That doesn’t happen with the multibit DAC card in the Jotunheim R (and presumably not when it is in any of Schiit’s other amplifiers, either).
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After contacting Danny at RAAL-requisite, yesterday, he’s very kindly going to be sending me an HSA-1a as soon as they are available - so that will get reviewed and compared as well.
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Had a chance to listen to these yesterday at Bloom (thanks Andrew!) - amazing resolution and soundstage. I much preferred them to the Empyreans that I also auditioned, but did notice the SR1a’s were relatively a bit light in the bottom end. The set-up was using a Schiit Vidar through the interface box, so maybe the JotR helps here? Hoping to hear them again with the JotR at CanJam NYC… One suggestion I would make to RAAL would be to have a labeled ratcheting action for the angle of the earpieces. Anyone dropping that much coin for these is going to be at least a little neurotic (like me), and would appreciate an easily repeatable setting once you get the configuration dialed in.
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Jotunheim R will bring up the bass a little vs. the Vidar w/ Interface Box.
It’s also highly dependent on how open/wide you have the ear pieces set (wider they are, the faster the bass falls off).
But the most reliable way to bring up the bass, and in particular the sub-bass, is to use a decent EQ tool (I like the DMG stuff).
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I did use Roon’s EQ and, as you’ve stated, the SR1a’s responded quite favorably. Hopefully the JotR will be enough by itself, as the “purist” in me would rather not use EQ…
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Plus, it’s got an ugly front panel.
Very ugly indeed! You can tell that it’s designed for the professional market - functionality over aesthetics for sure!
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I’ve stated this before, here and other places, that if you are in the mindset of wanting to hear the music “as the artist intended” (which I think is a ridiculous notion in the first place), then you SHOULD be using EQ with headphones (read why here).
Now, while I am an advocate for EQ for the reasons stated in that post, I fully recognize the cons regarding the physics of EQ is that there 1) could be limitations of the driver’s excursion, which adds more distortion/breakup, and 2) there could be unwanted phase shift artifacts and interactions inside the cup due to latency in the time domain. This is why I believe EQ is far more common and accepted in speakers than in headphones. So with that said, SR1a doesn’t have a sealed cup, thus no artifact interaction issues, and from what I can tell in my own experience with them and what other owners have said, there doesn’t seem to be a driver limitation issue either. So if there ever was an ideal headphone to use EQ on and not get nervosa about it, SR1a is it. Seriously, if bass quantity is your only issue and you have the ability to use EQ, it seems silly to dismiss SR1a.
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I would add … in a way I am not really in trouble with the necessity of an EQ for my living room, than I feel almost impossible to be without EQ for headphones !!!
I need at least 3 types of headphones to live … Closed Headphone for office and other travel matters, Electrostatic or assimilated like SR1A for quiet house (room or living rrom), and even IEM for planes/trains/undergrounds/etc…
I full much more comfortable to try harmonize all those headphones either with integrated EQ in Hires readers (Sony or Android/DLNA), or with real EQ hardware (I use Minidsp) at office/home.
They are already enough differences between headphones after EQ, That I would accept to keep headphones without harmonization and too significant sound signatures.
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Just to be clear, the SR1a ribbons do have limits to their excursion also. But that’s really the only thing to be aware of. At a peak listening level of 85 dB you’ve got 26 dB of room to play with, however.
When I first got mine I was running with about 6 dB of sub-bass lift and still at +4 dB coming down through 50 Hz. Though to get to Abyss like levels I upped that a bit more. I have saved profiles for them - though with most music they don’t need anything, and when they do it’s just a small sub-bass boost.
So far I’ve not encountered the excursion limits, nor any audible distortion, as a result of my EQ profiles even with spirited listening.
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Surprise! That’s what I feel every time I sit down with the SR1a’s, I am surprised at how realistic the music that I hear from them is. 
I am a long-time audiophile, and these are the pinnacle of listening that I have heard, with deep enjoyment, and without fatigue - I can listen to them for hours. I love the air around the “ear-field monitor” where the music appears to “float” in the room before me. My first foray into this type of headphone was the AKG K1000 “ear speaker”, driven by Nelson Pass’ First Watt F1. As with the SR1a, the pairing of amplification is critical. Recently, my TOTL headphone was the STAX SR009 driven by the BHSE. Although these were great headphone experiences, and brought me a lot of enjoyment, they have been smoked by the SR1a. If you haven’t had an opportunity to hear them, please do give them a listen. I would speculate that you haven’t heard anything like them.
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As an owner of the SR1a/JotR combo, and the Stax SR-009S and a T2 custom amp (and the 009, 007 mk1 and 2, and several Carbon amps), I don’t know that I would go so far as to say the SR1a “smoked” the Stax. No disrespect intended, but that sort of hyperbole just seems to me a bit of an exaggeration. Now, you might truly believe that, and that’s fine. As has been documented more than once, we all hear differently. I just don’t hear the differences quite as dramatically.
Because I’ve been a big ribbon fan for decades, I was primed to love the SR1a, and I was not disappointed. I have tried the buffer box with the Vidar and Merrill Veritas monoblocks, but I overall much prefer the JotR direct drive. And I am genuinely looking forward to RAAL’s own direct drive amp. Something tells me that, whether it’s the box or the JotR, I still haven’t heard the full capability of the SR1a. And that’s pretty exciting.
I just finished a lengthy listening session involving both the SR1a and the 009S. And I am keeping them both. And I may be about to invest in additional amplification for the 009/009S cans. Not sure. But the sound is so good, and as much as I’ve been a ribbon fan for decades, I’ve also been an electrostat slut just as long. There’s something about the Stax presentation, especially on the T2, that is just so beguiling. Is the SR1a “better”? I think it probably is, and if the RAAL amp is even more empowering, then the distance between the SR1a and the rest of the crowd may grow even larger. On a value basis, it’s unassailable.
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I think that this is the key difference for our judgement of gear, and, in this particular case…the T2 driving the 009/009S! I never heard that combo but I can safely say that, to my ears, the SR1a (either driven by a SPL Performer s800/interface box or JotR) smokes the Stax rig (009S/KGSSHV Carbon) that I used to own as well as the BHSE. The sound delivered by the SR1a “removes” the headphones out of the picture and just present the music as it is with an effortless presentation that let you dive into what the artist/producer/sound engineer intended, while the Stax had me thinking of the “beautifully colored” way that they presented the music. The SR1a just disappear from my head after a few minutes while the Stax had me always thinking of how impressive the headphones were.
I’ve heard and read extraordinary things about the T2/009or009S combo and some claim that it’s a second coming combo, simply “unbeatable” but after hearing the SR1a, I’ve somehow lost interest in finding out how that combo sounds, specially after owning the 009S/KGSSHV Carbon combo and selling it due to the arrival of the SR1a.
This is not “hype beasting” by no means, it’s just how good of a performer the SR1a is as well as how disruptive it is…so far, to me, the SR1a is the second coming!
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A bit off topic, but I find it hilarious that anyone following the link to the T2 will see a $50 IEM and wonder how it can “pair” with a 009, let alone sound like a “second coming”.
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Hahahaha! That’s funny… I’m sure you know that I was referring to the custom variants of the original T2 amp driving the Stax cans!
We do have some automatic links on the forum for sponsored gear that I believe were explained on a different thread or maybe this one…I’ll re-share it when I find it.
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Thanks for the link! I knew it must be some special amp, but I hadn’t seen or heard of it till I followed your link.
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Thanks for bringing that up. I mistakenly assumed that everybody was abreast of the different DIY/3rd Party amplification options for the TOTL Stax cans.
No disrespect taken. But I don’t feel that it was hyperbole, just my honest opinion. Like you, I have made major investments in TOTL headphones and amplification over many years. Perhaps it is the limits of my hearing after all these years, but the difference for me between the SR009 + BHSE and the SR1a + s800 was dramatic. Of course, as always, YMMV.
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I have an old McIntosh mc7300. I wonder how they would sound with that
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I hear you, even though my hearing is also not what it used to be. When I was recently demoing the dCS Rossini+Clock, another person at the shop mentioned that he thought as we aged, in addition to increasing loss of sensitivity to high frequencies, some of us become even more sensitive to timing issues.If so, it might well explain the awareness of spatial cues and sensitivity to what I think of as “realism.”
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