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

Official Headphone Model Discussion
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@Torq I have a very early production copy of the Mysphere 3.2. I was involved with Heinz Renner pretty early on in the R&D cycle and helped him out a bit when he was trying to find Asian dealers. Having spent years trying to perfect a K1000 solution, I was pretty thrilled about the Mysphere and it doesn’t disappoint. Technically it’s not as accomplished as the SR1a but it far exceeds the K1000 in resolution, and accuracy of staging. The 3.2 can handle a bit of power - I use it at home with the same system I run the SR1a’s on - but will also pair quite well with amps as weak as the WA11. They work well with clean and neutral solid states, and since you already have the Linn I’d recommend trying the 3.2 straight out of the taps of the Linn.

Relatively speaking, the 3.1 is the more innovative product to me - a pair of ear-mounted speakers efficient enough to be driven directly from the SP1000 or WM1Z. As a “portable” can the 3.1 is an absolutely huge step up in staging and midrange performance from cans such as the Empyrean and Focal Stellia. With the K1000 you always had to live a dangerous life - the recommend minimum amp power rating is 8wpc, and yet you can quite easily blow the drivers with less than 2w loaded. The 3.1 will run pretty happily on a handful of mw’s which is still pretty amazing to me.

I should mention that the Mysphere’s have a strange pairing guideline (3.2 for solid states and OTL’s, 3.1 for portables and SET amps) which is actually quite true. Woo doesn’t even try to explain it at the booth, but the 3.1 is the “right” pairing for the WA8, WA22 and WA33 while the 3.2 pairs best with the WA11 and WA3.

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Thanks for sharing your experience with SR1a vs other TOTL cans within the guidelines of my statement. I won’t be able to do direct comparisons from the same exact audio chain but I’ve what I consider a decent chain for Dynamic and Planar cans (Phonitor X is the amp), Electrostats (KGSSHV Carbon) and will have a Vidar (and possibly the SPL Performer s800) driving the SR1a. I believe that I should be able to get a pretty decent picture of the SR1a performance in comparison to my other TOTL cans (Stax 009S, Utopia, Empyrean).
Susvara has been on my list for quite some time but it was scratched off mainly due to the build quality of the product - I don’t buy that “because it sounds good” rhetoric when it comes to high-end products…it’s like installing a fine Ferrari engine in a Toyota Prius and charging the full fledged Ferrari price.

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Wait. I don’t think SR1a is that different from Susvara in terms of build quality… SR1a doesn’t feel like luxurious… it looks and feels like a a little expensive plastic toy. This does NOT reach to any your belongings, not even close. Note that the other two owners above had an extreme photographing ability.

Now I see you’re a Stax owner. So let me put this way. BQ of SR1a is only marginally better than Stax Lambda. Don’t expect SR-007 or 009 quality.

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Thanks for the heads up. That’s awful news because I actually dig the SR1a design but if it feels really plasticky like the Lambdas then that could be a deal breaker for me…the SR1a is the only reason for getting into speaker amps at the moment and I’m not willing to plunge a lot of Benjamins just because “it sounds good”. We will see…

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I would assume that even though they might feel plasticky and cheap, their durability was not compromised having their purpose in mind - studio music production. As a former amateur drummer and bass guitar player, I’ve seen a lot of audio gear (specially headphones and iems) being thrown to tables and occasionally to the floor so I would expect that RAAL-requisite did their homework when designing the SR1a. If not, shame on them.
The Susvara feel and are in fact of cheap build quality similarly to the Stax Lambda Series…the headbands/frames of those headphones can just snap on you while taking them off regardless if you baby or abuse them - they’re simply poorly built (intentionally???).

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No. It’s not like REAL field mixing headphones like Sony 7506 or Sennheiser HD280, which both are really rock-solid durable.

SR1a might be considered durable in that core parts (ribbon, headband, etc) seem replaceable. Don’t regard SR1a dropping-free or throwing-free like the two I mentioned.

Hifiman vs Raal in terms of headband and frame could be controversial. Tradeoff between adjustability versus snapping operations. Note that SR1a has only TWO levels of adjustments… Anyway both are sub-par in my book.

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The large majority of all music ever recorded was produced with older, cheaper, and less technical equipment. Many landmark audio decisions were made with HD-600s, a range of modest studio monitors, and other equipment that’s now quite cheap. Yes, most of those with $7,000 to spend on luxury items would not choose headphones (or even an absolutely great home speaker setup).

The price of the SR1a likely follows from:

  • New kid on the block in a small market without competitors 50%
  • R&D costs 25%
  • Use of low-volume components and hand assembly 10%

If they can be reverse engineered and copied, expect something much cheaper from China within 2 years…release prices are often wildly inflated.

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I’d be careful here … too much potential misinterpretation of terms and how they’re used. You’ve got different areas that could all be reasonably interpreted as “build quality”.

Is the SR1 luxurious in its build and finish?

No.

You don’t have the beautifully finished full-grain leather, sumptuous, rich, lamb-skin pads, bead-blasted metals and aesthetic design of something like the Focal Utopia or Stellia. Nor do you have the hand-figured, polished and chosen woods, with rich stains, coupled to more bead-blasted metals, and soft supple leathers you get with a ZMF product.

Is it durable?

Hard to say without actual data, but while it feels somewhat insubstantial I think this is primarily due to the very flexible skeletal-spring-steel, headband, I think you’d be very hard pressed to get anything to fail or break on it, short of poking things into the drivers or otherwise deliberately trying to cause a failure.

The whole build is carbon fiber, metal and leather. Spring steel is incredibly resilient (no way it’ll deform or break in an impact unless it was hard enough to shatter everything else first … you’d literally have to throw it hard against a wall), the carbon fiber is far more substantial than it needs to be, the covers on the ribbons look thin but they don’t flex when you press on them very firmly.

It’s built and feels more like a high-tech tool than a luxury consumer product.

It’s built to do a job, at length, without issue, and be user-fixable in the event you manage to manhandle it to death or something wears out. Materials are totally up to par for this role in my opinion.

If the headband were more conventional and rigid it’ll give off a different, if still tool-like, impression in terms of the build. But it’s flexible and spring by design.

The biggest executional weakness is in how, and how much, they can be adjusted. That’ll be a big problem for some, and a non-issue for others.

…

The HiFiMAN stuff looks better finished, but is far less substantial and has a history of “interesting” materials choices and assembly, and poor initial QC. HiFiMAN remain the only brand where I’ve seen headbands/yokes simply snap when someone was putting them on, and that’s just one issue I’ve experienced directly.

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I should add …

Since you’ve got a pair coming to you, you can assess them directly yourself. Which is the best way to make these determinations. Both in terms of fit, finish, build, ergonomics and, of course, sound.

As with all things, they’re not going to be everything to everyone. Hell, they may not be everything to anyone. They’re certainly not perfect. They’ll work better for some than others. Which is no different than any other product - only actual hands/ears-on experience can really tell you what you need to know.

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My expectations are aligned with your description and evaluation of the SR1a build quality - a tool to get the job done instead of a luxury item.

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Wholeheartedly agreed. This is a very unusual products best serving for unusual people. For average or traditional audio consumers (myself included), fit may vary. Even within the same person, mixed evaluation across criterion could be possible.

Anyway insightful durability analysis! My view changed a bit.
Still I am just a chicken-heart so that I pay as much careful attention as possible in handling this headphone. :wink:

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It sounds like the 3.1 would be what I’d need then, since it would be driven primarily from either my DAPs, Hugo 2 or my Woo WA234 Mk2 MONO, and maybe out of my DAVE. The demo kit, as I’m sure you know, is done so I can try both.

At this point I’m really looking at the MySphere as a way to get some of the traits of the SR1a in a package I can use away from speaker amps.

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After listening to @Torq SR1a and handling the ones at CanJam, they remind me build quality wise, of a race car and less a sports car…think F1 vs a luxury sports car, extreme example but point made.

The mysphere seems to be the more Everyman version, I would be interested in a comparison of it to the SR1a in more detail…it looked at least with my time holding the mysphere that it was more in line with the sports car saloon car quality…I probably should have given them a listen but by the time I found them at a listening station I was back on dad duty and really didn’t have time, nor did I feel like putting them on at the time (I can be weird about that sort of thing at times, especially if I saw the previous wearer, or if I’m feeling particularly sweaty lol).

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I understand the sentiment, but Italian exotics aren’t exactly known for their build quality either. In a way the mantra is “because it goes fast! (and looks good)”.

A long time ago I read a long term road test update for some Lamborghini in Road and Track. As part of the test they took it on a road trip, and of course it broke down in the middle of nowhere. Oddly enough, the passerby who stopped to provide aid was driving a Ferrari. The author recounted both drivers having a good laugh about the circumstance, which he likened to the Lusitania coming to the aid of the Titanic.

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I’m not that deep into fast/exotic cars so I wasn’t aware of the Ferrari’s poor reputation with regards to build quality…if what you say is true, then I’ll replace the brand Ferrari with Lamborghini or McLaren and keep everything else unchanged on my statement.

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https://www.autoinfluence.com/cars-most-expensive-oil-changes-maintenance/

Oil change costs more than an optimal RAAL setup. Look on the bright side! :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

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@TylersEclectic The Mysphere is entirely sourced from within Austria and the German manufacturing stereotype applies, for better or worse. It’s well-polished, a bit delicate and has this weird mix of over-engineering and under-engineering. The baffles for the tuning filters are CNC’d with a lot of precise and small cuts that mirror the aluminium chassis, which must have been a PITA to fabricate. They have fairly small margins as far as TOTL headphones go, some of this is Austrian labor, some of it is the fact that they pretty much have to do everything on a lathe or 3D print it. The 3D printed bits are fortunately user-replaceable, but also feel like they are consumables and will fail over time.

Re: @Vimstory 's point about the SR1a’s build quality, they prioritize modularity. The headband is soft because a user can physically bend it outward or inward, and it will stay in shape at the size that best relieves pressure. The pads are individually user-replaceable, and that’s part of the adjustment. You can easily fabricate your own headband with $15 of leather and a hole punch, add padding on your own, or replace the headband entirely since it’s held by nothing but threadlock.

The idea is that you use them, throw them around in a studio, maybe occasionally blow a driver because you run them with cheap stage amps on-the-go, and once something breaks you just overnight parts over and you’re up and running the next day. No other headphone (with the possible exception of the Mysphere) is capable of that.

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Just came back from a barbecue party with local audio pals. It is always nice to chat, drink, and eat – a perfect way to enjoy Sunday afternoon!

Back to the context of this thread, at today’s mini meet, I luckily hooked up SR1a with a couple of (three, actually) interesting amps.

Aside: the stock carrying case is robust but damn heavy and big. I have to consider a smaller and public-transportation friendlier bag for sr1a. :thinking:

Anyway I could hear Benchmark AHB2, Pioneer M-22, and Cary 300SEI. Interesting to see the variation: high power solid-state (class H), low power solid-state (class A), and low power SET (class A).

JBL Nanopatch was used as a passive pre at my request. Also these amps were sourced by Benchmark DAC2 (the one with volume pot). Some sophisticated Ethernet-based digital connection was used… but I didn’t care much. Finally love tidal for enabling me consistent testing tracks! I also carried sony 1000xm3 (precisely equalized via PEQ) to regularly reset my perception of tonality.

Unbalanced analog outputs (bypass out) were used at 8.2 dbu.

Gain was basically set to obtain 80 db spl on average on sr1a end. Needless to say, I tried not to exceed each amp’s input sensitivity. Interestingly all these three amp had similar voltage gain (regardless of their big difference in power output) around 23db. Setting pre-gain was pretty easy (-30 to -35 db).

Below are from my notes:

AHB2

  • Tested with high gain mode (23db of voltage gain)
  • Sounds like THX789 with steroid in a better way than HPA4.
  • I like its quietness, black background, and clarity.
  • Also had one of the best transient character. Fast and a bit edged (but surprisingly not aggressive – rather polite) leading as well as responsive decaying.
  • Macrodynamics was not bad but microdynamics (and microdetails) didn’t seem to be resolved coherently to my liking – the flattest and the most boring among these three amps.
  • Didn’t stage well either. Width not bad. But I wanted to hear more depth and distance.
  • My impressions seem quite consistent with what I heard this amp years ago. The owner’s speaker (Salk Veracity) revealed the issues above, too, but to much less extent than SR1a.
  • Could be a good pick for those looking for THX789-ish but not my cup of tea

M-22

  • The unit I heard today was very clean (appearance-wise) for its age… Can’t believe it was an amp of pre-1990 era.
  • It sounds like a super JLH without bass problem, and with every criterion a bit improved.
  • Natural and neutral. But still remains crispness and cleanness (not as much as AHB2 though).
  • Microdynamics was fantastic.
  • A little warm but somewhat a bit dry sounding. Not a deal breaker.
  • I really like this amp (all the hypes I heard were legit!). Particularly after heard the owner bought this less than $1,000 at ebay!
  • But it seems to introduce a lot of practical challenges to own: (1) rarely pops up in ebay; (2) serious overhaul needed; (3) the owner said he replaced a lot of parts to get things right.

300SEI

  • This amp is an integrated amp but was treated as a power amp (with volume maxed).
  • No fancy or $$$ tubes (in both 6sn7 and 300b) were used in the test – at least I heard so. I don’t know tube details much except a few well-known ones.
  • 11 Wpc was definitely a non-issue in driving SR1a, at least for my uses. Confirmed again.
  • Colored and blurred among all (including my two amps), but in a very romantic way.
  • Complete departure from grain, bad textures, and stridency. This amp makes some sibilance testing tracks listenable, which I gave up playing through SR1a until today.
  • Bass wasn’t controlled well like the others. But not as rolled-off as my JLH.
  • Actually it didn’t sound well with Salk veracity probably due to its inefficiency. But more efficient (by comparison) SR1a let this amp open up.
  • Detail retrieval was a bit limited. A light hum was heard, too.
  • I will be absolutely ok with sound of this amp… but not so with typical tube amp managements – 3-5 mins of warm up, tube nervosa, etc etc.
  • Availability is not as limited as M-22, but this is not an order-today-get-tomorrow type amp, either. The unit I heard was an old production (1995~6-ish) . I didn’t hear good things for current productions (having slightly more power out).

I was deeply impressed by all of above, however listening with my Vidar now as I type this post, I realize how competitive this amp is, even stacking against legendary performers.

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What about this as a amp?

https://www.monoprice.com/product?c_id=304&cp_id=30402&cs_id=3040201&p_id=605030

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You are always welcome if you buy it and report back!

Joke aside, it is generally safe to IGNORE class D UNLESS

  • Well known amp modules
  • Combined with Multi-year experience engineers

I remember Jeff Rowland class D amp was good (but heard too long ago). Some decent modules like Ncore if implemented in the right way could be good too. But I’ve not heard those with SR1a yet. In theory, it’s extremely difficult to get things right with class D approach. Particularly compared to well-studied class A and AB (and their variants) output stages.

And as a rule of thumb, any competitive amp DOES NOT BOAST how many watts it can produce… if you see *** W in the product title, it could be a bad signal.

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