So, I reached Singapore a day before Canjam Day 1, which is what I tend to do. I took the time on day zero to roam around Singapore, trade watches, meet some watch resellers, and also connect with some audiophile friends who were already there. It was a fun day and, in the evening, right before heading up to my room at the Pan Pacific, I stopped by the show floor where Raal Requisite had booked a listening room. I wanted to spend some quiet and quality listening time with the Raal Requisite 1995 Immanis, which according to early reports from listeners, was a contender for the best headphone on the planet.
Pictures don’t do this headphone justice as it is really striking beautiful and oozes luxury. I have a YouTube short below showing how the metal yoke is somehow impervious to permanent scratches.
Aleksander, the brains behind Raal, was a superb host as he explained the technology and the philosophy behind the Immanis. I must say I got quite absorbed in the listening and over the course of the hour, I realized that the experience was as emotional as the first time I had tried the Susvara. Worth mentioning that before the Susvara, I had not tried many high-end headphones so that for that experience to be emotional and memorable is easily understandable. However, with the Immanis, my experience with it came after years in this hobby, having tried hundreds of high-end headphones, speakers, IEMs, DACs, amps, and cables, so to have a “wow moment” of the same magnitude was completely unexpected. I wrote the following on HeadFi to explain my experience with the Immanis.
While they are unmistakably Raal in their speed, texture, resolution, and airiness; these babies have a very realistic bass impact, a tonally rich midrange, and a certain spookiness to how images just materialize from an inky black void. Everything just seems to just flow, with vivid lifelike imaging, and certain cohesiveness that for the first time in 2 years made me miss full-size headphones. The Immanis, ladies and gentlemen, are probably the best headphones on the market at present.
