I should receive my 1c for my 300B SET before noon today (fingers crossed) so I’m looking forward to A/Bing with 1b.
Raal Ribbon Headphones - SRH1A
- Thread starter once
- Start date
Try the new enleum
Kiats
Headphoneus Supremus
Anyway, I am so impressed with the 10 foot Star8 cable off the Jot R that I have asked Jaben SG to keep the 6 foot Star8 cable for me so I can use it with the TI-1b. 
Kudos to @Aleksandar R. and team!
Kudos to @Aleksandar R. and team! 
seacard
1000+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Dec 26, 2005
- Posts
- 1,202
- Likes
- 234
Is the Star8 the same thing as the SR728? Or are those different cables? And if different, what is the difference?
Christer
Headphoneus Supremus
- Joined
- Nov 23, 2015
- Posts
- 1,955
- Likes
- 1,986
Hmm, are you seriously suggesting that I travel with a headphone amp only costing around 7000USD??It looks like it would fit in my backpack without much of a problem. But in that case I would much rather upgrade from my Qutest dac to a TT2 with my Mscaler than pay TT2 money for a toy that does nothing more than amplify signals?Looking at its published specs it seems to do that very well. But so does my very compact little Benchmark hgc 2 amp.
I will stick with my still quite good HEKV2 headphones and Benchmark or if it sounds good the Centrance Ampersand than spend my hard earned money at the wrong end of the equation the way I see and hear things.
But thanks anyway.
Christer
jlbrach
Headphoneus Supremus
- Joined
- Jun 4, 2005
- Posts
- 7,597
- Likes
- 8,094
I have found the 1B adapter box to have trouble driving the sr1a even with very powerful HP amps..I do wonder would the 1c provide more volume without having to turn the volume post almost to full as with the 1b?
Odd. How much power is your hpa pushing? My integrated tube amp is pushing maybe ~3W into a 16 ohm load and the SR1a sounds pretty awesome at 11 o’clock on the dial via the TI-1b. Now, it will push 4W into 8 ohms via the speaker taps thus why I’m trying out the 1c.
Last edited:
I agree with the above. Even though my Benchmark HPA4 outputs 6W into 16 ohms, when I first hooked its output into the Ti-1b I had to increase its level disconcertingly high, i.e. -15 dB rather than the usual -30 to -40 dB for other, more efficient headphones. I would imagine many amps of much lesser wattage and/or current to struggle mightily in driving the SR-1 a/b through the Ti-1b, especially on lower-level recordings I sometimes encounter on Qobuz, and wondering whether the Ti-1c might be an improvement, depending on what the BM outputs into 8 ohms.
I mean I used to travel with my Dave
What's the correct end of the equation in your view , the dac, or the headphones?
Christer
Headphoneus Supremus
- Joined
- Nov 23, 2015
- Posts
- 1,955
- Likes
- 1,986
You may not believe it, but I was seriously close to doing so too, but with Mscaler added to my "equation" Qutest /Mscaler keep up with Dave surprisingly well and in some respects I even preferred that combo over Dave on its own.I mean I used to travel with my Dave
Seeing that you now are using a Rossini what made you prefer it over Dave? Isn't it limited to 384 khz?
But getting back on topic of this thread which headphone do you like most, DCA Stealth or Raal CA 1A?And to your question I would have to say , depends both on the dac and headphones. And recording quality. My aim is a chain that within reasonable costs approaches how unamplified instruments and the human voice sounded live without too much compromise.
But imho a bad dac can not make a good headphone sound its best nor the other way around.
Bad headphone and good dac would not be ideal either.
PS I would not travel with a dCS Rossini but vaguely remember it sounding good . But way beyond what I can afford price wise so not even thinking of buying it.
Cheers Christer
TI-1c arrived today BUT my amp uses SpeakOn outputs and I (stupidly) forgot my adapter is SpeakOn to banana male and the bundled Raal adapter is XLR male to banana male so now I need a banana female to female to get from the TI-1c to the amp taps. That arrives Thursday (shakes fist in the air in frustration).
Last edited:
Aleksandar R.
Sponsor: RAAL 1995
Again, if the amp is not distorting or clipping, pot position doesn't mean much.
It only shows that the gain (not power) of the amp is set for more sensitive headphones.
Pot position is not an indicator of whether the amp struggles or not.
You need to crank it up because regular headphones need 0.2-0.3w in peaks, while ours really need 2-3W and more for peaks.
That is a 10dB difference, so you need to turn the pot that much more.
For example, pro DACs put out 10V at XLR outputs, while home audio RCA does 2V.
That is about 14dB higher than RCA and the volume pot needs to go down that much less for the amp to produce the same power.
It's all the same to the amp and it's load, except the pot sits lower, so you wouldn't be thinking that something struggles.
So, if the amp isn't distorting or clipping, it is not struggling.
The gain number of the amp sets the pot position.
The gain is set for more sensitive headphones.
That is all there is to it.
Polygonhell
100+ Head-Fier
On MOST headphone/pre-amps all the volume pot does in attenuate the input, your just amplifying a smaller signal.
Coupled with the fact that almost all audio devices use logarithmic pots, so the pot at 1/2 travel is really only about 10% of the input voltage making it to the amp.
Coupled with the fact that almost all audio devices use logarithmic pots, so the pot at 1/2 travel is really only about 10% of the input voltage making it to the amp.
Curious is the Zahl Hm1 would be powerful enough for the CA-1A. I imagine using 16 ohm in would be more than enough considering its rated spec, but 32 ohms seems a bit iffy, and I much prefer 32 ohms on Oor. Then again, the Oor's performance does fall off below 32 ohms so...I'm curious what your take is.
