Ok, finally got a rats nest going, RCA cables mismatched and everywhere. While I figure out my preferred pairings.
I did Airist R-2R -> Vidar -> SR1A and really liked it! Added a bit more “musicality” to the mix. But still felt like it was missing something.
added to the chain: Airist R-2R ->Cayin HA-1A MKII(pre-out)->Vidar-SR1A
Now this, sounds good! I noticed more warmth, muciality, and generally it is more easy listening experience. It reminds me of the Verite on Steroids… Oh and Michters American Whiskey is in the chain somewhere too
I must say, I really do enjoy these. They aren’t necessarily an everyday headphone…but damn are they something to experience. It is really hard to not crank up the volume, both for enjoyment and that it doesn’t get painful until it is way past damaging lol…good thing I keep my sound level meter on hand.
I have found my sweet spot is just around 80db…but I still find myself reaching for the volume up!up!up!
Hi guys , how is it going ? Now that you have put the SR1a through the paces for longer are you still enjoying them ? It’s been a suspicios silence around here lately , lol.
I would love to know your updated impressions .
I honestly love them…I really enjoy them with my Cayin Ha-1a MKII as a pre-amp (tubey/goodness).
I’m waiting on the Freya+ to get a tuxedo, then I’ll pick one of those up to replace the Cayin in the chain.
The fit has been resolved for me, I have it so the front cylinder pads sit right in front of my ears, and my “ear-hole” is dead center of the speakers, then I angle them out. 10-20 degrees, maybe more, maybe less depending on track, and mood.
The more time I spend with them, the more I want to.
They’re still driving further reductions in my headphone collection. That may wind up going even deeper than I first thought (which was pretty deep … from 22 cans down to an initial thought of maybe keeping 5). And the two or three pairs of new high-end cans I was thinking about adding to my collection this year are looking far less likely at this point.
Every single person I know that has tried them properly, has bought them.
Outside of writing up a proper review, or getting a new amp in to run them on and comment about, I’ve largely been focused on just using them to enjoy music. Even when just intending to have some background music while I am working on something … most of the time, once I fire them up, whatever else I might have been planning to do goes by the wayside and I just wind up focused on, and lost in, the music.
And new gear has been coming in, which has been a distraction both in terms of listening and commenting.
Transcendence To Another Realm: RAAL-requisite SR1a
The key to transcendence is to combine the right technology with 100 watts straight through the brain. In the resulting state of zapped stupor^H^H^H^H^H^H bliss, EVERYTHING sounds better than the creators and producers ever experienced or dreamed possible!
Great to hear that ! Keep enjoying them. I have already decided to pull the trigger , however i have to wait until Sept 14th that i am travelling to the States to take them back with me. Cant’t wait !!
Thanks for your opinions.
Ok, question, I’m look into the Freya + and I wanted to know, why don’t more preamps or passive preamps have more outputs? The Freya for instance has 2 balanced inputs, and 3 RCA inputs, and only one of each as an output…I personally would rather have the opposite, I’m sure there is a reason for this, and was curious if anyone had a solid answer regarding it? Also I’m being lazy and not researching it on my own…well while I wait for you fine folks to answer…to the internets!
Most (likely >95%) systems/users only drive a single, stereo, speaker from their pre-amp.
And if you need more outputs, because you’re generally going to be feeding a power amplifier - which generally have high input impedance (typically >10KΩ) - you can use simple splitter cables if you need to drive more than one.
so I finally put the SR1A on my head for the first time in a week…for shame, I know, I know! But life has been pretty busy lately…
Anyhow…why do I even bother listening to anything else… Just good!
Damn… I’m pretty sure these are breaking my headphone collection pretty bad. Luckily, I like new shinies! Lol.
But even still…I think I will be hard-pressed to not get rid of everything except my ZMFs and these and probably the CA Cascades (they are my go-to in bed and Nintendo Switch playing headphones) oh and the Elegia for work closed backs. But as far as straight enjoyment, listening, these are pretty ridiculous…I want to start optimizing my chain for them (not as crazy as the mad scientist @Torq, but on a smaller scale lol) I’ll probably do the dual mono Vidar next (thank you @Torq for that) and grab the Freya+ maybe down the road look at the SPL amp…
I’m listening to Kygo right now…Kygo…EDM…and these are making me not want to move and just get lost. I’m going through my Spotify tracks and manually seeing what is on Qobuz (yes there are services that do it automatically, but it is fun finding old tracks and listening to them).
Schiit is still exploring a direct drive amp for the SR1a, Jason posted today on HF:
A brief update on the “Weldenheim” project: the prototype direct-drive amp is now clipping at 10A per channel, both channels driven, into the Raal SR1a headphone load. It plays very loud and works as a one-box solution. The chances this will become a product have increased significantly. However, there’s still a long road to production, starting with talking to Raal/Requisite to make sure they are cool with this craziness, and to make sure the amp will work with whatever their future product plans may be. So don’t throw away your Vidars yet!
Now, as to why we’re chasing this niche product, here’s the thing: I learned quite a bit about amp design in general, in the process of tweaking a product to deliver huge amperage into very low impedance loads. There’s a long-standing joke in amp design about “driving a screwdriver.” The Raal headphones are pretty much a screwdriver. And delving into all the tweaks necessary to increase power transfer efficiency means that we now know much more about this aspect of amp design–and will likely apply this knowledge to other products in the future.
I will definitely be trying this out as and when it is available.
While I suspect it’ll cost more than a Vidar, if only due to economies of scale (or lack thereof), you’ll saves on a pre-amp, and this would be something I could put in the office or on the boat without taking up a bunch of extra space (since from what I’ve heard this could be in a Jotunheim sized chassis) or needing another set of cables.
So, after three hours of reading this entire thread a box appeared with the invitation to “join” the forum. Why not?! Since I do have some questions. I know @torq owes us a review, so perhaps some of my questions will (have to wait to) be answered when he finishes – and publishes.
I currently stream from a Cary DMS-500 streamer/DAC (which of course happily accepts a digital signal from my CD player). No laptop or conventional computer system is in the music chain. As soon as it is in production, I’ll be trying the EtherREGEN, which is essentially an audiophile grade switch. I already have a dedicated 120v line supplying an IsoTech Sirius EVO3 Power Conditioner.
I’ve borrowed a small tube-based headphone amp from a local fellow-enthusiast to power my stop-gap measure Mr. Speakers Ether 2 headphones, but I’m currently working towards an “ultimate” system. (HA!)
I’m leaning towards either the MySphere 3.2 or Raal SR1a headphones – of course a significant amplifier investment is waiting on which choice I make…
Relating to the Raal headphones, let’s start with amplifiers:
In some kind of order, I’ve read about the Macintosh MA252, Benchmark AHB2, Vidar, Vidars in monoblock form, Linn AK 4400 (for use with the SR1a headphones I assume one would go for the AK2200), Phonitor Performer s800, and Chord Etude. Is there a consensus yet? Are there others to consider?
A friend of mine really likes his Pass Labs amplifiers (to power his Quad electrostatics); I see their Class A INT-25 offers 25 wpc into 8 ohms with a slew rate of 100us – and their lowest priced power amplifier outputs 30 wpc. When looking at Class A amplifiers, how would one determine how much power is enough? Or is a Class A amplifier a non-starter with the SR1a headphones?
I read on Head-Fi about a couple of guys using a Spectral pre-amp and amp; I presume this setup is spectacular… since this amp/pre-amp pairing starts around $10K?
My amp and preamp (if necessary) budget is around $6K, but I’d be happy to spend less! With Pass Labs (and maybe some others) I’d happily purchase a used amp or combo.
Preamplifiers:
My limited experience with running an amplifier directly from my DAC showed that it worked just fine, but the inclusion of a preamp always yielded “better”, or more satisfying, results. With the SR1a headphones, in a top-shelf system, is a pre-amp a necessity?
Equalization:
I think I might forego this, at first, but is there a way to integrate this into a (really) high-end system without degrading sound quality? This going on the premise that every time you add a component there is usually some reduction in sound quality.
Finally, how does the SR1a headphone compare to the MySphere 3.2 headphones? (I’ve listened to the Stax SR-009s coupled with both the KGSSHV Carbon and the Blue Hawaii – spectacular in its own way but I’m not going that direction.)
This is actually an awfully interesting time to be getting into headphones (even though I’ve been piddling at it for two years now). Before, the choice was between flagship dynamic headphones and electrostatics; now there are two other entries that seem to have a lot of appeal.
Welcome @DelsFan to the forums. I’ve been curious as to how these compare to the MySphere as well. I’m sure someone will chime in with a comparison. Happy listening!
I won’t be able to give comprehensive answers to all of your questions in one go, and some will, as you suspect, have to wait for a final review, but I’ll hit the highlights:
I can’t imagine you’ll ever get consensus as to which amplifier is best - it’s going to vary for everyone based on, at a minimum, other aspects of their system and their personal tastes. I can rank those mentioned, and a few others, in descending order of my preference (best first), though.
The Linn/Chord units sound more similar than not, surprisingly. I’d choose based on brand, form-factor and price/availability factors. I went for Étude primarily for form-factor reasons/it fitting in my Chord stack more cleanly (my speaker system is all Linn).
The Anthem is great, but bigger, heavier, more expensive, and no better than the above units.
The AHB2 is a bit on the lean side for my tastes, but it is very resolving. The dual Vidars get close on resolution and have a fuller sound, with better bass presence, for half the price, but need more space. Personally I’d likely go for the dual Vidars of the two here.
Dual Aegir’s (fun to track down at the time) were very good (though one definitely isn’t sufficient). It’s a different presentation to the Vidar, and I think the low-end suffers a bit, though the mids are, perhaps, preferable with the dual-Aegirs. Listening level might sway things here, too.
Ragnarok 2 (didn’t get much time here) has unusually good synergy with the SR1a. Despite being less powerful than a single Vidar, it just seems to mate well with the RAALs.
However, the single Vidar has the edge on grunt here.
The MA252, while a nice piece in general, doesn’t do it for me with the SR1a. It was indicating clipping at lower levels than I wanted if I had my bass-lift EQ in place (and it was needed here). It was also not as resolving as I would expect at the price … and if you’re not going to exploit the SR1a’s resolution and speed, there are other ways to go, headphone wise, that don’t need speaker-level amps.
I’m trying to land a refreshed Linn Klout as an off-the-wall option (they were fantastic with speakers), hard to track down, and will need new caps, but it’s a marvelous bit of kit (assuming my nostalgia isn’t clouding my recollection).
Other amps still on the list … though.
Depends on your music and listening level, but the power requirements don’t really change for a pure class-A amplifier vs. anything else. 100w into 8Ω or 150w into 4Ω.
I wonder if you’re confusing class AB amps and how far they are biased into class A operation?
Definitely not a non-starter. But a sufficiently good one, at the necessary power rating, will not be cheap (nor cool-running or small, and may well need fans … unless it’s built like the original, big, Krells).
Depends on your source and how it handles variable level output.
With a Linn K/SDM or Chord DAVE, the built-in volume-control/pre-amp functionality was preferable to me than the most transparent pre-amp I’ve used (Linn Klimax Kontrol - not longer made), and quite noticeably better than, say, through the pre-amp in my Phonitor X. The RME ADI-2 DAC fs has a sufficiently transparent built-in volume control too.
If you do it in the purely digital domain, sure. You can use EQ up to the same standards as used in original creating the music. It does mean having a computer in the chain somewhere.
Otherwise you have to either handle EQ in the analog domain, which has a certain purity to it, but tends to be in unnecessarily wide bands and isn’t very precise, or go through an ADC somewhere - which I would NOT want to do.
I’m back listening to the SR1a today, since the MySphere demo set is on it’s way back to Heinz. As good as the MySphere is (and they truly are excellent), the SR1a was immediately impressive all over again.
Perhaps I was confusing Class A vs Class AB with how some types of tube-based amplifiers at 30 wpc will sound as good (perform similarly to) a 100 wpc solid state amplifier.
With the Chord and Linn amplifiers coming in under 10 lbs and 20 lbs respectively, maybe (no pun intended) I can take a pass on 100 lbs of pure Class A amplification.
good!