RAAL-requisite SR1a Ribbon Headphone Review

[tomtoo]

earlobes no shaky ...

No way to make @amirm realy happy.

 

[maxxevv]

Raal is in this for the money and have no competition in this driver type.

Actually, there is. This company was selling it online before even Raal officially announced its market availability.

https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a1z0d.6639537.1997196601.697.13f57484KOEFio&id=596834851143

 

[solderdude]

But does it really exist ?
I can't find any info about it other than TaoBao and have not seen reviews, pics, measurements.
Would be fun to have.

 

[Nango]

$3,5k and it looks as if its built with garage leftover parts and too much instant glue...

Definitely too much money around in the world, it urgently needs a reassessment.

 

[maxxevv]

But does it really exist ?
I can't find any info about it other than TaoBao and have not seen reviews, pics, measurements.
Would be fun to have.

It does. A guy on Head-fi actually bought it and seems to like it a lot.

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/chi...-ear-headphones.822184/page-418#post-15836079

Impressions

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/chi...-ear-headphones.822184/page-419#post-15837302

Another guy's impressions:

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/chi...-ear-headphones.822184/page-419#post-15846235

 

[Robbo99999]

Actually, there is. This company was selling it online before even Raal officially announced its market availability.

https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a1z0d.6639537.1997196601.697.13f57484KOEFio&id=596834851143

Damn, well they look a bit more sensible for a start!

 

[pavuol]

The industrial look with sharp edges and carbon fiber was aimed to resemble expensive exotic supercars but members here say it rather resembles some DYI garage hotrods... that is some really bad author->audience misunderstanding I suppose

 

[Francis Vaughan]

I have been sailing and racing boats boats most of my life. Carbon fibre is neither very exotic or anything special to me at all. Racing boats have all manner of bits made of carbon, some boats are end to end top to bottom carbon. It is just another composite. More expensive and more demanding than fibreglass, but not as awful as kevlar to work. Has some nice properties as well, especially ease of repair.
These headphones don't sell high priced exotica to me. They look like something lashed up in the shed one afternoon with a bit of off the shelf carbon sheet. Just like some of us might lash up a compass or race computer bracket to fit the boat. There are plenty of videos out there that show you how to make much nicer custom carbon parts than the baffles on these headphones. There are also some very exotic ways of building with carbon fibre, but these sure as heck are not using them.
The rest of the headphones look like something you might get cut out of a sheet of metal by your local laser cutting fabrication service. Overall they look like an engineering concept prototype. Put together to check ideas, but not in any way production ready.
Personally I hate the design aesthetic in so many goods we see now that glorifies bits of carbon fibre. Meaningless bling that doesn't have any actual relevance.

 

[tomtoo]

Sometimes iam bad i know but.....
https://www.hornbach.de/shop/Lochbl...s.pla.766512470.41254932861.&wt_cc1=766512470

 

[iec 60318-4]

@amirm What kind of ear simulator are you using for GRAS 45CA? I am curious if it is a new type with less 1/2 wave standing wave peak.

 

[bidn]

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.
(...)
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?

 

[Helicopter]

I have been sailing and racing boats boats most of my life. Carbon fibre is neither very exotic or anything special to me at all. Racing boats have all manner of bits made of carbon, some boats are end to end top to bottom carbon. It is just another composite. More expensive and more demanding than fibreglass, but not as awful as kevlar to work. Has some nice properties as well, especially ease of repair.
These headphones don't sell high priced exotica to me. They look like something lashed up in the shed one afternoon with a bit of off the shelf carbon sheet. Just like some of us might lash up a compass or race computer bracket to fit the boat. There are plenty of videos out there that show you how to make much nicer custom carbon parts than the baffles on these headphones. There are also some very exotic ways of building with carbon fibre, but these sure as heck are not using them.
The rest of the headphones look like something you might get cut out of a sheet of metal by your local laser cutting fabrication service. Overall they look like an engineering concept prototype. Put together to check ideas, but not in any way production ready.
Personally I hate the design aesthetic in so many goods we see now that glorifies bits of carbon fibre. Meaningless bling that doesn't have any actual relevance.

I agree. I'll just throw in that it is better than solid wood. Look at Focal Clear for outstanding design and materials.

 

[Sherwood]

I recently picked these up. While waiting for the Jotunheim R I'm powering them from a Frist Watt F5 turbo, which is likely not enough oomph to get the charger going. Given my druthers I'd likely run them off exactly what Amir's using.

I've thoroughly enjoyed them. I agree with Amir's assessment regarding bass quantity, but the quality of what is there is just outstanding. I'm a bass player and I've been through the recording process a handful of times, so while I'm usually loath to relisten to my own band's old recordings I will do it for science. The bass on my "reference" tracks sounds dead on exactly like my bass does in real life, minus some thump I don't expect from headphones in the first place.

As to looks, I'd say they look decidedly goofy, but they're a long way from cheap. I could take or leave the carbon fiber look, but it's rigid and light and both of those are good in a headphone. The leather bands are high quality, though I think a V2 iteration should include a more easily adjustable and less victorian approach.

Before the SR1a, my daily driver was an HD800S. I don't see myself going back to it.

 

[Anders V]

I bought mine with the Schiit Jotunheim R which eliminates the need for the resistor adapter box, and costs just a little more than the adapter box.
(This discussion of impedance and voltage and current and efficiency is a master class in ohm’s law, not complex — the headphones themselves are not outrageously inefficient.)
I have not heard them with the adapter box. But I saw one reviewer who complained about lack of bass and withdrew that complaint after trying the direct drive amp. I experimented with some DSP curves but found I liked them better as is. Just like I preferred my Magneplanars without a subwoofer, clarity beats whomp for me.
That said, while the clarity and “there-ness” are thoroughly impressive, after many months I find that I don’t choose them very often, other headphones are more enjoyable.
But to be fair, these are not for relaxed background music. They are for armrest-clasping, wide-open eyes, jaw-dropping immersion. Just like a live concert.

 

[The Jniac]

Do you mean a perfectly flat speaker measured under anechoic conditions, at the listening position, or a speaker that measures perfectly flat at the listening position?

I mean a speaker that, when measured at the listening position, produces a perfectly flat response.

 

[The Jniac]

He meant what the ear drum hear at the listening position with speakers which have flat anechoic response.

Not quite. Imagine a pair of magic speakers that produce a perfectly flat response with zero distortion at the listening position (Nice right? Maybe play some smooth jazz while you are here.) The response that those speakers produce at the eardrum is what I consider to be the ideal eardrum response, and my ideal pair of headphones would produce the same eardrum response as those magic speakers.

 

[The Jniac]

That was the Etymotic approach. Guess what, it resulted in too little bass, which is not just perceived by our ears alone (though the rest of the spectrum was OK), so the measurement simply does not accurately reflect our perception down there. Also, differing pinna shapes are going to result in considerable individual variation that has to be averaged out.

One of us may be misunderstanding, and in accordance with one of my general rules of life, I will assume that it is me. My understanding of the problem is that Etymotic only considered the sound that reached the eardrum via the ear, so sound that was picked up by the rest of the body and transmitted to the eardrum was not factored into their target response and, as a result, they. It is not that other parts of the body perceive bass, but they can act as a sort of antenna that picks it up and relays it to the eardrum, unless you were referring to how fairly high-amplitude low frequency sound can actually be perceived as a tactile sensation.

The matter of individual variation is one that will plague any and all headphone target responses, as far as I know

 

[solderdude]

sound that was picked up by the rest of the body and transmitted to the eardrum was not factored into their target response

As far as I understood the lowest frequencies picked up by the body are not transmitted to the ear but rather the brain 'adds' felt sensations to the auditory input.

 

[Soniclife]

I mean a speaker that, when measured at the listening position, produces a perfectly flat response.

Why do you want that?

 

[JohnYang1997]

Not quite. Imagine a pair of magic speakers that produce a perfectly flat response with zero distortion at the listening position (Nice right? Maybe play some smooth jazz while you are here.) The response that those speakers produce at the eardrum is what I consider to be the ideal eardrum response, and my ideal pair of headphones would produce the same eardrum response as those magic speakers.

You were either repeating what I said or you were mixing something up.

If the headphone itself is outputting the eardrum point response (drp that's what we call it), what will actually be on the eardrum will be completely different from what's with the speakers.