[jlbrach]

I really love my SR1a's, but I find them almost too resolving on solo classical music. Very often, I can quite clearly hear the instrumentalist breathing. With prior headphones, it was just occasional recordings that annoyed me with breathing. Now I hear it quite frequently, and it can be very disruptive.

Any ideas for how to get around this problem without changing headphones? I'm running Roon->zen stream->bifrost 2->jotr->SR1a.

that is what I love about them

 

[picoamp]

that is what I love about them

Me too!

 

[cAsE sEnSiTiVe]

Me too!

Me three....

 

[eboleyn]

Sad day for my Raal SR1a journey.

After careful tuning of system/cabling/source/tweaks, I now am getting SQ out of my SR1a that I do not want to change or improve upon.

My dilemma is that I only truly love the sound of SR1a (and AKG K1000 long ago) only with wings closed basically all the way, limited by physical earlobes.
The razor-sharp edges of the metal grill barely touches my earlobes, but even then, the edges irritate my earlobes quite a bit, especially after long sessions.
If I open the wings enough not to make any physical contact, I do not love the sound over my Abyss 1266 Phi TC or Stax SR009.

Is there a way to take off the inside metal grill or replace it with something that does not have sharp edges? Anyone tried some other method?

I'm going to call out to @Aleksandar R. here to comment, as he assisted me with this in recent history, and defer to him to give the definitive comments, but will tell you the short answer version he told me.

Basically, he told me that the glue holding on the grills is purposefully not super-strong, and with care you can remove them. Note that the inside grill is the only safe one to leave removed here! If you remove the outer grills, the foam will almost certainly come off and that's apparently a bad idea... for all I know there's other good reasons to leave the outer ones on, he just told me it's bad, haha.

In any case, I am currently running with the interior grills removed. I listened to before and after plus actually measured it with a miniDSP EARS device and didn't get any non-trivial differences, so I think that one is the safest bet.

As to how to remove the grills, you swing out the "wing", take out the ribbon module (for safety), then gently start to pull the grill off. Again, I'd ask @Aleksandar R. to comment for sure here!

 

[adornoWest]

that is what I love about them

Hearing performers breathe? What is pleasing or music enhancing about that? If you mean the resolution in general, I totally agree. But the breathing I find just distracting for solo piano, violin, etc.

 

[jlbrach]

I love the idea that I hear everything in the recording,..breathing included....listen to babe im gonna leave you on led zep 1 and hear robert plant breathe before singing...it is part of the song...I enjoy hearing as much of the recording as possible and the sr1a takes me as close to the studio as possible

 

[adornoWest]

I love the idea that I hear everything in the recording,..breathing included....listen to babe im gonna leave you on led zep 1 and hear robert plant breathe before singing...it is part of the song...I enjoy hearing as much of the recording as possible and the sr1a takes me as close to the studio as possible

I get that. In general, I find it much less distracting in vocal than solo instrumental. I also consider it somewhat artificial. I mean, of course breathing isn't artificial, but I rarely am distracted by it (or even hear it at all) in the concert hall, even when I am sitting close. In that sense, I consider it an undesireable artifact of the recording process.

 

[jlbrach]

to each his or her own, I like to hear as much of the recording as is possible

 

[cAsE sEnSiTiVe]

If the mics pick it up, I wanna hear it. It's as simple as that. The last thing I want is a component in the chain that masks or throws a veil over the recording.

 

[LucyWu]

If the mics pick it up, I wanna hear it. It's as simple as that. The last thing I want is a component in the chain that masks or throws a veil over the recording.

This has always been my goal in pursuit of audio reproduction excellence and speaks to the very definition of "high fidelity". If I just wanted to listen to an approximation of the recording I'd have saved myself a small fortune and a great deal of time and effort. Which would probably be the sensible approach, admittedly, but life's short and I won't compromise on the things that bring me joy.

 

[Catharus]

Hearing performers breathe? What is pleasing or music enhancing about that? If you mean the resolution in general, I totally agree. But the breathing I find just distracting for solo piano, violin, etc.

I’m glad you are finding some recordings that you enjoy with your RaalRequisite setup. Most people in this corner of the interwebs are looking for more detail. Hence the answers you’ve gotten.

I can definitely see how there are other appealing things about this gear than as detail monsters. Ergonomics stand out for me. I’d be very happy with my SR1a just due to their open baffle design.

Now, for your question. How could you reduce certain details while using this gear? Quick answer: I don’t know. But, I’m guessing you might be able to use a DAC that smooths out details Also, you could play with downsampling and equalizers. Save a troublesome file as a low bitrate MP3 and see if it moves in your desired direction.

Other than that, I would look for other recordings. Avoid close miking. Maybe classical recordings using a Decca tree could offer more of the orchestra than individual performers? If you are really into it, you could do your own editing of downloaded sound files in programs like Izotope RX. That way you could edit out just breathing and leave the details you enjoy.

I’m hoping you find some idea that allows you to enjoy your gear more often.

 

[jlbrach]

I use my sr1a with a chord dave so you can imagine the detail it picks up,at times it is rather chilling to feel you are in the recording studio

 

[adornoWest]

I’m glad you are finding some recordings that you enjoy with your RaalRequisite setup. Most people in this corner of the interwebs are looking for more detail. Hence the answers you’ve gotten.

I can definitely see how there are other appealing things about this gear than as detail monsters. Ergonomics stand out for me. I’d be very happy with my SR1a just due to their open baffle design.

Now, for your question. How could you reduce certain details while using this gear? Quick answer: I don’t know. But, I’m guessing you might be able to use a DAC that smooths out details Also, you could play with downsampling and equalizers. Save a troublesome file as a low bitrate MP3 and see if it moves in your desired direction.

Other than that, I would look for other recordings. Avoid close miking. Maybe classical recordings using a Decca tree could offer more of the orchestra than individual performers? If you are really into it, you could do your own editing of downloaded sound files in programs like Izotope RX. That way you could edit out just breathing and leave the details you enjoy.

I’m hoping you find some idea that allows you to enjoy your gear more often.

Thanks for the suggestions Catharus. I love all sorts of things about the SR1a, including their resolution--except on those recordings where the details are distractions from the music. Last night was an interesting experience. I heard a pianist live who is a noisy breather on recordings with the SR1a. Turns out he is a bit noisy in person too, though I heard him far less often, and far less obtrusively, in person than via the SR1as.

I think you are right that is the combo of close miking and SR1a that I sometimes finding troubling on solo instrumental music, and the solution is probably to listen to those recordings with something else--either that, or get used to the breathing. Opening the baffles, as another poster suggested (thank you!), only helped a little. And I do hate the idea of downsampling... I will try to try another dac, though. Thanks for the ideas!

 

[rlawry]

I for one cannot fathom buying the SR-1a/b for its resolution and then search for ways to reduce its resolution. Kind of like buying a high performance car and then deciding to buy some sloppy shock absorbers to cushion the ride. But that is just me.

 

[number1sixerfan]

It's ok to admit that nobody wants to hear (drastic) breathing in music lol. But it's more about the actual artist/singer and their breath control + studio engineering (engineering part is an assumption on my part) more than anything. I would not at all give up the Sr1a's resolution or any of my other TOTL headphones because of how punishingly resolving they are. There are just some tracks I simply no longer listen to frequently.. which does suck, but it's not on the headphones.