We are proud to announce the arrival of the newest edition to the RaySamuelsAudio line, the SR-71A!
We sold the last SR-71 about nine months ago. Unfortunately, parts became unavailable for that period of time. There was still a great demand for the SR-71 but we couldn't do anything about it. During this time many ideas came to mind. One of them was to make the SR-71 a more flexible amp by adding a three-position gain switch, this way we would not need to modify the amp for those who want to use it for low-impedance IEMs, or for those who want to use the high-impedance full-size headphones like the Sennheiser HD-6XX family--this is what we did.
This translated to creating a new printed circuit board for the new amp to accommodate the added parts, to be able to keep the sound that we wanted, and include the necessary extra components. We also wanted to reduce the weight of the chassis--and though not as small as our more diminutive Hornet and Tomahawk, the SR-71A is still
very portable, and is lighter and smaller than the original SR-71. In addition to being smaller than the original SR-71, the SR-71A has smaller, more closely matched face plate. It will be offered in three different colors: Black is standard, with optional choices of Clear/White or Dark Gray. The Clear/White and Dark Gray color options are $15.00 extra.
The gain switch is incorporated on the left side of the face plate, making it harder to be switched accidentally, and yet is still easy to flip to gain your desired gain level. The chassis lettering is silkscreened.
We did not want to differ much from the original SR-71, so we kept the two nine-volt battery circuit, which gives the ability to swing much higher voltages at very demanding passages without any fear of clipping.
We kept the original Panasonic volume control. We ordered 1200 units to be custom-made for the gradual curve (taper) that we wanted. We did not go with a smaller potentiometer as this one is noiseless, and we have never had to change or replace any volume controls on the hundreds of SR-71's sold. Why fool around with something that worked so well?
The circuit has been refined more and a contains bigger 805-sized Dale Vishay SMD resistors which have been used with thicker signal lanes. As before, each of the eight tantalum capacitors is bypassed by a high-quality film capacitor.
The printed circuit boards are completed and we are waiting for the custom knobs to arrive, and have been told that they will be here before the end of this week.
If you are looking for the
smallest portable headphone amp, the SR-71A may not be for you. But if you are looking for incredible sound quality, which is still quite portable, this little amp is nothing short of breathtaking. In terms of its dimensions, it is shorter than the iPod Classic/Video. When these two are combined together they are a marriage made in heaven.
Currently, we have a great demand for the SR-71A, especially from Japan. We could only get enough parts to manufacture 500 amps. I have not taken any money from any customers who wanted to reserve a unit. Currently, many group buys have formed with requests for many amps to be reserved for them. I will honor all of those e-mails.
The SR-71A will be shipped to those who send payment first. If you wish to purchase the SR-71A, we will honor as many requests as we can, upon payment.
Unfortunately, the New SR-71A is not as inexpensive as we would like it to be, because all of the materials needed for fabrication and chassis has risen in price (especially when only 500 units can be made), so the price of the new SR-71A is $450.00 + shipping. Within the U.S. we will ship FedEx for a fee of $14.00.
Shipping out of the U.S. is more expensive, because the price for International shipping is more costly. We can no longer ship internationally for a flat rate. So if you reside out of the continental U.S., I need your full shipping address with zip/postal code to find out what the exact shipping fee via FedEx will be.
(We do NOT use USPS because in recent times some of the packages did not make it to their International destinations.)
Please give us a call at 847-673-8739 when you are ready to place an order and pay via PayPal.
Our PayPal address is:
rsaudio@raysamuelsaudio.com
For payment, we also accept money orders or cashier's checks. We have no means of taking credit cards, because we are not set up for that.
Chassis are in stock, and when the custom volume control knobs arrive, I will include some pictures and post them here in this thread.
Thank you for your business, and cheers!
--RaySamuelsAudio--
ANNOUNCEMENT: Emmeline "The Black Bird" SR-71A
