Наушники — RAAL Requisite 1995 IMMANIS

The 1995 Immanis is an open-back circumaural headphone from RAAL 1995, the headphone line of the ribbon specialist RAAL Requisite. It was released in February 2024 alongside the smaller Magna and uses the brand's R3 layout of three true-ribbon drivers per earcup. The standard package costs USD 10,200 and includes a 1.8 m Star-8 MkII silver cable, a 1.5 m RCD-XLR cable, a 32 ohm RCD interface that doubles as a stand and an aluminium case. The USD 13,900 package swaps in a 2.9 m Star-12 silver cable, a silver version of the interface and a 0.85 m Star-8 silver RCD-XLR lead.

Key specs that matter

The three ribbons are corrugated pure aluminium with a viscosity damping surface the maker calls Viscodamp Silent Metal, and together they offer 25.2 cm2 of radiating area. Excursion reaches plus or minus 4 mm and maximum output is 118 dB SPL. The driver impedance is 0.057 ohm, rising to 0.29 ohm with the Star-8 MkII cable in circuit. The shell is 11 cm in diameter, the round opening of the earcup is 74 mm and the listed weight is 610 g. Cables plug into two gold-plated 3.5 mm TRRS sockets, one per cup.

Engineering and use context

A true ribbon is a single strip of aluminium that acts as voice coil, suspension and diaphragm at once, so there is no separate coil to add mass. Compared with the Magna, the triple arrangement has half as much radiating area again, and about twice that of the earlier CA-1, which RAAL says yields 3 dB more maximum output. A larger front chamber is vented so that the ribbons move more air per cycle. Because the ribbon is almost a short circuit, it cannot be connected straight to a normal headphone socket. The Ribbon Current-Drive Interface converts an amplifier's voltage output into the current the ribbons need, and the headphone draws about 1.5 W. The body is a fibreglass and aluminium composite with a hard-waxed American walnut veneer behind a gold-plated, three-phase etched stainless steel grille. A headspring coated in titanium aluminium nitride adjusts in five click-stop positions, and the headband has a diamond-stitched suede underside. The pads use memory foam with lamb suede on the inner face and perforated leather outside.

Pairing

The RCDI-32 accepts a headphone amplifier of 2 to 6 W or a loudspeaker amplifier of 8 to 25 W into 8 ohm. The RCDI-8 is meant for loudspeaker amplifiers of 2 to 6 W into 8 ohm, including single-ended triode designs. Any amplifier used must be a voltage-drive type with less than 10 mV of DC offset.

Alternatives

The RAAL 1995 Magna is the dual-ribbon R2 model with 16.8 cm2 of ribbon area and a weight of 530 g.