So, I’ve had almost crippling curiosity about the SR1a since I first got into the hobby. I heard them at CanJam, but that was pretty much a worthless atmosphere for the least isolating headphones there are. I just needed to at least try them at home, with my own chain…
I’ll give it a few days and report back!
Last comment on this and I’ll move it to my Taboo write up.
After talking with Steven Decware, his explanation was that in a nut shell, that nobody has perfectly symmetrical hearing, no headset is perfectly symmetrical and the way music is mixed isn’t always, again, perfectly symmetrical which is why he designed this amp with volume controls for the left and right. There was additional distortion when you combined the two signals into one pot and separating the left and right channel helped removed that distortion if you will call it that.
In regards to lucid control and extraction. Lucidity gives the ability to hear the left in the right channel and vice versa as earlier mentioned. This amp was designed around lucidity and the ability to bring what I believe was described as out of phase to the forefront. When music is mixed, between channels, you can hear each channel. If a guitar was on one channel and a drum on another, you could each in each channel. Mixing or mastering, I’m sure there is a better way to describe it, I’m an IT admin not a music or mastering engineer, removes the bleed over from each channel, what is out of phase. These amps are designed around bringing that sound back out of the mastering, immersing you in the music, placing you center stage with the band around you.
This is a way of remastering a recording and that was his (Steve’s) goal when he made this amp and never intended to sell it. It was considered Taboo to remaster music with an amp.
Hopefully I was able to recite what Steve explained to me, we all know how when you tell someone a story and that person tells a story, it changes. I tried to keep it the way described and tried to take notes on it.
With the flexibility and the ability to change the music, I think he hit the nail on the head with this amp (and pre amp), just my two cents.
Oh boy, time to get the popcorn ready.
I just got one myself, looking forward to building it.
Took the plunge. Wasn’t sure the expected improvement upgrading from the Clear MGs would be worth it but gave it a shot.
Wow - it’s like a photo that you thought was perfectly clear is snapped further into focus. Separation improved; detail improved; an overall less muddy sound. Possibly an improved (or at least more to my liking) soundstage. And this is all in comparison to the Clear MGs, which I absolutely loved.
I’m planning to spend a ton more time with these new babies, but the relationship is off to a great start.
I’ll give you $50.00 cash right now for the Clear MG. 
Jokes aside, congratulations on reaching Summit-Fi level. Enjoy!
Enjoy them! They look great.
That’s good to hear - I’d worried that the same soundstage as the Clear on the Utopia would make it a less appealing upgrade. You’re a bad influence 
Congrats on reaching Utopia. I’m glad you’re enjoying it so much!
It’s interesting - when instruments are better separated from each other, I think the perception is that of a much wider soundstage. I don’t know if that’s the case, as I said, but it is a more pleasing presentation.
My wife, who sometimes does not perceive differences that I do, put these on for about a minute and said “you’re keeping these.”
Can I sleep on your amazing offer?!?!?
ROFL. But of course! 
I completely agree. If the imaging on the Clear weren’t so precise and specific, I’d probably find it too closed in. It’s a neat trick.
Edit: also, people don’t comment much on the appearance of the Utopia these days, since it’s been around for a while, but it really is a beautiful pair of headphones. The gimbals of the chassis remind me of the wheel arches of Porsche 911s with low-profile tires.
I wholeheartedly agree it’s a really beautiful headphone. I would love to own one.
It truly needs to be experienced in person IMO - gorgeous headphone.
New (to me) BHA-1 has arrived and so far it’s fitting in quite well with my chain. Gonna give it a few days before switching back to my iCan to figure out which one will be sticking around for the long term.
Initial impressions though is the depth of staging on this amp is excellent and very punchy in the low end. Reminds me a bit of the FA-10 I had for a while with a bit more edge to it. Also the gain and volume pot is a bit odd, 10:00-3:00 on the dial is barely any adjustment in volume but it ramps up very hard after that, a tip from the previous owner was to just keep it at noon on the dial and use my dac preamp which has been working well enough.
Enjoy, I do like mine. The big advantage of using the balanced outputs on the BHA1 is the doubling in output voltage, because, as you have two class A amplifiers driving the output rather than one. This doubling in voltage actually results in a 4 times increase in power, since power is proportional to voltage squared.
This applies to both the 3-pin XLR connectors and the 4-pin XLR connector.
Enjoy, I drive my HD 800s and HD820’s and others with this amp.
This seems to be a murky issue (at least for me) since power is defined as voltage times current. But apparently it depends on whether there is constant current or variable current because sometimes the power is related to voltage squared. I don’t know how this applies to amplifiers.
Yeah, power is actually current squared times the resistance not voltage
E(Voltage)=I(current)xR(Resistance)
P(Power)=IxE
So, P= IxIxR
That’s why power lines are so high voltage. The higher the voltage, the lower the current so less power is consumed in transmission.
If you double the voltage and the resistance stays the same, the current doubles as well, which is where the square comes into play.
Say you add 2 volts to a 2 ohm resistive circuit.
2volts = 1 amp x2 ohms
power is 1x1x2= 2watts
Double the voltage 4 volts = 2 amps * 2 ohms
Power is 2x2x2= 8 watts
There’s actually more to it with alternating current but that’s the basics
