RU7:The last of a kind, the first of a new kind
We have reached the last dongle of my collection and these are my impressions, obviously personal and questionable. What is RU7? Honestly, I can't say... sure in shape it's a dongle, but it's also a formidable dac, but it's also an excellent IEM/headphone amplifier (for its size), but it's also an ideal companion for your phones /PC, but it is also a miracle of engineering applied to music, but it is also the companion that will make you listen to your favorite music in a way that will leave you speechless. It is a bit of everything and has a bit of everything. Very close to an excellent dap for musical quality, very close to a dap for driving power, very close to a desktop hardware for general performance, very close to an excellent dac with a real line-out. What makes it different from the other 4 previously evaluated by me, the first thing you will notice listening to it is that it has a not well defined character, it is as if it were modeled on the music it manages in that moment, it can be delicate and full of nuances, but it can also transform into a dac full of energy and dynamics. It has power that puts it well above average dongles, but it doesn't make use of it that will make you jump off your chair, but it will make everything connected to it sound damn good. In a word, its characteristic is "kindness"... which is not "weakness" like in other cases, rather the opposite... it is the use of strength, definition, musicality, positioning of the instruments, presence of the same just as recorded on the track you are listening to and not according to what it does best. It's a box full of things... the naturalness of the RU6, the versatility of the DC04PRO, the definition and extension of the W1, the power of the M15. Can you replace them all? No, but it gives you all the features you loved in the other four. Last thing, the most important is that it really corrects the sound with its "All to DSD" technology not like the filters of the other dongles that all look a bit similar... here the difference is felt a lot and always through this, you will find the most congenial way for you to listen to it with the different IEMs/headphones you have and with the type of music you like to listen to. It's perfect? No and maybe the next ones won't either... RU8... RU9... and so on. But that's the one that's closest to us right now.