[gghirardi]

Dear @aleksandar R my SR-1a produces some electrostatic noise when connected to the HSA-1B and no music is playIng. The noise is not continuous, it is definitely electrostatic though and affects both channels. The cable is the Star. 8 and is working fine. When the music starts, the noise seems to go away. Do you Have any idea as to what may cause this ? Maybe the cable picking up some noise? I bought the Raal in Italy from headphone & co.

Thanks.

 

[adrianm]

The 3 ribbons are all tuned the same. It’s not one for bass, one for mids, one for treble as I initially thought.

I mean that was the main draw for me. ASR's (not a fan) review called the Ca-1a "a tweeter trying to play bass and mid", due to the high distortion in those frequencies. I expected 3 different ribbons for 3 areas of the FR, in an attempt to fix that. And I could see that complexity justify the price. If they're all playing the same thing, not sure what the actual gains are.

I believe that not to be possible. Once you reach the levels of musical reproduction we are talking about here, improvements in allowing you to experience what the microphones heard, are moved forward in very small percentiles, not in the huge amounts it appears you're hoping for here. I've been pursuing the 'Holy Grail' in 2-channel and headphone reproduction for the better part of 40 years, and I have found this to be the case almost without fail. It's called chasing the last 5% or so....which is by FAR the most expensive chase in our hobby.

I kind of disagree here. Imo the DCA stuff is head and shoulders above the competion due to AMTS. Everything else is clearly lacking in clarity and resolution, as well as timbre at times. Even changing the very well measuring HM1 from Class A to Class A+ Servo is more audible than the measurements would have you believe. And there are orders of magnitude more distortion at the transducer level. There's a ton more room for improvement, but I think we are approaching a limit of what can be done at the driver level.
I would love to see something with multiple drivers either tuned for different frequencies, or just use metamaterials to improve distortion.

 

[Axel]

I mean that was the main draw for me. ASR's (not a fan) review called the Ca-1a "a tweeter trying to play bass and mid", due to the high distortion in those frequencies. I expected 3 different ribbons for 3 areas of the FR, in an attempt to fix that. And I could see that complexity justify the price. If they're all playing the same thing, not sure what the actual gains are.

Having 3 ribbon playing 3 different frequencies is exactly the kind of changes that will make the implementation more complex and will possibly loose the wonderful coherency the ribbons have.

 

[Aleksandar R.]

Well, as the discussion goes on here, an interesting question is raised.
If I do decide to purchase the 3-ribbon wonder headphones, will I be able to replace a damaged ribbon/s without sending them back for repair?

No. Headphones are sealed and some destruction is necessary to get into the guts.

 

[Aleksandar R.]

You are probably right. I guess I expect the new 3 ribbon to have Shang Sr resolution (which is slightl) above sr1b resolution), with ca bass or better. They’re using normal perforated ear pads from what I can tell, with no opening, so the bass should be good. Also, and Danny might not like me saying this (but he didn’t say I couldn’t). The 3 ribbons are all tuned the same. It’s not one for bass, one for mids, one for treble as I initially thought. I wonder what that does to the sound. He said they are next level, but who knows what that means

The ribbons are not tuned the same.
They do work the same full-range, all of them, this is not a 2-way or a 3-way, but they are tuned differently.
Think of it as sections of one driver having different properties, so the errors don't get accumulated. Error information gets spread in the spectrum.

This is not to solve general peaks and dips in response curve, that depends on acoustical environment.

 

[Lokust]

The ribbons are not tuned the same.
They do work the same full-range, all of them, this is not a 2-way or a 3-way, but they are tuned differently.
Think of it as sections of one driver having different properties, so the errors don't get accumulated. Error information gets spread in the spectrum.

This is not to solve general peaks and dips in response curve, that depends on acoustical environment.

I liked the previous version more before the edit. Was true and funny

 

[gghirardi]

Can you have a look at my previous email regarding electrostaci noise coming out from my SR-1A? Thanks

 

[Aleksandar R.]

Dear @aleksandar R my SR-1a produces some electrostatic noise when connected to the HSA-1B and no music is playIng. The noise is not continuous, it is definitely electrostatic though and affects both channels. The cable is the Star. 8 and is working fine. When the music starts, the noise seems to go away. Do you Have any idea as to what may cause this ? Maybe the cable picking up some noise? I bought the Raal in Italy from headphone & co.

Thanks.

Start-8 will not pickup any noise. Very, very immune to that, so it's something else.

Now, when you say "when the musuc is playing" do you mean, when you turn the volume knob all the way down, you hear the noise?
Or, you hear it without touching the volume, during pauses between tracks?

 

[Ciggavelli]

The ribbons are not tuned the same.
They do work the same full-range, all of them, this is not a 2-way or a 3-way, but they are tuned differently.
Think of it as sections of one driver having different properties, so the errors don't get accumulated. Error information gets spread in the spectrum.

This is not to solve general peaks and dips in response curve, that depends on acoustical environment.

Oh, that's interesting! I can't wait to learn even more next month

 

[Aleksandar R.]

Oh, that's interesting! I can't wait to learn even more next month

Well, there's not much more that I'd like to reveal about "complimentary tuning".

 

[gghirardi]

Start-8 will not pickup any noise. Very, very immune to that, so it's something else.

Now, when you say "when the musuc is playing" do you mean, when you turn the volume knob all the way down, you hear the noise?
Or, you hear it without touching the volume, during pauses between tracks?

During pauses or before the music starts (or when it is finished), with the amp on.

 

[Ciggavelli]

That looks to me like something you can fix by blowing on the dent. I bet it'll pop right back in place. Very careful and gentle use of a q-tip would also probably do it. That said, I suspect that's not the cause of the problem you're having. Forgive me if I missed it--you already tried swapping the cable connections to confirm it's not the cable?

So, I switched the ribbons from left to right, and the same problem occurs. I think you are right and it's not the ribbons (though I'm concerned about the dents, but I guess maybe that doesn't matter). I think it's a cable issue, because after I switched the ribbons, I also switched the left and right cables again, and I was able to move the issue from my left ear to my right ear. I let Raal know via email, so hopefully I can get a new cable soon

 

[gammi]

Guess that means I'm going to have to wait for a set to show up in the classified section...

But I'm also kind of glad they are going for the luxury market. Raal Requisite has paid their dues and earned their stripes. I think many headphone enthusiasts overlook Raal because of their affordable price. Meanwhile, we continue enjoy (almost in secret) the incredible sound of two of the best headphones ever made.

Guess I'm going to have to get to CanJam early... I expect there will be a long line to hear the new headphones at Danny's booth.

RAAL already was going for the high end market imo. SR1a is $4k new. That's high end in today's market and was very high end when it launched in 2018. That's Susvara/Elite/1266 territory. It wasn't until the CA-1a that we got a "budget" option and even that is out of reach of most people. I view the above $5-6k market as something separate. That realm is a different market, those are what I would call halo products. Like how Ferrari makes a $2M model that they only sell 250 of and most people buy their "only" $200k models. It's a showcase piece, it's ultimate performance and luxury. People care nothing about value at that price bracket, it's just about having the best.

Nothing against RAAL for targeting this market, it's smart to go after the money is no concern market and like you I'm happy for them when they presumably sell out even at $10k or whatever the price is. I love my CA-1a and they deserve the success I assume this will bring them.

Having said that, I hope this tech eventually trickles down into the RAAL brand. Ditch the gold and luxury materials and just give us a really amazing driver in a functional housing like RAAL does better than anyone in the space. I'd buy that model for sure. Hell, I may even buy this one but it's gonna have to REALLY impress me at CanJam. At $10k I can't justify it without selling most of my collection and in order to make me sell things it needs to be better in every way, not one of those "oh, it has a bit more soundstage" type improvements. Thing is, if anyone can pull that off, it's RAAL. Typically headphone improvements are trade-offs, if you make it more airy, you lose bass, etc. But the CA-1a has shown they can level up everything simultaneously and this three ribbon thing is genuine new technological advancement. Can't wait to hear it.

 

[ufospls2]

RAAL already was going for the high end market imo. SR1a is $4k new. That's high end in today's market and was very high end when it launched in 2018. That's Susvara/Elite/1266 territory. It wasn't until the CA-1a that we got a "budget" option and even that is out of reach of most people. I view the above $5-6k market as something separate. That realm is a different market, those are what I would call halo products. Like how Ferrari makes a $2M model that they only sell 250 of and most people buy their "only" $200k models. It's a showcase piece, it's ultimate performance and luxury. People care nothing about value at that price bracket, it's just about having the best.

Nothing against RAAL for targeting this market, it's smart to go after the money is no concern market and like you I'm happy for them when they presumably sell out even at $10k or whatever the price is. I love my CA-1a and they deserve the success I assume this will bring them.

Having said that, I hope this tech eventually trickles down into the RAAL brand. Ditch the gold and luxury materials and just give us a really amazing driver in a functional housing like RAAL does better than anyone in the space. I'd buy that model for sure. Hell, I may even buy this one but it's gonna have to REALLY impress me at CanJam. At $10k I can't justify it without selling most of my collection and in order to make me sell things it needs to be better in every way, not one of those "oh, it has a bit more soundstage" type improvements. Thing is, if anyone can pull that off, it's RAAL. Typically headphone improvements are trade-offs, if you make it more airy, you lose bass, etc. But the CA-1a has shown they can level up everything simultaneously and this three ribbon thing is genuine new technological advancement. Can't wait to hear it.

Well, going by the 6moons article, there is also going to be the 2 ribbon "Magna" and I would assume it will be less in terms of cost than the 3 ribbon Immanis. I don't know though, just guessing.

 

[gammi]

Well, going by the 6moons article, there is also going to be the 2 ribbon "Magna" and I would assume it will be less in terms of cost than the 3 ribbon Immanis. I don't know though, just guessing.

Yeah, that should definitely be cheaper. Same thing though, I'd love to see that tech come down to the RAAL brand.
A 2 ribbon CA-1a (CA-2a?) for $3500-4k would be awesome and probably really hit a sales sweet spot vs the Immanis which will likely be low volume but high margin.