The Kaldas RR1 Conquest is the creation of enthusiast and headphone collector Aumkar Chandan. He’s running a highly entertaining youtube channel with the name Mr Tech Agent. Aumkar was honouring he’s grandad Mr Gokaldas Chandan and started the firm Kaldas Research in 2019. I have been following their journey for the last three years now. The spirit and engagement of Aumkar is an inspiration for me! I like people with a goal in life that have courage to jump in and make it come true. Almost everything of the headphone is made in house. Even their diaphragm is made in the family owned polymer company. The only thing they outsource is the ear pads.
The Package
Inside the cardboard box is more then i ever imagined. To unpack the RR1 is a highly personal experience. You get a measurement of each individual headphone in the box and the warranty card is handwritten, and I even got a post-it note that the headphone should be stored in an antistatic bag, when not in use. Never seen so much personal paperwork in one headphone before. You get the individual measurement of you’re headphone which is neat. The post-it note was great, but also a little worrying. This is my first electrostatic headphones that comes with the large amount of warnings.
Build
The build feels good. It’s a mix between high quality plastics and metal. The hex screw for fastening the headband is a minus to me. I can’t stand screws and small bits while I’m in the mood for my therapy of music. Once it’s done it is tight, until a friend wants to try them on. The threads on the screw gets worn out fairly quick while doing so. When i order this, because I will order it, I want a pair of extra screws and bits going on to the headband.The cable is detachable and the quality feels very good. Even the Stax plug feels solid and well made. The build quality is overall far over what you could expect for a 500 dollar electrostatic headphone.
Parasitic Charge
The warning against parasitic charge is a reminder to earth the cable after use to preventing the mylar sticking to the stator. This can harm the coating and it sounds awful. The first time i tried them on, they where distorting so i grounded the cable for a while and left them for two days. I talked to a fellow headphone freak and told me that they need a long time to discharge properly, even when actively grounding the cable. I tried grounding it and couple them to the amp without music and then ground it again, using my thumb. I left the headphone sounding like crap, being frustrated. This shit have never happened to med with Stax, Dan Clark or even Nectar. They got to solve this problem before pushing them over at normal costumers. The manual said i should play a 30 hz tone for hours to solve the problem. So I kept the on, playing over night. I went back down to my listening room after around 12 hours or so. I plugged them in my KGSSHV amplifier and was surprised by what i heard.
Sound
The first song was Opted with the song Credence. I was shocked by the dynamics, so i went on to Nils Lofgren – Keith don’t go. The driver must have suffered under Parasitic Charge because this sounds really good. I was thinking about this review in bed last night being so frustrated over the poor sound quality. The drums in Jacques Loussier Trio is amazingly powerful and well defined. The image is accurate, spot on actually. The stage is narrow and intimate. Im properly digging my selves out of the shit hole i thought this review was going to be. Leonard Cohens voice sounds, well he’s baritone voice sounds perfectly Cohen. I went on to electronic music and my love for Maud Geffray. The bass is full and punchy and the midrange is properly done. It lack some snap in the treble that is a little recessed. If you like darker sound signature, then this headphone would be perfect. It’s more entertaining and i personally think the imaging is better then what SR-007MKI is producing. It’s not as sharp in layering but the canvas is filled with colors with light and shades. In other words, its pretty easy to follow the instruments because the imaging in the mix is so good. I I would have changed to larger ear pads to get a little more distance between me and the instrument. I also want some more micro detailing on top. But I’m nitpicking again. This is seriously impressive. Feels like a Sennheiser HD650 on pure steroids, flushing it down with red bull!
Conclusion
I have tried two seriously good Indian headphones in a relatively short period of time. The Kaldas RR1 would have made the IT – list and will, if they solve the problem of the driver sticking for days. Nobody wants to play a 30hz tone over night to get it to sound normal. This is seriously annoying in a otherwise really good product. 500 dollars is a great price considered the rivals costing ten times that. I wish Aumkar all the best with the future making amazing headphones!
