[Mikey01]

David vs Goliath!
This is my newest "LIL BABY". Aint she a purrdy little thing? Very patriotic indeed.

It's all about lighting. The faceplate printing in the 2 upper photos looks silver or white and in the bottom pic is gold????

In real life the red is a darker red and not a hit of orange to it. The blue is a good tad darker too.

I will give some first impressions. First off I was affraid the color combo would be too obnoxious. But the unit is so small that it is actually welcome and looks a little spiffy in real life. I knew it would be small and read all your discriptions of just how small it would be. But seeing your pictures makes it bigger "in the minds eye" than it really is and that is subconciously how you remember it. So to see it in real life is a shock.

With this being so small the first thing I thought was why, either the front or rear panel, wasen't entended on one end to enclude a hole for your key ring...LOL...The transaction was very pleasent with Ray and smooth. The unit quality is top notch and precision jeweled.

It is not really correct to give sound impressions on a unit that is not broken-in yet. However I listened anyway and in it's "green" state it already had an abundance of detail and plenty of bass. Thats it for now, on that subject. And yes I am going to make reference, when the time comes, to my Original Zana Duex Prototype you see pictured below, sitting on Craig's workbench. And yes, I truly reguard the Zana as the apitomy of all headphone amplication. The Zana pictured is the forerunner proto that started the current production of Zana's today.

Yes, I do think that the Mustang P51 is up to the challange. This woulden't be a fair thing to do if it wasen't for the fact that I firmly believe that Ray's P51 is so well engineered it deserves a better challange than most of what it has seen so far. I think it can run with the big dogs. Will it best the Zana? Probably not, but if it get 50% there or better, that is saying something. I am predicting it could garner as much as 90% of the Zana's fine qualities in most areas and could possibly exceed in others. I will let you know. This deserves a 100 hour break-in period so hold on to your hats. This is gonna be a competitive test.

 

[jamato8]

I think on the 51, color combos are great and fun. You are right, with the small size colors that might be tooo much on something else are right on the amp. I look forward to reading more impressions.

 

[Mikey01]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jamato8 /img/forum/go_quote.gif I think on the 51, color combos are great and fun. You are right, with the small size colors that might be tooo much on something else are right on the amp. I look forward to reading more impressions.

I run a radio station out of my home and in the corner side of the room sits my black wooden shelve unit with two of Craigs amps in black plus two large black transmitters, a black articulated mic boom, a black mic EQ board, and black headphones. I listen to music in the same lounge recliner that I transmit from and have a shelve unit on the other side of the chair full of hundreds of CD's, MP3's with two to three hundred gig of music in all genries. And it is dimly lit, or poorly lighted. usually only nightime tube and equiptment lights. So with the P51's dinky size, I had to make it a snappy color or I would never find it......LOL....

 

[oldskoolboarder]

Love the All American, Superman color scheme. VERY cool.

 

[Mikey01]

Look up into the sky. It's a bird. No it's a plane. No it's "Mustangman".
More powerful than a locomotive. Faster than a speeding bullit. Smaller than a pilonidal cyst on your grandpas butt.

 

[jamato8]

Pilonidal cyst? Such a mental image. Drain that cyst and get the hair out, she will be ok but the cyst on the butt is most often found on people from their teens to twenties. A grandmother of a very young age or one young at heart? LOL pilonidal cyst. . . .

 

[Mikey01]

Yesterday, Thursday was the first day long burn-in. But I think I did myself an injustis towards evaluating the P51 during burn-in....or did I? The Mustang was hooked up to a pair of IEM's, Sony EX 500 LP's to be exact. I listened in last night and the sound was glorious. Was this because the EX 500's had less than 10 hours burn-in and starting to mature? If so, all I can say is that I see why the Sony EX 500 LP's are the #1 selling IEM in Japan right now. Sony's new sound direction "gets it". However it's probably some of both IEM and P51 or some excellent synergy. I did preview the P51 with the Sony's the first hour that I had the P51 running when I got it and the Sony's sounded different.

Previously the cymbals on the EX 500's sounded like car crashes, clashes and crunches and now they sound like ringing, clings, and sizzle, a lot more like the real thing. The high end is less fatigueing but all there. I hope this is starting to be the resulting sound of a good break-in of the EX 500's as opposed to the P51. Why? Because I know that the amp will turn around and break-in just fine as I know that all of you P51 owners that have expressed themselves here on that subject woulden't lie to me. So I am more intrigued by the fact that the Sony's might be better.

Either way the sound is still potent but with a softer more pleasing presentation. The bass boom and bloat is gone but still plenty of bass just better resolved. Sound stage goes on for miles........Well back to burn-in for now.

 

[Mikey01]

Fridays burn-in. Still enjoyable to listen to. Doing the Texas two step here. Two forward and one back. Not as good sounding or synergy as yesterday....To be expected though.

 

[techenvy]

how does this mustang p 51 bass stack up to the hornet??? also im leaning toward the predator, how does the mustangs bass compare tot the predator, lower?
im runnin them to my denon7 k's and the predator has usb input that the only reason im leaning in that direction

 

[ting.mike]

I like the color! But why does your Zana Deux look like it doesn't have the proper casing?

 

[Sherwood]

That's a very early model, built in a stock Moth case leftover from when that company folded. My EC2a3 uses the same chassis, more or less, and the big Zana output tubes would not have fit.

I'll bet that amp sounds gorgeous. It is from a golden age.

 

[ting.mike]

Thanks, Sherwood.