Best or Most Interesting Speakers

I am starting to think that the best speakers I have ever heard are maybe the RAAL-Requisite SR1a Ear Speakers. The listening experience with these things is incredible. I have some $3k Meze Empy headphones that I really love but the RAAL Sr1a is a totally different animal. The 2 channel like sound right on your ears gives a sound that is so satisfying for someone like me that is room challenged.

I have a 2 channel rig that sounds amazing and maybe better than the RAAL but the RAAL is currently a more interesting listen. The SR1a has uber detail retrieval so that can be a fatiguing sound. The RAAL designer used the Benchmark AHB2 and DAC3 HGC to test and develop the SR1a so I was thinking this is perfect for me since I have an all BM stack.

It turned out that the all BM stack was too fatiguing on the SR1a. However, on my 2 channel system the all BM stack now sounds perfect. The SR1a has so much detail retrieval that fatigue is a problem with the wrong gear pairing.

So here are the things I have tried and learned. I used ROON to stream (using Fibre) and also added some ROON Parametric EQ. The DSP I setup had a slightly lowered treble and I also gave a small boost to the bass. I am waiting on some professionally calibrated DSP for these headphones in the future. I spoke with an engineer about this and he has the SR1a on his road map for DSP using some propriety sauce, I think using Convolution files.

1) The new RAAL-Requiste Silver cable is better than stock cable and you would think would make things even more fatiguing. Not exactly the outcome with all the gear pairings. It was bad with my all BM stack.

2) The RAAL-Requiste HSA-1b headphone amp is excellent with this SR1a. However, it has only 2 source inputs and cannot drive any 2 channel speakers I would be interested in. I cannot rate this yet because I was not able to use XLR sources when I had it in the house. I may try this again in the future.

3) I tried a single AHB2 in an all Benchmark stack was not good, Way too fatiguing even with the DSP enabled.

4) 2 AHB2’s in mono in an all Benchmark stack was not as fatiguing as the single AHB2 but was still a bit fatiguing. The SR1a like a lot of current so maybe that was the reason it was better than a single AHB2. DSP was enabled.

5) 2 AHB2 in mono but this time with the BM DAC3B replaced with the AudioMirror Tubadour III SE DAC (tube). This was not fatiguing at all and sounded very good. It has the uber detail as the DAC3B but softens up the SR1a top end. I tried with and without DSP. I liked both variants but in the future I will likely use DSP with this DAC. I give this combo a 8/10 in terms of sound quality.

6) CODA CSiB integrated Version 1 (first 18 watts in Class A, 150 watts @ 8 Ohm) + Benchmark DAC3B. This is what I was using for a few weeks and it was my best combo until the AMT3SE DAC showed up. There was a tiny bit of fatigue but I was enjoying the heck out of this combo. I give this pairing a 7/10.

7) CODA CSIB + AMT3SE DAC. This was pure perfection. A 10/10 and I crazily sold the CSiB today because I have no more space on m rack for the next integrated that is expected soon.

8) A Krell K-300i is expected soon and it will have 90 watts in Class A and 150 @ 8 Ohm. I hope it is in the class of the CODA.

Whenever I needed to use the RAAL amp interface box I used Audience Conductor SE speaker cable. A long one about 3 meters and then a shorter one about a meter. On the Benchmark AHB2 test I used a 6 foot Benchmark SpeakON speaker cable to the amp interface box. Of course with the RAAL HSA-1b headphone amp I did not use the amp interface box.

Check out these "Ear Speakers" they are something else. They are not like headphones and not like 2 channel. They are sort of in-between the 2. Put in a DAC like the AMT3SE and a clean warmish amp and you are off to the races.