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:
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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).