[yyzSB]

Of course that is the intelligent thing to do, but as they say in Game of Thrones, "Summer Is Coming", and I have no central AC! I want no tubes!

I have the HPA4 now and it is not at the level of the VM-1a with my CA-1a.

I have the Holo Serene preamp that I expect to use with the Immanis. Though I am considering trading or selling it to go with another Benchmark HPA4. The headphone part is secondary for the HPA4 and Serene roles. I need them to kick arse in 2-channel as the first priority. For my more neutral tastes, I think the HPA4 headphone will be better than the Serene (and maybe the unheard Bliss).

One thing to consider before selling the VM-1a is to try this tube. Danny suggested this one over the stock. I think the VM-1a sounds better than in stock form.

LOT OF 2 - 6SN7 GTB GENERAL ELECTRIC RADIO TUBES Halo red label

Not sure you are going to find better than the VM-1a even with the new gear coming out.

BTW - I have the same cage for the VM-1a in black. That is a very useful item to keep the VM-1a safe.

 

[rlawry]

I have the HPA4 now and it is not at the level of the VM-1a with my CA-1a.

I have the Holo Serene preamp that I expect to use with the Immanis. Though I am considering trading or selling it to go with another Benchmark HPA4. The headphone part is secondary for the HPA4 and Serene roles. I need them to kick arse in 2-channel as the first priority. For my more neutral tastes, I think the HPA4 headphone will be better than the Serene (and maybe the unheard Bliss).

One thing to consider before selling the VM-1a is to try this tube. Danny suggested this one over the stock. I think the VM-1a sounds better than in stock form.

LOT OF 2 - 6SN7 GTB GENERAL ELECTRIC RADIO TUBES Halo red label

Not sure you are going to find better than the VM-1a even with the new gear coming out.

BTW - I have the same cage for the VM-1a in black. That is a very useful item to keep the VM-1a safe.

I know what you mean regarding the BM HPA4 amp, which I own. In the quest for more neutrality, detail, and spaciousness over that supplied by my then Quicksilver tube amp I bought my HPA4, which then sounded lean, hyperdetailed, and lacking bass weight and punch. As it took a while to sell the QS tube amp, I one day decided to swap out the HPA4 for the QS, which then sounded bloated and bass-heavy by comparison. I guess it is whatever we get used to.

 

[nfandi]

Poor lost soul.
A life without tubes is meaningless

Now that is heartless. You’re telling me that all my 69 years up to my 70th birthday were meaningless. Oh wait, I had tubes in my Mesa Boogie guitar amp, phew!

 

[MokhaMark]

I have the HPA4 now and it is not at the level of the VM-1a with my CA-1a.

I have the Holo Serene preamp that I expect to use with the Immanis. Though I am considering trading or selling it to go with another Benchmark HPA4. The headphone part is secondary for the HPA4 and Serene roles. I need them to kick arse in 2-channel as the first priority. For my more neutral tastes, I think the HPA4 headphone will be better than the Serene (and maybe the unheard Bliss).

One thing to consider before selling the VM-1a is to try this tube. Danny suggested this one over the stock. I think the VM-1a sounds better than in stock form.

LOT OF 2 - 6SN7 GTB GENERAL ELECTRIC RADIO TUBES Halo red label

Not sure you are going to find better than the VM-1a even with the new gear coming out.

BTW - I have the same cage for the VM-1a in black. That is a very useful item to keep the VM-1a safe.

I appreciate yours and others feedback (and discouragement from selling VM1a, lol). And thank you for the tube recommendation.

I am also basing my decision off of the character of the Magna, as I perceive it, and its success with solid state.

 

[MokhaMark]

Poor lost soul.
A life without tubes is meaningless

LOL, yes, I am a heathen

 

[XVampireX]

Of course that is the intelligent thing to do, but as they say in Game of Thrones, "Summer Is Coming", and I have no central AC! I want no tubes!

Huh, understandable buddy, quite a bit warmer here though it seems for now, nights are bareable at about 18c but during day goes to 28-30c

I've got 2 of the amps you're looking for, don't understand why you want to "downgrade" for your Immanis if you've got a direct drive amp and they are tuned and designed around these drivers, get yourself a fan, heh.

I'm not interested though in tubes so much to trade for this even if that's a possibility with the differences in our voltages. But good luck to you

Also keep in mind, both Bliss and Volot are not the most cold amps either.

 

[MokhaMark]

Huh, understandable buddy, quite a bit warmer here though it seems for now, nights are bareable at about 18c but during day goes to 28-30c

I've got 2 of the amps you're looking for, don't understand why you want to "downgrade" for your Immanis if you've got a direct drive amp and they are tuned and designed around these drivers, get yourself a fan, heh.

I'm not interested though in tubes so much to trade for this even if that's a possibility with the differences in our voltages. But good luck to you

Also keep in mind, both Bliss and Volot are not the most cold amps either.

I am sure it must seem crazy to let go this great amplifier, but it is not just about environment for me, but preferences and priorities I am arriving at for the Magna/Sr1a duo. It is possible I have a different ideal of sound for my hearing and musical interests. It may not ultimately prove to be a downgrade for me. I might also just be crazy!

 

[KaiSc]

I was able to find an open box TI-1b in ebay, already placed an order. I already have TC and Susvara, SR-1b will be addition, do not want to spend again on amp, WA33 E JPS with upgraded tube already cost me a lot of cash.

What’s not mentioned yet:

Raal SR1a/b is designed for and absolutely needs an EQ called “Baffle Step Compensation”.
Else it will sound very treble-heavy.

Schiit Jothunheim R and the “Amp Ribbon Interface”-box (resistor-interface for power amp), and various Raal / SAEQ amps have it built in.


You have several options to achieve the Baffle Step Compensation, depending on your playback source:

• Raal-made “barrel” adapters to be inserted into the analog signal path, available with RCA and XLR plugs.

• Schiit Jothunheim R amp, much better than it’s reputation here in the forum.
Widely available used, low $$$, makes a quasi-portable setup.
Fits in the case BTW.

• Some other Raal / SAEQ amps that have it built in - costs some $$$.

• EQ settings in your player soft, which can at the same time lift up the bass a little if desired.

• “Mitchs Filters”, an EQ set for certain player softs that can load them.

• Hardware EQ, eg. with the RME ADI-2 series, which again offers the liberation of adding some bass or do other tweaks by personal taste.
This is what I prefer, just listening to my RME ADI-2/4 Pro SE / Jothunheim R / SR1a.

————————————————————-

Here’s my “Beginners Guide To SR1a/b” :

The major first step is experimenting with the various degrees of freedom in head placement.

The short video from the Raal website is sure worth a look in this regard:



I would not call myself a bass-head, but do like solid base and fundamentals in my music.
At the same time I’m generally not listening very loud, vocals in the music are a bit louder than normal humans talking.
Typical music level ca. 65-70 dBA Leq (long term average), with peaks up to 95 - 100 dB SPL.
The power amp is not challenged much: ca. +20 dBu or 10 W / 6 Ohm Peak typically is the very highest I observe.

I love music with lot’s of dynamic, try to avoid contemporary, dynamically over-squashed remasters.


First based on measurements (on my own head, mic inside my ears), then hours of fine-tuning I made an EQ setting that adresses all mentioned Issues, without overdoing it or killing SR1a’s character.

Specially the bass becomes viceral in a way I did not expect from SR1a.

The EQ slighty addresses midrange and treble too, this is very personal I guess.
Doing more in the mid/treble range sounds too much for me.
Treble is better controlled by positional variations, than excessive EQ.

With the EQ the bass and fundamentals sound punchy, compact and present in a way I did not expect from SR1a.
The fastness stays, combined with a significant gripe on the related instruments.
No hint of tizzy or thin sounding any more.


Positioning, probably quite personal, but another person found similar settings favorable too.
• Driver flaps angle: L 27 ° R 27 ° few millimeters away from pinnae contact. I made little card-board angle stencils to set this up.
• Driver horizontal position: usually ca. 5 mm to the front from the back-most possible position, very tiny bit more forward than the upper-mid-hottest position. I do use this to regulate the treble amount.
• Driver height: center driver ca. aligned with ear-canal entrance.
• Wearing angle (seen from the side): upper part, headband, slightly backwards, ca. 10 °.
• Fit: tight fit, still comfortable, don’t need the back-strap.


Raal SR-1a EQ04
RME ADI-2 DAC, ADI-2 Pro, ADI-2/4 Pro SE

THE EQ DOES NOT CONTAIN BAFFLE STEP COMPENSATION as the standard SR1a amp interface already has it.
There are EQ bands left to do this, in case needed.

Baffle Step Compensation would be:
-4.5 dB / 1000 Hz / Q=0.5 / High Shelf.

Gain / Freq / Q / Type / (comment)
.. dB / Hz
+5.5 / 130 / 0.8 / Shelf / (adjust bass gain to taste)
.. n.a. / 25 / 1.8 / High Pass / (High Q boost the lows SR1a is capable, removes below)
-2.0 / 2.1k / 1.5 / Peak / (vocal presence)
-1.0 / 6.3k / 3.5 / Peak / (harshness)
-2.5 / 9.1k / 5.0 / Peak / (Sibilants)

 

[Spawn300Z]

Just picked my CA-1A’s up for listening session. Using the Chord Hugo TT2/MScaler combo/ Riviera AIC-10 of the speaker taps to CA-1A w/ T1-1B and Star 8 cable. Playing some Marcus Miller man this is a beautiful combination.

Can’t wait until I get me Playback Designs MPD-8. I might have to then move up to the RAAL 1995 Immanis.

 

[Hiker816]

Hi RAAL fans,

Cross-posting to get the word out about our local meet. Danny McKinney, @SageM , with RAAL-requisite / RAAL 1995, will be joining us at our Denver head-fi meet on June 22. Between him and attendees, we will have an Immanis, Magna, SR1a/b, CA-1a, VM-1a, and HSA-1b available for listening. Danny also plans to bring a Feliks Envy. And he is going to try to bring the new SAEQ Armageddon, and Solaja Audio's soon-to-be-released EL34 (VM1a successor) and 300B amps (both). There is even a slim chance he will be able to bring a Trafomatic Primavera. It should be an epic meet and we are offering a few spots for out-of-towners who are willing to travel for a chance to demo this gear in a quiet environment. If that's you, let us know here: https://www.head-fi.org/threads/colorado-head-fi-meet-june-22-2024.972574/

 

[Majuto]

Perhaps this is because all of their interfaces are spoken for and need to be paired with headphones, i.e. a limited supply of interfaces. Danny will let you know.

I bought a new TI-1b from Headphone Auditions Amsterdam about a month ago. Their storage is in Germany and the price is 840€ if I remember right.
I tried to buy a used TI-1b from U.S, but for some reason Ebay's rules didn't allow this shipment?!

 

[yellowblue]

Today I got a custom cable from Lavricables which they reterminatet from a headphone cable I had earlier. I tried it instead of the ”unbilical” cable between my amp and the TI-1b. It is a Lavricables Grand silvercable with Rhodium contacts (1,5 meter, so that I can use the SR-1a on my sofa). Unfortunately I don´t own a Star 8 headphone cable yet (it comes with the Immanis I have on order). I always wondered why Raal is offering an upgrade headphone cable in silver but not an upgrade ”unbilical” cable. So I had to try.

First time I inserted the cable to my chain I was prepared to hear a clearer (more analytical?) sound. But instead I heard a kind more 3D-sound. I just choosed to continue to play the new Billie Eilish album which I listened to under the last days. I have been a little undicided about this album, but with the Grand I could get more spatial information, hearing sound ”under”my SR-1a and "behind" which I couldn´t with the stock cable. The album became immediately more intersting for me.

Already with this first album I got the feeling that placing of instruments became more accurate and voices more focused. The soundstage got more depth (a thing I missed with my SR-1a before), everything was more lifelike. I like the german band The Notwist a lot and they made the fantastic live album ”Superheroes”. The first track conveys a crazy feeling being there with the listeners in the arena. This feeling got more intensive with the new cable.

Simorag recommended the album ”A time to remember” with Elina Duni (ECM). The drummers work in the track Sunderland is a piece of art. And I got every tiny detail of it with the Grand. The stock cable sounded slightly smeared in comparison. It was not night and day but the Grand was cleaner and clearer. You get more detail from it without being overanalytical. On Bill Ryder-Jones ”Iechyd Da” I now could hear him touching every string on his guitar seperately. Even this album sounds less smeared than with the stock cable.

An album which I first thought could sound better with the Raal stock-cable is Voces8 ”Lux”. My SR-1a with a lot of EQ-ing (-5dB at 2000Hz) sounded always very smooth and harmonical with it. The Grand seperates the voices more than the stock. But for me this was not a bad thing. It got me to enjoy the harmony of the different singers even more.

With "Winter" from the harp player Lavinia Mejler I was surprised that the stock cable sounded a tad more harsh in the 1000-2000Hz region than the Grand. The harp and the other instruments in the recording gained more depth and layering with the silver Grand.

I got a little surprised that the comparison has not been about ”more rounded” against ”more analytical”. It was more about smeared, and less information about the recording-room with the stock cable against the clearer, less forced playing Grand which at the same time gives more spatial information with better layering and is even more neutral sounding (without any harshness!).

I suppose I would hear even more differences with a Star 8 cable on hand. I only can guess how much better the combination of Lavricables Grand and Star 8 would sound (I don´t know, maybe I will put the Immanis aside a while when I get it, just enjoying the SR-1a with the new cable – haha). As I said- it is not night and day, but for me it was a worthwhile investment.

 

[rlawry]

Today I got a custom cable from Lavricables which they reterminatet from a headphone cable I had earlier. I tried it instead of the ”unbilical” cable between my amp and the TI-1b. It is a Lavricables Grand silvercable with Rhodium contacts (1,5 meter, so that I can use the SR-1a on my sofa). Unfortunately I don´t own a Star 8 headphone cable yet (it comes with the Immanis I have on order). I always wondered why Raal is offering an upgrade headphone cable in silver but not an upgrade ”unbilical” cable. So I had to try.

First time I inserted the cable to my chain I was prepared to hear a clearer (more analytical?) sound. But instead I heard a kind more 3D-sound. I just choosed to continue to play the new Billie Eilish album which I listened to under the last days. I have been a little undicided about this album, but with the Grand I could get more spatial information, hearing sound ”under”my SR-1a and "behind" which I couldn´t with the stock cable. The album became immediately more intersting for me.

Already with this first album I got the feeling that placing of instruments became more accurate and voices more focused. The soundstage got more depth (a thing I missed with my SR-1a before), everything was more lifelike. I like the german band The Notwist a lot and they made the fantastic live album ”Superheroes”. The first track conveys a crazy feeling being there with the listeners in the arena. This feeling got more intensive with the new cable.

Simorag recommended the album ”A time to remember” with Elina Duni (ECM). The drummers work in the track Sunderland is a piece of art. And I got every tiny detail of it with the Grand. The stock cable sounded slightly smeared in comparison. It was not night and day but the Grand was cleaner and clearer. You get more detail from it without being overanalytical. On Bill Ryder-Jones ”Iechyd Da” I now could hear him touching every string on his guitar seperately. Even this album sounds less smeared than with the stock cable.

An album which I first thought could sound better with the Raal stock-cable is Voces8 ”Lux”. My SR-1a with a lot of EQ-ing (-5dB at 2000Hz) sounded always very smooth and harmonical with it. The Grand seperates the voices more than the stock. But for me this was not a bad thing. It got me to enjoy the harmony of the different singers even more.

With "Winter" from the harp player Lavinia Mejler I was surprised that the stock cable sounded a tad more harsh in the 1000-2000Hz region than the Grand. The harp and the other instruments in the recording gained more depth and layering with the silver Grand.

I got a little surprised that the comparison has not been about ”more rounded” against ”more analytical”. It was more about smeared, and less information about the recording-room with the stock cable against the clearer,more unforced playing Grand which at the same time gives more spatial information with better layering and is even more neutral sounding (without any harshnessin the treble region!).

I suppose I would hear even more differences with a Star 8 cable on hand. I only can guess how much better the combination of Lavricables Grand and Star 8 would sound (I don´t know, maybe I will put the Immanis aside a while when I get it, just enjoying the SR-1a with the new cable – haha). As I said- it is not night and day, but for me it was a worthwhile investment.

I also found a significant difference between the stock RAAL umbilical cable and the relatively inexpensive silver-plated OFC copper Pine Tree Audio umbilical I had them make up. In a like fashion, the Star 8 cable run from the Ti-1b interface to the SR-1b makes a sonic improvement on a similar level. This should be no surprise given that both cables carry the audio signal from the amp output to the Ti-1b and then on to the SR-1b. I remember reading some time back that RAAL indeed conceded that there can be significant improvements using a more expensive and sophisticated umbilical but a RAAL version of the umbilical was not immediately forthcoming as they are busy with other projects including the recent rollout of the Magnas and Immanis. It might be interesting to hear what owners of the Magnas and Immanis find with an upgrade of the umbilical cable. If RAAL does eventually develop an umbilical cable upgrade I would be interested in trying it.