RAAL-requisite SR1a - Earfield™ Monitor/Headphone - Official Thread

$3,500 on the RAAL website. Way out of my range but certainly in the realm of true hi-fi.

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@Torq explained perfectly, but I’d put them with a layman’s term.

Below is what the inside of SR1a adapter box actually looks like:

And structure-wise it’s surprisingly similar with stax adapter box (I don’t mean their current amps … but discontinued SRD lineup which is used with speaker power amps). Look at this:

Signal-wise, sr1a box seems to serve as (1) impedance match via transformers, (2) voltage-current transformation – my bet is it’s rather similar with stax srd in the end – and (3) shelving analog EQ to tame trebles.

Speaking of the last element, RAAL said the box had the transfer function – Vout(f)/Vin(f) – as the following:

With the following input impedance curve (power amp sees this curve):

Anyway, this headphone looks very interesting. But I am thinking RAAL targets high end speaker owners rather than headphone-first listeners… For most headphone listeners it may require too much: 3.5k (usd) for headphone and 3-5k power amps (except Schiit offerings like Vidar or Aegir x2 or maybe Ragnarok 2). Overall cost requirements will resemble that of SR-009+matching Amps in my opinion.

Of course I am one of them who are waiting for @torq’s review! :smile:

@pavi : Can I ask your preamp gain setting for modern pop recordings? (DR<10 and zero or near-zero headroom stuffs) On calculation, 4V dac output and 22+6 db Aegir x2’s gain will allow preamp gain up to -12db before limited by current (ignoring Schiit’s too conservative rating haha). Just curious about how real users feel in terms of overall perceived loudness.

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By the time the Grateful Dead reached Workingman’s Dead and American Beauty, they were hardly loosey goosey. Oh for days of Anthem of the Sun and Aoxomoxoa. There, not a help at all for staying on topic.

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Fortunately, you can get good and adequate power - 100 watts RMS per channel - on the used market for about a tenth of that. In the 70s and 80s, tube amp power was on the wane, and transistor-powered amplifiers were going up-market in an environment where they weren’t competing with computers as the kings of home electronics. Companies like Marantz and Sansui were putting out amps that hold up today as very high quality. Since they don’t have the cachet of tubes, you can often find good examples in local classifieds, on eBay, or audiogon. There are still local electronics shops that can go through them and replace any aging capacitors and make sure the controls work cleanly.

That Sansui AU-919 integrated that I have weighs 54 pounds, is class AB, Total harmonic distortion: 0.008%, Signal to noise ratio: 74dB (MC), 90dB (MM), 100dB (line). It does want an 8 ohm nominal load, but we all know that speaker loads vary significantly with frequency, and I haven’t found any issues with it driving my old STAX SRD-6 adapter or any speakers I’ve paired with it.

I keep it for a backup, just in case I ever need it…

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sadly, one of my aegirs went on the fritz - and i’m unable to reset the fault. i’ve contacted schiit for help, and am waiting to hear back. when things are back to normal, i’ll test it for you - pretty much only listen to jazz in general.

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Yeah, going for old good amps could be very sane and often brings something nice to the table. No doubt! However, I am always wary of such products regarding generalized discussion.

Typically old amps use less negative feedback and less active dc servo circuits. This per se is desirable in my opinion. The problem is that such circuits assume internal parts remain good. I know some followers of a legendary Japanese amp like Panasonic M-22. And I’ve also seen some of them needed to be overhauled or repaired to get things right. Not sure about Sansui or Marantz but I am suspecting product-to-product aging variation to the same extent.

If I go for SR1a, I am not willing to spend that much money. Can’t afford it. :sob: Schiit’s power amps seem more plausible ways – but not sure about how they paired with SR1a. In this regard, @pavi’s report is encouraging and @torq’s (comparative) review can help me too. Nevertheless, reading SR1a threads in various places, it is just a realty that a median SR1a user spends at least $3k-ish (new) in their power amps to drive this headphone.

Off-topic, if Aegir x2 could drive sr1a, then I am hoping Vidar (stereo) could do the same thing voltage and current-wise. :wink:

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That’s too bad to hear that…

The reason why I am requesting modern pop is that generally it has much narrower dynamic range, so that loudness perception is rather stable during the whole track.

For example, Taylor Swift’s Welcome To New York has -0.01 db at peak, -7.7 db on average (rms), and estimated dynamic range is around 5.0 (db).

By contrast, Bill Evans’ When I fall in Love has -0.26 db at peak, -19.3 db on average, and 13.9 db of calculated dynamic range.

For loudness testing purposes, I believe the former is easier to make arguments. :smile:

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I got my Sansui for under $300. Overhaul was $150 originally. I used it for about 8 years, and took it in for servicing for about another $175. When you buy a quality older amp, you should budget for some cleaning and servicing.

If you’re looking for something more modern, I just checked Audiogon, and there is a Macintosh MC754 (about 1990), An Emerald Physics EP100.2 SE (model still being produced), Arcam Diva P90 Stereo Power Amplifier (about 2004-2008) all for about $600.

By contrast a new Vincent hybrid is about $2K,

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Well … they arrived yesterday … just in time for me to set them up, make sure they worked, play a couple of tracks … and then head out to a charity fundraiser for the night …

I’ll take a few, basic, pictures in a bit.

Running these out of my reference-chain (RME ADI-2 DAC, SPL Phonitor X) for now, in conjunction with a modestly priced ($600) speaker amp (150w into 8Ω/225w into 4Ω, toroidal transformer based linear PSU, solid-state analog class A/B, THX-certified* - with decent measurements - so likely a fair amount of negative-feedback).

Initial impressions are, well … striking …

The SR1a are doing things that I’ve not heard from a headphone before.

The build and aesthetics are awesome … the best way I can describe it is as high-tech, high-end tooling. Adjustment is easy, and driver-angle has very audible effects on sound and stage.

There is actual stage depth.

Resolution, speed and impact are remarkable - even off this comparatively inexpensive amp.

And they really are neutral.

Interface box is running cool (79℉) even after several hours of, shall we say, “spirited” listening.

Didn’t expect this off such a, comparatively entry-level, amplifier.

I don’t think anything productive is getting done today.

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agreed. i certainly don’t have your breadth of experience, @Torq, nor your depth of evaluative skill, but to my ears, this is utterly true.

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I don’t think anybody gave the price for these

:heavy_dollar_sign::three::four::nine::nine:

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I’ll take 3 please.

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9.5 straight hours of listening yesterday … and I’m another 5 hours in today …and the SR1a are both still completely comfortable and I have absolutely no sense of listening fatigue.

I have not had to turn the volume up to stay engaged, and I have not had to turn it down to stave off fatigue. The only changes in volume I’ve made have been to account for differences in average level from album-to-album.

I am so engaged that I am not even present enough to make coherent posts about what I’m hearing at the moment, even though I’m just sitting here. Haven’t been able to will myself out of the chair for long enough to take pictures either.

And the closest thing I’ve done in terms of being productive since they arrived is half-arsedly peruse some other amplifier options to drive them …

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Look up the Grateful Dead and the “Wall of Sound”. They put a lot of money and effort into that sound system, so much so that they only toured with it for 4 years - 1972-76. It was anything but " loosey-goosey".

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This was in reference to their live shows and did not originate with me.

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What about the classic Bryston 3B or 4B to drive these? 200w/300w into 8 Ohms, 20 year transferable warranty and there are tons of them on the used market for under $1000. But if you can afford $3500 headphones, you can probably afford a new 4B.

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That’s 'cos the roadies kept quitting :wink:

From my, so-far-relatively-meagre, experience with the SR1a so far (just 20 hours of listening), I can imagine a good number of well regarded, older/classic, amplifiers will do them justice.

Personally, if I’m going with classic solid-state, I’d be looking at Krell (from the Dan D’Agostino era). A properly restored KSA 100 would be very tempting. But that’s me.

The last couple of hours have been spent piddling around seeing what effect running “under-powered” amplifiers have on them. More data, and experimentation is required, but I will say that a properly rated “cheap” amplifier faired rather better with the SR1a than an under-powered exotic. Volume isn’t the primary issue … I can get them plenty loud out of 50 RMS watts, but they don’t sound right vs. a “lower-quality” 125w.

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I am wondering what tracks you’ve thrown in so far. Could you list any specific track that SR1a particularly shined over other well-received totl collections you own?

I got a bad feeling that I might have this headphone in the house in foreseeable future. Must resist… :frowning_face:

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I’ll cover a few … but before doing so I will say that over my entire first-pass audition playlist they’ve been incredibly impressive. Be it resolving more detail and texture, presenting a properly dimensional stage with actual depth, delivering amazingly open acoustics, or stunning with their sheer speed and immediacy.

It would be easier to say that I haven’t found a track that they didn’t work well with.

But here are some specifics anyway:

  • One of my bass-test tracks is Beyoncé’s “Partition”. The first segment of that has major bass hits that start at 80 Hz and roll-down to 20 Hz (you can watch them do it on an analyzer, the peak of the bass note moving right to left over the space of about 4 seconds). There is texture to those bass notes that is more evident and well defined with the SR1a than with any of my other headphones.

  • With the tambourine on Prince’s “Tamborine” you can clearly hear the individual zills jingling. Other highly-resolving headphones will do this too, but it is better delineated and easier to hear with the SR1a.

  • Cowboy Junkies “Mining for Gold” (The Trinity Session), a track that tends to sort the men from the boys when it comes to conveying the sense of space and ambiance of a venue more vividly dimensional and airy with the SR1a than on anything else I’ve heard it via, excepting properly setup speakers. This remained true regardless of where I set the drivers … even fully “in” it’s still the best reproduction of this I’ve heard.

  • Björk’s “Hunter” (Homogenic) provides an excellent demonstration of lateral localization and stage width, with the image forming beyond the apparent confines of the drivers and expanding way to the left and right of one’s ears. And once Björk’s voice comes she is clearly placed front and center, in front of other sounds and “instruments”. The Abyss (setup with the drivers canted forward) and the HD800S both offer some semblance of depth here too, but it is a much flatter stage with those, and those are the best headphones I’d heard to this point in that regard.

  • Holly Cole’s “Train Song” (Temptation) also is distinct in the degree of depth to the image. It is projected in front of the listener and every instrument can be placed in the stage effortlessly. This is, again, a more vivid, stable and expansive projection of stage than I’ve heard with any of my other headphones, even if the HD800S and AB-1266 get some of the way there.

  • Speed, impact, transient performance (attack) and decay (and the changes in texture as the larger drum skins settle) in “Drum Warfare” (David Felysian, Elimination) is startling. Rapid-fire beats are all distinct and individual, but the presentation remains completely coherent. Only the best dynamic and electrostatic setups I’ve heard even come close here. I’d need to do a side-by-side test with a high-end electrostatic amp and headphone to say for sure, but these might even be faster.

  • Detail, resolution and micro-dynamics are superlative with any track you can think of (that actually has content that requires such things) … big orchestral pieces, simply-mic’ed acoustic jazz, gruffer male vocals and so on …

The SR1a have electrostatic-like speed, detail and transparency, but without giving up the scale, weight and impact vs. a dynamic can. Bass quality is planar-like but more nuanced and articulate, albeit generally lower in level than the best planar cans - in fact it’s probably the best bass quality I’ve heard outside of high-end, large-woofer, speakers.

So far the only place they’re not natively impressive in is bass-quantity. They’re similar in that regard to the Focal Utopia. Only due to there being no cup or baffle, they roll-off a little earlier. Nominally they’re rated as neutral down to 33 Hz, and then depending on how open you have the drivers set will be -6 dB to -10 dB by 20 Hz. A little EQ brings that right back up, and you can go nuts with it if you want and there is no distortion or strain, it remains super-clean and tight, all the way up to Abyss-like levels of reproduction.

Without EQ they’re basically studio-neutral, which most people will perceive as a bit bass-light and slightly bright.

They’re awesome to listen to without any EQ, but like the Utopia (which when listening to for pleasure I invariably apply some bass lift too as well) a low-shelf lift makes them even more enjoyable and absolutely satisfying even with the most bass-centric pieces I’ve tried.

Bear in mind my impressions so far are all with a basic, relatively inexpensive (<$600) THX (not the AAA technology, just the usual certification) speaker amplifier - which is surprising in itself. I will start exploring other amplifiers this afternoon, beginning with a Schiit Vidar in stereo-mode and working my way up to some high-dollar gear. I’m tempted to try them with a couple of integrated amps as well (maybe the Kinki EX-M1, McIntosh MA252, Krell K-300i and maybe one of SimAudio’s beefier models) just for the heck of it.

And that’s being fed by an RME ADI-2 DAC fs via a Phonitor X. Technically I could take the Phonitor X out of the chain, though it does make comparing the SR1a to other headphones much easier (just flip a switch).

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