Emmeline "The Shadow" - Page 2  

Question: Is the large chip the digital volume controller or is it a USB Dac?

This one doesn't have a USB DAC.

Thanks!

Well, I wouldn't ask if a TPA wouldn't be the decisive factor for me to buy.
I know the sound of the TPA and I really like it, it sounds unlike an ordinary OP-amp.
My custom built "Rille Amp" has three TPA6120 in active ground configuration.
I just want to make sure before placing any order overseas.

Can't wait for the release!!!

Beautiful. This might be the first RSA product I get. Now to find a DAP that is worthy

Edit: Can't wait to see this thing cased, out of curiosity, what Digital Volume Controller did you end up using?

Emmeline, The Shadow...

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The Shadow, when turned off, it goes to the lowest volume setting in the resistors chain, thus it protects you from suddenly playing very loud music through IEMs after listenning to high impedance headphones before shutting it off. This featur is very important, the only effort would be to hold the volume switch clock wise for les that a second to get to a desired volume setting.

One of the most important featur of the Shadow is that it uses dual supply voltages instead of a single power supply. That means NO INPUT CAPACITORS in the signal path and NO OUTPUT CAPACITORS IN THE SIGNAL PATH either, this will insure that the sound has no capacitor's coloration even if we sit all night argueing how good those caps are.

Three designs of the Shadow, built with input & output caps in the signal path, were rejected even though some of the best film caps were used. the sound had caps coloration. The digital volume control in the Shadow must be designed to work with dual supply in order to build the circuit with out these input & out caps, that is what we did.

The Shadow has a pure clean sound of the op-amp used which has one of lowest input voltage noise in the industry. The digital volume control has no gain built into it this way the gain is set be two resistors, gain of two, which is more than needed to power any IEMs & low impedance headphones including the HD600/800, that we tried at the meet to a very good level.

The op-amp used in the Shadow has a 250ma of current capability per channel. it can swing input to output voltage with ease.

The Shadow will come with a mini USB charger also it can be charged from any desk top.

Ray Samuels Audio.

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Last edited by Ray Samuels; Today at 10:27 PM.

ray how do you think purely based on sound quality the shadow compares to the sr-71a? I mean I love smallness but sound quality is my main criteria

Ray, any projection on delivery timeframe?

Ray, what's the estimated battery life?

The Shadow...

The Shadow is designed with 3.7-5 volts lithium ion battery/charger. It swings the voltage from rail to rail. this voltage is plenty to drive all IEMs & all low impedance headphones & to acceptable level of listening the HDxxx, high impedance headphones. The SR-71A has 18 volts battery, it can swing much higher voltages for those hungry phones with ease. But if you happen to use the same level of volume on both amps I assure you you will be happy with either one.
Ray samuels

Emmeline, The Shadow...

The Shadow is capable to give you more than 7-8 days of listenning at 8 hours per day from a single charge using IEMs.
Ray samuels

Working on it, will let you know soon.
Thanks.
Ray

The Shadow is so interesting news for not noly RSA fans but also many Head-Fi members!
I have The Predator, Mustang P-51 & SR-71A.
Each of Ray's Amps produce very dignified & very nice tuning sound
(though of course each of them have different nuances).

So, We will expect The Shadow very much the same as the other Ray's Amps!!

I have a favor to ask of Ray.
About the place of input & output jucks of The Shadow,
If possible, I want to get The Shadow which has input & output jucks at same direction.
It will be easy to use for many people, I think.

Thanks

Emmeline, The Shadow...

Installing the input jack on the back side has two advantages. The first is being closer to the ipod bottom connector now cable manufacturers can design 90 digree connector out of ipod to the input of the Shadow, which I have seen Germania have done that. Secondly it permits the size of the amp being much smaller.
Ray Samuels