Raal Ribbon Headphones - SRH1A
Jun 23, 2019 at 9:47 AM Post #1,292 of 7,746
Jun 23, 2019 at 11:15 AM Post #1,294 of 7,746
k1000 and sr1a have similarities only in form, everything starts and ends there.
Compared to Mysphere, the step forward is remarkable.
Susvara remains an excellent listening full of colour, but made through two pads, so with all the physical limits, sr1a goes beyond these limits and brings you much closer to a listening with the speakers, the three-dimensional physicality loses the references closed between the pads and goes further, but this was already done by mysphere and k1000, only that sr1a has a dynamic that no other headphone listening system can currently offer simply unattainable.
From my own point of vue, MySphere indeed offers a large sound stage but lacks the richness presentation of Susvara. It is where I would look for SR1a.

One point I wanted to clarify: anybody here is speaking of 100wpc+ and you describe the SR1a at its best at 10wpc max ?
 
Jun 23, 2019 at 11:37 AM Post #1,295 of 7,746
72EBE9F9-0ECA-4CA9-A383-EE580B0B93C2.png
From my own point of vue, MySphere indeed offers a large sound stage but lacks the richness presentation of Susvara. It is where I would look for SR1a.

One point I wanted to clarify: anybody here is speaking of 100wpc+ and you describe the SR1a at its best at 10wpc max ?

dear Cladane, I had Mysphere for two months and I consider it an incredible listening experience, but it is limited to some musical genres, small jazz ensembles, chamber music, but I wouldn't go any further because there is a problem of power handling of the driver when you raised the listening volume a lot, but there is a very simple explanation, compared to a conventional headphone with pad, the Mysphere as k1000 and now Raal do not create an isolated listening environment because there are no insulating pads, but they must fight with external noises, audible even when there is a lot of silence.
The substantial difference between Raal and Mysphere, and that Raal has an enormous power handling, no compression of the sound even at very high volume, you can get deaf in a short time because there is no distortion of any kind.
As far as the required watts are concerned, it is very well written on the Raal website, a necessary 100 watt amplifier, photos attached, because then the Riviera manages to plunge it very well I was explained by the designer Luca Chiomenti, the Riviera manages to keep very high peaks but also a lot of continuous current for a normal listening, you know very well that the sound message is made by many peaks but the continuous signal is much lower, and it is for this reason that the Riviera has no problem managing it.
 
Jun 24, 2019 at 10:13 AM Post #1,296 of 7,746
Just received my Triton Audio Neotech silver headphone cable, same as @llamaluv's but 4-wire instead of 8. My initial favorable impression has been reconfirmed: this is a significant upgrade in performance. Even better detail and transparency; wider soundstage. The overall difference is not a contrast you have to strain to perceive.

.

I, too, got a headphone cable from Triton: 4 wires, 24 AWG, 8 feet long, Neotech AG/GD. The cable appears quite well made, and Mr. Choy was both professional and very pleasant to deal with.

I did not find the contrast in performance between the Triton cable and the original one as large as @WilliamWykeham and others have reported. On certain recordings, the SR1a with the Triton cable clearly provided even greater resolution and clearer instrument placement; it may well be that the effect was the same on all recordings, but just not as obvious to me.
 
Jun 25, 2019 at 5:51 PM Post #1,297 of 7,746
I, too, got a headphone cable from Triton: 4 wires, 24 AWG, 8 feet long, Neotech AG/GD. The cable appears quite well made, and Mr. Choy was both professional and very pleasant to deal with.

I did not find the contrast in performance between the Triton cable and the original one as large as @WilliamWykeham and others have reported. On certain recordings, the SR1a with the Triton cable clearly provided even greater resolution and clearer instrument placement; it may well be that the effect was the same on all recordings, but just not as obvious to me.

I tried a really short silver cable and the super-thick 16ft cable that Danny made for me to listen to the SR1a's in bed. There's a lot of difference in the treble which is something Alex mentioned a few dozen pages back.

There might be a lot of benefit from a high end cable. But for me there's something about the SR1a's that dis-incentivizes me from cable rolling. I've gone through 3 different cables for the Mysphere 3.2, and the one I'm most happy with is also with Danny's silver wire, but with the SR1a's I guess the change in treble is a bit too significant relative to the more minor changes that a cable usually yields. Getting resistivity just right is finicky, of course.

@Tugbars My understanding is that the HEDD is more similar to something like the Re2000, where the geometric structure of the driver is integral to the overall tuning, except the Re2000 is a dynamic with folds, and the HEDD is a planar. I might be mistaken, though.
 
Last edited:
Jun 26, 2019 at 3:23 AM Post #1,298 of 7,746
Bonjour,
@biscottino,

I was explained by the designer Luca Chiomenti, the Riviera manages to keep very high peaks but also a lot of continuous current for a normal listening, you know very well that the sound message is made by many peaks but the continuous signal is much lower, and it is for this reason that the Riviera has no problem managing it.

Glad to read this; it probably explains why my Falcon LS3/5a speakers work really well with my Riviera and sound a large room without difficulty.
 
Jun 26, 2019 at 5:20 AM Post #1,300 of 7,746
Yes thank you, I have had an AIC-10 (black titanium) for 18 months now and it's a very beautiful thing (design and music).
Not sure to understand what you mean by a driver valve change.......
by any chance, I would like to point out that I had a sound problem after a few months that led to a change by an improved model in the meantime
The designer, assumed all this with courtesy and at no cost to me
 
Last edited:
Jun 26, 2019 at 6:00 AM Post #1,301 of 7,746
Yes thank you, I have had an AIC-10 (black titanium) for 18 months now and it's a very beautiful thing (design and music).
Not sure to understand what you mean by a driver valve change.......
by any chance, I would like to point out that I had a sound problem after a few months that led to a change by an improved model in the meantime
The designer, assumed all this with courtesy and at no cost to me

i'm curious to know if you tried to replace the ecc82 driver, I did some tests and an ecc82 Marconi from the 50s and the sound is wonderful.
If you get the chance, try the Sr1a, you could be struck like me!
 
Jun 26, 2019 at 9:27 AM Post #1,302 of 7,746
With the AIC-10, I received an ecc82 JJ electronic, supplied assembled, and also (offered by my reseller in France) an ecc82 RT Radiotechnique which was more expensive, but according to the designer, more efficient.
I tried a Genalex Gold Lion ecc82, but I immediately came back to the RT.
I'll try your tube, but it's not easy to find the right salespeople.
Where did you buy it?
Thank you.
PS: the SR1A does not yet seem to be available in France
 
Jun 26, 2019 at 10:02 AM Post #1,303 of 7,746
Hi all
Not checked these forums for a while or posted for even longer, brings a tear of nostalgia looking in again, joined this place getting on for 20 years ago:anguished::astonished:
Don't listen to as much music as i did then, at the mo most of what i do listen to is on a pair of Yamaha HP2 planer phones circa1976-8 :astonished:
Reason I am posted is while perusing the forum again I saw the words Ribbon phones, a subject close to my heart , because i myself have delved into this from a diy
perspective many years ago.
I did post all about it back then around 2002 and even took the phones the to a small head fi meet up which was great fun.
Anyhow I though I would post a pic of one the of the transducers to add to the topic.
As you can see it is not a true single conductor low impedance foil ribbon but more of a hybrid planar approach.
I did it to make driving it easier whilst endeavouring to maintain the advantages of a pure ribbon.
The ribbons themselves are a single piece etching with a spiral track 19 Ohm if i recollect.
The magnetic circuit is: N ribbon S ribbon N [powerful Neo magnets!]
They are not super efficient by any means but can be driven pretty easily with +6/7 -6/7 Volts and a decent current supply, hell I got ok sound out of them a diy portable not loud but ok.
These were not the first iteration of this transducer first hand drawn 2ohm.
Issues, lf resonance causing very high ribbon excursion think 100hz. with no constraint the ribbon is very free so tons of bass so i did a brute fix of a series cap just to bring up all the rest
of the frequencies to respectable level without risk of damage to the ribbons.
With this sorted i could then hear a resonance in the mid human speech band, this was attenuated a bit with less ribbon tension.
All this aside i loved the live delicate but potent sound they had and i rotated them between my stax setup up for a while, but they were delicate so I eventually mothballed with the odd treat.
After not having listened for a while several years later My interest was peaked again when playing with the superp filter in my rockboxed sansa Clip.
I thought "I wonder?" So I hooked my clip to the amp and the phones less capacitor and gently started to play with notch filters to tame the various issues.
Removing the brutal series cap was a revelation a window opened with the lf peak singled out rather than the whole bottom it was rich and deep sounding taking emphasis of the mids
removing a slight ott punch in those areas, smooth and sprightly.
Taming the vocal pings was more of a moving target have not quite got on top of that, ultimately these things needed engineering solutions.
I did have a number of ideas here, A more lossy ribbon material with aluminium traces to loose weight and remove 'ping' but developing this sort of thing was way beyond scope and budget
for a fun project.
I did go as far as a redesign for the ribbon circuit to massively reduce source resistance caused by the traces that were not doing work in the magnetic circuit,plus redesigning the magnetic circuit itself.
Building this was now going cost, 3d printing not widely available in 2002!
Ultimately this ultra enjoyable project was put on and indefinite back burner and has not been touched since.
My dream of it finished was it to have been with all the parts integrated into delicately sculpted stylish magnesium skeleton housings all very minimalist and comfy even a matching amp.:blush:
Over the passage of years i did notice the growth in the novel planar exotica and have a little regret at not risking developing it further, alas:cry:

Anyhow i hope i have not high jacked the thread As i have not read much of it yet, and of course hope you found my little story interesting.
[sorry for clunky writing:blush:]
transducer-Mk2[a].jpg
 
Last edited:
Jun 26, 2019 at 10:06 AM Post #1,304 of 7,746
With the AIC-10, I received an ecc82 JJ electronic, supplied assembled, and also (offered by my reseller in France) an ecc82 RT Radiotechnique which was more expensive, but according to the designer, more efficient.
I tried a Genalex Gold Lion ecc82, but I immediately came back to the RT.
I'll try your tube, but it's not easy to find the right salespeople.
Where did you buy it?
Thank you.
PS: the SR1A does not yet seem to be available in France

ugly gold lion, too many mediums and few harmonics, a bad experience.
I've had some Marconi for years, I managed to get them when they weren't very in demand, especially those with getter in square, every now and then you can find some on ebay.
Radiotechnique, on the other hand, is excellent, I have both the long plate and the short plate version, both are excellent.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top