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Bloody Hell -- Raal ribbon headphones


Dusty Chalk

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They want to keep focused on their speakers and not get sidetracked with a headphone they're not sure would even sell. So no clue on timeline or potential price.. if they ever do go into any kind of production.

That's why we'd be happy to take over the testing stages for them ;)

I didn't get the impression from the article that "being sidetracked" had anything to do with it -- it sounds like he constantly has multiple projects going on.

The issues were twofold -- he had heard that same study about magnets close to the head issue, and is looking into it (also shielding, and then the weight problem); and amplification (ribbons, of course, require special amplification) -- I'm assuming it's the same issue as with ribbon speakers -- I.E. the low impedance presented across the frequency spectrum, but have not received confirmation.

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From the specs, it looks like they might be a touch -- how you say -- bass light?

EDIT: Too slow.

well, remember those measurements are on an open baffle..

Based on my experience with my Maggies, wouldn't ribbon headphones be really bass deficient? The bass response of my Maggies is completely dependent on wall proximity. They need the wall to simulate the "box" perse, at least thats my understanding.

After reading the quoted passages, I inferred that the headphone housing (sort of like a "box") would determine the bass. Spend more time reading, I wouldn't want you to wear out a recently dusted asshat.

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Based on my experience with my Maggies, wouldn't ribbon headphones be really bass deficient? The bass response of my Maggies is completely dependent on wall proximity. They need the wall to simulate the "box" perse, at least thats my understanding.

Listen to a set of Apogee Scintillas or Divas sometime, not all ribbons are bass deficient, in fact the Apogees mentioned above often have too much bass.

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$90 each is a bit steep, not knowing if they'd even be any good as headphones. Raal already has a proto that works so we want it :D
He wrote back confirming that he won't be selling the headphone drivers separately. He also explained that I was right, he needs a proprietary amp because it basically needs to be able to drive a short circuit.
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I'm sure KG could quickly whip up a zero ohm amp for us to play with ;)
I'm sure he could, too, but as yet, no headphone amp is intended to do that. There are some speaker amps, maybe (the Halcro TOTL [don't know what it's called] and the Musical Fidelity kW are the only two I know that are designed to be able to "drive any load", and the few ribbon owners I know are usually fond of the higher-watt Krell monoblocks [FPB250's?]). EDIT: See?

But I didn't mean to infer that those two statements are related -- he didn't say why he wouldn't sell the headphone ribbons separately, and I didn't ask.

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