[LFC_SL]

   
My review from a few weeks ago:
 
http://www.head-fi.org/products/ray-samuels-audio-f-35-lightning/reviews/10114
 

 
Have you heard the Duet amp? Tnx

 

[HeadphoneAddict]

   
Have you heard the Duet amp? Tnx

 
I have a few impressions in here - Duet is very nice and was great with Grados, but it does have a little too much hiss for using with IEM - http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f45/colorado-springs-7-13-08-mini-meet-report-apogee-mini-dac-vs-duet-shootout-he60-hev70-vs-hp-1000-vs-ps-1-more-346721/#post4515237
 
The biggest complaint about the Duet and Mini-DAC headphone out were the somewhat 2D soundstage when driving headphones, which was not as deep and immersive as the mini-DAC XLR outputs into a nicer amp.  I think the SR-71b and F-35 (or P-51) are a better amp, but by how much I can't say since I haven't heard a Duet in years.

 

[hemtmaker]

Anyone used SR71B with the AK240? I wonder if the amp section of the AK240 is already as good as the SR71B. Thanks

 

[Canadian411]

Anyone used SR71B with the AK240? I wonder if the amp section of the AK240 is already as good as the SR71B. Thanks

 
Never had DAP but as an amp, to be honest I was never impressed with SR71b, that's my years of years of experience with SR71b.  I know there are lot of people who like this amp but for me it's didn't do anything, just nothing special about it.
 
For portable I might go Hugo but for now I am done with portable gears.

 

[SDBiotek]

   
I have a few impressions in here - Duet is very nice and was great with Grados, but it does have a little too much hiss for using with IEM - http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f45/colorado-springs-7-13-08-mini-meet-report-apogee-mini-dac-vs-duet-shootout-he60-hev70-vs-hp-1000-vs-ps-1-more-346721/#post4515237
 
The biggest complaint about the Duet and Mini-DAC headphone out were the somewhat 2D soundstage when driving headphones, which was not as deep and immersive as the mini-DAC XLR outputs into a nicer amp.  I think the SR-71b and F-35 (or P-51) are a better amp, but by how much I can't say since I haven't heard a Duet in years.

I think LFC_SL is referring to the ALO Audio Duet balanced portable amp. The ALO Duet is supposed to work well with iems, but there aren't too many reviews of it yet.
 
The SR-71B works fine with my Noble K10s (using custom balanced cable), but it has a way of smoothing over the sound that seems to rob the K10s of some of their airiness and detail, and I get less of an "out of my head" presentation compared to other portable balanced amps I have tried. It doesn't sound bad at all, but I think I am not much into the RSA house sound. I can see how that might be desirable if you have a lot of harsh-sounding recordings in your music collection, though.

 

[LFC_SL]

Yeah sorry, the Cypher Labs Duet that is Heard Alo MK3 (not the 'plus' version) and was impressed by scale but need quieter background due to my iem.

Have fond memories of Tomahawk amp which I had few years ago but it is hard to blind buy RSA when their competitors distribute outside of USA.

David who runs CL posted recently there will also be a new CL amp end of July, speculation it will be smaller iem amp based on FB postings

 

[HeadphoneAddict]

  I think LFC_SL is referring to the ALO Audio Duet balanced portable amp. The ALO Duet is supposed to work well with iems, but there aren't too many reviews of it yet.
 
The SR-71B works fine with my Noble K10s (using custom balanced cable), but it has a way of smoothing over the sound that seems to rob the K10s of some of their airiness and detail, and I get less of an "out of my head" presentation compared to other portable balanced amps I have tried. It doesn't sound bad at all, but I think I am not much into the RSA house sound. I can see how that might be desirable if you have a lot of harsh-sounding recordings in your music collection, though.

 
(1) WHY would anyone RE-USE the name of a popular product from another company? I wonder why Apogee wouldn't "trademark" the name for their product. It was still fun going back and reading our impression of Click and Clack (car talk guys) but for the audio world.
 
(2) Also, In my opinion the SR-71b and F-35 don't have the "RSA house sound". Neither amp is slightly aggressive sounding like my Tomahawk or Protector were. The balanced output is very open and crisp yet slightly darker, smoother, and more refined sounding than my DACmini which could possibly be described as more aggressive than the SR-71b yet universally acclaimed as "neutral to a fault".
 
If what I describe is actually the current house sound then I take this back, but back in the 2007-2009 days some of the RSA amps were described as being slightly aggressive and more energetic with an increased midrange warmth. Now it mostly a midrange warmth without the edge, but they've also opened up a lot.

 

[SDBiotek]

My RSA amp experience is limited to the Protector and the SR-71B, paired with my ciems, so please take my comments with a grain of salt. Neither of those amps sounds aggressive to me, but they are definitely darker and have some midrange warmth compared with my other portable amps.
 
Now, if I could just find my SR-71B, I could finally try it with my Audeze LCD-XCs...apparently the last time I used it I stored it in a logical location, so of course I can't find it now.
 
As for the "other" Duet (it's actually Cypher Labs, not ALO Audio), I imagine there are many products in general with the same name. Doing a Google search for "Duet" turns up some funny shopping results.

 

[Canadian411]

Yape I had 2 sr71b none impressed me..
I don't really like the warm sounding or dark sounding amp. IMO should be neutral.

Do you think alo mk3+ is more aggressive and has more synergy?

And CLAS -db didn't impressed me. Is there any better portable dac except hugo? Hugo looks like a childtoy to me.

 

[SDBiotek]

To HeadphoneAddict or anyone else: just curious about how the RSA SR-71A sounds compared to the SR-71B? I know it is not balanced, but wonder if it sounds similar.

 

[wolfen68]

To HeadphoneAddict or anyone else: just curious about how the RSA SR-71A sounds compared to the SR-71B? I know it is not balanced, but wonder if it sounds similar.

SR71A is a nice amp...RSA sound and no hiss with IEM's.  Single ended it is significantly better than the SR71B..more dynamic with a fun punchy sound that provides some more "grunt" as compared to the original SR71.  The SR71B on the other hand really shines in balanced mode.  It's also dead silent and in that mode sounds better than the SR71A with better soundstage, instrument separation and placement, and deeper bass.

 

[SDBiotek]

wolfen68, thanks for the comparison.

 

[lwells]

I find the RSA Protector / SR71B comparisons interesting.  
 
I briefly owned both.  Neither sounds aggressive to me, but the Protector could be interpreted as 'more' aggressive maybe.  The SR71B is more airy.  It just sounds bigger.  The Protector has sounded a bit more grainy to me.  
 
This was using my balanced W4rs.

 

[Blurpapa]

Hi guys. Sorry to dig up an old thread but I've recently dug up my old SR-71B but for the life of me I cannot find the charger.

May I trouble you guys to help me take a picture of the charger for the amp please? If it has any technical details on it, such as voltage or mAh I can try to hunt for a suitabel charger for it.

Thank you very much in advance.
John

 

[Audio Addict]

Hi guys. Sorry to dig up an old thread but I've recently dug up my old SR-71B but for the life of me I cannot find the charger.

May I trouble you guys to help me take a picture of the charger for the amp please? If it has any technical details on it, such as voltage or mAh I can try to hunt for a suitabel charger for it.

Thank you very much in advance.
John

Drop Ray an email at rsaudio@raysamuelsaudio.com

The batteries do stop taking a charge overtime. Also there was an update and if yours was bought before the update, Ray will update it for no charge. You just cover shipping.