RSA * Dark Star * SE and balanced, dual chassis amp designed to drive most any HP . .

[jude]

Quote:

You call it prejudice, I call it experience based on past products.  Ray has real talent to find the truly worst way to accomplish something, just look at the cRaptor and the portable amps with distortion in the double digits into the load they are intended to drive.  Now Ray doesn't post internal pics which puts him in the same camp as Rudistor.  We know full well what Rudi is trying to hide so one has to assume Ray is hiding something nasty inside that chassis too. 
 
There are a few ways how one could tackle an amp like this but first off lets be clear that this thing doesn't run in Class A despite what one of Ray's shills has posted.  Class A means heat, a lot of it, and at these power levels you need massive heatsinks.  Now that means Class AB or *gasp* Class B.  Now one could just take the truly awful HR-2 circuit and uprate it with larger buffers but you still end up with the same Class B crap.  It will sound like crap just like the HR-2 does too.  Another avenue is to use some version of the Gainclone circuits.  Hardly high end despite people claiming that the short circuit paths somehow make it so but far better then a HR-2 with larger buffers. 

I heard the Dark Star at the last Detroit Meet, and, through it, the HiFiMAN HE-6 (and Dev Avidon's AKG K-1000) both sounded stunning powered by it.  I was far from alone in this opinion.
 
The Raptor is still one of my favorite reasonably priced commercial amps for driving the Sennheiser HD 800 (especially with the tube set I've got on it now).  I've brought this rig with me to Los Angeles CanJam (2009), CanJam @ RMAF 2009 and CanJam @ RMAF 2010, so many others have also heard this rig, too.
 
And the SR-71b--though certainly not among the tiniest or portable amps--is, to my ears, easily the best-sounding portable amp I've yet heard with either the Audeze LCD-2 or HiFiMAN HE-6 (though it wouldn't be my first choice for IEMs).
 
I've been a customer of RSA's for many years now (as are thousands of other Head-Fi'ers), and happen to like and enjoy several of RSA's products.

 

[Syan25]

I've had my HR-2 burning in for two days so far and I've got no complaints with heat - it is cool as a cucumber. Sounds terrific too...
as far as I know - the HR-2 is a Class A amp as advertised on the website.
Quote:

 
You call it prejudice, I call it experience based on past products.  Ray has real talent to find the truly worst way to accomplish something, just look at the cRaptor and the portable amps with distortion in the double digits into the load they are intended to drive.  Now Ray doesn't post internal pics which puts him in the same camp as Rudistor.  We know full well what Rudi is trying to hide so one has to assume Ray is hiding something nasty inside that chassis too. 
 
There are a few ways how one could tackle an amp like this but first off lets be clear that this thing doesn't run in Class A despite what one of Ray's shills has posted.  Class A means heat, a lot of it, and at these power levels you need massive heatsinks.  Now that means Class AB or *gasp* Class B.  Now one could just take the truly awful HR-2 circuit and uprate it with larger buffers but you still end up with the same Class B crap.  It will sound like crap just like the HR-2 does too.  Another avenue is to use some version of the Gainclone circuits.  Hardly high end despite people claiming that the short circuit paths somehow make it so but far better then a HR-2 with larger buffers. 

 
 

 

[Audio-Omega]

Has anyone bought one ?

 

[MrScary]

Has anyone bought one ?

What was the price again?

 

[Audio-Omega]

Around $3000.  

 

[MrScary]

Ahhh thats right. Thx

 

[immtbiker]

I think that giving an opinion about a component that you never heard is equally wrong as someone who chimes into a thread where someone asks for advice about picking a component and people offer opinions based upon what they "heard" from friends or read online.
I think that we should wait until we get bonafide opinions from members that we trust, before putting down a component or putting it on a pedestal.
Without hearing something, all opinions are just conjecture and since many people trust the opinion of spritzer, it is a dangerous power to abuse the trust of multiple members without even hearing it, or let alone, seeing the inside.

 

[tankman]

Have heard a few people saying something similiar. Don't know about ray, I once opend up a isabelina dac from rwa and found nothing much inside the chasis. 3 tiny pcbs and a battery and the most of the space is unoccupied. To me, it doesn't sound  that good as others described. It could be too late until we hear those american made products as for people stay out of the u.s have to import them and thats too difficult  to ship the things back when realize something wrong. My thought to spritzer's comments is that people got be careful and don't drop the deposite until find out its as good as you like.
 
Quote:

 
You call it prejudice, I call it experience based on past products.  Ray has real talent to find the truly worst way to accomplish something, just look at the cRaptor and the portable amps with distortion in the double digits into the load they are intended to drive.  Now Ray doesn't post internal pics which puts him in the same camp as Rudistor.  We know full well what Rudi is trying to hide so one has to assume Ray is hiding something nasty inside that chassis too. 
 
There are a few ways how one could tackle an amp like this but first off lets be clear that this thing doesn't run in Class A despite what one of Ray's shills has posted.  Class A means heat, a lot of it, and at these power levels you need massive heatsinks.  Now that means Class AB or *gasp* Class B.  Now one could just take the truly awful HR-2 circuit and uprate it with larger buffers but you still end up with the same Class B crap.  It will sound like crap just like the HR-2 does too.  Another avenue is to use some version of the Gainclone circuits.  Hardly high end despite people claiming that the short circuit paths somehow make it so but far better then a HR-2 with larger buffers. 

 

 

[nattonrice]

Quote:

In fact - over the reviews I have read of Ray's amps - I've seen a few photos of the portables with their covers off...I strongly disbelieve Ray is trying to hide anything...

Not every manufacturer is trying to hide the fact that they can't solder better than a 3 year old child and that they barely understand how a cmoy works.
 
By expressly not posting internal shots manufacturers could be trying to hide bad pcb design and layout, poor component choice, strawberry fields of opamps, lazy implementation of basic saftey, etc.
Then again, they could simply be exercising their prerogative to not show pictures.
 
Imo any manufacturer that is proud of their product and confident in its ability to stand above the crowd and obliterate the competition, should post internal pics.
In such a small community where people like SP blatantly ripped customers off this sort of openness should be encouraged, if not demanded.

 

[daveDerek]

Quote:

Now Ray doesn't post internal pics which puts him in the same camp as Rudistor.  We know full well what Rudi is trying to hide so one has to assume Ray is hiding something nasty inside that chassis too.

Birgir, I, for one, am not familiar with 'what Rudi is trying to hide'. could you please clarify your statement.
that second sentence quoted above is certainly not in an of itself a logical conclusion.
 


Quote:

The Raptor is still one of my favorite reasonably priced commercial amps for driving the Sennheiser HD 800 (especially with the tube set I've got on it now).  I've brought this rig with me to Los Angeles CanJam (2009), CanJam @ RMAF 2009 and CanJam @ RMAF 2010, so many others have also heard this rig, too.

i heard this rig, as well as many other rigs with hd800s, @ the LA canjam and certainly it was one of the better sounding hd800 rigs (the caveat being that it was the only hd800 there with more than a few hours on it, for whatever that is worth).
 

 

[mrarroyo]

I do not have the money to buy this amp but I would love to listen to it with the K1000 and the HE-500. I have owned and tested many of Ray's portable amps, to this day I regret selling the SR71 (original) which IMO is still among the best sounding portable amps. The last portable amp by Ray I listened too was the P51 and it was as good as the SR71. I have also listened to some of Ray's desktop amps like the Raptor and it was a nice sounding amp. Cheers!

 

[Syan25]

I've been looking at Ray's website - and I see plenty of circuitry and internal pictures in the photos of his various amps. Sure - not all of the amps - but plenty nonetheless. 
 
I don't know why you think differently. Please clarify...
 
Quote:

 
You call it prejudice, I call it experience based on past products.  Ray has real talent to find the truly worst way to accomplish something, just look at the cRaptor and the portable amps with distortion in the double digits into the load they are intended to drive.  Now Ray doesn't post internal pics which puts him in the same camp as Rudistor.  We know full well what Rudi is trying to hide so one has to assume Ray is hiding something nasty inside that chassis too. 
 
There are a few ways how one could tackle an amp like this but first off lets be clear that this thing doesn't run in Class A despite what one of Ray's shills has posted.  Class A means heat, a lot of it, and at these power levels you need massive heatsinks.  Now that means Class AB or *gasp* Class B.  Now one could just take the truly awful HR-2 circuit and uprate it with larger buffers but you still end up with the same Class B crap.  It will sound like crap just like the HR-2 does too.  Another avenue is to use some version of the Gainclone circuits.  Hardly high end despite people claiming that the short circuit paths somehow make it so but far better then a HR-2 with larger buffers. 

 
 

 

[archwunchai]

^
^
I agree with you

 

[Skylab]

I got the review loaner of the Dark Star today.  Along with it, I received full permission to do this:
 





 
 
From my perspective, the build quality inside and and out looks very, very good.  While the full review will take several weeks (and please no requests that I rush), my initial listen with the HE-6 was very, very promising.

 

[maverickronin]

Power opamps?  Those don't usually get a lot of love around here...
 
Here's the datasheet.
 
Can't see any the markings on the normal ones clearly enough.