RAAL 1995 headphones, Magna and Immanis

Blog: WOH Heidelberg 2024 Show Report - Headfonia Reviews

The RAAL 1995 headphones are still very new and this probably was one of the very first shows to have these available for auditioning. If you like the “old” Raal SR-1b headphone and the ribbon sound, then the RAAL 1995 Immanis with its triple drivers will blow you away. It’s a very high-end headphone with a corresponding price tag (around $10k) but when properly driven, it simply is one of the very best headphones on the market (ever).

The speed, spaciousness, positioning, resolution, transients and so on, everything is simply superb. If you have big pockets and just want the best of the best, look no further. The Immanis is the headphone for you, a true end-game setup.

As I have posted on Head-Fi, my problem with conventional cupped or IEM phones is not being able to fully suspend the disbelief that I am listening to music from two small cups where most of the tiny sound is inside my head.  Yes, there are some tricks used by headphone manufacturers to make the sound appear to surround your head but I would posit that if you were blindfolded and asked to identify the source of sound, you would correctly identify the sound coming either from loudspeakers or headphones every time, ignoring the feeling of having the phones on your head.  So the issue is trying to reproduce the spatial and surface loudness aspects of listening to live music in a recording space, which IMO conventional cupped headphones cannot do correctly, even the best ones at that.  

So the phones that best approximate the sound of live music in a performing space are the RAAL SR-1a/b nearfield ear monitors.  No, they don't do this perfectly but they are the closest I have heard in this aspect.  So any cupped phone or IEM, at least at this time, are seriously deficient in this aspect.

This is exactly why i disliked headphones...

I am curious about the Raal...

I already own a clever designed headphone simulating with recording in great hall or church as in classical an "out of the head" soundstage and deep natural bass as with speakers and completely natural timbre better than most speakers :

AKG K340...

Dont buy them if you are not ready for a deep investigation and mods journey .... It takes me 6 months to figure out how to modify them to work optimally 😁...They aged too and out of the box they do not compare to my own K340 now modified and optimized... They were the only real hybrid ever designed ...not a dynamic cell with a mere supertweeter like the Dharma...

The Raal may be a way more interesting but way more costlier option though...

I wish i had the money...😊

Reading all the good reviews i will de desesperate if i did not own the K340...

I wait and someday i will compare ... But is the Raal are able to gave a bass experience you may feel with your feet by bones resonance as with the bassier tone of a great organ in a church ? I doubt it ...The K340 do it ...

As I have posted on Head-Fi, my problem with conventional cupped or IEM phones is not being able to fully suspend the disbelief that I am listening to music from two small cups where most of the tiny sound is inside my head. Yes, there are some tricks used by headphone manufacturers to make the sound appear to surround your head but I would posit that if you were blindfolded and asked to identify the source of sound, you would correctly identify the sound coming either from loudspeakers or headphones every time, ignoring the feeling of having the phones on your head. So the issue is trying to reproduce the spatial and surface loudness aspects of listening to live music in a recording space, which IMO conventional cupped headphones cannot do correctly, even the best ones at that.

So the phones that best approximate the sound of live music in a performing space are the RAAL SR-1a/b nearfield ear monitors. No, they don’t do this perfectly but they are the closest I have heard in this aspect. So any cupped phone or IEM, at least at this time, are seriously deficient in this aspect.

@rlawry I believe you are in close by to Ventura. If so, next week I am going down to Ventura to have a listen to the Magna and Immanis. I will likely take my VM-1a which has 1 tube different from stock. Join me if you are interested.

I want to do this quickly, even though I am not buying in the short term. I believe Danny will not have any in stock other than these 2 and they likely are going out to reviewers and Mitch at AccurateSounds.ca

What I am reading from people that have heard these is that the Immanis resembles the soundstage of the SR1a/SR1b but sound even better.

So the phones that best approximate the sound of live music in a performing space are the RAAL SR-1a/b nearfield ear monitors.  No, they don't do this perfectly but they are the closest I have heard in this aspect.  So any cupped phone or IEM, at least at this time, are seriously deficient in this aspect.