Thread for the various RSA desktop headphone amps
2 Likes
The Raptor is actually pretty clean and neutral for an otl with a bit of warmth and sweetness. Spatially it focuses more on depth with a more spherical stage and pretty black background, great resolving power, nice microdynamic focus, great speed and separation, nice timbre and tonality, good overall control for the most part. It’s a pretty balanced and engaging amp overall
The Dark Star has a warmer more relaxed signature with great command and grip, also very impressive impact wise, pretty solid resolution considering the tuning, pretty dynamically alive. Speed and separation and also stage and presentation good but not stand out. Honestly really great all rounder, pretty enjoyable
It’s been awhile but the Apache sounded like a somewhat mini dark star with similar aspects but lesser overall
B-52 is a very very balanced sound overall, focusing on dynamics, spatial recreation, and speed and separation, pretty detailed as well. Very energetic without being overwhelming
5 Likes
Have a little free time before the airport, so I wanted to write this to contribute to this thread since I like this company from the Audio Show.
This post is just going to focus on the B-21 Raiders amp. Don’t have much impression since I was using all unfamiliar headphones except the Caldera (which I use to own, but also never really liked) and source itself was unfamiliar to me. I was basically unfamiliar with the entire chain.
So instead, I want to talk about what the staff told me. The staff is a passionate headfier that loves Ray Samuels Audio to death, he doesn’t actually work for Ray and is just helping out in the show.
What the volunteer told me was that Ray new B-21 Raiders amp was originally design from his TOTL electric static amp. Ray was trying to create a better electric static amp, but (trying to phrase this right), it was too hard to accomplish without spending a lot of unnecessary $$$$. So instead, he drove the project into another direction. That direction was creating a Dynamic/Electrostatic Amp. He told me that the Ray use all boards and no wires in his amps. The B-21 Amp is basically 2 separate amps in 1 unit. The dynamic amp does not talk to the electric static at all is what I got from the conversation. Even the power supply is completely separate. So, it’s 2 amps squeeze into 1 unit with no wired, all board, and have external power unit that is also 2 PSU in 1 unit. I was also informed that Ray has Military connection and experience, so it’s one of the reason why his amps, in the staff opinion l, is top notch. The staff also informed me that Ray sells his gears directly, so the Ray gears is already being sold cheaper than what it’s originally suppose to cost, meaning the performance always punches above the price range.
1 cool thing I didn’t know is that you upgrade with Ray. If you have a old Ray Samuel Audio product, he will let you trade it in for a upgrade.
The amp will be around $10K, but that is not the final pricing. There is no release date due to Ray having issues procuring a reliable chassis since that chassis at the audio show took 7 months to make 1 chassis. But, besides the chassis, the product is about finish. The project took about 1.5 - 2 years to come this far. The reason it’s red is because one of Ray customers wanted lamborghini red, but will be available in other colors. Ray himself have a black lamborghini if I heard correctly. The conversation then went to the topic of lamborghini and Porsche.
Unreliable sound impressions:
Summary
I say unreliable because I am not familiar with anything in the chain except the Caldera headphone. In terms of clarity, RSA had the best clarity setup in the entire vendor. The best clarity for me was the CD Transport > RSA B-21 Amp > Stax X9000. The Sennheiser HE-1 clarity was more subtle, so I didn’t really notice the clarity. The Shang Sr. With the Grand Caymen had the best clarity, instrumental separation, and soundstage, but that don’t count since it was a headfier headphone and not the vendor headphone. The X9000 in the RSA B-21 setup clarity is probably a step above the HE-1. This is also from a memory of dissatisfaction, so take that with a grain of salt. To word it carefully, the X9000 clarity is obvious even in a show environment in the RSA B-21 setup. Didn’t listen to the Stax X9000 to the Grand Caymen, I only cared about the Shang Sr at the time, sorry. I think the RSA setup is a little cheating since I also recently discover last month that CD transport is the easiest/cleanest way of getting a high quality transport.
Tried a familiar headphone, the Caldera. This was the best I ever heard the Caldera on. I feel like one of my biggest complaints on the Caldera was it had a too much of a wide soundstage. On the B-21, i felt like the Caldera soundstage is less wide from what I was use to and gave a nice 3D soundstage where instruments play behind you sometimes. It was also depends on the song being played, but since it was being played through a CD. The detail from the Caldera was a step above what I had from memory and what I heard from other booths. Again, the B-21 had CD transport, so I am not sure how much that is a factor as good transport really buff clarity and detail in a chain.
Tried the Abyss 1266 on the B-21. Took it off after 10 seconds. The bass wasn’t satisfying to me as I was expecting huge bass from what I heard on post. I also just wanted to listen to the X9000 tbh, so didn’t spend much time on that. I tried the Abyss 1266 on the headamp cfa3 for a little bit. Bass felt underwhelming as well, so maybe I just don’t care about the headphone. It was a clean texture bass, but I was looking for that visceral impact I heard so much about. Didn’t get that with the B-21 or CFA3.
I didn’t get to plug my headphones as my Sennheiser HD580 Jubilee and Onkyo A800 only had 6.3mm connectors. The B-21 had only pins for headphone connectors.
Overall, I was impress with the B-21. Clean sounding output like my Allnic Headphone amp with minimal distortion. Soundstage isn’t huge like the Viva Amp. I always felt the soundstage wasn’t big with any of the headphone and felt like it shrank for the Caldera. But any amp will feel small compare to the Viva Amp. I also might be experiencing headphone listening fatigue from all the listening I had already done, so my listening sessions was probably not too focused. That is why I just put this as a spoiler, because this impression is pretty unreliable. Unfamiliar chain, unfamiliar headphones, unfamiliar songs, and I just came off of listening to the Shang Sr and MDR-R10, so my energy ain’t tip top. I still wanted to add this impression for me in the future just to remember how I felt if I want to buy this lol.
It’s basically 2 $5000 amps put into 1 package, around $10,000. That’s a fair deal if you think about it that way. The volunteers told me that Ray goal for the amp is to drive every type of headphone to it. From low impedance to high impedance. From sensitive headphone to power hungry planar. Plus a smaller footprint rather than having multiple setup.
4 Likes
not your fault in any way but this makes zero sense to me. If you can’t make the amp you tried to, why stick another unrelated circuit in there? just to be able to charge more money?
2 Likes
Based on the conversation I had, the idea is that a lot of people have a mixture of dynamic and electric static headphones. I am not sure what led him to a different path, but Ray seems to interact with his customers a lot and get feedback from them. One of the main reason he started on the project is because the guy telling the story ask Ray if he can make a better electro static amp. Ray started the project like that, but later change direction for who knows why, asides from cost.
My theory is that one of his client probably ask him to do it, and in a consumer mindset, I think a convenient amp that plays both dynamic/electric static headphones is a easier sell than a more expensive electric static amp. That’s my theory for full disclosure of what I got from the conversation.
1 Like
From talkong to ray myself I think two things are getting mixed up here. He tried to improve his old estat design in terms of power delivery (best bass I’ve heard from Shang on this thing btw), couldn’t without going crazy, and had to just start with a fresh design. I am fairly sure this is seperate from him deciding to do a 2-in-1 amp, but I can ask ray to confirm this. I actualy want to talk to him a fair bit about the amp. I realy enjoyed it at the show but I’m not sure how it stacks up technicaly yet
4 Likes
very helpful add to the story, thanks for sharing. I would love to hear it, perhaps at one of the next canjams.
1 Like
The b21 from Ray looks interesting:
6 Likes