[Jerseyboy]

I'd like to share an experiment I have undertaken with the SR1A using Synergistic Research electronic circuit transducers (ECT). I placed them at strategic positions on the SR1A as close to the ribbons as possible and positioned evenly along their length, using blutac so as to not cause damage. Their size is such that they fit snugly within the framework of the headphone without interfering with the comfort or positioning. They are also short enough not to protrude above the frame so are not prone to catching when placing or removing the headphones from the head. The results were significant in that they made the headphone even more open and dynamic in character and with a more realistic soundstage. I can certainly recommend this "tweak" if anyone wants to try it. I attach some photographs to illustrate....

 

[lambdastorm]

I'd like to share an experiment I have undertaken with the SR1A using Synergistic Research electronic circuit transducers (ECT). I placed them at strategic positions on the SR1A as close to the ribbons as possible and positioned evenly along their length, using blutac so as to not cause damage. Their size is such that they fit snugly within the framework of the headphone without interfering with the comfort or positioning. They are also short enough not to protrude above the frame so are not prone to catching when placing or removing the headphones from the head. The results were significant in that they made the headphone even more open and dynamic in character and with a more realistic soundstage. I can certainly recommend this "tweek" if anyone wants to try it. I attach some photographs to illustrate....

Dang, these are so bybee.

 

[Zhanming057]

Quick PSA to people considering alternative speaker wires for the SR1a's. I had a conversation with Alex about wire thickness and current load on the speaker wires while using the SR1a's. Alex recommends a minimum of 18awg wires for speaker wires. I assume that this is for fairly short runs, since my understanding is that aside from the current requirements, you don't want wire resistance to be more than 5% of the net load (6 ohms in this case). Anything exceeding 15-20ft will probably require even thicker wires.

This is usually not an issue for high quality speaker wires, but there are products out there designed for low-current applications (Astell & Kern's own speaker wires for one example), and low quality speaker wire might also be too thin and cause both sound and safety issues. @llamaluv If you're looking for wires, make sure that you shop for 18 awg and preferably 14 or 16 just to be 100% safe.

 

[Accel137]

Any one interested in this cpm2650 int amp with 120w in 8ohm? I have a Linn amp so no longer need this. For sale now!

 

[PeteSTRADAMUS]

@HoloSpice Well, what do you think of them?

 

[WilliamWykeham]

Did another listening session with @llamaluv. In an earlier post I had mentioned that I would have some interesting observations about burn-in. Well, I can now share. During our first session several weeks ago, @llamaluv's Sr1a was markedly superior to mine. We both noticed it quickly, and the quality that struck me most was the difference in bass, mine being anemic by comparison, while @llamaluv described the contrast in terms of dynamics. The only difference between the two headphones was that he had burned his in for 250 hours with pink noise, while I had not. On a second listening session when we also compared his Bryston and Pass amps, my headphone had improved significantly after 10 days of almost nonstop pink noise, but we still thought his edged out mine ever so slightly. During the recent session, we may have noticed only the smallest difference between the two units, but it was hard to say and if I were to try to quantify the changes between sessions, I'd estimate something like 20%, 3%, and then <1%.

I also took his Susvara for a spin, connected to the Bryston and the Pass. I could not last even a minute with several tracks. It was like a leap back to the stone ages. The word that came to mind listening to the Susvara after the Sr1a is "boomy". This is from someone who has very fond memories of the HE1000 through a Chord BluDave.

We also compared the Bryston to the Pass again, and I again had a strong preference for the Bryston, especially its huge soundstage. I found myself tapping my toes with the Bryston and not with the Pass; this must come down ultimately to taste as several others have preferred the Pass.

My high opinion of his Metrum Pavane did not change; what an amazing Dac.

We are hoping to find someone in NYC with a superpowered amp to do a listening session - if that's you let us know!

 

[llamaluv]

I agree with the percentage changes that WilliamWykeham cited over the four "check-ins" we did comparing the two headphones. It's really interesting how we were able to do a semi-reliable "controlled experiment", even if it ended up coming about serendipitously. The take-away, which I've told a number people over PM for a while now, is that burn-in really does matter in this case.

On the amp question... I gotta say, the revealing nature of the SR1a makes the amp-pairing question a continuous source of fascination. This is a double-edged sword, of course.

After listening to the X150.8 for a few dozen more hours over the past week, its forward and super-full-sounding qualities can sometimes get to be a bit much, and if I switch to the Bryston, it's like a breath of fresh air (including literally, because it's so-- nevermind). The Bryston is light-footed, reactive, nuanced, wide... And an altogether easier listen. But then, switching back to the Pass Labs amp, even after just a few minutes, and all of a sudden I hear how deep and layered it sounds, and the tones sound so rich and solid, and I'm again like, "Oooh..."

I should consider myself fortunate to have two really interesting, very different-sounding power amps at the moment. But yeah, a potentially nervosa-inducing double-edged sword.

 

[yates7592]

My SR1a arrived 3 days ago, just in time for the Easter holidays. Initially, I have to say I was very underwhelmed, running them off my re-capped and fully restored Sansui AU-717 integrated (rated conservatively at 85WPC into 8 ohms, 100W seems to be the accepted standard). This is literally the first time my AU-717 has failed to step up to the mark. I had hoped that this amp would be up to the job, but everything written in this thread about the need for power (and good power at that), to make the SR1a shine is absolutely true. With the AU-717, the bass and p-r-a-t definitely suffered, grainy and distorted on big bass music at only moderate volume. Hints of greatness were there however, so Plan B: use Bryston 4B-SST-C as power amp with the Sansui on preamp duties....

Wow, just wow. Immediately, these were headphones transformed from basically a sloppy distorted mess into the most dynamic, transparent and responsive headphones I have ever heard. Bass is now very tight, impactful and distortion-free even at high volume. Massive Attack 'Angel' - verified. Bass heads still not need apply, but everyone else will be very very happy indeed.

Soundstage is easily the best I have heard. I had a set of HD800 on hand to A/B and width-wise they are comparable, but SR1a kills HD800 in soundstage depth, height and also imaging.

It was extremely useful to have HD800 on site for direct comparison. Not a fair comparison in truth, but SR1a makes HD800 sound muddy, never thought I would say that. With SR1a the presentation is just so 100% clear and 'unhindered'. HD800 by comparison struggles sometimes with some complex music and gives out a lot of 'resonance' or even 'boomy' (if I could call it that, can't find the right word) on bass heavy music. I hadn't noticed that before until I could directly compare. My live recordings now sound exactly as I heard them on the night, rendered perfectly. I do think if you demo these headphones you need to have your favourite cans side by side for comparison. You will be shocked to hear the difference.

And of course, amps really do make the difference. Bryston 4B-SST-C with 300W into 8 ohms completely transforms the SR1a. With the Sansui, everything was strained and pushed to the limit. Now, I have effortless dynamics and bass, with seemingly unlimited power reserve. Not exactly cheap, but I picked mine up used on Ebay for less money than most half-decent headphone amps sell for these days, and with 9 years warranty remaining! I've not had chance to listen to a Pass Labs but would love to compare.

Excited to hear @llamaluv impressions re burn-in. Mine probably have less than 30 hours total, so hopefully even more room for improvement.

 

[Christer]

My SR1a arrived 3 days ago, just in time for the Easter holidays. Initially, I have to say I was very underwhelmed, running them off my re-capped and fully restored Sansui AU-717 integrated (rated conservatively at 85WPC into 8 ohms, 100W seems to be the accepted standard). This is literally the first time my AU-717 has failed to step up to the mark. I had hoped that this amp would be up to the job, but everything written in this thread about the need for power (and good power at that), to make the SR1a shine is absolutely true. With the AU-717, the bass and p-r-a-t definitely suffered, grainy and distorted on big bass music at only moderate volume. Hints of greatness were there however, so Plan B: use Bryston 4B-SST-C as power amp with the Sansui on preamp duties....

Wow, just wow. Immediately, these were headphones transformed from basically a sloppy distorted mess into the most dynamic, transparent and responsive headphones I have ever heard. Bass is now very tight, impactful and distortion-free even at high volume. Massive Attack 'Angel' - verified. Bass heads still not need apply, but everyone else will be very very happy indeed.

Soundstage is easily the best I have heard. I had a set of HD800 on hand to A/B and width-wise they are comparable, but SR1a kills HD800 in soundstage depth, height and also imaging.



It was extremely useful to have HD800 on site for direct comparison. Not a fair comparison in truth, but SR1a makes HD800 sound muddy, never thought I would say that. With SR1a the presentation is just so 100% clear and 'unhindered'. HD800 by comparison struggles sometimes with some complex music and gives out a lot of 'resonance' or even 'boomy' (if I could call it that, can't find the right word) on bass heavy music. I hadn't noticed that before until I could directly compare. My live recordings now sound exactly as I heard them on the night, rendered perfectly. I do think if you demo these headphones you need to have your favourite cans side by side for comparison. You will be shocked to hear the difference.

And of course, amps really do make the difference. Bryston 4B-SST-C with 300W into 8 ohms completely transforms the SR1a. With the Sansui, everything was strained and pushed to the limit. Now, I have effortless dynamics and bass, with seemingly unlimited power reserve. Not exactly cheap, but I picked mine up used on Ebay for less money than most half-decent headphone amps sell for these days, and with 9 years warranty remaining! I've not had chance to listen to a Pass Labs but would love to compare.

Excited to hear @llamaluv impressions re burn-in. Mine probably have less than 30 hours total, so hopefully even more room for improvement.

After all the talk here around the SRH1A I got an opportunity to hear a pair after Canjam in Singapore.
And at least as far as the environment was concerned also much better conditions than Canjam can provide
I did not bring my HD800, but before the two listening sessions I listened very carefully to some of my reference tracks via my HD800 and Chord Hugo M Scaler/Qutest .
My own material was basically ONLY large scale symphonic and while I quickly realized that the soundstage and general transparency of the headphones themselves was very close to how I had heard some of those tracks at the recording sessions via the AKG1000.
And they also reminded me more than a bit of my old electrostatic Jecklin Floats soundstage wise.
the difference there being that the angle is aready set with the Floats whereas the SRH1A required a LOT of finetuning and experiments with angle chosen to sound maxium open and at their best to me.
Moreover there was a problem with either the amplification and/or streaming quality used.
The amp streaming unit was a Krell 300i via Roon .
The amp is obviously capable of delivering 150watts pure class A?

But unfortunately I heard congestion and lack of resolution at big climaxes from tracks I know are very cleanly recorded and sound basically SOTA via my HMS and both HD800 and HEKV2 and very good via my electrostatic speaker system too.

I hope the SRH1A is not like the Sonoma electrostatic which can sound very nice on less demanding material but tends to congest when playing classical music at realistic levels?

At the next opportunity to hear the SRH1A I will bring my HMS or get a pair on home loan to run via my kW550 Musical Fidelity speaker amp which outputs 500 watts into 8ohm and 990 into 4 ohm.
My real goosebump moments with the SRH1A was with the Groove note binaural Experiments in sound album which sounded very nice. And so did some songs by Jacintha a local Singaporean Jazzsinger. But large scale big dynamics classical was disappointing with the combo used.
Cheers Controversial Christer

 

[Torq]

I was intrigued by these coming out of RMAF 2018, and in the last month my interest peaked to the point that I wanted to try them out, properly, in a familiar rig.

This requires a bit of coordination as I also need to arrange to have a suitable speaker amp at the same time I have the headphones (my speaker rig, an all Linn Exakt system, will not work with them), and consequently requires doing more than just blindly placing an order and hoping I can also get the amplifier in quickly enough once I got shipping notification on the headphones.

Unfortunately I've not been able to get any kind of response from RAAL/Requisite over the last two weeks or so. Emails go unanswered. Multiple calls, at multiple times of day just go to voicemail. No one calls back.

Is there some kind of trick to getting a response out of these guys?

Edit:

Of course, literally 5 minutes after posting this, I got a call back from Danny @ Requisite. And that was a great conversation, and, of course, a perfect example of sods law. Now it's just down to availability and timing, but at least we're talking and can work on that.

 

[Jerseyboy]

I was intrigued by these coming out of RMAF 2018, and in the last month my interest peaked to the point that I wanted to try them out, properly, in a familiar rig.

This requires a bit of coordination as I also need to arrange to have a suitable speaker amp at the same time I have the headphones (my speaker rig, an all Linn Exakt system, will not work with them), and consequently requires doing more than just blindly placing an order and hoping I can also get the amplifier in quickly enough once I got shipping notification on the headphones.

Unfortunately I've not been able to get any kind of response from RAAL/Requisite over the last two weeks or so. Emails go unanswered. Multiple calls, at multiple times of day just go to voicemail. No one calls back.

Is there some kind of trick to getting a response out of these guys?

It's a bit concerning on the basis that I've never had better after sales support than I've had pre-sales support - and at this point pre-sales support seems non-existent.

Hi Torq

I have had excellent experiences when dealing with RAAL/Requisite both during pre-purchase questions through to delivery. I know they are very busy at the moment due to the high demand for this unit which I think has taken them a little by surprise which may account for some delays. I would suggest emailing David Laubacher on david@requisiteaudio.com - he has been very helpful throughout.

 

[Torq]

Hi Torq

I have had excellent experiences when dealing with RAAL/Requisite both during pre-purchase questions through to delivery. I know they are very busy at the moment due to the high demand for this unit which I think has taken them a little by surprise which may account for some delays. I would suggest emailing David Laubacher on david@requisiteaudio.com - he has been very helpful throughout.

Per my edit, above, Danny just called me back ... priceless timing!

Had a great chat with him, so it's just down to actually getting a pair as they're in high-demand and all spoken for at the moment.

 

[strawed]

Per my edit, above, Danny just called me back ... priceless timing!

Had a great chat with him, so it's just down to actually getting a pair as they're in high-demand and all spoken for at the moment.

Looking forward to your thorough feedback on these. All of a sudden I'm very torn between expending my limited budget on the SR1-A's or my first decent 2-channel setup. Until now there wasn't anything in head-fi that intrigued me enough to consider doing so...

 

[yates7592]

After all the talk here around the SRH1A I got an opportunity to hear a pair after Canjam in Singapore.
And at least as far as the environment was concerned also much better conditions than Canjam can provide
I did not bring my HD800, but before the two listening sessions I listened very carefully to some of my reference tracks via my HD800 and Chord Hugo M Scaler/Qutest .
My own material was basically ONLY large scale symphonic and while I quickly realized that the soundstage and general transparency of the headphones themselves was very close to how I had heard some of those tracks at the recording sessions via the AKG1000.
And they also reminded me more than a bit of my old electrostatic Jecklin Floats soundstage wise.
the difference there being that the angle is aready set with the Floats whereas the SRH1A required a LOT of finetuning and experiments with angle chosen to sound maxium open and at their best to me.
Moreover there was a problem with either the amplification and/or streaming quality used.
The amp streaming unit was a Krell 300i via Roon .
The amp is obviously capable of delivering 150watts pure class A?

But unfortunately I heard congestion and lack of resolution at big climaxes from tracks I know are very cleanly recorded and sound basically SOTA via my HMS and both HD800 and HEKV2 and very good via my electrostatic speaker system too.

I hope the SRH1A is not like the Sonoma electrostatic which can sound very nice on less demanding material but tends to congest when playing classical music at realistic levels?

At the next opportunity to hear the SRH1A I will bring my HMS or get a pair on home loan to run via my kW550 Musical Fidelity speaker amp which outputs 500 watts into 8ohm and 990 into 4 ohm.
My real goosebump moments with the SRH1A was with the Groove note binaural Experiments in sound album which sounded very nice. And so did some songs by Jacintha a local Singaporean Jazzsinger. But large scale big dynamics classical was disappointing with the combo used.
Cheers Controversial Christer

 

[yates7592]

Christer, I'm interested to know which specific tracks you thought fell short?