[drp]

My black Rudistor RPX-100 has arrived, and it is gorgeous simplicity. From the RPX-100 color choice thread, where matching other gear was a suggested course for silver versus black, it matches the brushed black aluminum of my Opus 21 perfectly. The milled-out areas for the phono plugs and attaching bolts are silver, and then there are the beautiful chrome knobs. Perfect accents to the black face plate and housing.

This amp looks like it means business, with understated power and authority, and that is exactly what it delivers. First impressions - Even new, this amp is sonically stunning. It's now settling in and getting acquainted with the rest of my gear and cables. So far, everybody is singing koombayah big time.

Balancing act – I look over at my Edition 9s and contemplate the fact that I am about to cut the plug off of a 1500 dollar headphone; trying to work up the nerve. Wanting to experiment and burn in the balanced circuitry, I needed a volunteer. Up steps my trusty little HF-1s, who already had their cord shortened and a 1/8" plug added in order to play transportable with the T-hawk and iMod. Additionally, I already had a pair of XLRs ends wired up with Kimber PBJ from a long-ago experiment with Vinnie of RWA (K1000 and Clari-T's 1st date; they did it), so off come the spade lugs and very quickly (and not so professional looking), on go the naked ends of the Grado cable.

The results of balancing the Grado HF-1 and driving them with the RPX-100? In a phrase, <Yoda voice> "Transformed, they are!" </Yoda voice>. Not having taken much time to listen single ended, I'm not quite sure how much of the sonic signature is just the RPX-100 itself, but they sound incredible. Maybe it's the quad mono design (in balanced mode) or the extra juice this amp can produce, but it feels and sounds like I am now, finally, properly driving my Grados (this, from a previous owner of the wonderful RS-1 and PS-1).

On Jonny Lang's Rack Em Up, I can not only hear the weight of the stick on the high hat, but can hear and feel when the pedal causes the symbol plates to squeeze together and the fast but palatable decay. The deep and juicy bass is natural and organic sounding; each low low note easily distinguishable. Jonny's voice and how he abruptly cuts phrases with hard breaths is reproduced to near perfection. Hmm, wonder how it will all sound a few hundred hours from now?

More impressions and a few pix to follow.

Come here little Edition 9s; this won't hurt a bit………snip!

Kewl!!

Edited to add pix:

Some random shots in very poor lighting. Second one is the collection I'll have at the meet; last one is the joy of alac, foobar, and Head-fi. The lil' Opus doing double-duty as a harddrive-based player via digital in.

 

[didwlgh]

Sounds fabulous....can't wait for pics!!!

 

[MaloS]

Ya, honestly. Where are the pictures. I am already drooling over one of these (but not getting one any time soon), and you don't even show me a picture of a stylish black one ?!

 

[Ooztuncer]

bringing to Boston meet, right?? I am also on the verge of buying a rudistor (small brother) but want to listen them first...

 

[SysteX]

Oh you better be bringing this thing to the Boston Meet!

 

[MaloS]

Wow....this amp looks like it means business, with emphasis on mean. Makes my Raptor look no more than cute.

 

[shiosai]

The black RPX-100 looks gorgeous! It looks *better* than the silver color. Too bad, my other gears were all matched in silver.

 

[ldj325]

Congratulations on your new baby, oops I mean amp. It has that understated elegant look that is sooo classy. As you know I can't wait to hear your impressions with the Edition 9s balanced. But I suggest you listen to them single-ended on the amp first to get familiar with how much is the amp. That is, of course, unless you make yourself a set of single-ended adapters so you can go back and forth. Enjoy your audio bliss.

As for me I tried to sell my little NX-33, but in the end couldn't bear to part with it. So it now lives at my office to make foom for my Supra XLR coming soon.

PS. Nice collection of gear and a nice space you've got there.

 

[klenkar]

mine is fine too....had it for 3 days!
dd

 

[ldj325]

Quote:

Originally Posted by klenkar /img/forum/go_quote.gif mine is fine too....had it for 3 days! dd

Wow, another lucky one. Congratulations. That must be sweat with the 650s. Have you got a balanced cable yet? They are especially nice balanced. I can only imagine how nice with the RPX-100 (being a NX-33 owner).

 

[klenkar]

I got a pair of Rudis balanced cables for my 650's.
Tried the rpx-100 with my Grado 80's and it sounded ok....The Corda Prehead never made the Grados sound decent.......So now I'll have to buy a pair of balanced ed9

dd
the rpx looks even better irl.

 

[ldj325]

Quote:

Originally Posted by klenkar /img/forum/go_quote.gif I got a pair of Rudis balanced cables for my 650's. Tried the rpx-100 with my Grado 80's and it sounded ok....The Corda Prehead never made the Grados sound decent.......So now I'll have to buy a pair of balanced ed9 dd the rpx looks even better irl.

If you think of it let me know how you like the balanced Edition 9s. I've got them, and as with most things balanced, I really like them. I am very curious to hear your and drp's reaction to the balanced Edition 9s. They are just so smooth and full.

Enjoy that amp.

(I've got a Singlepower Supra XLR coming so it will be my turn soon.)

 

[drp]

My second evening with the RPX-100 repeated that of the previous evening, in that I got absolutely nothing else done but listen to music (and solder **** in the process). From mid-afternoon throughout the evening, into late at night, I kept thinking about other stuff I wanted to/should be doing, such as catch up on my classical guitar studies (way behind), complete a difficult map in Doom 3 ROE, misc chores, but I was so mesmerized by the RPX-100 with the Edition 9s (still SE) and the balanced HF-1s that all I could do was keep listening. I did complete my first pigtail test (pix to follow).

Resolution - Back to Jonny Lang's Lie to Me CD, there are some excellent electric guitar licks that were so clean sounding and with such tight control of electronic distortion, it felt like someone intimately familiar with electric guitar amps would be able to tell what type of tubes were in the head of the amp and where the gain knob was set. On my IASCA test CD where there is a female voice checking left/right channel integrity (sanity check for my soldering), I heard a timbre and enuciation that I've never heard in ~1.5 decades that I've owned this CD. I adore Nina Perrson's (The Cardigans) voice, not to mention her dimpled face as she sings. For the first time, while listening to Grand Turismo, I can visualize her seemingly heart-felt facial expressions; something that in the past was not clear in my mind's eye.

Soundscape - If you take the example of wallpaper sound; completely flat, and compare this to systems (more than just the amp) where it feels like the sound is more holographic with depth and weight; something the RPX-33 did extremely well, then what the RPX-100 produces takes this to the next level by reproducing the amplified air and natural decay that surrounds the holographic image (sorry, this is hard for a novice to really put into words), with even more depth and imaging. Everything sounds clear and placed. I cannot only place, hear, and feel what each instrument is doing, but the timbre and nuance that each musician is contributing individually to the piece; the soul and accent they put into each note. This is at a level I've never heard in my gear.

My system has undergone several upgrades in the not too distant past, including a power umbilical from Revelation Audio Labs, the Edition 9s, and now the RPX-100. A lot is improvements in a short period of time that makes it difficult to pinpoint the true reasons for the overall improvements I'm hearing. Maybe it's the overall synergy, or the fact that these pieces are allowing the truly amazing PRaT and analog nature of my Opus 21 to finally shine through, having removed the bottlenecks that exist at this level, which I consider mid-hi-fi. I place my system at the level only due to the ultra-stuff that's out there, which I don't think I'll ever reach. However, I can write that I have effing finally achieved what I've been striving for in my dyamic rig.

Okay, enough of the jumbled thoughts, here are some pix of my first balanced/single-ended pigtail experiment. I am not hearing any noticable sound degradation from a hardwired set of XLRs, so will use this method for test one of balancing the Edition 9s, which I hope to get to soon.

Head-on view:

Side view showing a bit of an boom-type extension I was striving for, which helps keep the headphone cable from turning into a Zamboni as I move from one end of the desk (old 6' drafting table) to the other:

I also took the liberty to solve the issue of cable droop, which always got in the way of the CD drawer.

Here, we see Jesse helping me present the pigtail connector. Note the space between two of the pins, designed to orient the two pieces. Oh, this is a Dean's Power Plug; a connector I've been using in RC air systems for many years. Good material; very tight connections. We'll see.......

And finally, the business end of the XLRs:

Thanks for reading; I'm off to balance more cans. . . Hmmmm, will the PK1s look silly with the connector being 10 times the size of the driver . . Naw….

 

[ldj325]

Beauifuly work! Now quick make another connector that ternimates single-ended so you can go back and forth. As you know I've been waiting patiently for you to give a listen to balanced Edition 9s. Now that you've got the amp and are so close, I'm getting impatient, can't wait to hear.

 

[Salt Peanuts]

Good to see you've received you amp, Dave! Now, burn-in the sucker and get it nice and ready for the meet!

[size=xx-small]*And it's not lost on me that, for once, it's me who's waiting for gears and not you. [/size]