An interesting thing you can do with headphones this 'open' is some people keep their subwoofers on while using these. I've tried it and it's okay. I probably wouldn't trust things to be completely flat or easily measurable with a mix of a subwoofer or two + headphones, but it can make it more fun.
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One thing that is great about the raals for professional-type use is if you're stuck using them for hours on end editing things or something: you won't get super sweaty ears like regular headphones. As far as the price: for me it was cheaper to buy a used pair of raals and use a switcher for my speaker amp than buying a high end stax setup + spendy ESL headphone amp you can only use with electrostatic headphones)
Thank you very much sm5 for having found a solution to the problem of the absence of bass with these headphones (BTW thank you also for confirming Amir's measurements showing that their frequency response and distortion levels are severely deficient in the bass) and for sharing on the forum this solution you found. So if I understand you correctly, it would consist in using a switcher and one or two subwoofers to produce bass.
But his makes me wonder.
While I mainly listen through headphones, I am aware of some drawbacks: being cable-bound, which entails a lack of mobility and a requirement to take the cable into account for my gestures or limited body motion (even as simple as picking something up from a drawer or from the floor next to the listening chair); the hassle of having something crushing my haircut; perspiration at hear cut with hot weather; not being able to let other people listen together with me, etc. But the last one is actually the reason why I and many need headphones: I am not alone and can't impose my music on other people in my family nor on my colleagues at work (and, for those living in an appartement, to their neighbors).
What would then be the point of headphones requiring the use of a subwoofers, leading to everyone hearing the music? And the low frequencies produced by subwoofers are those which propagate the furthest and are the least reduced by floors and walls.
Then if I would need subwoofers, I would just listen with my hifi setup in my living room. Or use my studio monitors in my study.
It seems to me that headphones like this, I mean headphones requiring to be complemented by subwoofers to sound right, defeat the very reason which most people need headphones, don't they?