Article: Review | RAAL-requisite SR1a Earfield Headphone Monitor

[The Computer Audiophile]

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[austinpop]

Wow, great review, Chris! I can’t wait to try these RAAL soon.  

[audiobomber]

Wow, that was a rave! I'd love to hear these, but I'm a little afraid to, because I'm happy with my current headphones. They may be as good as you say, and I don't want to spend this much on headphones. 😏

[LowOrbit]

So nice to read a review where the reviewer reins in his enthusiasm and controls his response at the outset, to keep us all intrigued to see how the journey unfolds🤣

 

So you liked them, yeah?

 

Great review Chris - I'd write more but I have to get back to my Raals. I keep almost buying the Jotunheim R, but they sound damned good on the Ncores. And anyone mentions the GBP4k Raal HS1a amp and I have to look away...

 

 

 

[The Computer Audiophile]

One album that I totally forgot to mention in the review, but blew me away through the SR1a headphones, is ZZ Top’s Tres Hombres at 24/192. There’s never been a better example of great sound making me like an artist and the music more. I’m was no ZZ Top fan, but now I want to watch the Netflix documentary. All because of how great the music sounded and how much closer it brought me to everything. 
 

https://www.hdtracks.com/#/album/5deef858b45f07686f010e9f

 

https://www.netflix.com/title/81212488?s=i&trkid=13747225
 

 

[Danny Kaey]

Hot diggety. now that's what I call a review... What's especially amazing is that these headphones are built in Serbia, my family's country of origin. Allow me to provide some perspective for clarity: keep in mind that up until the late 80s, Serbia was a communist dictatorship since 1945 und little Mussolini, Tito's ruthless rule. The 90s saw Yugoslavia torn apart by wars on 3 fronts; the economy turned quasi market based, yet very much rooted in hardcore socialist policies. Corruption is very high; the average wage for a typical white collar job is around 250 Euro a month; for a blue collar job its about half; ingenuity, innovation, the spirit of creating wealth and such have been killed off by 80+ years of war, communism and socialism. When you take all that into account, the fact that Aleksander and his team have been able to create world leading technology ought to be considered nothing short of a miracle and a study in perseverance. Trust me, this is a monumental achievement... Glad to see them having so much success and being able to drive and deliver such an amazing product. Go, go go!

[AudioDoctor]

Why did these have to hit the market shortly after handing my Amex over to DNAudio and Lampizator to run my Susvaras...

 

Is having two headphone systems allowed?

 

Ha.

 

[RickyV]

Great review. I have said it before but it sure sounds like it is The holy gRaal of music reproduction, a requisite for audio. 😁

[Chucklesiam]

10 hours ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

One album that I totally forgot to mention in the review, but blew me away through the SR1a headphones, is ZZ Top’s Tres Hombres at 24/192. There’s never been a better example of great sound making me like an artist and the music more. I’m was no ZZ Top fan, but now I want to watch the Netflix documentary. All because of how great the music sounded and how much closer it brought me to everything. 
 

https://www.hdtracks.com/#/album/5deef858b45f07686f010e9f

 

https://www.netflix.com/title/81212488?s=i&trkid=13747225
 

 

An unstoppable freight train of jam. When I want start punching walls or turn over my neighbor’s car, that’s the album that gets played. 

[Josh Mound]

Sure, keep the SR1a review for yourself, then tell me how great they are! 😂

 

[fas42]

I would be interested in how ZZ Top's Afterburner comes across in these ... intense synthesizer bass, instrumentals powering at 11; should be a good experience, 🙂.

[AudioDoctor]

Speaking of Tres Hombres...

 

Listen to Jesus Just Left Chicago

 

and then

 

listen to AC/DC The Jack...

 

Tell me AC DC didn't take some inspiration from ZZ Top there.

[gmgraves]

22 hours ago, audiobomber said:

Wow, that was a rave! I'd love to hear these, but I'm a little afraid to, because I'm happy with my current headphones. They may be as good as you say, and I don't want to spend this much on headphones. 😏

I agree. I love my Stax so much that I can’t imagine how much better the SR1a’s could sound. I’m afraid that if I tried them, I’d find out! Also I ‘m a bit put off by not being able to listen to them laying down. Finally, the ribbons are user replaceable in these phones. Could that be because at some point they are going to require replacing, and perhaps replacing often? Only time will tell on this last point.

[The Computer Audiophile]

3 minutes ago, gmgraves said:

I agree. I love my Stax so much that I can’t imagine how much better the SR1a’s could sound. I’m afraid that if I tried them, I’d find out! Also I ‘m a bit put off by not being able to listen to them laying down. Finally, the ribbons are user replaceable in these phones. Could that be because at some point they are going to require replacing, and perhaps replacing often? Only time will tell on this last point.

With respect to the drivers, here is what designer Aleksandar Radisavljević has to say:

 

 

 

It is not a fact that the ribbons are more consumable than anything else that vibrates all the time. The fact is that nothing that vibrates lasts forever, though.

I have a few ribbons that were working for 1k hrs and still remain like new. I also have a few that are totally sagging after I have severely overdriven them during testing phases of development. They tend to make popping sounds only on loud bass-effect in movies, so I just reduce the volume and continue...It's not like they became unusable all of a sudden. In any case, my normal pair proved to be less consumable than my Audezes that developed buzzing noises really quickly and I can't do anything to fix them.

Anyhow, we've had wonderful experiences with reliability of our tweeters and we have the best customer care ever in the industry:
For 4+ years now, we send free replacement ribbons to RAAL tweeter owners, no questions asked. With more that 12k tweeters out there, we don't send out more than 7-8 pairs per year. The cost of doing that means nothing to us at such insignificant failure rate.

I did the best I could in trying to engineer the same reliability. We will do the same kind of customer care policy if the reliability proves to be similar. Or if failure rates become significant, we could make them cheap enough that replacement after a few years is a non-issue.

Even at our start, we are the only ones that make repairable headphones. Not because we expect them to fail, but because I like things that are repairable. This is a dying feature for any product nowadays and I hate that, so I'm fighting it. I like good tools and I like to have the full control over things I use. My Weller soldering stations are not user repairable because they're bad, but because they're good tools and I can't remember when we replaced a heater on one of those. I especially don't like that companies that make things I use have the control over my time. I hate sending things back and waiting to get it repaired as it always takes more than necessary amount of time.
Ribbon headphones are my baby, my life's work. I certainly wont let them become a flop because of reliability issues, if any. The thing is out and there's no turning back now. They must give you a feeling of a good tool. We'll simply do what it takes to make these a legendary product and customer satisfaction is a major ingredient to make it such.

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/raal-ribbon-headphones-srh1a.890603/page-10#post-14777903

 

 

 

[gmgraves]

11 minutes ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

With respect to the drivers, here is what designer Aleksandar Radisavljević has to say:

 

 

 

It is not a fact that the ribbons are more consumable than anything else that vibrates all the time. The fact is that nothing that vibrates lasts forever, though.

I have a few ribbons that were working for 1k hrs and still remain like new. I also have a few that are totally sagging after I have severely overdriven them during testing phases of development. They tend to make popping sounds only on loud bass-effect in movies, so I just reduce the volume and continue...It's not like they became unusable all of a sudden. In any case, my normal pair proved to be less consumable than my Audezes that developed buzzing noises really quickly and I can't do anything to fix them.

Anyhow, we've had wonderful experiences with reliability of our tweeters and we have the best customer care ever in the industry:
For 4+ years now, we send free replacement ribbons to RAAL tweeter owners, no questions asked. With more that 12k tweeters out there, we don't send out more than 7-8 pairs per year. The cost of doing that means nothing to us at such insignificant failure rate.

I did the best I could in trying to engineer the same reliability. We will do the same kind of customer care policy if the reliability proves to be similar. Or if failure rates become significant, we could make them cheap enough that replacement after a few years is a non-issue.

Even at our start, we are the only ones that make repairable headphones. Not because we expect them to fail, but because I like things that are repairable. This is a dying feature for any product nowadays and I hate that, so I'm fighting it. I like good tools and I like to have the full control over things I use. My Weller soldering stations are not user repairable because they're bad, but because they're good tools and I can't remember when we replaced a heater on one of those. I especially don't like that companies that make things I use have the control over my time. I hate sending things back and waiting to get it repaired as it always takes more than necessary amount of time.
Ribbon headphones are my baby, my life's work. I certainly wont let them become a flop because of reliability issues, if any. The thing is out and there's no turning back now. They must give you a feeling of a good tool. We'll simply do what it takes to make these a legendary product and customer satisfaction is a major ingredient to make it such.

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/raal-ribbon-headphones-srh1a.890603/page-10#post-14777903

 

 

 

Thanks for that Chris. I like that attitude. I’ve always felt a little uncomfortable with our throw-away world. I come from an age that when a TV, Radio, or amplifier died, you call the local repair man. Now when one’s big, 4K flat screen TV fails, it ends up in a land fill and we are expected to buy a new one!

[The Computer Audiophile]

13 minutes ago, gmgraves said:

Thanks for that Chris. I like that attitude. I’ve always felt a little uncomfortable with our throw-away world. I come from an age that when a TV, Radio, or amplifier died, you call the local repair man. Now when one’s big, 4K flat screen TV fails, it ends up in a land fill and we are expected to buy a new one!

I couldn't agree more George. Not only do they not make 'em like they used to, they don't repair 'em like they used to.

[MarkS]

Great review and so interesting.  

 

I like headphone and find them a lot of fun.  I also live in an apartment, so headphones are required at times.  I am fortunate to have a bunch of great conventional headphones and a pretty high end headphone amp and dac.  I dont have any electrostats because I dont listen to headphones enough to justify tWo separate headphone systems, but I think the top Stax and latest Mr. Speakers sound incredible with the Blue Hawaii amp (actually prefer this setup to my conventional rig, but do concede the electrostats  are slightly less dynamic and punchy at the bottom end, but magical)

 

When I went to CanJam NYC in February, THE product I wanted to hear was the RAAL’s.  I couldn’t wait and was first in line at the Schiit booth for a demo.  I was totally disappointed.  Frankly, I thought they sounded awful.  I’ve never disagreed with Chris much before.  Maybe these phones just weren’t my cup of tea.  I cant even recall what I listened to, but after a few tracks I left.  I do recall thinking the RAAL’s lacked bass and dynamics and sounded horribly scratchy on top.  I came back later to try again and left after half a track.

 

Maybe I just got a bad demo, bad associated equipment, bad Schiit amps or maybe Chris’ superb setup brings out the magic from the RAAL’s, but to me on the setup at Can Jam NYC, they didn’t do it.  It almost reminded me of the controversial Audeze thread where the reviewer thought the headphones might have been malfunctioning. I did have a buddy with me who agreed with my view.  

 

Based on this review, I now want to give them another shot!!!

[The Computer Audiophile]

1 minute ago, MarkS said:

Great review and so interesting.  

 

I like headphone and find them a lot of fun.  I also live in an apartment, so headphones are required at times.  I am fortunate to have a bunch of great conventional headphones and a pretty high end headphone amp and dac.  I dont have any electrostats because I dont listen to headphones enough to justify tWo separate headphone systems, but I think the top Stax and latest Mr. Speakers sound incredible with the Blue Hawaii amp (actually prefer this setup to my conventional rig, but do concede the electrostats  are slightly less dynamic and punchy at the bottom end, but magical)

 

When I went to CanJam NYC in February, THE product I wanted to hear was the RAAL’s.  I couldn’t wait and was first in line at the Schiit booth for a demo.  I was totally disappointed.  Frankly, I thought they sounded awful.  I’ve never disagreed with Chris much before.  Maybe these phones just weren’t my cup of tea.  I cant even recall what I listened to, but after a few tracks I left.  I do recall thinking the RAAL’s lacked bass and dynamics and sounded horribly scratchy on top.  I came back later to try again and left after half a track.

 

Maybe I just got a bad demo, bad associated equipment, bad Schiit amps or maybe Chris’ superb setup brings out the magic from the RAAL’s, but to me on the setup at Can Jam NYC, they didn’t do it.  It almost reminded me of the controversial Audeze thread where the reviewer thought the headphones might have been malfunctioning. I did have a buddy with me who agreed with my view.  

 

Based on this review, I now want to give them another shot!!!

Would love to hear what you think if you can try them in a controlled setting. Perhaps CanJam was a little noisy?

[MarkS]

Could definitely be the case.  I wanted to love them too.  I will give them another shot.  Great review!!

[The Computer Audiophile]

2 minutes ago, MarkS said:

Could definitely be the case.  I wanted to love them too.  I will give them another shot.  Great review!!

Thanks Mark. Can't wait to hear from you once you get another shot. Certainly no guarantees, but it will be interesting. 

[WilliamWykeham]

I owned these for about a year and then sold them (only because I decided to move to speakers).  I had them connected to a AHB2.  Because my friend also had a pair, we could frequently compare changes, and we found major improvement by moving to an 8-wire, thick silver custom cable.  The SR1a also benefited from several days of burn in, but it sounds so good fresh this isn’t essential.  
 

I also own the Ascend Sierra 2s with Raal tweeters and find them amazing for near field listening.  

[KDinsmore]

Chris!!!!!!!! I just bought Meze Empyrean+Chord Hugo TT2. You're supposed to give me a "heads up".

Dying to experience these. 

Excellent review. Honestly I want to read superlatives if its warranted.

[The Computer Audiophile]

22 minutes ago, KDinsmore said:

Chris!!!!!!!! I just bought Meze Empyrean+Chord Hugo TT2. You're supposed to give me a "heads up".

Dying to experience these. 

Excellent review. Honestly I want to read superlatives if its warranted.

I was tryin to explain to Aleksandar, the SR1a designer, that this isn't a normal review for me. I don't call everything the best and spill superlatives over every component. I mean what I say and only write the truth as I see it. The SR1a is a stunning achievement. Hope you can hear them in a good environment and let us know your thoughts. 

[KDinsmore]

Me too! Will do when I hear them!

[isquirrel]

I have a SR1-a and the matching amp the HSA ordered and arriving in the next 2 weeks. My current favourite Headphones are the Abyss Phi TC's driven by a custom MSB Dynamic HP amp, with an MSB Select DAC and the Taiko Extreme. After having read your review and being a Wilson guy myself I cannot wait for them to show up!!

 

I will report on the sound of the matching HSA amp when they arrive. Better start a Thread on this ASAP, thanks Chris.

 

PS Also getting a custom set of DHC (Double Helix Cables) made up for the SR1-a's they need to be the same impedance as the standard cables.