Greg,
I’ve never heard the T2 amp but I own a Birgir Mjolnir Carbon and a Stax-009S. I’ve done extensive A/B testing between the Stax rig and the SR1a driven by a SPL Performer s800 Power amp, using the Chord Dave + M Scaler as the source. The best way to describe it is to just say that the Stax Rig sounds like headphones and the SR1a is a whole new experience - it’s like listening to an ultra high-end near field monitor system (Speed, accuracy, detail retrieval, and the bass detail and texture is simply non-existent in any headphones I’ve heard to date).
A word of “warning”: you’ll have to be patient enough to allow the ribbons to settle in order to let the SR1a unleash its full potential (specially in the lower end of the frequency spectrum < 35 Hz) or alternatively you can just use an EQ to bump the < 35 Hz by 5 - 10 dB to get a fuller sound - Please note that this is going to be temporary because after the ribbons are fully burned-in you won’t need any EQ.
I hate to be giving all this praise to the SR1a but they’re just that great and I hope that you end up liking them just like most of us. Before the SR1a, Stax (009 & 009S) and Focal Utopia were considered my favorite cans and that changed after the arrival of the ribbon beast. The experience with the SR1a was “life altering” to a point where I considered an “early retirement” from the head-fi hobby…until the release of the Sr1b or SR2a or something REALLY great that can match or surpass the SR1a.
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Great info and insight. Thanks much. This tracks with my expectations/hopes. As I mentioned earlier, I am a ribbon fan. Have been since building a full-range Strathearn ribbon system based on a Jack Caldwell design decades ago. I enjoy electrostats and planars generally. I have owned and loved Acoustats, Quads, Maggies, etc. None were quite as engaging as those nearly full-range ribbons (at least for the listener who found their relatively narrow sweet spot). So, the RAALs have got me excited even before I have opened the box.
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I haven’t turned on my T2 (or carbon) since the SR1a/Vidar came into the room 
I have turned on my Dynahi (susy)/Utopia and ECP L2/HD800s, but not for very long.
Going to buy a Jot R as soon as it’s released!
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Welcome, drunkenspyder. I’m not yet ready to move up to the RAALs, at least not with a stop along the way for some higher end STAX. I have a one-off SRM-T1S Mjolnir mod that I hope to hear with something other than my ancient SR-5Ns.
And if you like ribbons, which Maggies do you favor?
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Hello and welcome @drunkenspyder. You’ve some very nice gear there.
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Hello and welcome @askat1988.
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You should definitely consider skipping the Stax route. I have an SR404 and have auditioned all the current Lambdas and Omegas including SR009S. I just heard SR1a with Jot R this past weekend and I have no desire to hear Stax again. SR1a is remarkably different from any other headphone or earspeaker. I was very impressed and have the SR1a on my wish list.
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Thanks for the warm welcome and the good words!
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I luckily was in a postition to go ham and get the SR1a and I love the damn thing…it is the most unique sound experience I’ve had to date…
But I still 90% of the time grab my ZMFs lol
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Haha that exactly sums up my time in this hobby. I think I have something around 20 headphones right now. And a lot of it in the high end to TOTL range. But every time I just end up listening to the ZMFs for most my time. I recently grabbed my Stax setup in order to do comparisons for the ESP95X impressions. After dusting off my Stax I realized I haven’t even turned them on in over a year, maybe close to two years.
As much as I would love to have the SR1a in my collection I know it most likely won’t get the head time a Verite closed would get. So I’m looking to buy one of those first. And then of course next in line will be a TOTL tube amp…just can’t decide between EC, DNA, or Glenn.
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I ordered the Raal SR1a last week and should get them Tuesday. I will attempt to drive them with my 60wpc Allnic A6000 Quad-Parallel 300bxls tube monoblocks or I might consider the Jotunheim R for both practicality (eliminating the Interface Box) and for sonic reasons (extra power and bass).
I’m very impressed Schitt is on top of this and offering a well priced product for this niche within a niche!
-Jonathan
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Hello and welcome @John_Galt.
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I was tempted to pull the trigger of Sr1a using Rogue Cronus Magnum II.
But I am going to be out of town for 3 weeks until middle of December.
Thus I had decided to wait for the release of Jotuheim R.
Welcome to the forum.
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Thanks for the kind greetings!
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Well. Damn. See, can’t even utter a complete expletive sentence. I’m impressed. I got hold of the Vidar today [decided to go ahead and buy rather than borrow one, since my friend and i could not arrange the handoff]. Got ready to hook everything up, but . . . first problem: I have no unbalanced outputs in my headphone rack. I have unbalanced outs available in my speaker system room, but I didn’t want to test the RAAL there. So, I found my Lumin A1 DAC—I knew there was a reason I was hanging on to it!—found some good ICs, and set about to hooking everything up. One might argue that using the Lumin, rather than the MSB Select DAC that feeds the Stax, puts the SR1a at a disadvantage; maybe so, but the A1 is a pretty musical device. Actually took less than a half hour, including the firmware upgrade for the Lumin [from version 7.x to 11.x], but the huge upside for me doing that is that the Lumin is now Roon-ready and doesn’t require a UPnP server like Minim. It’s a bit of a mess on the headphone rack, so apologies on the appearance. So, I have a Lumin that hasn’t been powered up in over two years, a brand new SR1a, a brand new Vidar, etc. Played these tracks from the Roon Nucleus+:
- Jesse Cook/Baghdad
- Jesse Cook/Mario Takes A Walk
- Jesse Cook/Fall At Your Feet
- Dead Can Dance/Yulunga
- Dead Can Dance/The Wind That Shakes The Barley
- Dire Straits/One World
- Verdi/Requiem [Telarc Robert Shaw recording]
- Qua Continuum/Ten
- The Valence Project/Heart Drum
- Cowboy Junkies/Blue Moon Revisited
- Fiona Joy Hawkins/Ghosts Insanity Angels
Wow. Now, the SR1a feels very odd on my head, and I suspect there is some better fitment I can obtain. They also seem sensitive to quick movement [when I turn my head quickly to the left, the right ear speaker briefly lifts, and I lose that sense of spatial illusion briefly], but the sense of spaciousness, and real bass are just amazing. Female vocals and piano are impressively realistic. And the air, wow. But I said that already. I’ll say it again, the sense of air and separation between instruments and voices is spectacular. I have done zero comparative listening against any of my Stax or the Utopias. I may not need to. I can’t wait to hear these on a direct drive amp. For now, I have them all breaking on a full shuffle of Dead Can Dance.
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I’ll have my SR1A by 10:30am tomorrow morning. I took the day off to enjoy them. I’m so excited to hear them. I sure hope the Jotunheim R gets released very soon! I wish we could get on a preorder list.
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Greg,
Welcome to the SR1a club! I strongly recommend you to acquire some dust covers for your electrostatic headphones as they won’t be used as often as they were before. Lol. E.N.J.O.Y.
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Got my Sr1a a few hours ago. These are quite special. Even with only 60wpc of tube power they deliver a good deal of what I’m after save for some minor softclipping on bass notes on loud techno. Jazz, Blues, Vocals, concertos and other smaller pieces of music are pure magic on these things. I definitely want to get my hands on more power and can’t wait to get the Jotunheim R when it’s released.
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Anyone have an estimate on when this would be released?
