Article: Part 2: RAAL-requisite SR1a Earfield Headphone Monitor & HSA-1b Headphone & Speaker Amplifier Review

[austinpop]

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[austinpop]

Thanks, Chris!

[austinpop]

9 minutes ago, RickyV said:

Hi @austinpop as usual an excellent review, I really appreciate your opinion.

Question since you are also very knowledgeable with Euphony. I am interested in EQing my Raal headphone but I do not have HQP nor Roon. Would it be possible for HQP embedded in Euphony to use @mitchco’s convolution filters? 

 

While I have not actually gone through these steps myself, as I no longer use Euphony actively, I don't see why not. While the Euphony web app exposes some slected HQP settings, your best bet is to access the HQP embedded server directly via its web UI at http://<ip address>:8088 Check the Euphony docs (or contact Zeljko) for the default credentials. You should then be able to access the convolution settings and load Mitch's filters.

 

9 minutes ago, RickyV said:

Also I am very tempted to buy the HSA1-b and be done with the switchable speaker/Raal resistor box, with this solution both suffer. I believe @The Computer Audiophile mentioned that Raal is busy developing a tube based amplifier for the Raal so I am not sure if I should wait for that, might be a while. Have you heard anything about that?

 

As Chris said, they plan to announce and demo at the CanJam SoCal in Irvine, CA in a couple weeks. I'm very curious too!

[austinpop]

3 hours ago, RichardSF said:

@austinpop(or anybody else), how is the HSA1-b as a speaker amp? The cost of the HSA1-b is out of reach for many, but it might be justified for some if it can also double as an audiophile amp for a nearfield or small room system.

I lack data to answer that question. I could not test this use case. I’m hoping others who have can/will comment.

[austinpop]

14 hours ago, happybob said:

Great review Rajiv! Thanks! 

I find it quite interesting that while you heard notable differences between the various headphones (and amps) you used, no one totally in every respect blew away the others. This is a tribute to the excellence of all the gear (headphones and amps) at the highend now! 

 

 

 

Very true, happybob! We are now at a state of the art where TOTL headphones are all so good, there are no absolute winners or losers. It's all about synergy — with your system, with your ears, and with your preferences.

[austinpop]

1 hour ago, RickyV said:

I bought HQplayer today for Euphony. Also bought the convolution filters from @mitchco. I will install them tomorrow and have listen, can’t wait. 👍

 

Awesome. Please let me know how you like it!

[austinpop]

8 hours ago, RickyV said:

As I am unfamiliar with HQplayer I have set it to, Upsampling mode: PCM, PCM resampling filter: none and PCM resampling noise shaper: none. Done this also because I wanted to switch between Euphony Stylus with and without HQplayer so between no filter and FS3 filter.

Hmm, that’s actually a good point to seek clarification. So you want to do EQ but without upsampling? How does one use HQP for just convolution?

Perhaps @The Computer Audiophile and/or @Miska can clarify.

[austinpop]

This post from head-fi has a good picture of what was demoed at CanJam over the weekend.

[austinpop]

4 hours ago, HeeBroG said:

Hi Rajiv. When you tried Mitch's convolution EQ filters on the SR1a using your PGGB files, did you use a noise shaper as per Miska's comment?

 

 

 

Hi Geoff,

 

Let me clarify my experiments here. When I first evaluated Mitch's EQ filters, I got the appropriate L/R-ch EQ files for HQP from @The Computer Audiophile. For this first listening session, which was to determine "are these filters even interesting?" I used HQP in the following way:

• music input format: native
• EQ files loaded in convolution engine
• Upsampling to 16FS
• Filter: sinc-M
• Noise shaper: LNS15

Once I determined these EQ filters were very promising, I then worked with @Zaphod Beeblebrox, who took these EQ files and incorporated them into the PGGB processing workflow. This process is now user-selectable in the latest versions of PGGB, but at the time, ZB just gave me a PGGB build to do it. So in this mode, I first offline upsampled and EQ'ed the native music files with PGGB.

• Offline: native music file > PGGB (EQ filters loaded, other usual PGGB parameters) > 16FS upsampled and EQ'd file
• Playback using HQP:
  • 16FS upsampled and EQ'd file from PGGB
  • Filter: None
  • Noise shaper: None

I hope this makes sense.