On New Years eve here in California I am hunkered down and listening to a new headphone and new headphone amp that sounds so much like my Thiel CS3.7. Today, I managed to score demo units of the RAAL SR1a ribbon headphone and the RAAL HSA-1b headphone preamp/headphone amp. This headphone can be driven either by 2 channel amps, a special Schitt headphone amp ($800), or likely the very best combo, the RAAL HSA-1b (what I have now for demo).
Why am I writing about this on the Thiel thread? I am posting this here because these beauties sound like my Thiel CS3.7. These headphones are supposed to be the most speaker like headphones in the world. I have to agree. they give a very nice forward sound and not the inside your head headphone sound.
There is a rave review on AudiophileStyle.com on this headphone. Where the guy is saying is it good as his $60K Wilson speakers. I can actually see that. This is very much like my Thiel CS3.7. I have the Thiel's running great and these phones sound like it.
Compared to my $3K Meze Empy headphones these RAAL SR1a blow them out of the water.
I tried these headphones with my Matrix DAC, Benchmark preamp, and the Benchmark AHB2 amp and it was a little too strong on top. It was also a little underpowered. I am going to get a Halo May KTE R2R DAC for the Thiel system in the future and that will lower the high temperature from my Delta Sigma Matrix DAC I am using today. I also tested the AHB2 with my warm sounding Sony SCD-1 SACD player connect to my preamp which was connect to an AHB2. This sounded a bit like the HSA-1b but it was a little underpowered compared to the dedicated headphone amp (damn it cost $4k). This was a single AHB2 in stereo.
These headphones slurp up all the current from the single AHB2. I have a second AHB2 coming next week (I hope) and I will try to test it out with close to 600 watts at 6 ohm. The dealer I got this from loves the HSA-1b headphone amp but he also says a pair of Bryson 4B-SST in mono putting up 600+ watts is better than a single AHB2. So these are very power hungry if you use a 2 channel amp.
I am definitely getting the SR1a headphones but will think my AHB2's will also work with a warmer DAC. If I had the cash I would just get the HSA-1b to drive them.
Happy New Year.
