[BlazingArrow74]

... I'll be buying a portale headphone amp soon and I'm looking a 2 pairs of amps from these 2 producers ...

... I'm looking at the RSA Tomahawk and Hornet-M ...

... I'm looking at the Xin SuperMicro IV and the upcoming "Reference" ...

... I'm aware that most people prefer the sound of the Xin product, which I'm leaning heavily toward recently, but I am worried about the long wait for the Xin products ... Also, I am looking into taking advantage of the sale Dr. Xin has upcoming for the "Reference" in July ...

... I basically will be driving 2 pairs of IEMs with plans to eventually pick up a good set of cans ... I need the product with, above-all, superior definition and resolution, superior soundstaging, and balance ... If the RSAs were automatically eliminated (which seems to be the trend amongst those who've heard Xin's products) would it be a good bet to get the "Reference" since it's basically a SuperMicro IV with more meat ? ... Is the SuperMicro IV still taking people months to get ? ... These are all factors in my search ...

... Thanks for any help ... !!

 

[ChickenGod]

Okay well, I heard the wait time for the Xin is getting shorter. Also, the SuperMicro IV and the Reference are a LOT cheaper. However, Xin's customer service is horrible and it is very hard to communicate with him. And if he does reply, it is only like two or three words. Not very helpful. I heard Ray had EXCELLENT customer service and his products are very study and well built.

Basically it comes down to what you prefer

Sound: Xin > RSA (It depends on preference and types of IEMS)
Quality: Xin < RSA
Value: Xin > RSA
Build: Xin < RSA
Customer Service: Xin < RSA

Oh, if you are planning to get the E500's then I suggest the Tomahawk because Ray used it while he was testing it.

I hope this helped

 

[BIG POPPA]

If you have IEM's go Tomahawk and don't look back!!! Very low maintainance and very portable

 

[justin2net]

the build quality of ray's tomahawk is amazing, nonetheless his other works.

id definitely go for the tomahawk for portable use; its ruggedness, good looks, near-infinite battery life, and fantastic SQ.

 

[chiaping]

Yea, I agree with tomahawk is amazing, plus with the 200 hours of battery hours is insane.

 

[Pete7]

Most people prefer the sound of a Xin product? Was there a poll that I missed? I've seen many individual reviews on Ray's and Xin's amps, but rarely are they compared.

 

[ChickenGod]

:O Well I said it may vary, but people said they liked the wide soundstage that the supermicro offers.

 

[GreenLeo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by chiaping /img/forum/go_quote.gif Yea, I agree with tomahawk is amazing, plus with the 200 hours of battery hours is insane.

I think the battery hour is even longer for an IEM only application: ~ 400 hours according to Ray. I received mine on 19 May and has been burning it since then with my E500 and my Grado occasionally (the gain of toma will be high then). The first set battery is still running.

On the other hand, the 200-hr battery life (quoted as the finalised product hasn't come out yet) of the Xin RE should be more than enough for me except for the burning, perhaps. Also, it seems that the burn-in time of the other Xin amps are much shorter.

You may order the Xin amp first, buy a Toma (either 1st hand or 2nd hand) in the mean time, wait for the Xin amp, do the comparison, keep the one you like and sell the other. It shouldn't be too hard to sell it here as far as I know. You may lose tens of bucks, but the pain of waiting can be greatly reduced. I just view the lost as the rent.

My 2 cents.

 

[Filburt]

I don't know how many people agree with me on this, but I favour performance over battery life, and there really isn't a free ride when it comes to this. If you want hundreds of hours of battery life, you're going to end up using micropower op-amps that do not deliver the distortion characteristics of more robust solutions. Sure, the AD8397 eats power, but it also has a low distortion gain stage and a high output, low impedance, quick recovering buffer stage on its output. Micropower op-amps and low power op-amps don't necessarily sound bad, but the differences between such solutions and those more robust are the sorts of differences that go into what people associate as the benefits of getting more robust amplification devices such as moving up to a desktop solution. Additionally, running on 3V, for instance, means you don't have much headroom when driving a large set of headphones which doesn't help matters much either. If you're planning to move up to higher end headphones, it seems sensible to me to seek out a higher performance solution.

I hadn't seen any consensus on RSA vs. Xin on maximisation of sound quality; as of yet, anyhow. However, I consider the primary advantage of a Xin amp to be user configurability, and I think it is this attribute that allows one to obtain superior results. Xin's default choices are...OK...but they aren't what I'd use if maximum performance is really in order. The BUF634 isn't as good as some of the other IC buffers out there, and the OPA134 isn't even close to the best op-amp out there. A user comfortable with some basic soldering, or has the ability to get someone else to, can use more unusual chips that can obtain much higher performance; some of which don't really need the buffers as they have buffers integrated. If you are willing to wait for a Xin amp, I'd strongly suggest also investing time and effort into developing a good configuration. This also means I wouldn't recommend the 'Reference', though both because it lacks user configurability and because I don't think the AD8615 is the best op-amp to use for this application, although it's better than some of the other chips I've seen used. It does still sound pretty decent.

If you want something less hands-on, the AE-2 is a nice amp to try as well. I used one for about a week and found it to perform well and provide the convenience of both 1/8" "miniplug" as well as RCA jacks for input.

 

[jdimitri]

The best solution? Get a tomahawk and order a supermicro (or reference)
Xin won't charge your card until he ships if you don't use paypal

And if you're happy with the tomahawk after a month or so, just cancel the supermicro
You shouldn't worry about driving full size cans with the tomahawk unless you listen at very high volume

Good luck

 

[EFN]

Being in your situation before I fully understood your dilemma. In the end I had the previlege of owning and listening to both. And BOTH are utterly superior in every regard of SQ.

But eventually, sheer SQ superiority forced me to part way with my RSA Tomahawk and keep the SuperMicro-IV. TH may be superb but the tube like experience offered by my SuperMicro-IV is simply infectious.

What amazed me the most is that SuperMicro-IV does NOT sound like a portable amp at all - full of zest and very powerful - not to mention larger than life soundstage and depth. Of course the trade-off is the ugly look and shorter battery life - with just one AAA, I get over 14 hours of continous play. But those are not a problem to me because pure SQ governs everything in my rig setup.

 

[silverrain]

Quote:

Originally Posted by chiaping /img/forum/go_quote.gif Yea, I agree with tomahawk is amazing, plus with the 200 hours of battery hours is insane.

While burning-in my Tomahawk, I changed the batteries at 300 hours(!) only beacause the LED was completely not glowing anymore (means low batteries) -- but the music in my D2000 (also burning-in) was still full sound, good quality, with power to spare!
Amazing! 12 days solid playing without turning it off, and still going.
Driving full-size Denon D2000 on high-gain.
Wow.

 

[Wildcard30]

The build and sound quality of RSA amps ar fantastic I can't comment on XIN amps because I have been waiting for a while now but every question I have ever asked Xin about my order has been quickly answered very nice guy so is Ray by the way.

 

[tnmike1]

I'd second the idea about buying the TH or Hornet now. You get it in about three days. Order whatever Xin you want--three-four month wait. Then compare the two and sell one. You'll get about what you paid for it--whether you sell the Xin or the TH/Hornet--so what's the loss??

 

[BlazingArrow74]

"... And BOTH are utterly superior in every regard of SQ... But eventually, sheer SQ superiority forced me to part way with my RSA Tomahawk and keep the SuperMicro-IV ..."

... Just wondering if you could explain more about the TH's shortcomings ... Like, does it sound like a portable headphone amp where the SMIV doesn't ? ... How long did you have your TH burned-in ? ... Thanks ...

... The posts are really helping folks ... I really appreciate it ... I'm still unsure of what to get and I'm not exactly in the position to order the SM-IV yet, because I'm awaiting more impressions of the Reference before I order the SM-IV ...

... Any ideas on synergy with Shure IEMs and Grado headphones ? ....