Raal Ribbon Headphones - SRH1A
Jun 28, 2019 at 3:26 PM Post #1,306 of 7,750
the SR1A does not yet seem to be available in France
Just to be complete: the SR1a isn‘t yet directly available in France and certain other European countries, but there is a dealer in the Netherlands who sells and ships from within the European Union: Stefan Gürtler with his company Headphone Auditions / Concert Audio, located in Amsterdam in the Netherlands, so no hassle with import taxes etc., and a 14 day money back guarantee. I have ordered my SR1a there.

Here’s the link to the SR1a on the Headphone Auditions website: https://www.headphoneauditions.nl/product/sr1a-ribbon-earfield-monitors/
 
Jun 28, 2019 at 9:04 PM Post #1,307 of 7,750
I had the pleasure of listening to the SR1a at the Socal Canjam, and it was a great experience. Might be the best rendition of male vocals that I have ever heard from headphones, and I had a chance to listen to the Sennheiser He1 system. Strangely, I did not hear any of the "brightness" that people are talking about, and I am pretty sensitive to harsh treble. Pretty darn comfortable too. Really wish I could have heard them in a quiet room. Their open design was really limiting the listening experience on the noisy show room.

Does anybody know what amps were being used at the show? I know that one of them was in the $700-800 range and sounded good.
 
Jun 28, 2019 at 9:14 PM Post #1,308 of 7,750
I had the pleasure of listening to the SR1a at the Socal Canjam, and it was a great experience. Might be the best rendition of male vocals that I have ever heard from headphones, and I had a chance to listen to the Sennheiser He1 system. Strangely, I did not hear any of the "brightness" that people are talking about, and I am pretty sensitive to harsh treble. Pretty darn comfortable too. Really wish I could have heard them in a quiet room. Their open design was really limiting the listening experience on the noisy show room.

Does anybody know what amps were being used at the show? I know that one of them was in the $700-800 range and sounded good.

I'm perusing the CanJam thread for the first time now, and now see this pic from a reviewer's Facebook page. So I guess it must've been the Vidar?

It's interesting to read so many user impressions of the SR1a on that thread...
 
Jun 30, 2019 at 4:31 PM Post #1,309 of 7,750
While I am continuing to experiment with different amplifiers (and am getting close to done there), I finally got around to building some prototype replacement cables. Mostly this was done out of a desire to experiment with different cable resistances (0.05 Ω, 0.1 Ω and 0.2 Ω) and some nicer/components and a more "audiophile" feel/aesthetic:

RadioAktiv Protium (Proto) - SR1a (1024).jpg


I wound up settling on the 0.1 Ω configuration (about a $450 build, raw parts cost, most of which is in the wire, for a 6 foot cable). With that, the treble levels are such that I don't want/need to use EQ with the SR1a anymore, and as I've gone further up the amplification chain, the need to do so for the sub-bass has pretty much gone away too. And I'd swear to a slight increase in resolution too (though they're so resolving anyway it's hard to tell) ... at least until I can do a blind comparison there. Anyway, now I'm running them "pure", which is a much more convenient way to do it.
 
Jun 30, 2019 at 8:12 PM Post #1,311 of 7,750
I know it's a dumb question given the completely open design of this SRH1As, but how are the sound leakage compared with other TOTL headphones?

I found that electrostats (my Koss ESP/95X) tend to leak a lot more sound than other dynamic or planar headphones I've been tried, so I was curious about the leak level on these...
 
Jun 30, 2019 at 8:34 PM Post #1,312 of 7,750
@Torq could you elaborate on specific wire AWG, metal, and number of wires used for the 0.1 ohm build?

The raw conductors are high-purity, long-grain, oxygen free copper. Each channel has four such conductors, two for +, two for - , which yields a combined AWG of 22 per phase in, an interleaved quad-helix arrangement.
 
Jul 3, 2019 at 6:56 PM Post #1,316 of 7,750
Empire Zeus IEM(earphone) sound pretty nice overall with nice dynamics and details.

Out of curiosity I pulled the trigger for Stax009s and Carbon amp.

But the statement below got me a little bit upset.

Shall I have had tried Rall Sr1a instead of Stax on 14 days return guarantee?

I have to wait until July 9th to find out how Stax009s and Carbon amp will sound with Dave and Mscaler.

https://photos.google.com/share/AF1...?key=VjN1SHRiUWYxUGd0dk5qWTVQOEJNNXdMaEZ0RGZB






MrCypruz

1
2d

I got the SR1a on Friday along with the Vidar and the Performer s800 but did not have a lot of time to do a proper evaluation other than quickly running through @Torq‘s suggested songs. In a nutshell, the SR1a provide the very best sound that I’ve heard to date coming from headphones, period.

The bass response is the most detailed and well textured I’ve ever heard to date. None of the HPs that I own (009S, Utopia & Empyrean) can match its speed, attack, decay. As @Torq stated, the SR1a takes no prisoners, it reveals everything upstream as it is with unparalleled realism and accuracy without any coloration. Neutrality is one of its main personality traits, I guess that’s why it’s very highly regarded in the professional realm for music production.

In less than 2hrs of listening time, the SR1a made me reach a state of audio nirvana for the very first time, therefore I don’t want to go back to anything less than this. I’ll spare my other 3 headphones because I like the looks, comfort and still enjoy their capabilities.
I’m officially done with headphones for now…until the release of the SR2a!!!

https://forum.headphones.com/t/raal...ld-monitor-headphone-official-thread/3220/265
 
Jul 3, 2019 at 8:09 PM Post #1,319 of 7,750
In less than two weeks I went from "piddling about out of morbid-curiosity" with the SR1a and a basic "THX" Parasound amp (only next-day thing I could get), to one, then two Schiit Vidar's, and a progression of amplifiers up to a $7,200 Linn AK4200 and $11,200 pair of Chord Études, and a TOTAL RESET of my solid-state headphone chain ... compete with ditching any notion of a pre-amp ...

They (SR1a) have, in no-uncertain-terms, turned my headphone-listening on it's head ...
 
Jul 3, 2019 at 8:19 PM Post #1,320 of 7,750
In less than two weeks I went from "piddling about out of morbid-curiosity" with the SR1a and a basic "THX" Parasound amp (only next-day thing I could get), to one, then two Schiit Vidar's, and a progression of amplifiers up to a $7,200 Linn AK4200 and $11,200 pair of Chord Études, and a TOTAL RESET of my solid-state headphone chain ... compete with ditching any notion of a pre-amp ...

They (SR1a) have, in no-uncertain-terms, turned my headphone-listening on it's head ...
You had gone through several SS amps in such short time.

Since 1999, I am using only tube amplifier on my main 2 channel system.

If I had kept Jadis 500(350W monster 4 pieces tube amp), then I may be able to drive Rall Sr1a to full glory.

But now I have only Lyngdorf 2170( 170W for 4 ohm) just to use as room correction and active crossover.

If I get Rall Sr1a , then I may start with Lyngdorf 2170 which also has a digital equalization presets.
 

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