Yeah I’m sitting right next to it and my left arm is getting cooked a bit. I’m not sure what the stock tubes are but the ones in this amp are 4 Mullard EL34 (back row) and up front are 2 Sophia Electric EL34 and a Sophia Electric 6SL7 in the middle. I was also sent a 6SN7 to try which lowers the gain a bit.
I thought my little quicksilver put out heat but that thing is crazy, oh well if the central heat quits you have a auxiliary stove right there.
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Tyrs vs VM1a driving the Raal SR1b with the neutral convolution filters. VM1a in triode mode with 6SL7 input tube. Dac is Bricasti MC1. Tried the Rockna but it reduced the bass and that is a deal breaker with these headphones.
Tyrs are more texture forward but don’t sound quite as natural and rich. VM1a is softer, still dynamic but not quite as explosive as the Tyrs can be. VM1a has a more natural soundstage especially in depth. Have to push the drivers away from my ear when using the Tyrs to simulate the depth I get on the VM1a but still it’s not as natural as the depth on the VM1a. Sometimes Tyrs are forward to the point of being harsh or make me wince, I jumped in my chair once due to the slam at the beginning of a track. When the tubes in the VM1a were cold, the stage felt a bit small especially in width. After the amp has been on for an hour or so the stage size increased and has surpassed the Tyrs.
These amps seem to be on a similar tier but have different flavors. The VM1a is grand sounding but soft and smooth in it’s delivery. The Tyr has a more 2d stage but has superior texture and detail. They can also slam a lot more then the VM1a and increase the bass amount by a bit. If the SR1b was my only headphone I’d get the VM1a but since I use a bunch of other headphones too the Tyrs have more use to me in their ability to drive lots of different ones quite well. Having a tube amp around again has me thinking about the LTA preamp I used to have and how that helped the depth and staging capabilities of the Tyrs.
Going forward I plan on testing the amp in the ultralinear and pentode modes and try the other input tubes available.
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I tried the other two modes on the VM1a, pentode and ultralinear, and I still prefer triode overall. Ultralinear sounds solid state which is weird when using a tube amp since I want the tubey-ness. But UL was better when it came to detail and texture which felt a bit lacking in the other two modes. Pentode sounded very similar to triode but the stage was smaller overall which I didn’t like. I prefer the sound of the Tyrs to the pentode and ultralinear modes but prefer triode to the sound of the Tyrs.
For the remainder of my listening I’ve been using the 6SN7 input tube since it lowers the gain and makes it easier to max out the volume on the VM1a and preamp it without having any noise or hum. I do get some noise in Pentode mode with the pot maxed on the VM1a since that mode has more power but in Triode mode it is basically silent.
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Anybody planning to pick up one of the two new raals?
They look pretty interesting… And heavy lol. Although, that doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll be uncomfortable.
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And Expensive, almost $10K for the 3 ribbon one.
I’m interested, but not $10K interested at this point.
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Both of them have lower power requirements compared the current ribbon headphones. Would love to try them but they are too rich for me
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That doesn’t include a whole system? I read something about a headphone stand with amp. I thought that was included with the $10k price. Although I only took a glance at the thread, so I might be mistaken.
If untrue, that is a hard pill to swallow for a headphone…
Here’s an example of pricing:
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Ah, got it. Makes sense now.
Both of the new headphones can be purchased “naked” if you already have a suitable amplifier and cable. This can be one of the direct drive amps like the VM1a discussed earlier in this thread, the HSA1b (solid state), or the Jotunheim R made by Schiit. However, they also make adapter boxes which can be picked up for $500 used to use with appropriate headphone or speaker amplifiers with very good results, in fact rivaling the direct drive amplifiers. You can also find used cables of proper impedance for these. So the barrier to entry is not as high as it would seem from the “all in” pricing being throw around.
All of that into account, the cost is not really higher than a flagship e-stat system, or what many would perceive a well amplified Susvara. That is not so say cheap! But reasonable in the context of flagship headphones of different technology.
I am new to this discord, but will be happy to share my impressions. I have pre-ordered the Magna for personal use, and hope to have both in hand for photography next week (I have taken some pictures for Raal in the past). There are some show impressions swirling around now, but apparently the NYC show was very noisy, so hard to really assess these now with very few real owners trying them in the comfort of a quiet home.
Important note: the new stand has a built in adapter box, not an amplifier. It plugs into an amplifier with appropriate specifications, it is not a direct drive amplifier. Think of it like the iFi Audio iESL which could run e-stats with an external amplifier.
More to follow next week, provided Raal didn’t sell the demo headphones off the floor in NYC!
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Looking forwards to impressions.
Do we know if the transformer in the headphone stand is the same as the one int the TI-1B or is it new?
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I think it is different only in that it will be for one impedance (not sure which) as opposed to a choice of 16 or 32 ohm. I think they will offer different impedance by request.
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Its the same general design/concept but new coponants and formfactor. Asked that exact question at the show
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Makes sense since the impedance of the Immanis is probably 3x that of the other Raals.
I didnt ask about impedence, but he did say that the immanis are the easiest to drive overall due to how narrow the ribons are. Apparently the more square the ribbon the more insensitive it is.
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I suspect it has as much to do with their being 2 or 3 per side, same reason the 3 driver version is easier to drive than the 2 driver. You’re probable still talking ~ 0.2 Ohms per ribbon, but 3 in series is 0.6. Still stupidly low, but much easier to deal with. The cable becomes much less of a contributor to the overall impedance among other things.
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I think you’d want to hear a Raal first.
I’ll loan you my CA-1A or SR-1A.
They are about as far from a pair of ZMF’s as your likely to get. I’d be surprised if they were to your preference. But I could be wrong.
The best description I have is they are like a pair of magnaplanars strapped to your head, insanely fast, open airy, but lacking some weight in the mids, and the stage can feel artificially open a times.
For pure resolution, there isn’t very much on the same level as the Raals.
I can’t imagine the Immanis diverges radically from that.
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Keith, you’re allowed to have more than one headphone. 
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