Listening to the SR1a + HSA-1b right now and it’s always a pleasure. It’s hard to listen to other headphones anymore, good as they are. In my speaker-based system I have a very nice DAC with headphone amp, listen with HEDDphones, which are really fantastic, but it’s just not the same.
I listen to a mix, but mostly acoustic or classical guitar, solo piano and space/ambient/psybient - all are served well with the SR1a earspearkers.
The DAC connected to the RAAL system is a Resolution Audio Cantata 3.0, originally purchased in 2007 and upgraded since then. I recently had DSD 128 capability added and while I have few DSD albums they sound amazing; they are clearly better than even high res recordings and the RAALs communicate that.
I originally purchased the SR1a ear speakers with the Schiit amp, and recently switched to the HSA-1b. I prefer the HSA-1b. The Jot R had an energy in the treble that my ears did not like. To be fair, it sounds fantastic and drives the RAALs perfectly. But overall the HSA-1b sound better rounded: treble that does not grate and better bass.
Back to original point, there are a lot of very good headphones out there, but the experience of the RAALs is so very different that the concept of headphone changes.
I am a happy owner of a SR1a and Jot R and made my purchase decision based on my reading of this forum. I am therefore very grateful to it and to its members. One of the distinctive feature of the SR1a is said to be its imaging capability. While I find its overall coherency and transparence exceptionals, I must say that I do not obtain any real imaging. The sound is very much located on my ears, irrespective of the angle given on each side. Is there anything in particular to be done to improve imaging?
Many thanks in advance.
All the best
If you’re talking about lateral imaging, it could be down to balance, unequal cant, height of the drivers relative to your ears and/or vertical alignment respective to the profile of your ear/face.
If you’re talking about depth-wise spatialization, then the above are also factors, but so is the distance of the driver from your ear. Here you want to start with the wings at about a 45 degree angle relative to your ear and then slide the headset forward (i.e. moving away from your tragus and towards your eyes).
Once you get a depth-wise projection, you can fiddle with the angle of the wings to suit.
This all assumes, of course, that the recording(s) you’re using were using were recorded/produced in a manner that preserves the necessary left/right channel separation in the first place (so a single-mic’d piece won’t exhibit depth-wise spatialization/localization, typically neither will electronic music).
Imaging or a 3 dimensional sound stage/field in front of you? With speakers (or live) you have L-R and R-L information going to each ear in addition to the L and R information. Without that, sound stage and imaging will be affected.
If you were to draw a straight line through your head from center of chin to top of skull the two halves would not be equal in appearance, shape or dimensions. In particular the eyes and ears would be at slightly different heights and distance from the center line of the nose. Ears are generally not the same size in the vertical and horizontal and in height of the ear canals which could be at slightly different positions on each side of the skull. Additionally the shape of the ear canals and how they run in may not be identical. And to make things worse it’s unlikely both ears will respond identically to a frequency test by an audiologist.
With a dynamic driver or planar magnetic (or Electrostat) I position the cups so my ears feel equally installed inside each cup with the ear pad around the perimeter of the ear. These drivers generate sound over the size of the driver / diaphragm and fill that ear cup.
Now take the SR1a, you don’t have that much physical feedback as the points of contact are the 2 narrow vertical pads on either side of your head roughly in the upper jaw area and the ribbon is a narrow vertical line source.
Place the phones on in the normal positions you use that feels right. Play, say, a 1KHZ test tone, white or pink noise that’s in phase and recorded equally loud in both channels. (A centered vocal soloist would work as well, provided he / she was recorded on center - that’s why I like some pink or white noise). Hold the right wing in place and move the left wing in very slow steps fore and aft. Do you find a spot where it really locks that test tone in the center of your head which differs from your usual placement. Now repeat the same test holding the left wing firm and moving the right wing. This is the ultimate balance control. The splay of one’s ears and degree of open or closed wings could have an effect as well. If each wing is parallel to each ear that should work well enough.
That’s been my experience with channel balance and the SR1a. My dynamic and planar magnetic drivers don’t really have enough “comfortable” space inside the ear cup to make a lot of placement changes with my ears but because they do seal around the ears the way they do the chances I’m less likely to run into a channel balance / imaging issue.
Once I lock that center position for say a test tone or solo singer, the sound stage(such as it is with HP’s) really improves and imaging may as well. It only takes a few seconds for me to hit that spot on the fly now because of familiarity and knowing what I’m trying to do with placement, and what I know I can and can’t achieve with an earphone.
Just some random musings on the SR1a and how I fine tuning channel balance. Something worth trying and there’s no cost involved!
Many thanks for this information and explanation. I will try as you suggest.
| Torq Retired (Former Managing Editor) Founding Member & Core Team August 11 |
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If you’re talking about lateral imaging, it could be down to balance, unequal cant, height of the drivers relative to your ears and/or vertical alignment respective to the profile of your ear/face.
If you’re talking about depth-wise spatialization, then the above are also factors, but so is the distance of the driver from your ear. Here you want to start with the wings at about a 45 degree angle relative to your ear and then slide the headset forward (i.e. moving away from your tragus and towards your eyes).
Once you get a depth-wise projection, you can fiddle with the angle of the wings to suit.
This all assumes, of course, that the recording(s) you’re using were using were recorded/produced in a manner that preserves the necessary left/right channel separation in the first place (so a single-mic’d piece won’t exhibit depth-wise spatialization/localization, typically neither will electronic music).
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