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RSA Predator


purk

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From the duracell and prismatic web sites...

duracell alkaline 9 volt battery internal impedance 1.7 ohm

duracell aa alkaline .12 ohm

duracel aaa alkaline .25 ohm

have not found the numbers for the carbon zinc versions, but it

has to be much worse.

lithium ion prismatic .06 ohm

Now to find the ESR of that 15000 uf cap...

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I do not understand why anyone would buy a Tomahawk. Hornet, sure, it's a decent enough little piece but the T just doesn't make any sense to me.

I fell for it. The hype machine did a number on me and I bought one. I remember being amazed by how small it was. I also was very much into portables at the time. So I think I was basically listening to the form factor. ::) But after balancing my cans and spending time with some much better (albeit bigger) amps, the Tomahawk sat in a drawer. I sold it a few weeks ago for my initial purchase price. To me, the bottom line is that Ray hypes his gear very well, and the fanboys (of which I guess I was at least a partial one) fan the flames to inferno level.

I think the main lessons I learned from that purchase are to actually do some due diligence about the circuit, go to more meets, and only read reviews by ears I trust.

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anything that is audible is measurable (the reverse is not necessarily true). you have to make sure that whatever you are using for measurement has a smaller margin of error than whatever you are measuring, though.

I think this is the key. You don't want to use just any old computer soundcard.

Very good points.... But if the difference is as large as some claim, shouldn't there be an audible difference even with ICH5 on-board sound? ???

Anyone know how can I get some recorded wavs online so they can be downloaded, maybe a torrent?

USG

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But if the difference is as large as some claim, shouldn't there be an audible difference even with ICH5 on-board sound? ???
Only if the difference is as large as some claim. But if you (as a side effect of choosing a cheap soundcard) limit the experiment, you'll only have proved anything if you hear a difference; if you don't hear a difference, one can always blame the limitations of the experiment scenario -- this happens in "real life" science as well as arguments on bulletin boards. It's called "experimental error", and in order for an experiment to have interpretable results, your standard deviation must be well within your ability to account for it.
Anyone know how can I get some recorded wavs online so they can be downloaded, maybe a torrent?
There are plenty of websites to put it up: MediaFire, YouSendIt, zShare, SendSpace.
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Only if the difference is as large as some claim. But if you (as a side effect of choosing a cheap soundcard) limit the experiment, you'll only have proved anything if you hear a difference; if you don't hear a difference, one can always blame the limitations of the experiment scenario -- this happens in "real life" science as well as arguments on bulletin boards. It's called "experimental error", and in order for an experiment to have interpretable results, your standard deviation must be well within your ability to account for it.There are plenty of websites to put it up: MediaFire, YouSendIt, zShare, SendSpace.

I see what you're saying.... :(

if I had a decent analog to digital converter I guess the results would be more relavent... too bad there is no way for me to run one of my DACs in reverse... bummer....

but I'm going to run a test anyway to see if I can hear a difference in recorded wavs between my Woo 3 and my GS-1 using the ICH5-ALC650 that's in my Shuttles. If I can't hear a difference there, I'm not going to hear anything using the set up I have....

USG

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> I do not understand why anyone would buy a Tomahawk

Let's not exaggerate things :). I do not have a Tomahawk personally, but my wife has one, as well as several friends. This is what they tell me they like about the Tomahawk:

1. It has wonderful autonomy.

2. It is small.

3. It is very well constructed. Very resistant for portable use.

5. It is pretty :).

6. Goes well with IEMs, specially shure e500.

Of course it is not perfect and it is not for everybody. The trick to be satisfied with any audio equipment is not to believe the hype blindly and be able to define what qualities are important to us. Of course this amp may be attractive and in fact is attractive to many users. And I think that we all can agree in that it was kind of a "breakthrough" in the market of portable amps at its time.

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If you own iem's in the custom ranks the Toma can be your best friend. The two major sonic gains I get with a toma and the Sensa's are absolutely no power noise (every single amp i heard with my sensa's gave me this to some extent.). and the sound stage is seriously amazing, custom iem owners used to complain about sound stage cause everything at first is locked in your head...the Toma the sound goes all around you.

maybe it's cause of the low power output everyone here says the Toma has, people here will rip the toma cause of it only to forget what a good amp will give you over any receiver (quality over quantity). in San Jose a headphone company spokesmen actually asked me the newbie question of hifi headphones which was "why do you need a dedicated headphone amp?" i was pretty buzzed but i think i eventually said it's about the quality of the amping and not the quantity.

if you are going to use the Toma to power anything else then custom iem's or the higher end of general iem's then your stupid...its no ones fault but your own for being that stupid. lot's of people seem to blame the crowd for talking them into the amp and they sit there using the Toma with headphones. that's like driving a Ferrari 430 in the snow and wandering why people hype the car up so much, if the moron used the product how it was INTENDED then they may feel a bit different about the car..or product in this case.

custom iems are weirdly sensitive products, give them a powerful solid state amp and your guaranteed to have some power noise (the ps audio was the worst at this), and if you give them a tube amp then you don't get the full high frequency cause of what Shure, Sensaphonics, and others have told me to be from the 4ohm armature drivers used for the highs. so you can not use tube amps or most solid state amps with the fuckers perfectly, then how do you do it? give the amazingly low power (according to people on this site) that is voiced with a wide sound stage?

it is what it is...

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Do you like the taste of orange also? like the fruit named orange, orange juice, orange marmalade, orange ice cream, Sunkist orange soda, orange flavored yogurt, orange cookies, orange slices candy, Orange Flavored Chicken, and etc?

do you wear clothes with the color orange? i have a orange t-shirt i never worn cause i feel like a pumpkin with it on...it i find it or even still have it maybe you would want the orange shirt? think its old navy/Gap with ribs going down the threads...

just wandering man.. :popcorn:

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Do you like the taste of orange also? like the fruit named orange, orange juice, orange marmalade, orange ice cream, Sunkist orange soda, orange flavored yogurt, orange cookies, orange slices candy, Orange Flavored Chicken, and etc?

do you wear clothes with the color orange? i have a orange t-shirt i never worn cause i feel like a pumpkin with it on...it i find it or even still have it maybe you would want the orange shirt? think its old navy/Gap with ribs going down the threads...

just wandering man.. :popcorn:

Yes I like all those things. I have not worn the color orange since I can't really pull it off, which is unfortunate. Perhaps someday.

;D

Ahh I see. :)

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How many that have the Predator tried it on several different computers to check for hiss noise?

Jude and I compared Predator vs. Pico at CES. The Predator was getting a lot of hissing noise from the USB DAC on my Fujitsu P1610, while the Pico was dead silent. (the analog input on the Predator was fine.)

-Ed

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How many that have the Predator tried it on several different computers to check for hiss noise?

Jude and I compared Predator vs. Pico at CES. The Predator was getting a lot of hissing noise from the USB DAC on my Fujitsu P1610, while the Pico was dead silent. (the analog input on the Predator was fine.)

-Ed

that is quite interesting, another thing worth noting is that if the DAC portion is powered by the USB port, I know some laptops don't output as much power through their USB ports as say as desktop does...

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