REVIEW: Ray Samuels Audio SR-71B balanced portable headphone amp - Page 2

What about the Toucan? Isn't that the bang for the buck winner? Maybe it doesn't quite beat out the Stepdance single ended, but balanced it seems to be pretty close to the SR71B. It costs a third less than the Stepdance and about two thirds less than the SR71B. This is kind of OT, but I felt it needed to be said.

 

Note that I did listen to the SR71B driving the HE-6 and can not say anything bad about it, rather it is an excellent performer that wowed both my dad and I. I just think at $229 the Toucan is the clear bang for the buck winner.

I will be able to test that once my XLR4 female-to-Protector male adapter and the SR71B arrives.  I know the Toucan can, so I would think the SR71B would be able to do it as well to a similar extent, but we'll see.

Not for me - as I said, I dont own any balanced headphones. Its one thing to say 'seems to be close to the SR71B', but what are you basing that on ? Numbers on a page ?

 

Rob has pointed out previously that iBasso don't send him review samples after he gave one of their amps a less-than-favourable review, so we are unlikely to get a P4-Stepdance comparison - feel free to buy both and give us your impressions. I dont have that kind of budget, forcing me to choose one or the other. 

 

Well, if you have no balanced phones, then the Stepdance might be better. However, the Toucan may still have a better bang for the buck as Skylab reviewed it single ended very favorably in his portable thread. Hiflight runs his K1000s off the Toucan fairly well and another member runs his HE-6 with it and loves it, so it is not just numbers on paper. This is getting OT, so I am going to wait for more impressions of the amp, especially with phones other than the HE-6.

GeorgeGoodman, is bang for the buck defined as SQ divided by price? If so, the absolute (not relative) consideration of how much SQ one can afford will be relevant to many people, not just maxing out the ratio.

(To be clear, Skykab did not rate the single-ended Toucan as highly as the Stepdance.)

too bad i had to sell my toucan to purchase the sr71b otherwise i could do a little comparison from my dacmagic balanced > sr71b & toucan > balanced t1.

i wonder how the sr71b will do with the jh16 vs the toucan or stepdance.

There you have it - SR71B and Stepdance in a different league altogether when comparing single-ended operation - that is all I need to hear.

 

 

 

Thanks for the review Rob.  I'm thinking you need moar balanced phones...

this 

Is SR-71B better than The Protector ?

I have yet to hear the finished product, but to my ears, even the prototype sounded better than the Protector when I compared them side-by-side back in August at Can Fest.  So I would expect the answer is "yes" in virtually all aspects with the exception of battery life.  But I defer to Skylab and/or anyone else who has auditioned them side-by-side since the production version has been released.

You even have to ask? The only answer here that would do us proud: "all of them".

 

I say reterminate to a small 4 pin connector at the end, then make up a variety of adapter cables for single ended or xlr or 6 pin use.