I started a journey last year when I decided to buy an AMT, or Air Motion Transformer headphone (again). After enjoying it so much, I toyed with the idea of buying other unique driver headphones. Maybe... starting a collection focused mainly on different driver technologies, and trying to obtain one of every kind..? It's not like there are tons of them, so it should be pretty doable, right?
Enter the RAAL CA-1a — my first ribbon driver headphone.
As a recap, let's go over all the different driver technologies currently available for headphones, along with a brief description of them.
- Dynamic drivers — The most common driver type, especially among speakers. A cone shaped diaphragm pushed like a piston by a magnetic coil at the base that reacts to a fixed magnet.
- Planar drivers — The second most common driver type among headphones. A flat, thin diaphragm with the "coil", or traces adhered to it, and a set of fixed magnets on the front and/or rear faces of it.
- Electrostatic drivers — A metallic-coated flat diaphragm with a constant static charge, and a stator on the front and/or rear faces of it, with changing static charges that repel or attract the diaphragm.
- Air motion transformer drivers — A folded diaphragm with traces on it, that expands and squeezes from magnetic forces on the top and bottom edges.
- Ribbon drivers — A narrow, thin metal strip that acts as both the trace coil and the diagram, with fixed magnets along the side edges.
Among the list, ribbon drivers are perhaps the newest to the world of headphones. Introduced in 2018, RAAL-requisite's SR1a was more like a pair of ear speakers than a typical headphone. More in line with AKG's 1989 wonder, the K1000, complete with swivels that let you adjust the angle and distance of the drivers from your ears.
Audeze even threw their hat into the ring in 2021 with the limited-edition LCD-R, which used the same amp pinout as RAAL's product, but there's some debate on if they were truly ribbon drivers, or just very low impedance planars. A traditional ribbon driver doesn't have magnets covering the front and back, for example.
Oh yeah, that amp pinout thing. Part of the uniqueness of ribbon drivers is that they have basically no impedance. It's a piece of straight metal acting as the voice coil — electrically speaking, it's pretty much a dead short. That means a normal headphone amp won't cut it. You pretty much HAVE to have a specialized piece of gear to drive it.
It's a bit of a drawback to be sure, and one of the reasons why they might not ever get the traction that other technologies have. Both planar and AMT headphones slotted into existing source chains just fine (technically even that vintage piezoelectric headphone does too, though it needs an almost comical amount of power). That convenience made them an easy sell.
RAAL at least addressed this with a transformer box, so while it's one more bulky thing sitting on your desk or wherever, at least it allowed you to use the gear you already had, appearing to amps as either a 16 or 32 ohm load, which is well within any amp's capability. Perhaps not super elegant, but it's a workaround.
image: themystical (left K1000; right SR1a)
There was also that weird ear speaker form factor, which frankly looks every bit as strange as you would expect. It's an acquired taste, visually, even for seasoned headphone enthusiasts, so it's probably a good thing that RAAL introduced a follow-up, the CA-1a, a few years later.
CA-1a is almost just a SR1a (or SR-1b) in a circumaural form factor. I say "almost" because they had to reengineer the drivers and pretty much rethink the whole thing from the ground up to get the tuning to an acceptable state. (Early versions weren't very well received at convention showings.)
The form factor was more familiar and appealing to most, even if it still required a specialized amp or converter. It's still a weird looking headphone for other reasons. It definitely didn't win any awards in the polish department, given the exposed foam earpads, and the rather plain, DIY-looking cup design.
image: musicalhead.de
But that aside, the final release version was getting rave reviews. The promise of ribbon drivers is incredible transparency and speed. It has among the fastest and lightest diaphragms that exist, and with no magnets covering the front or rear face of the drivers, there's nothing to disrupt the flow of sound waves. In short: e-stat like detail and clarity, but planar like bass. That's the theory, anyway.
So what has my experience been like? Well, I don't have any proper e-stats to compare it to, but I can say it definitely ups the ante in terms of said detail and clarity next to my other headphones. It's also slightly more expensive than they were, but not by much (retail price is $2,000 without the converter box, $500 more with it). I bought mine open box without the T1-1b converter, and for my amp I bought a close-out Schiit Jotunheim A for only $200. Yes, the amp was technically made for the LCD-R, but again it's the same pinout, and it differs only slightly from the Jotunheim R that Schiit made for RAAL.
I did also get Moon Audio's Black Dragon cable for it, since a cable of some sort is kind of necessary to use them, and the open box deal didn't come with one. I have no idea what influence the cable might have, but supposedly due to the extremely low impedance, the cable might have more of an impact than with most headphones. Or so I've been told.
My source chain at the moment isn't perhaps to the level of the CA-1a's potential (my DAC is just a Bifrost 2), but I can still tell the benefits of the technology. It's interesting that vocals seem pushed back a bit, but that does allow for more presence of the background elements, and the separation is simply top-shelf. Imaging and staging on this setup is what I'd call good, not great, but maybe that can improve with a better chain.
The treble is pretty phenomenal though. Ribbon drivers, like AMT, started life as tweeters on loudspeakers, so it should be no surprise it excels here. It's pretty bright, but never harsh, and the air and detail in the upper frequencies is just fantastic.
The bass is very good. Better than my AMT headphone, for sure, but I wouldn't say it's quite to the level of my Arya Stealth. This is also something that you can tweak, since the headphone comes packaged with two sets of earpads, one fully enclosed, and one with two openings on the top and bottom. The open pads (affectionately called "coffee beans") ease off the bass and give a brighter presentation. The enclosed pads will give you the most bass.
I actually found the enclosed pads to be a bit too much bass. While it was welcome in some instances like with EDM, it was less ideal for other genres. The Jotunheim A actually has a "bass boost" switch of sorts, which was carried over from the R version as a way to compensate for the open baffle design of the SA1a. It works slightly differently on the A version, basically attenuating the mids and upper frequencies down which means you'll need to turn the volume up a little bit. Not a big deal, and I found this feature with the coffee bean pads was the best all-around combination for warmth and clarity.
Like my AMT headphone, it's not a monster in terms of dynamics. That's another area that others have said improves with better amps, but with what I can obtain right now, it's currently outclassed by both the Arya Stealth and ZMF Auteur OGs in that regard. EDIT: Upon subsequent listenings, I have to say they're really not very far behind my other headphones in this regard, and I may have sold them a bit short initially. Certainly a good few notches more dynamic than my HEDDphone ONE. They can hit hard in the bass, and it's remarkable how many genres of music they can cover well.
We do have to talk about that weird build, though. It's hard to believe that a headphone at this price doesn't have cup swivel. RAAL has said online that the intention is for you to be able to bend and shape the headband to your comfort needs, but this has been easier said than done. And frankly it's a rather crude approach to the problem. I guess the idea was to keep overall costs down so as to offer a near summit-fi headphone at a more affordable price, but this is a pretty big compromise in my opinion.
The pads are undeniably cheap feeling as well. They clip on with just two plastic tabs, and sit very loosely on the cups, allowing for clacking noises as the pads jostle around. On your head they don't really move, but I do occasionally hear creaking at the yoke attachment points, which obviously isn't great.
They are lightweight though, and seem to be durable enough. Comfort-wise, aside from the limited articulation, they're pretty decent, with no hotspots or long-term discomfort. Clamp force could be better, but you might able to improve that if you squeeze the headband enough.
image: headphonia.com
But overall, it's hard to deny that they are among the best I've ever listened to, and RAAL isn't done. Just announced February this year (2024), RAAL is starting a new prestige brand, RAAL 1995, named after the year of their founding, which will bring a number of ultra-highend products to the ribbon driver foray.
Two new summit-fi level headphones are included in this launch, starting with the Magna ($4,995 for the headphone alone) and the Immanis ($7,285). They're also releasing a new RCD converter box that now cleverly doubles as a headphone stand, adding some utility to that extra thing on your desk.
What's interesting is that they're both utilizing multiple ribbon drivers in each cup, with complementary frequency response. The Magna is your dual ribbon headphone, and the Immanis is a triple ribbon headphone. Together, RAAL is hoping to topple the Goliaths of the market, setting the stage for an exciting upset. I do love me some technological revolution in the headphone space!
They aren't the only ribbon headphone company in town, of course. GoldPlanar has the GL1200, which gives you two sets of drivers of different tunings in the box to choose between. That used to be the "budget" option at only about $1400 (with frequent discounts), but then Sineaptic released the very interesting SE-1, a $200 wireless ribbon driver headphone that contains its own transformer circuit in the cups themselves. That's some pretty impressive technology for the price, and the first attempt by any company to bring ribbons to the mainstream.
Admittedly for a driver technology "incompatible" with normal headphone gear, that's a lot of product offerings. It's seemingly doing a better job proliferating than AMT technology, whose drawbacks seemed less pronounced. HEDD Audio did finally release a successor to their first AMT headphone, the HEDDphone TWO, which seemingly resolves the fit and comfort issues of the ONE entirely, while fine-tuning the frequency response to be even more neutral and refined in areas. I'm not tossing out my first-gen pair any time soon, but it's good to see the technology continue on and improve.
In general the headphone world is always one to welcome new technologies with open arms, and I always get excited when I see a new approach start to take off. There's a long history of innovation reaping big rewards in this field, and the planar folks who were once the new kids on the block better stay vigilant lest they end up like the incumbents that they unseated years ago. We are in another era of evolutionary upheaval, and it's a great time to be a consumer on the receiving end of it!
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