Congratulations, I’m so happy for you. Enjoy your nap.
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Hi @FLTWS, thank you for all of the information you have shared on this thread. I am listening like a stoned teenager again and just loving the sound of this system. I find I have to wait a long time before I can put a conventional headphone on now, it takes adjusting the brain after the insane detail of the RAAL.
You mentioned you had other after market cables also, I wonder if you have found a preference. I do not think right now I can spend all the way up to the RAAL silver cable, and wonder if you tried the Moon Audio Black Dragon? I am not sure I even need to upgrade but wondering if there is a cable that might tame the treble slightly for harsher recordings.
Thanks for sharing if you can.
funny, I have mentioned several times that it takes me a fair while to get used to going from and to the sr1a from the likes of the susvara and abyss…it is so different
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Well, I am going back and forth with more modest alternatives for sure: Eikon and 6XX, but it is like the same music is taken in hand and placed in a different room half full of giant cotton balls! Ultimately it is not that I dislike the sound but just that at first it seems like canned sound in comparison. Based on descriptions though, having never personally heard them, I suspect the Susvara and Abyss are closer in both detail and quality if still very different.
The adjustment is likely even greater for those particular cans where they are not detail monsters, the Eikon is closed back, and the 6XX is very intimate. Or so said a stoned teenager.
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Yep, try the Black Dragon, sounds just fine and was $450 for a 10 foot length.
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Thank you for the info.
Is the cable just a 3.5mm on the headphone end and female XLR on the amp end?
You might be able to get something with the same materials as the Black Dragon for a lower cost if you go to a custom cable maker and ask them to use the female XLR.
For instance, a 10 foot Cuprum cable, made from OCC copper from Arctic is $335.
If you want OCC silver, Arctic offers the Signum and Double Helix offers a Molecule Elite.
Norne has equivalents to the above too.
I’m not comparing sound quality vs the Black Dragon or RAAL cables, which I haven’t heard, just saying that there are alternatives out there if you want something made with comparable materials. I have both the Cuprum and the Molecule Elite and am happy with both.
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Thanks for all of the links. I have more research to do, but I have read some threads which, if I understand correctly, suggest the XLR on the amp end (which is 4 pin, not 3, described as a “reverse-gender 4-pin XLR”) is wired differently than most and is a custom job. If I can find the right pieces I could build my own, I have the soldering rig and the speakers I built did not blow up!
Thank you again for the links. I am going to make this my next project.
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First time posting, I joined here because of this thread. I bought the SR1a because of this and the original thread and hope to move up from the JotR to the HSA1b some day. Anyway, with the talk of cables, 6Moons published a review of two aftermarket cables including the Moon Audio one that might be of some use.
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Hi @CarterB Welcome to the forum.
Thanks for the link, nice to know about another option. I just a week ago received the Black Dragon cable and will share my novice opinions here when I have formulated them.
You’ll find great info and camaraderie here. Welcome!
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I see you sold your Black Dragon, any reason?
I bought the Forza, mostly because I needed a 3m cable over stock and thought with Hugo2 and JotR might be better complemented by how 6Moons described the Forza. So far, no complaints. I am not into comparisons, but definitely like this cord for physical reasons.
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I did sell the amp, but I actually have not sold the Black Dragon, I think I mentioned it somewhere but I am currently using it. At first I heard virtually no difference and find the stiffness annoying. To my ears it did not do much it was described to do. But I threw it on a week or so ago after extended listening with the stock cable and I regret to report it did sound different in a way I like! Not different like Moon describes it, but more detailed in fact. I could be imagining it, but I think there may also be a physical difference in the cable that allows for very slightly higher gain because if I go back and forth quickly (as much as one can) the Black Dragon is ever so slightly louder. This could be placebo, but I prefer its sound enough that I am suffering its lack of flexibility. I had hoped to sell it, but I may keep it now. I cannot endorse any one spend $400 or more on a cable, but as it is set up now, the SR1a is so unbelievable to my ears I do not want to change even one thing for fear it will disappear.
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I’ve found it hard to beat the Dragon line from a sound, price point and quality of build standpoint. I have 2 pair for use with my HD800 and HD800S and from all aspects including ergonomics they sound fine and I’ve had them 2 to 3 years. I also have a Silver and Black pair I used with my Utopia (sold a year ago). Hopefully Drew will repurpose them for me when the next “latest and greatest” “world-beater” headphone arrives on the scene. I also have no issue with the Dragon’s aesthetics. Cables do need some burn-in / break in time and it has been explained to me by those who know better than I it has to do with dielectrics used in the wrap, just like capacitors in electronics there is usually some amount of time needed to form or age … or something like that. Not to do with the the copper or silver wire itself.
I have a Dragon for my SR1a as well but the Silver RAAL is my choice for that headphone. Especially as impedance matching is important with that HP. I read something the effect that the 7ft and 10 ft lengths of the Silver available have different diameters to keep that impedance in the range where it should be. 728 versus 1028 (strands of wire?) of silver for the 7 and 10 foot lengths respectively.
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Thanks @FLTWS I re-read your comments on the Raal Silver. It is enticing for sure and I suspect someday after liquidating other stuff I may try it. I know already I would prefer its ergonomics. As well built as the Black Dragon is, the stiffness drives me crazy at the desk. I have no way to know if my evolving opinion changed because of break in or other factors, only that I like what I hear now as distinct from stock. It is frustrating not to be able to distinguish real physics from mysticism when it comes to these things, but I will happily take what I can get and enjoy listening even when ignorant of the why. Enjoy your weekend.
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When it comes to “stiff” the stock Abyss cable is the champ. The Silver RAAL (and stock SR1a) are about as stiff as your shoe laces but both have a degree of “wind” which I’ve always chalked up to how the raw wire is drawn in the manufacturing process or how it is wound in the cable.
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Yes, there is the “wind” factor too like with my Hart cables. Nothing is perfect.
The Forza cable is not stiff at all and the fabric cover is quite nice. You do have to take a leap of faith on the ordering by sending ~$500 via PayPal but all was good.
I thought about the silver cable, but couldn’t justify the price as I’d rather use that money to save for the 1b over the JotR.
Its a funny market in that these headphones have only 2 amps in the world to drive them, and three cables terminated properly to connect them (that I’ve seen). Not a headphone for tweaks.
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Caution. It’s a well known psychoacoustic effect that slightly louder is perceived as better. This has been proven in double-blind studies, and in many 1970’s hi-fi showrooms where switching devices for A/B sometimes featured a half-db bump in the speaker with the better profit margin.
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TV and radio ads learned long ago that louder gets more attention. There were huge jumps in perceived volume of commercials as they compressed the maximum dB but increased the lows. In due course this morphed into the Loudness War in music (1990s). Similarly, stores often put TVs on maximum brightness, color, and contrast to make them pop under the evil fluorescent lights. These settings are murder in a home lighting situation.
All of these tricks tend to work for making a sale and over the short term. Then they can backfire.
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