Funny, everything shows up on that page except pic(s) of the amp?
Looks like they removed the amp pictures now. it was there yesterday.
Yes, someone grabbed the wrong stock photo. Never an option to buy the amp.
I have a question for you SR1a owners…
If you play the following two songs at your maximum comfortable listening volume:
- Eluvium - Radio Ballet from 2:12 onwards
- Mogwai - Tracy from 1:17 onwards
Do you hear the headphone making any crackling or popping noises?
With the Jot R at max (edit: at 3 o’clock, not max; and only for the first song as it is very quiet) and the RME at -6 dBr, I can clearly hear crackling and popping. Especially with the first song, which is interesting because it doesn’t seem to have much sub-bass content that would particularly cause overexcursion… just piano.
When I swap the ribbons the crackling still stays mostly on the right side, and when I swap the DAC SE L/R output channels it still stays on the right side. I’m wondering what could be causing this issue, since it doesn’t seem to be the ribbons.
I’m sending it to RAAL so they can figure it out, just wondering what you all think it might be!
This is not a useful measure.
Position of the wings makes a huge difference in perceived volume.
And one of the things that drives the perception of “too loud” is distortion - and the SR1a play so cleanly that they’ll be MUCH louder than you think before this occurs.
But …
No.
I’m too lazy to do the numbers, and don’t have it hooked up at the moment to try, but I am pretty sure that you’re seriously over-driving the SR1a right there … and you might even be over-driving the input to the Jot R and clipping the input stage (which will cause all sorts of nasty issues).
Either faulty out of the box (either the ribbon or something lose/not fully seated in the carriers) or over-driven to the point of damage (which is where I’m leaning based on the above).
I don’t own the RAAL but ran both songs on Qobuz through Focal Clears – the first was recorded very quietly and I had to turn the amp up 30% for normal volume. Both songs are modulated, where the full output spectrum rises and falls. The sound is odd for Radio Ballet starting at 2:12, as modulation is quite rare in straight piano music (but routine in ‘throbbing’ EDM).
So, I think these recordings probably do require more power than others for normal perceived volume. Given the quiet source material, I’m in agreement with @Torq that something in your signal chain is cranked up.
Thanks for the input so far.
Some cursory investigation tells me that I was listening at about 78-83 dB.
If you play a quiet song at your “regular” volumes, do you still risk over-driving headphones? (I’ve actually never had this happen and I’ve driven all of my headphones quite a bit louder than this before.)
Either way, it seems the ribbons themselves are fine, since swapping them (or stereo channels) doesn’t seem to swap the crackling noises from their respective channels. Whatever the problem is, it seems to be in the Jot R or headset itself. So it doesn’t look like the issue is over-driven or busted ribbons?
No.
That’s always down to the final SPL/power level.
But the versions of those songs I found were not especially quiet (lots of versions to choose from). At my normal 85 dB listening level, I only changed my volume by 3 dB.
But without measurements or known static signals, it’s almost impossible to know what is going into your Jot R to know if you’re clipping its inputs, let alone anything else.
Just listened to both songs on the SR1a with RME ADI-2 PRO hooked up to the JotR and here are the results (sorry I don’t have a dB measuring tool):
RME Volume was locked at 0.0dB for all cases.
The numbers below are for the Tracy - Mogwai song
RME Ref Level +4dBu
No clipping indication or ribbon rattling with the JotR Vol knob @ ~4 O’clock
Ref Level +13dBu
Managed to get to 2.5-3 O’clock without ribbon rattling
Ref Level +19 dBU
Got close to 1 O’Clock without issues
Ref Level +24 dBU
Got to almost 11 O’clock without issues
With the piano song (Elivium - Radio Ballet) I got almost an “hour” less on the JotR volume pot for each Ref Level when compared to the results above.
@MrCypruz Thank you so much for these numbers! I was able to directly compare them to my unit. I’m not sure how applicable the numbers are still, because of variance in unit construction, cabling, etc, but still…
For me issues start at 12:30 or so. Anyways, thanks for the help!
I’m away from home until Sunday evening, so I can’t test… but based on the above posts I’d say something is running “hot”. Have you checked to make sure your Jotunheim R is in the proper configuration as well? Really the only switch that might affect this is the Baffle switch though…
Also maybe check your source volumes (pc/Mac)?!? But those shouldn’t create this issue… please keep us informed of the outcome from RAAL
Funny coincidence, had the same thing happen with: https://open.spotify.com/track/4eXwm4r5zEKpEN5WIZlHqa?si=uc1INHQ0SayRh0ulCwJ8dg No Mercy by Gustavo Santaolalla. Turns out the crackling was “part of the art”.
I just listened to both recordings on had on YouTube with Susvara and ZMF Pendant Amp through Bifrost 2 and Qutest DAC. They seem to have compression artifacts on youtube.
Did you try them on another service like Qobuz
Radio Ballet has something really weird going on around 2:12 on Qobuz. I cranked my amp to hear at normal volume, and it does indeed change. I think the mastering/source was misguided or in error.
I think I seeing a similar issue there mastering issue on Radio Ballet. I just listen to it on iTunes it seems to be recording and masting issues. I saw a similar issue with Johnny Cash Hurt Try it on Tidal.
Also, try it with different headphones. I am sure if I pull out the Stella it will pop out quickly on low wattage source.
I would check also Johny Cash Hurt. @ 3:00 mins until 3.28 secs they just smash into overdrive. this good section to check as well to see what your hearing.
Two-track I found clean
Try Torq test track BEYONCÉ - Platinum Edition Partition
Also The Crystal Method She’s My Pusher
Do you have a preference over either dac?
When I run the Chord DAC with the Y Cables I am running so I can feed two amp, it really my top DAC.
Greg
While the mastering on the two songs isn’t very good, I’ve never actually had any issue ever playing it on any other headphone or IEM I have owned. As in, it’s never actually caused my gear to start crackling and popping, which was the case with the RAAL SR1a.
When RAAL gets back to me, I’ll be able to let you guys know if this behavior is a quirk of my particular unit, or if it is “normal” (but I really hope it’s not, because that presents a fairly large limitation for me.)
It’s definitely not “normal”.
Even at much higher replay levels than you think you’re hitting (since I can measure mine), with relatively aggressive EQ, and challenging content, I’ve never gotten any rattling or popping or other noises that weren’t part of the recording from either of my personal pairs of SR1a, nor the demo set I had.
Do you have some means to drive them other than the Jotunheim R?