Right, exactly. I have balanced in and out, but the sub doesn’t have balanced in. Good call on the Schiit SYS, though! Didn’t know about that one.
My Month With The RAAL SR1a
No formal review here. Just my thoughts and experiences in a stream of consciousness style.
My wife couldn’t care less about my Utopias. Yes, she’s tried them for a few minutes at a time to humor me, and yes, she recognizes they’re better than other headphones she’s heard, but they still only register an eyeroll and an “I’m happy you’re happy” from her.
A month ago, I found a good deal on a used Raal SR1a (+ Jotunheim R) and bought them, mostly on a whim, promising my wife I only wanted to try them out and that I’d sell them in a few weeks (as I’ve done for several amp trials). They came in, and I giddily unpacked them to the all-familiar eye roll. After getting the SR1a set up and briefly playing with them myself, I had her put them on. Silence. No eye roll. I asked, “So? what do you think?”. I never expected her reply: “Okay, you’re not selling these…”
To slightly spoil my conclusions a bit, the Raal SR1a is simply the most impressive technical audio achievement I’ve ever hung around my head. However, I don’t think they’re perfect, I am not eager to listen to all music on them, and I am not compelled to sell my Utopia (which I slightly feared before the SR1a’s arrival). Still, for the right tracks, I find them to be on a level all by themselves, looking down on the rest of the headphone world.
Chain:
- DIY fanless NUC PC running Roon ROCK
- Chord Hugo M-Scaler
- Chord DAVE
- Schiit Jotunehim R
- Raal SR1a
Comparison:
- Woo WA5-LE / DAVE headphone output
- Focal Utopia
To start, I think the SR1a are weird in appearance, and I look like a massive goon wearing them. They feel very flexy as I handle them, because the only solid piece of hardware holding the unit together is a relatively thin (1/4") strip of metal from one baffle assembly to the other, with a leather strap suspended under it. Every piece feels individually qualitative, but the sum of the parts does look a bit hodge-podge - almost like a prototype unit. That is all to say, I don’t find it to look and feel like the more polished products in this tier of headphones, like the Utopia, LCD-4, or Empyrian. Still, it’s not flimsy. Everything fits together very snugly, and the ear baffle rotation mechanism holds just the right amount; they won’t shift accidentally, but they’re also easy to adjust. To sum up, I think it’s clearly a quality piece of construction, if perhaps unpolished.
Comfort on these is fantastic. The lack of compression around your ear is very welcome, as is the lack of any heat buildup around your ears as a result of the open baffle. I also find the suspended leather headband to distribute weight very evenly over your head. As such, it’s a pleasure to wear these for extended periods without any physical discomfort whatsoever.
It took me only seconds of listening to recognize that the speed, detail, and clarity of the SR1a leaves the Utopia in the dust. This is no small feat, considering the Utopia is considered among the best for these attributes. For example, in busier classical passages with medium to large ensembles, the SR1a could pick out individual instruments and details that I haven’t heard any other headphone manage. Transients are instant, regardless of how many voices are participating. Any post-ringing that isn’t in the music is gone entirely. Put on some electronic music to be astonished by this.
The sheer accuracy of the timbre of instruments in the mid to upper frequency ranges is astonishing. I found pianos to be the most impressive, but also violins and female vocals. The incredible transients also make drums sound shockingly natural (but not over the entire frequency range).
In terms of punch and slam, the headphones actually aren’t bad. They’re not a punchy as the Utopia or many planars, but it’s not absent, as I’ve felt with some electrostats.
Macrodynamics are superlative; the SR1a have more dynamic range than any other headphone I’ve heard, and that could even become somewhat of a problem. I found myself somtimes turning them up to hear some low level detail, only to get blasted seconds later.
Though opinions and tolerances vary, the SR1a can certainly come off as light on the bass. As the flaps are widened, more disappears. To be clear, bass is absolutely audible, and extremely accurate to boot, but I still find that much of it is lost, and not only in the deep, sub-bass. More on that later. I also found the treble to be harsh at times. Between the diminished bass and the occasionally harsh treble, I decided to try EQing for the first time.
My EQ experiments started with broad parametric EQ in Roon. I was able to improve the balance that way, but having read up on some high-quality convolution filters developed by Mitch Barnett of Accurate Sound, I decided they were worth a shot. They’re not cheap ($250), but to me, it was a very worthwhile improvement. The peaky treble got completely smoothed out, and the bass improved in quantity and quality. Frankly, without Mitch’s convolution filters, the SR1a might not have lasted a week. For anybody who already owns this headphone, I cannot recommend them enough. At present, you can’t just go online and download them, but rather, you have to email Mitch (mitch@accuratesound.ca), and he’ll send you a paypal invoice, followed up by a zip file and pdf upon payment. He’s an absolute pleasure to do business with, to boot!
Still, even with the convolution filters, something wasn’t quite right. The headphones felt incomplete. As I mentioned earlier, the bass is there, and super clean, but somehow the sound of the room and of the body of instruments and voices didn’t sound full enough. I’m the last one to seek out bloomy or boomy audio, but there’s a difference between that and certain frequencies feeling like they’re entirely missing. I could kind-of get there by turning the volume up too high, but I couldn’t maintain such levels and not hurt my hearing when a big transient came along. It took me forever to put my finger on it, because these headphones are the most “natural” I’ve heard in terms of timbre, but even lower mid-bass frequencies sounded too receded compared to everything else.
Not willing to give up, I embarked on a grand experiment to pair a subwoofer with the SR1a - a KEF KC62. To pull this off, I got XLR to RCA adapters and ran the XLR outs of my DAVE to the sub, and RCA outs of the DAVE to the Schiit Jot-R powering the SR1a. I fiddled with the sub levels and crossover endlessly. I first tried crossing over around 40-60 Hz, because that’s theoretically where the RAALs roll off, but there still seemed too big of a gap. The lower mid-bass was still too receded. When I crossed over waaay higher, trying as high as 150 Hz, it actually started getting closer to filling in the frequencies I wanted, but then the blending wasn’t quite right. I have a relatively high tinkering tolerance, but frankly, I eventually got to the point where I didn’t want to adjust the sub’s level and crossover constantly, for virtually every track - and even then it wasn’t quite right.
And that brings me to my conclusion: For me, the Raal SR1a is the most impressive headphone I’ve ever heard, but it’s not quite complete enough in the ways I want it to be. Yes, it’s slightly frustrating to go back to the Utopia and really feel the lack of detail and speed, but at the same time, I find the overall listening experience on the Utopia to be more engaging (most of the time). As others have noted, the Utopia isn’t the best for any single quality, but I find it to be really really good at everything. I hadn’t planned on keeping the SR1a at all, but I came really darn close. I have high hopes for RAAL’s upcoming circumaural ribbon headphone, and perhaps a future version of the ear speaker, because they have clearly hit on something special, and I’m incredibly grateful to have had the opportunity to experience the SR1a at home.
18 Likes
Thanks @andris. What a thoroughly enjoyable read. You explain things in a way that’s understandable and I for one appreciate this.
2 Likes
Thanks @andris, for the detailed review.
I’ve never really been happy with any high-end headphone or speaker I’ve tried without equalization of some sort, so my standard setup is to use a DEQ2496 to digitally equalize the audio before going to my DAC/amp setup.
The same is true for my use of the SR1a.
I ended up using equalization related to the one that Amir discovered for his “audiosciencereview.com” SR1a review, plus bass boost starting at about 150 Hz and increasing down to 20 Hz.
The results of this made things MUCH better and matches my active speaker setup.
4 Likes
Most of my listening over the last year was on Focal monitors in a sound-treated office, but we’ve moved cities (Calgary!) and are renting until we figure out where we want to be long term. It’s a cute house, but my new office seems like it was designed specifically for terrible sound, and doing room treatment in a temporary space doesn’t make sense, so the monitors are staying in storage.
I tend to favour a more “neutral” response than the Harman curve, and value imaging more than most other headphone nerds, so I know the Raal’s were probably the best option for me because I’ve followed this (and every other) RAAL thread obsessively since their release. I’ve agonized over a few of the pairs that have shown up in the market, but I’ve never been able to try a pair and I never thought I’d spend so much on a headphone.
So anyway, they should be here on Monday (+ Jot R w/Dac), and I feel like a kid in some store. The ZMF co-pilot band should arrive next week, and I’ll probably run some experiments with a sub (or two) just for fun.
I want to thank everyone here (especially @torq) for the reviews and commentary. It took a community I trust (and headphones.com generous return policy) for me to take the leap here. I can’t wait (refreshing the tracking makes things go faster, right?)
13 Likes
Working on a review of these right now. The Jot R has a pretty hefty bass shelf built in which is mandatory to my ears. I’m also experimenting and so far have this for EQ. My biggest problem is running into pretty severe bass clipping on anything other than classical and pretty bass-light material. Anything groovy just clips - though I must say the clipping is fairly soft and benign.
I also notice a weird sensation after listening to these for a few minutes, even with EQ. It’s like the decay is so hyper fast or transients and decay are so separate in level that my ears have trouble latching onto sounds, and everything sounds muddy. I’m not sure quite what’s going on, but I’m intrigued by these for sure. They do that earspeakers thing in a way I can see many people finding very addicting, and for low level listening they are quite compelling.
2 Likes
They sounded extremely muddy, bubbly, and garbled when I demoed a set in a local store. I was not impressed at all, and thought it might have been the upstream gear. However, they may require habituation or training.
1 Like
Mine sound anything but muddy, loose. But I only listen primarily to acoustic instruments.
1 Like
I think program material and listening level is very important for these. They didn’t handle really dense material that well, but on sparse arrangements with lots of room tone, like chamber classical they seemed clear and clean.
1 Like
That’s interesting. I only heard the SR1a a couple of times, from the Jot R, at CanJam. They were far from ideal conditions but my impression of the sound was the opposite of muddy. The music came across incredibly clearly and vividly.
My experience was certainly disconcerting. I was listening primarily to classical music but I did give them a quick whirl with electronic and rock music and encountered no muddiness. My sense is that the fast transient response and the resolution, combined with the unusual staging - not quite speakers, not at all like headphones - made it hard for me to take in what I was hearing. It was, in a word, exhilarating. But that exhilaration may have made it so that I missed the muddiness you’re both describing.
It would be interesting to figure out our different perspectives and perceptions. I’m very keen to try the SR1a again and will keep an ear out for what you’re both describing.
1 Like
I noticed these seem to do well with classic rock and chamber classical. Electronic music with shorter tones and no sustained low bass seems to work well.
What did not work well was any kind of soul, funk or modern bass-heavy arrangements. Close-miked stuff, and pop was also not that spectacular.
I suppose the common thread could be stated as more mid and treble focused program material.
1 Like
Ah, yes - that’s precisely what I didn’t listen to in that audition (although my tastes do include such music). That might explain things. Thank you.
As posted above, it sounded like listening through boiling oil. McIntosh amp.
I tried some of my “not favorite songs” fatigue evaluation test tracks. Worst case scenarios. I intentionally include noise/experimental (e.g., Sleigh Bells) and things that cause me fatigue on almost every system ever tried (e.g., My Bloody Valentine). Some of these tracks have proven to sound drastically different across random headphones/speakers too (e.g., Steve Aoki).
I’d accept that some setups and content could set the ribbon drivers fluttering and thereby make them muddy. Or, the McIntosh amp was not suitable.
2 Likes
That’s a great torture test. I have a hunch that loveless is a great album but I’ve never managed to get through the entire thing. I could imagine it being murderously fatiguing on the SR1a.
1 Like
I have to also mention that I’m using the bass boost baffle step compensation built into the Jot R AND eq in this case. I find them unusably bright without both.
Can’t speak to speaker amp pairings since I don’t have a converter box on me here, though I did try some combinations, it’s been too long since then for me to really recall what they sounded like.
1 Like
I believe the McIntosh MHA150 is only rated for 50Wpc into 8ohms, and has some problems driving lower-impedance loads (in fact the manual and speaker taps are explicitly labeled for 8ohms only, unlike e.g. MAC7200 which has labels for 4ohms and 2ohms). I’ve read some reports of the MHA150 not working altogether for some popular 4-ohm speakers (KEF LS50 Metas), but nonetheless it seems likely it was ill-suited for driving the 5.6ohm load of the RAAL interface box effectively.
I’m not sure I’d characterize the Jotunheim-R the same way though, although I can see the SR1a not sounding very good when the SPLs are pushed more generally
I’m of the controversial opinion that the True Multibit option for the Jotunheim-R is actually well-suited for the SR1a for casual listening as it takes a lot of the edge off. They would otherwise be too distracting for me with a better DAC in an office environment.
1 Like
A ribbon can’t physically move the same volume of air as a cone or planar magnetic. Your not going to get the same quantity or quality of bass. Those videos of woofer cones pumping back and forth…I don’t see that happening with a ribbon. As for planar magnetic drivers, the surface area is very large compared to that of these ribbons. That’s just the physics of it. Pushing the volume is only going to stress the amp and bass output limits of the ribbon. Excessive highs in any devise seems to suppress the bass and vice-versa.
My 2 DACs are both multibit (Yggy 2’s) and so are the one constant in both my rigs, along with CD’s only for source material. I went with multibit because of the brightness or metallic quality I hear at higher levels of loudness in particular, and by comparison, with the several Delta Sigmas I own(ed) and auditioned in my rigs.
But everything in the chain can have an impact from the type and quality of the source device/material, all the way to the transducer.
I can drive my SR1a with a PrimaLuna EVO400 (plus interface) at 35 watts per channel in triode mode to ear damaging levels at 11 o’clock on the volume dial depending on the recorded level of the source material, and they do vary widely . I also have the direct drive JOTR (which sounds best to me well warmed up) and HSA-1b (that runs so cool to the touch it seems it never gets warm). All are satisfying to me with the SR1a. And I’ll grab RAAL’s new direct drive tube amp as soon as it becomes available.
And I use EQ most of the time for my personal satisfaction when listening but only need to adjust the 20Hz band on my Loki+ or Lokius.
I think music genre selection has a major influence as well. I listen to classical (full blown orchestral down to solo piano), classic rock, some metal, and electronic as well as acoustic film soundtracks and have no problems with the SR1a at the levels I listen at. As for some more current genres that I don’t listen to, the constant background, visceral thumping, underpinning the music is way over the top level wise for me and does sound muddy. Loud for sure, impactful for sure, air moving for sure, but muddy to my ears. And I suspect those genres might be best served with conventional or planar magnetic drivers. But to each, their own.
And that’s why there is no “One Phone To Rule Them All”!
6 Likes
RAAL has the PDA - 1a Planar & Dynamic Headphone listed on their product page.
The VM - 1a tube amp for their SR-1a / CR-1a ribbons is the one I’m waiting on.
Could be a while. In a previous post at Head-Fi Alex indicated he needed to re-design the transformer mountings and packaging.
1 Like
DOH!
Also just noticed that pick is for the PD"A"-1a. Was wondering where the toobs were, but that will be the PD"T"-1a.
The PDA-1a might just be the HSA-1a minus the ribbon drive section of the amp.
Hi All,
I thought I’d share an update on my SR1a experience since it has been constantly improving. After actually listing them for sale with no takers, I fortunately put them back on my desk. I quote @andris above because one of the improvements I made was to get Mitch’s convolution filters. I share his endorsement.
But to back up, the first thing I did was to get Roon. This has changed many aspects of my listening for the better, but first was to make EQ so much more simple than I had been doing previously. Not to mention the interface is fantastic. Most importantly it offers a plug and play option for the convolution filters from Mitch. There are other free filters out there, but the first one I tried cannot hold a candle to Mitch’s. As an aside, I applied Oratory’s EQ to my Eikon and have never loved them more. The Eikon offer a perfect contrasting experience to the Raal, with good isolation and thunderous bass! However I did not find an EQ profile (or manage to make my own) that improved the SR1a better than Mitch’s filter.
Second, I went back to the well and got a Bifrost 2 (I had sold my first one). The Bifrost 2 and Jotunheim R are a great combination for the SR1a IMO. They add bass energy that no other DAC I have tried does. I hope to try an Yggy soon for comparison, but the BF2 is a great DAC and I find myself tempted to use the “synergy” word for the first time. I did own the HSA1b for about half a year but didn’t try it with a BF2, I was using a Matrix Element X and others at the time. I prefer the BF2/JOTR combo to the HSA1b as I used it, and I did own both amps at the same time. This allows a lower barrier to entry for the SR1a, although the HSA1b does fulfill other functions, like conventional headphone and efficient speaker amplification.
Finally, today, I received the Raal “Deluxe” cable which Danny prefers with the JotR. It is a silver/copper hybrid apparently. It is not profound, but to my ears adds some liquidity to the treble and upper mids, taking that last bit of edge off the top the convolution filter may have missed or is emphasized in some recordings. It’s also on sale…
All this is to just say I’ve fallen in love with the SR1a again. Maybe my lighter wallet makes me more inclined to do so! But I do think the other actions have contributed to what I consider an even more enjoyable headphone. As I was so close to selling them and continuing to look for the “one to rule them all” headphone, I have settled nicely back into them and the ZMF Eikon as a duo that covers everything for me.
I cannot compare the SR1a to Utopia, Susvara, Abyss, LCD 4/5 etc. But what I hoped to share was an evolution of my own listening with them over a year with various equipment and to state this combination of things makes them even more amazing than they are off the shelf.
Happy Listening.
12 Likes