Member Reviews: Ray Samuels P-51 Mustang

I received a loaner of the new Mustang P-51 portable headphone amp from Ray Samuels Audio. The impossibly small Mustang is quite full featured – lithium Ion battery built in, 3 gain settings. Smaller even that the Tomahawk. Same styling as other RSA amps, which is to say a very attractive anodized metal case. The Mustang, according to Ray, can deliver more than 2 times the amount of current that a Tomahawk can. Pretty impressive. Headphones used for this review were the Audio Technica AT-ESW9, Kenwood K1000, and the Sennheiser PXC-350.   Build Quality: A+: Attractive metal case, properly sized metal knob, very sturdy connectors. Doesn’t get any better.   Treble: A: Amazingly...

This is one of those times when you just have to have the most expensive toy on the block.   The P51 Mustang is one of those products that sit in the high end luxury category of its product range. It is without a doubt a premiere product, with excellent sound quality as a headphone amp. However, I would stress that the gains this product has at its highway-robbery price point are not commensurate at all compared to a similar product sitting at a much lower price bracket.   While this product has sublimely clean sound with excellent, liquid mids and tight bass, this kind of micro detail improvement is just not worth the $400 or so asking price. This is the kind of product that...