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Thread: Raal Requisite Ribbon Headphones - The new Kings!

  1. #1
    Join Date: Aug 2008

    Location: Wilmslow (Near Manchester)

    Posts: 168
    I'm Avinash.

    Default Raal Requisite Ribbon Headphones - The new Kings!

    So I received my Raal Requisite SR1A's earlier this week, delivered personally by Danny the CEO of Raal Requisite, no less! He came to Manchester after attending CANJAM in London and I spent a very interesting evening with him talking about all sorts of things audio. He is clearly a very talented partner to Aleks of Raal and it is obvious that it is the interplay and mingling of ideas that has given us this novel headphone.
    So I guess the question most people have (and the one I had before I got these) is " Is it all hype?". After all here on Headfi, every new headphone seems to be portrayed as the second coming?

    fullsizeoutput_329 by themystical2012, on Flickr

    I have only had a couple of hours with the headphone but it is immediately obvious that this is the best headphone I have ever heard and I have owned and heard many of TOTL's including electrostats, dynamic and planar. My headphone of choice over the last couple of decades has been the venerable AKG K1000 and properly amped, none of the modern competition such as the Utopias, HD800's, LCD's, Stax 007's, HE60's etc have the sheer palpability, resolution, speed and impact exceeding it - equal in some respects, yes, but none of these give real people and voices playing real instruments like the K1000's do. The SR1A is the real spiritual successor to the K1000's adding bass and even more palpability, tactility, resolution and impact. In fact I perceive the SR1A to exceed the performance of the K1000's in all respects using the same set up (source, DAC and Amp)

    The design of the headphones is completely non-compromising in a "form follows function" industrial way and I love it for not trying to be bling and artificially beautiful and audio jewellery like!

    fullsizeoutput_32c by themystical2012, on Flickr

    To get the level of performance that I am getting out of these phones, I believe that you have to get the source (DAC) and the amp right. I am an Electrical Engineer by profession and my personal experience has been that whilst measured performance of equipment becomes inaudible at a certain point, the improvement comes through not as purely what you hear but the placement and soundstage, the "concentration" of the sound so that all instruments and even voices have impact and you can "physically" feel the music. The DAC that I am using is a Sabre ES9038Pro DIY with around 132dB SNR. So as not to lose this hard earned SNR in the amp, I use again a DIY Ncore NC500 Class D design by Bruno Putzey (ex Hypex) which produces 500W into 4 Ohms and 350W into 8. The amp has a SNR of 124dB and the majority of the signal including spatial cues etc. is preserved. The low frequencies are all present with due impact - absolutely no need for EQ as some people seem to need.

    So is this the best headphone in the world? Probably! I have not heard the classic Orpheus or the Sony R10's but I cannot imagine these will exceed the palpability and sheer presence of the SR1A's.

    At USD3500 the headphones are quite expensive but I really baulk at having to pay and extra 20-25% in custom duties and VAT here in the UK/EU and fortunately with Danny carrying them into the country by hand, I didn't have to. That is the only way I have been able to afford them. Danny had a second pair of SR1A's with him when he came to deliver mine and I persuaded him not to take these back to the States and that I would ship these to somebody in the UK/EU, hence saving on customs/VAT for the lucky person! Danny is contactable by email
    danny@requisiteaudio.com but I do know that he will not be back in the States until sometime next week and that he is currently having problems receiving emails. You can PM me too if you wish.

    fullsizeoutput_324 by themystical2012, on Flickr

    fullsizeoutput_327 by themystical2012, on Flickr

  2. #2
    Join Date: May 2008

    Location: Londiniumsville

    Posts: 361
    I'm Robin.

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    Tried these at the Canjam too. They do sound a bit like a pair of Quad electrostatics strapped to your head with more bass however. Too cumbersome for me though and a lack of a UK distributer doesn’t help.
    Robin. mit ARC CD9, ARC ref 5 / darTZeel power + magico v2. Clearaudio Innovation wood / Phantom ll / Lyra Atlas / Aurorasound Vida,
    Stax 009S cans.KGGG headamp. all connected with wires. Auralic Aries - Aqua La Scala. Manley Absolute. Focal Stellias. HD800S Hyland headphones - Venus

  3. #3
    Join Date: Jun 2015

    Location: London/Durham

    Posts: 6,869
    I'm Lawrence.

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    Post deleted

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    Last edited by Lawrence001; 08-08-2019 at 17:50.

  4. #4
    Join Date: Aug 2008

    Location: Wilmslow (Near Manchester)

    Posts: 168
    I'm Avinash.

    Red face

    Quote Originally Posted by doodoos View Post
    Tried these at the Canjam too. They do sound a bit like a pair of Quad electrostatics strapped to your head with more bass however. Too cumbersome for me though and a lack of a UK distributer doesn’t help.
    Did you try the other headphones that seem to be getting a lot of praise, these are the Heddphone prototypes which were also at the show? In your opinion, which were the best headphones at the show?

  5. #5
    Join Date: Aug 2008

    Location: Wilmslow (Near Manchester)

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    I'm Avinash.

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    Lawrence001 I am really looking forward to hearing your views on headphones. Have you heard the Raals? Are they any good in your opinion? Which other headphones have you heard which you think are the best? Do you prefer the sound of electrostatics to Dynamic or Ribbons or is it the Planars that do it for you? What are your regular pair of headphones and do you aspire to any particular ones

  6. #6
    Join Date: Jun 2015

    Location: London/Durham

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    I'm Lawrence.

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    I've made the point and deleted the post now, will talk about headphones later...

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    Last edited by Lawrence001; 08-08-2019 at 18:08.

  7. #7
    Join Date: Jun 2015

    Location: London/Durham

    Posts: 6,869
    I'm Lawrence.

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    Quote Originally Posted by themystical View Post
    Lawrence001 I am really looking forward to hearing your views on headphones. Have you heard the Raals? Are they any good in your opinion? Which other headphones have you heard which you think are the best? Do you prefer the sound of electrostatics to Dynamic or Ribbons or is it the Planars that do it for you? What are your regular pair of headphones and do you aspire to any particular ones
    I'm currently using HD580s, 650s, 560s and 575s as my everyday headphones. I'm quite a sennheiser fan boy, have been since I saved up for my first pair when I was 16. I've also got some Fostex T20RPs.

    I've just arranged a swap of my Hifiman HE6 (4 screw model) for some pre Fazor LCD3s, they will be my first Audezes. Used to have the HE400, 500, 400i and 560s but I sold them off when I got the 6s. Also a fancy pair of Fostex planars with the silver metal cups, I forget what they were, T500 or something. Lovely rich sound but a little too smooth even for me!

    Amp wise I've got a Chinese Lovely cube (clone of the Lehmann black cube) with opamp upgrade, Matrix M stage, Fidelity Audio HPA200 and an Iota Audio two box reference headphone amp (the only one I've ever seen anywhere, I think they were built to order). Also still got a Zigis bass boost cmoy my first amp. Must get round to selling that but as it can take a 9v battery it might be handy one day.

    The HE6s sounded best with a speaker amp, I ran them with a 1000wpc ice power amp! I found the sound too bright otherwise, but they were rather more balanced with watts up them! In fact they were almost laid back, but with a rich organic sound that just felt "right".

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  8. #8
    Join Date: Jan 2009

    Location: Deleted

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    I'm Deleted.

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    So, are these prototypes?
    Account Deleted

  9. #9
    Join Date: Aug 2008

    Location: Wilmslow (Near Manchester)

    Posts: 168
    I'm Avinash.

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    Quote Originally Posted by YNWaN View Post
    So, are these prototypes?
    No these have been in production since the beginning of the year. Handmade in Serbia and they can’t make enough of them.

  10. #10
    Join Date: Apr 2011

    Location: Norwich, UK

    Posts: 513
    I'm Ross.

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    Do you still have that second pair? Tempted.
    Speakers: Kii THREE
    Headphones: Lumin A1 > Simaudio Moon 600i > Abyss AB-1266

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