Isabellina dac / headphone amp - Page 9

All,

I believe I received just about everyones payment. Production of the Isabellina HPAs has already started!

I'll be emailing everyone during the last week of this month when your orders begin to ship.

The webpage for the Isabellina HPA (along with updates to the RWA website in general) will be posted in the next day or two.

Thanks again to everyone who pre-ordered!

Best regards

Vinnie

And here it is:

Products > Isabellina HPA - Red Wine Audio

Vinnie how is the production coming along! Not that I am excited!

I know what you mean, Its been hard to wait. Its even harder when you had to send your dac in for tradeup. Its going to be brutal if I get around to ordering a woo amp one of these days.

I'll admit it--I'm EXCITED!!! How 'bout an update Vinnie while we wait patiently for the delivery truck?

UPDATE: 7/26

All,

Good news - production has been coming along great and I'll be starting to ship this coming week (everything is on schedule)!

So between this coming week and the following week, all the pre-order units (including those who sent in their Isabellina dacs for upgrade to the HPA) will be completed and shipped out.

I will email everyone individually once their order ships. Thanks again for all your support, enthusiasm - and of course patience

-Vinnie

PS: We are ordering parts for a new production run and hope to have all the parts ready in a few weeks. Ken at ALO Audio will also be stocking the Isabellina HPA and I'm sure he'll be offering some great combo packages (with headphones, cables, etc.).

Great news, thanks Vinnie!

Great news indeed!

So . . . as we all await delivery of our newest toy, I would like to poll the pre-order Head-Fi'ers as to what they anticipate will be their preferred headphone to use with the Isabellina HPA.

My setup will be MacMini USB to Isabellina HPA to either HD650 or RS-2. However, I must say that I am fighting off a bout of upgraditis and would love to hear what kind of synergy I could create with the HD800 and/or the Denon AH D7000. I own neither at the present time, and probably won't buy both, but one may be in my future plans.

Anyone else wish to chime in?

Just go read the reviews on the Amphora.

I have the d7000 and I am going to get the hd800 in two weeks probably. Ill let you know how unbelievably awesome is it to listen with those cans compared to the 650's.

sorry for the double post...

All,

When I built the prototype, I was listening to a pair of ALO re-wired HD650s and they sounded great! I'm waiting for Ken to get some HD800s in stock and I'll be sure to order myself a pair. I suspect the HD800s are going to be amazing with the Isabellina HPA. But I must say, the re-wired HD650s sounded really nice. I also have a pair of K701s, which seemed to offer some more detail and clarity vs. the HD650s, but didn't quite have the filled-in bass that I was craving. Overall, the HD650s were warmer and had richer tone, and Ken's cable helps give them a little more top-end extension.

Ken also let me borrow his re-cabled Ultrasone UE-9s and the Grado GS1000s - both worked very well. I think the UE9s have more bass than I'm looking for (but were a lot of fun, especially with pop, electronica, etc.). I also heard the D5000s and they were also really nice with the HPA. Again, plenty of bass if you like bass, and the highs were very detailed.

And there are so many more out there that should provide excellent results, such as those listed in the Amphora threads as HeadphoneAddict mentioned above.

Yes, headphones that sound great with the Amphora will sound great with the Isabellina HPA. The 12V SLA battery power in the HPA seems to give a little more weight and authority to the sound vs. the smaller Li-Ion battery in the Amphora, and the Isabellina dac is a beautiful match with the headphone stage, and also superb on its own (using the RCA outputs) feeding other equipment. I fed the RCA outputs to a Signature 30.2 feeding K1000s - SWEET! (if you like unique open and spacious sound of the K1000, which I do!).

For iPod users, I recommend the Wadia iTransport so you can feed the digital output directly into the Isabellina HPA. The iTransport will fit nicely on top of the HPA. Otherwise a direct USB connection from your computer (or coax/optical from your CD transport) will do the trick.

So pretty soon we'll start a new Isabellina HPA impressions thread. Units will begin shipping this week (and next week) as promised!

All the best,

Vinnie

I was actually going to ask this question in your audiocircle forum. It just seemed to me that running from a bigger battery would supply the amp board better especially with the lower impedance cans like the d7000's. Thanks for the impressions.