My placement was highly restricted by the big head. Couldn’t lower than I drew with my skull curvature. 
Raal should understand there are many big heads all over the world. Seriously. 
I found SR1a very big-head unfriendly… so interested potential buyers should be aware.
Haha, now I can remember Abyss 1266. Heard it many years ago when they first came out. Not my taste that time but later thought it could be attributed to wrong placements or seals.
@VimStory Is the problem the metal headband or the leather? The leather comes off so you can punch extra holes or make your own strap as needed. The metal band is also designed to take an adjustable curvature and be user-replaceable, maybe you can special order a larger piece from RAAL.
Personally, I find it important to pair the SR1a’s up with the Mysphere 3.2 which is also pretty resolving but much more forgiving when it comes to recording quality, especially vocal positioning. Finding one amp that work for both cans can be a challenge, of course.
Metal headband was more of a problem so far. But it’s good to know I can request a larger headband. Thanks for the info!
I might consider that option if I firmly decided to keep this.
Hello SR1a owners (@VimStory, @Torq, @Zhanming057)
Is the statement below fair or an exaggeration to describe the SR1a performance?
Superior speed, detail retrieval and clarity than TOTL electrostatic ear-speakers/Beryllium drivers, with better bass texture, quality and overall presentation than TOTL planar magnetic HPs, punchier than dynamic cans and bigger soundstage than the HD800!
If this is true (to my ears as well), this could very much be my only headphone for all my rigs.
Clearly exaggeration, or at least personal biases/tastes/etc strongly affected. And so is every audio impression. Readers need to interpret them with a pinch of salt – sometimes a grasp of…
I’d describe like the following (maintaining criteria you quoted)
Overall SR1a did good in all the listed criteria. Some just not bad. Some good. Some pretty excellent. Just be wary of any enthusiastic comments. We all hear differently, value differently, and describe differently. Tons of biases aside.
I don’t think all of the claims are all valid all at the same time, and certainly not for every person nor every rig.
And a lot will depend on how the SR1a are setup, what they’re being driven with (overall chain is always a factor), what your listening level is (equal loudness contours are worth paying attention to), whether you’re allowing for EQ or just running them raw, how the sit relative to your head (you can adjust this, but head profile will still have an effect, especially if it limits your placement options).
For example, I find the SR1a provide the most obvious, and deep (almost no headphone gives me any actual depth to the stage, but these do), image - significantly more palpable and expansive than either the Abyss or the HD800S - but only if the wings are pretty wide open. Depth increases with how wide they are set, to a point. If you close them down then you lose a lot of this effect and fully-closed-down the HD800S would be better.
Speed, yes, I think that’s broadly true … they’re certainly the fastest sounding headphone I’ve heard (all the way up to the HE1). At least in my chain. A different DAC, amp or pre-amp (when I still had one in the chain) could affect this both actually and perceptually.
I think the bass texture is better than any planar I’ve heard. But, to be able to hear that properly required bringing the bass level up some, otherwise it can get lost due to the reduced natural response. The big boys in the planar realm here, like the Abyss and LCD-4 hit a little harder.
Resolution is ahead of any headphone I have here, or have heard. Not necessarily by much in every case, but consistently the best.
Bear in mind I cannot use identical chains with conventional cans vs. these so that has an effect too.
I’m running a DAVE directly into a Linn 4200 into the SR1a at the moment (no pre-amp). The Utopia, HD800S and Vérité both out of the DAVE -> Phonitor X and DAVE -> headphone chains. Abyss and LCD-4 have to run from the Phonitor X or the Woo WA234 MK2 as DAVE on it’s own doesn’t do them justice.
Just let me clarify with which configuration I stated each headphone:
Thanks for sharing your take on the SR1a based on my statement. The more I read about the SR1a on this forum, the more I realize that even though they’re a technically marvelous and a technological breakthrough - they’re still just headphones with some strengths and weaknesses. This is going to help me bring my expectations to a more realistic level to avoid “day 1 disappointments” whenever they arrive.
I still have the Abyss and the LCD-4 on my list and the SR1a performance with a Vidar/Performer s800 using either the ADI-2 DAC or the Holo Audio Spring DAC (Matrix X Sabre Pro MQA also in consideration) will determine whether I scratch those 2 HPs off my list or not.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the SR1a following my statement as a guideline. Based on what I’ve read so far, I should expect some compromises with the SR1a (My initial expectations didn’t account for that) and I’ll have to decide if I can live with them or not. My plan is to drive them using a Vidar and potentially upgrade to a Performer s800 during the two weeks return window, before I consider them keepers.
(Gotta find a way to send the missus on a girls’ trip or something to be able to test them uninterruptedly. LOL)
Did you check this out? I believe this track-specific way less misleading than general statements.
Above was @Torq’s answer to my question, which I asked before I got my hands on SR1a. Listening to the same track could help me figure out the character a lot. (Aside: Tidal helped a lot haha)
I also listened to those tracks with my SR1a over and over. I can confirm those statements were very accurately put. Of course magnitude or nuance might be a bit different, and I might disagree a few percent… which is unavoidable in subjective statements AND we have different rigs/tastes/experience. 
Yes I did and I already made a dedicated SR1a playlist using the suggested tracks on @Torq’s post. Thanks.
From what I’ve read of your posts, this hardly seems an issue/consideration.
But you’ll have what you prefer connection-wise?
You read my mind…
Cause if not the thread, then one could easily start leaning towards leaving the forum and perhaps the headphone “hobby” altogether.
Not so much due to envy but to the fact one starts thinking/feeling what sounded good and gave you lots of listening pleasure, is now not “good enough” because there’s so much better out there…
IOW a case of “incurable upgraditus due to insurmountable unobtainium” leads to a frustrated departure from all things audio…kind of like how a 40 year old amateur guitar player with pro aspirations might feel (and what he might do) after watching this…https://youtu.be/v_WBnvObN9Q
I actually meant that it wouldn’t be cheap if I built them for anyone else! Since I was (or thought I was) implying that I’d be willing to do so!
That, more options for cable implementations, plus the opportunity to add active shielding, dielectric biasing and have something else to play with. I might even do the box in a way where it can provide those last two options for the speaker cables feeding the box too.
In case you didn’t follow the link (or see the wink emoji), my reply was meant to be somewhat humorous.
I’ll leave it up to you (and others) to determine whether it actually was.
But as you mentioned it, I honestly didn’t pick up on your offer to make switch boxes for others.
I suppose that’s why I found the comment somewhat humorous, considering the cost of most the gear under discussion in your posts 
BTW I enjoy reading your impressions. Whether I can afford the gear or not is irrelevant.
I was fascinated by and loved the K1000 years ago and am happy to see that implementing the concept of “ear-speakers” hasn’t been abandoned. And also, that it had been implemented so well with this new generation of the tech.
I couldn’t afford the K1000 either but the K340 (which I did buy) was also great when properly amped. And I imagine a similar dual driver “electret” headphone would also cost a fortune today.
I got the humor, and appreciated it!
I just realized I may have been too subtle in my implication that I could he persuaded to built such boxes for other.
I do like the K1000 … but I came to do so a good while after they were discontinued. And most of the used units I’ve come across for sale have either had issues, or comedy-pricing. If I ever found one that was the right mix of version, condition, and price, I’d snag it.
I’m also interested in the spiritual successors, the MySphere 3.X. Enough so that I paid to get a demo set … which I am now waiting on, as it might be a good can-run-off-a-conventional-source complement to the SR1a.
I really like how Vidar improved SR1a experience (over JLH).
Indeed the amp difference isn’t that big. Bass difference is huge, but in other region, it’s almost on par or give & take. Perceived gain includes a tad more details, grunts, and perhaps slightly better transients.
But again, SR1a bass now got really, really improved.
Listening to Beyonce’s Partition, with Vidar, synth bass movements at the intro sound very articulated and well-defined. Both frequency-wise and amplitude-wise changes are heard so vividly. With JLH, it isn’t that bad… but roll-off at sub bass starts earlier AND steeper.
Now it’s interesting to hear how this specific track sounds differently between SR1a, Verite, and Auteur – I like all their bass reproductions for different reasons respectively.
Woo had them in their listening area…and a couple young kids (early 20’s) had them around their knecks roaming around. Looked interesting but I didn’t get a chance to hear them… actually just didn’t want to at a convention… Lol
It would certainly be nice if there was more opportunity to hear these great headsets.
Especially here in Canada, where there is a relatively sparse population, headphone meets are few and far between (if they happen at all within a reasonable distance).
And with our dollar worth 75 US cents (if that) for some time now, it technically puts buying TOTL products out of reach for yet another 25% of the population.
Although, if one can afford $7000 for a headphone set up, you’re probably already not the average person with a regular job, a family and limited funds to explore/own such luxuries.
Hearing them, just to experience what’s been achieved, would be a huge treat in itself. It could also possibly be an indicator of what might “trickle down” to the “man on the street” over the years; as has happened with much other technology over recent years/decades.
With many things, the more people who can experience something = more interest = more sales = higher volume = lower cost.
It takes time, but these days it seems to take much less time for tech to move forward. It appears to also often move down in price more quickly (in some cases) so the general population can enjoy it, as new tech becomes available in brand new TOTL products (or in some cases FOTM gear ).
I guess time will tell if too many manufacturers of certain products (and too few with others) will keep the prices too high on most products even approaching TOTL .
Incredible performance from AVRs has certainly become available to more of the general public, due largely to the sheer volume of sales and very fast implementation/adoption of new technology.
With headphones now so ubiquitous, one would hope that a desire by more of the population for better SQ would begin to bring some of this outstanding technology down to a more affordable level.
After all, it’s easy to bling something out enough so that the uber-wealthy can keep their status and bragging rights intact
Just considering the SQ of many mainstream audio components in the 70s-80s makes me think it’s not an unreasonable hope to have going forward.
@MrCypruz If you are going to compare the SR1a’s to other headphones, the obvious first-best solution is to compare them using the same stack, with an amp that is capable of superbly driving everything from loads of 100mw to 100w. This is difficult but do-able. The best amps that I have found for this job are the Nagra Classic INT and the Accuphase E470, two super-clean integrated amplifiers with good power reserve, but is also capable of delivering with cans as sensitive as the Utopia and HD800S with good results. Specific to the Susvara and the Abyss Phi (which I own and drive with the INT) and the Phi TC, technical performance isn’t much of a contest outside of bass quantity and performance with suboptimal recordings.
The SR1a’s simply scale up better with high-level sources. Now, there are certainly things that one might prefer in a Utopia/WA33e setup or a TC/Egoista combo over a SR1a/Nagra INT combo - and tube synergy with the SR1a’s is either very expensive or very particular to genre. But the point is that yes, you can indeed have it all - at least regarding bass texture, speed, detail, imaging, staging and dynamic range - even compared to dynamics/planars being driven to the highest levels, provided that you’re willing to pay to play and invest in amps that are on the part of the performance curve that the SR1a’s can still scale up at.
With Electrostats there are no amps that allow for a direct comparison, and a second-best option might be to look at systems that match pricing. A directly price-matched competitor to the Mjolnir KGHSSV Carbon+009 combo would be something like the AHB2+SR1a, or a Pass INT150 against a BHSE. Here there’s a lot to like on both sides. The SR1a easily wins on staging, imaging and bass speed and texture, while a well-sorted 009 setup has better density, intimacy and probably more refined upper-mid presentation compared to the unmoderated sharpness and sweeping dynamics of the SR1a’s. A benefit of the 009 is that its top tier amp pairings are mostly tube-based while it’s pretty difficult to find a great sub-$10k tube amp for the SR1a’s.
Finally, at the budget level - comparing the Vidar to, for example, a IESL for the 009 or a WA3 for the Utopia, and the amp’s flaws are going to show up much more readily from the SR1a. The staging and imaging are going to suffer the least, but I think that you can drive a 009 or HD800s with $500 and, on the whole, possibly have a more well-rounded setup than anything would do for the SR1a at that range.
Ultimately, if you care a lot about speed, staging and resolution, the SR1a is a great choice regardless of how much money you put into amping it. The other aspects of performance are going to depend very heavily on the robustness of the amp. You can run it on a budget setup, but the urge to upgrade is going to be pretty strong 
Here is what RAAL had at their booth… they tiered it entry to top left to right… @Torq requested it I recall…anyhow I’m crashing long day, landed back in Seattle @1030pm home @1115…the deep beckons
