Yeah they do that for sure. It just doesn’t sound particularly big or spaceous. The AB-1266 for example sounded a significant amount bigger and more spaceous to me than the SR1a. The difference in presentation is that the AB-1266’s soundstage surrounds your head, while the SR1a’s stage is presented in front of you in a speaker-like fashion.
I do understand the appeal, it just didn’t suit my own listening preferences.
The gear I auditioned it on was M-Scaler > DAVE > Jot R.
This reminds me … where ARE the product reviews & first impressions for Audiophile-grade subwoofer chairs for headphone listening???
[Product inventors: You can have the idea for free, if you make me a beta-tester and pay for shipping.]
Just bolt a Herman Miller chair top to a SVS 16-Ultra. Both you and the wife can enjoy.
This reminded me of Howard Stern’s “Private Parts” when he has the woman turn down the treble and turn up the bass and then straddles the speaker… 
This is very interesting and another pure example of how we all hear differently. The SR1a stage sounds immense to my ears, as deep as the Susvara but significantly wider, instrument placement have a pin-point accuracy that I haven’t heard coming from any headphone to date, you can actually localize every single one within the stage and there’s a sense of an actual stage - I can close my eyes and get a realistic sense of where each instrument is and how far each musician is from one another.
I’m not sure if it’s the rig that you’re running it from or if it’s indeed a matter of how differently we hear but I respectfully disagree with your assessment about the stage. There is chance that the SR1a is just revealing the weaknesses of your chain because “it takes no prisoners” (stolen from Torq).
As for the bass, you surely don’t get the punch due to its design, it’s not relying on the cups to bring the omph, it’s just projecting the bass notes down to 33 HZ (if I recall correctly) and it’s fast, super detailed and very well textured. Do some EQ, and you can have it hitting hard (+6 to 10 db from 40 Hz down in Roon). I’ve tamed my EQ settings down to +2.5 dB from 50 Hz down.
Midrange is simply to die for, probably it’s strength along with treble. The clarity and life like presentation you get from voices, piano notes, guitar strings I’ve yet to listen from another set of cans.
I’ve spent this entire week listening to the SR1a for 8hrs+/day since Monday and the amusement that I’ve been getting is on the other spectrum of your assessment.
I might sound like a fanboy but it’s just my honest testimony of how amazing the SR1a is to my ears. I’ve heard, owned and own some TOTL cans and none of them presents as detailed bass as the SR1a , are as clear, as wide as the SR1a and they surely can’t give me that “near field” speaker like presentation as the SR1a. Once again, this hobby proves to be a conundrum of subjectivity which is what makes it interesting.
For reference here is the chain:
LUMIN U1 Network Streamer —> Chord Hugo M Scaler —> Chord Dave —> (sometimes when in the mood for tubes I put the Woo Audio WA33 as a preamp) —> RAAL-Requisite HSA-1a direct drive amp —> SR1a.
Yeah could be the chain. I’m using the Jotunheim R for it at the moment and that’s all I’ve heard it from so far.
Yeah I think you’re right about this. I think how the headphone is coupled to the head is one of the parameters for the sense of ‘punch’, and with the SR1a, it’s not really coupled in any traditional manner. This really is more like some really nice nearfield monitors right next to my ears haha.
I should add that the stage on the SR1a is “record-dependent”. It doesn’t make everything sound “big”, it portrays the recording as it is, listen to a small jazz trio in a small venue or to a full blown orchestra in a huge auditorium and you’ll get a sense of space based on the number of mics used and how they were placed during the recording as well as a sense of the size of the venue itself. I listen to experimental jazz, typically small trio bands and I never get a sense of “lack of space”, on the contrary, it makes me “visualize” how they were positioned relative to the mic(s) and how the recording “interacts” with the room (studio/venue) or in other words, how the studio/venue might have affected the recording. This is how I hear the SR1a, and it might greatly differ from other people’s experiences and it’s totally fine.
I would totally agree. I think the chain has everything to do with the experience of these earfield monitor. I would suggest people have a listen to the Raal HSA1 to see what these cans are capable of.
I think you may have a different impression with the Raal HSA1 or the SPL s800.
I personally really enjoy my JotunheimR, but, can concur that my dual mono Vidar setup is “technically” a better setup. I really want to hear the HSA1…which might happen soon enough, but I am scared for my pocketbook lol… But, as far as diminishing returns go… I think the JotR is perfectly able to convey how good the SR1A is…
Some headphones/earspeakers just aren’t going to be everyone’s unique individual preference, while it seems like the majority of people love their RAAL SR1a, there will be plenty of people that won’t like them for any number of reasons “good or bad”
I couldn’t agree more with this, and it seems to be case based on various impressions I’ve read online. Some love them, others don’t necessarily hate them but felt “underwhelmed” because of the high expectations they probably had, caused by the rave reviews and impressions from the ones who love them.
Yeah that’s kind of where I’m at. To be clear, I do think it’s really quite good, and I am impressed by certain aspects of it. I think for treble detail and tonal balance the SR1A exceeded my expectations.
SR1a midrange is why I will always own it, and it feels odd to read that mids and bass are the “weakest point.” Very strange 
The reason I own SR1a, 1266 Phi, Utopia, and HD800 and HD800S, is that every HP I have ever owned has an Achilles Heel. Putting the right amplification with the right HP (or speakers system) minimizes shortcomings but still all will image differently, set a sound field differently, have transient capability differences, transparency and frequency response variations (coloration’s), and wearing comfort differences. Add the variations in how we hear from person to person and what we like its almost a “you can’t get there from here” proposition. And even when you get the pairing of amplification and transducer as right as you can for your preferences, your at the mercy of the recording quality.
But the search never ends for an audiophile, it’s a life long Grail Quest. I accept it for what it is and for the enjoyment of the hunt.
(If my wallet could talk it would post a rebuttal here. Fortunately it is mute.)
Hello everyone! I’m new to this forum. I’ve been reading this thread for hours on end, didn’t get to finish it all but I will! Nevertheless @Torq already convinced me, so I bit the bullet: I ordered the SR1a at moon-audio. It will take a while until I get them as I live pretty much the other side of the globe.
So here’s my story, My current Grado GS1000s powered by a decent Carat-Topaz finally gave in - I think the right driver is loose, bass is making vibration noise. So I decided to upgrade! Maybe 2 years ago I auditioned the Utopias with Chord Hugo (I think the Hugo2s were not out yet). I was mightily impressed and really wanted to have that combo. So I was about to go down to the shop to buy them, Until I read this thread 
In theory I won’t need to buy the Chord because I plan to power the SR1a with my Devialet Expert 120. I thoroughly googled for previous experience in pairing Devialet to RAALs and failed to find anyone. So I guess I’ll be the Guinea Pig! Stay tuned for my report 
I would be interested to know if the Devialet 120 can drive the Raal SR1a via the impedance box since it is a 110 watt class A/class D hybrid amp.
My Ice Edge 1200AS2 class D amp can NOT drive the SR1a via the impedance box, AT ALL. Despite its 600 watt/8 Ohm rating, it sounds extremely underpowered, so I am wondering if class D and/or SMPS does not jive well with the Raal/impedance box topology.
I should have been more specific. Maybe like below 500hz. The rest of the mids I find are also excellent.
Oh, that’s quite shocking to hear! I pretty much ‘have bet my money’ on this setup, without trying it; no RAAL dealer around here to test with unfortunately.
According to the Devialet config, it can put out 120 watt into 6 ohms. But you’re saying the SR1a box will swallow it all… 
The Sr1a are in transit, FedEx are taking their sweet time. So stay tuned until they arrive
I tried the SR1a with a Devialet Expert 200, which is supposed to deliver 200w into 6Ω, and that was not a successful pairing. It would work at low playback levels, but turning things up became problematic fairly quickly - especially with music that had lots of high-frequency content. The sound was rough and edgy (the SR1a are ruthlessly revealing and will expose any limits further up the chain). I was not able to get them to kick or slam or deliver the impact that they are quite definitely capable of, either.
I didn’t have a second unit around to test with, so I have no idea if that was an issue for that specific amplifier, or an issue with the design/implementation of the Expert 200.
With normal speakers, most of the time you’re only using a handful of watts (typically 5 or less) and it’s only big dynamic excursions, and/or stuff with lots of low-frequency content, that draws a lot of power. While that’s true of the SR1a too, the power ramp-up they require quickly becomes more than typical, efficient, speakers, so amplifiers will generally wind up working rather harder with the SR1a for a given track than they would with a normal-efficiency speaker.
That may trip up some class D designs (or related hybrids), as they often wind up in very sleek chassis with limited thermal dissipation capacity, and running harder, for longer periods, can result in limited power, either dynamically, or as a hard limit (which is one reason why class D studio amps/PA amps usually have heavily vented cases and fans in them, even though in most use cases they’ll run cold).
I suspect, but don’t know for sure, that that is what tripped up the Expert 200 I tried with the SR1a.
I can say that I’ve not had any issues with driving the SR1a with amplifiers that use SMPS. The Linn Akurate 4200, Chord Étude, and Benchmark AHB2 all have SMPS driving them and all produced excellent result, though none of them are class D, either.
Hopefully it works out fine and the issue I found was with that specific unit. Lower powered amplifiers really don’t do well with the SR1a. The AIC 10 that I saw much lauded for them elsewhere, which is a 10W design, didn’t light them up at all … even compared to a cheapy 2-channel 200W THX HT amp.
If it doesn’t … then a Vidar or a Jotunheim R both will work to drive them, and either can be fed from your Devialet 120.