tonight. The album MIND BOMB by The The. It sounds great on the CA-1a. Better than I had ever heard it before.

 

[foefoe]

Great Lp, great band. My favourite of theirs is “Soul Mining”, that first non-remastered cd edition sounds absolutely phenomenal.

 

[M3NTAL]

I was lucky enough to hear @SpeleoFool 's CA-1a. Some trade-offs with imaging and stage compared to the SR-1a, but the tonal balance with almost the speed as the SR-1a makes them a headphones that will be in my collection once the second hand market starts with these. I doubt that will happen anytime too soon since they are quite a treasure in the sea of mediocrity.

Link to setups I heard the CA-1a on with the adapter box.

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/az-head-fi-friends-mini-meet-2023-02-04.966812/#post-17388045

 

[gammi]

makes them a headphones that will be in my collection once the second hand market starts with these.

https://www.head-fi.org/classifieds/raal-ca-1a-package.40476/

Here you go.

 

[M3NTAL]

Gaawww - I shouldn't have typed with my foot in my mouth. I'm on the hood for a couple new headphones right now and not in the positions for a 2K setup. Thank you for the link and I hope it helps someone in here.

The only thing I don't like about the headphone is the lack of swivel in the gimbals. I have a tiny head and they seemed to be a little bit of a struggle with my short time with them. The foam ear pads were not any sort of bother - actually not bad at all. I just have a feeling that they will slide back off my head while laying down, mostly due to the cups not swiveling and forming to my head. I don't know though - need a long in-home audition.

 

[jlbrach]

the CA-1a is IMHO the biggest bargain in this insane hobby of ours....I love the susvara and abyss TC but honestly I have been reaching for the CA-1a more often recently...something special about them BUT...they must have the Mitch barrett filters in order to truly shine

 

[Spawn300Z]

Has anyone compared the DanaCable Luzuli Raal cable to the Raal Star 8 Cable with the CA-1A yet? I saw a review with the SR-1A.

 

[jlbrach]

I havent heard anyone yet speak of the danacable version, it would be interesting to hear it

 

[normie610]

Has anyone compared the DanaCable Luzuli Raal cable to the Raal Star 8 Cable with the CA-1A yet? I saw a review with the SR-1A.

I don’t think it’s made to the specification of CA1a with TI-1b. Aleks posted a while ago that the cable needs to have certain parameters for TI-1b to sound properly. I have a DHC cable that sounds wonderful on SR1a with the old interface box, but sounds horrible with TI-1b.

 

[gammi]

FYI @Aleksandar R. my CA-1a has a loose 3.5mm jack on the left side. Right side is nice and tight but left side has play in and out and will cutout when I touch it.
I'm in contact with Bloom Audio for a replacement but thought you may want to know and check your jacks.

 

[M3NTAL]

In my short review - I mentioned the earcups not rotating enough. Did I miss something in the mechanism or is this in fact something known? The pads soak up the angle different, but it does feel rather loose towards the front of my face while the back of my ears feel more pressure.

 

[KaiSc]

In my short review - I mentioned the earcups not rotating enough. Did I miss something in the mechanism or is this in fact something known? The pads soak up the angle different, but it does feel rather loose towards the front of my face while the back of my ears feel more pressure.

I‘m not 100% sure if this is valid for the CA1a too, but the SR1a‘s headband‘s metal bow is meant to be bent to fit, as Aleksandar from Raal demonstrated in this video:
https://www.google.de/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=video&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwiSq8iav4T9AhWHq6QKHa5YCOoQtwJ6BAgIEAI&url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SertF-wqf-s&usg=AOvVaw0nTdDAj_Wx3HftetQZ7ahk

 

[M3NTAL]

I‘m not 100% sure if this is valid for the CA1a too, but the SR1a‘s headband‘s metal bow is meant to be bent to fit, as Aleksandar from Raal demonstrated in this video:
https://www.google.de/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=video&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwiSq8iav4T9AhWHq6QKHa5YCOoQtwJ6BAgIEAI&url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SertF-wqf-s&usg=AOvVaw0nTdDAj_Wx3HftetQZ7ahk

Ahh - yeah that makes sense. Kind of a bonus and a design flaw in the same breath. I guess we will see how that metal handles a couple or few owners. Might be a long long time since the only reason to sell them is financial. Nobody can say that these do more things right than pretty much all but the SR-1a or unicorn electrostats with unicorn amplifiers. I have a ~decent amplifier that does 210 @ 8ohm that I think would rock with the RAAL's and probably my LCD-R.

 

[Aleksandar R.]

FYI @Aleksandar R. my CA-1a has a loose 3.5mm jack on the left side. Right side is nice and tight but left side has play in and out and will cutout when I touch it.
I'm in contact with Bloom Audio for a replacement but thought you may want to know and check your jacks.

We do check them three times while testing and measuring.
Those are German made female jacks that require a lot of force to enter the jack all the way in.
Try pushing harder and make sure it snapped in. It's the last 0.5mm that requires force and people don't expect that.
We are using them because they can pass the amount of current that ribbons need (5 Arms).

 

[Aleksandar R.]

Ahh - yeah that makes sense. Kind of a bonus and a design flaw in the same breath. I guess we will see how that metal handles a couple or few owners. Might be a long long time since the only reason to sell them is financial. Nobody can say that these do more things right than pretty much all but the SR-1a or unicorn electrostats with unicorn amplifiers. I have a ~decent amplifier that does 210 @ 8ohm that I think would rock with the RAAL's and probably my LCD-R.

Its not a flaw if it was intended to pick them up and put them on with one hand.

Bend to your liking.

The metal will withstand thousands of bending cycles.