That won't be too difficult:
- I purchased a new unit direct from Rudi end of last year
- Everything went very smoothly till the morning I received it:
> Check this out:
FirstShipment pictures by acharpen - Photobucket
> First 2 pics: looks like somebody got confused with male/female XLRs. And, oh dang, someone also went color blind when installing the RCA plugs.
> Third pic: hard to see but this white piece through the grill bounces around. It turns out it's the spray glue of the interior ID plate which did not hold the air freight from Italy to Japan
> Subsequent pics: double box is smartly done: use of paper and nothing in the corners. Mind you, this is just a 13kg amplifier. Obviously it got punched through during shipping.
- I send it straight back to Italy, I did not even try to plug it
- Quick turn around (especially considering xmas season. On that standpoint, Rudi is really good with responding to emails), the amp comes back around January:
> This time it's all neat from the outside
> I take a chance to inaugurate my APS v3 recabled Edition 9 with furutech XLR plugs
> For the next 1 hour, I will have the chance to switch 3 to 4 times between balanced and single ended mode
> On the last plug-in, I hear drop outs on one channel, it gets worse
> Finally I realize that one of the headphone XLR plugs is recessed into the chassis:
SecondShipment pictures by acharpen - Photobucket
> Per Rudi's words, XLRs are "press fitted at high temperature" while the super glue is just there as additional safety
> In my book, it is still an amateur super glue job. No XLR system ever should be hold by glue. There's way too much torque applied with these plugs
> Rudi's comments: I must be using crap connectors (note: these are 70 bucks a piece FP601M which I bought in Japan from Oyaide)
- Amongst other things, I had time to notice high hiss with the Ed9 in balanced mode:
> You could hear it slightly in unbalanced but it was really not subtle in balanced mode (at low or zero volume).
> It was actually loud and joined by humm when moving the pot above 10AM (explainable when you read about the gain issue below)
> My Lehmann Audio is dead silent with the same source (Yamamoto YDA-01) at any volume, I got spoiled I guess
> Per Sovkiller's assement when the amp was shipped back the US for repair, there was no hiss whatsoever. So, it must have been my setup (need a cheater plug in Japan and voltage is slightly lower).
- Another issue was the gain:
> I could go past the 1st graduation in balanced mode for the Edition 9
> I guess I listen at low volumes plus my DAC outputs 3V out so that did not help
- Last issue was simply the synergy:
> The balance of my system was laying too much on the warm side (too much bass). It turns out the DAC matches better with the Lehmann amp which is brighter than the RP010
> The HD650 (listened only in unbalanced mode) sounded liveless, they really sound much more alive through the Black Cube
> Of course I am not saying the Lehmann is a better amp. It isn't. The RP010's bass goes much lower and very tight. Soundstage is very deep in the RP010 and the highs are clearly smoother. This jumps at you in short listen. But really, I think it would pair better with a neutral source. My dac is quite warm (but sounds fantastic with the Lehmann BCL!).
- So anyhow, in face of the 300USD shipping fee one-way every time a repair is needed (which could be often just with the plugs), I did not want to take any more chance.
- Rudistor kindly agreed to reimburse what I had paid in full provided I paid the shipment back to the US for repair / refund.
- It went very smoothly actually until I received a new bill two weeks ago:
> It's actually a rebill from FedEx as Rudi's shipping agent refused to pay for the shipping when I sent it back the first time
> I tried to deal with Rudi but he's been down right offensive
> He's now threatening to charge me 1300 Euros for the damages I caused to him
- I had before told him I would not post anything online if I got my money back but this time I've had it of his business style (I won't post his messages on this board, but in summary: it's never the guy's fault and you are an idiot):
> So there you have it my friend, this is my tale of caution if you want to buy an RP010 from Rudi.
> This trial of the RP010 will have been costly (import duties in Japan, 250 dollars shipment to the US for repair / refund and now another 400 dollars for the first shipment back to Italy due to Rudi's negligence, the very expensive recabling of my HD650's and Ed9 - fortunately I got a balanced to single ended cable made by APS at the same !)
> On the positive side, this has cleared me from headphone upgraditis for a good while I think!
> My impression of Rudi: the guy might be a genius of electric circuits but his craftmanship looks really amateur compared to German and other Japanese products. As for the packaging, well, Yamamoto-san would also have some to teach him...
> On the RP010 amp itself, it might indeed be a sonic gem, but the case is a waste of aluminum (these radiators are pretty much only here to make it look nasty) and a waste of energy to ship around.
regards,
arnaud.
