FullBright1
Headphoneus Supremus
Wanted to post a short review of the RAL-KEB02ip.
Heaphones im using:
HiFiMan He400i's
Sennheiser HD600
Fostex TH500RP
Adam F5s (Bookshelf speakers)
Music i used for the review?
Everything but rap.
Otherwise...
Bluegrass, Classical, Acoustic Fingerstyle guitar, Celtic, 70s-80s-2015 Pop, Hard Rock, Miles Davis - Movie Soundtracks..,Keane, Keith Urban, Imgen Heap, Hillary Hahn, Tine Thing Helseth, Winger, Lana Del Rey, Sarah Jarosz, The Staves, Jimmy Wahlsteen, Dexter Gordon.....Paul Desmond.
I purchased the RAL-KEB02ip because i wanted something that was potentially (reviews) a much better point and shoot type of DAC experience after owning most of the plug and play type.
Including the NEW Meridian v2, The cE DacPort, The DragonFly v2, Cambridge DacMagic, rCam rDac and others.
I wanted something that was just a lot better, but not necessarily $1000 more to get me there.
And yes, ive owned the Woo Fireflies and the Resonessence Concero.
Ok, of the plug and plays in that group, the Cambridge Audio DacMagic is the boss because of its sound and its Vol control, the DFly v2 is tied for 1st, the Dacport is 3rd and in a tie with the warm sounding rCam Dac.
The Concero by REsonessence offers 18% more refinement & detail then the Fireflies, and the Fireflies offers a great sound, looks cool, + it has a nice Big Volume control that actually works.
The Concero can work with your Apple remote.
Now, all that groundwork is laid to tell you that the RAL sounds better then all of the $2-$300 plug and plays, and not by a slight margin, and i would say the overall sound of the unit, including its ability to look deeply into the music is equal to the Resonessence Concero, and sounds as good as the Fireflies.......in my opinion.
Simply put, the RAL KEB02ip its an amazing gear.
It has it all.....Resolution, clarity, wide soundstage, beautiful separation of instruments.
It can deal with low or high impedance Phones.
It has a cut or "slow" setting (Analog Filter curve) switch that allows the 9018 Sabre Dac to offer you a sort of very slight softening of the tone, which is exactly what AKG headphones need., whereas the normal "sharp" setting adds that touch of dynamics and focus thats missing in a lot of open Senheiser headphones, like the HD600s.
And the RAL-KEBo2iP has a very very good volume knob that actually turns off "click" the unit when you are finished.
The RAL KEBO2ipworks off USB <or> internal battery if you need to use it on the go, ...and the only thing that i dont like about it, (and yes, it can deal with DSD music streams and LPCM up to 24bit 384 kHz).....so as i was saying, the only thing i dont like about it is that it does not have soft "feet" pads on the bottom of its 3.2 X 5.3 metal case.
I can live with that.
Moon Audio sells this gear wunderkind.
Thats where i bought mine, and im thinking about buying another one as its so rare when you find something that is GREAT and its affordable.
Something else you might be thrilled to learn, is that this incredible sounding gear is Made in Japan. (Osaka).
Not China.
Heaphones im using:
HiFiMan He400i's
Sennheiser HD600
Fostex TH500RP
Adam F5s (Bookshelf speakers)
Music i used for the review?
Everything but rap.
Otherwise...
Bluegrass, Classical, Acoustic Fingerstyle guitar, Celtic, 70s-80s-2015 Pop, Hard Rock, Miles Davis - Movie Soundtracks..,Keane, Keith Urban, Imgen Heap, Hillary Hahn, Tine Thing Helseth, Winger, Lana Del Rey, Sarah Jarosz, The Staves, Jimmy Wahlsteen, Dexter Gordon.....Paul Desmond.
I purchased the RAL-KEB02ip because i wanted something that was potentially (reviews) a much better point and shoot type of DAC experience after owning most of the plug and play type.
Including the NEW Meridian v2, The cE DacPort, The DragonFly v2, Cambridge DacMagic, rCam rDac and others.
I wanted something that was just a lot better, but not necessarily $1000 more to get me there.
And yes, ive owned the Woo Fireflies and the Resonessence Concero.
Ok, of the plug and plays in that group, the Cambridge Audio DacMagic is the boss because of its sound and its Vol control, the DFly v2 is tied for 1st, the Dacport is 3rd and in a tie with the warm sounding rCam Dac.
The Concero by REsonessence offers 18% more refinement & detail then the Fireflies, and the Fireflies offers a great sound, looks cool, + it has a nice Big Volume control that actually works.
The Concero can work with your Apple remote.
Now, all that groundwork is laid to tell you that the RAL sounds better then all of the $2-$300 plug and plays, and not by a slight margin, and i would say the overall sound of the unit, including its ability to look deeply into the music is equal to the Resonessence Concero, and sounds as good as the Fireflies.......in my opinion.
Simply put, the RAL KEB02ip its an amazing gear.
It has it all.....Resolution, clarity, wide soundstage, beautiful separation of instruments.
It can deal with low or high impedance Phones.
It has a cut or "slow" setting (Analog Filter curve) switch that allows the 9018 Sabre Dac to offer you a sort of very slight softening of the tone, which is exactly what AKG headphones need., whereas the normal "sharp" setting adds that touch of dynamics and focus thats missing in a lot of open Senheiser headphones, like the HD600s.
And the RAL-KEBo2iP has a very very good volume knob that actually turns off "click" the unit when you are finished.
The RAL KEBO2ipworks off USB <or> internal battery if you need to use it on the go, ...and the only thing that i dont like about it, (and yes, it can deal with DSD music streams and LPCM up to 24bit 384 kHz).....so as i was saying, the only thing i dont like about it is that it does not have soft "feet" pads on the bottom of its 3.2 X 5.3 metal case.
I can live with that.
Moon Audio sells this gear wunderkind.
Thats where i bought mine, and im thinking about buying another one as its so rare when you find something that is GREAT and its affordable.
Something else you might be thrilled to learn, is that this incredible sounding gear is Made in Japan. (Osaka).
Not China.