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The truth about my amps.....?


maschuu

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Hi,

After scaring the shit out of me (as someone coming from headfi, many of the topics here are very "enlightning"....), you gotta tell me "the truth" about my amps ;-)

I have a RSA Hornet, and although i`ve never quite got all the fuzz about it over at headfi, i thought it was ok (i have to add, that i did buy it used for a very good price. The retail price always seemed crazy to me...), some of the comments here about RSA products in general caught my eye: "Safety hazard, errors in the layout, a.s.o".

So what?s the truth about the Hornet? What are his faults? Where does it stand performancewise for real?

My home amp is the Corda Aria. I always liked it a lot (much better than the Hornet), but couldn?t find much about it here. So what?s the verdict about it ?round here?

Since i bought both of them after research over on headfi (no chance to audition other gear before buying where i live sadly...), and after surfing here for while (and learning a lot about the "real headfi", i really like to hear the opinions of people here! :-)

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heh wow, you need someone to tell you if your amp is good? Can't you form your own opinion? Long story short, it's overpriced and cute looking... if it were a fire hazard, i'm sure you would've read about it by now. people here are very opinionated, and asking for an unbiased opinion here is just as bad as headfi, in a negative way. No one is going to say they like that map here really, except for like billy.

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:P

heh wow, you need someone to tell you if your amp is good? Can't you form your own opinion? Long story short, it's overpriced and cute looking... if it were a fire hazard, i'm sure you would've read about it by now. people here are very opinionated, and asking for an unbiased opinion here is just as bad as headfi, in a negative way. No one is going to say they like that map here really, except for like billy.

The thing is just, that i have no possibility of comparing it to other gear. And as i already said, i only can say that the Hornet isn?t near as good as the Aria.

And after reading many comments here about "Ray?s business model" i just became even more curious, about what?s the Hornet for real.

So it?s more about curiousity where my gear is placed in the "greater scheme", since i never had the possibility of hearing anything else. :-/

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Stop thinking in the head-fi fucktard mentality, where you can bathe in reassurance that your gear is OK because everyone says so. If you hang around here, you will see that we encourage you to do your own listening, and decide for yourself if it is any good.

Also if you hang around, you may be given access to a place that shows all. Then you will REALLY see all the BS that goes on at head-fi.

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be nice to the newb! ;)

welcome to head-case machuu! :)

just let these guys get it out of their systems, and eventually someone with the knowledge will come by the thread.

basically the hornet is what it is, a portable amp. There is only so much a portable can do right OR wrong. The Aria I'm sure is decent enough in its price range. I myself owned two different Corda products, the Headfive and the HA-2 MKII SE, and enjoyed both of them while I owned them. Going from the HA-2 MKII SE to the PPX3 Slam was a significant step up, though, and for not that much more money.

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be nice to the newb! ;)

welcome to head-case machuu! :)

just let these guys get it out of their systems, and eventually someone with the knowledge will come by the thread.

basically the hornet is what it is, a portable amp. There is only so much a portable can do right OR wrong. The Aria I'm sure is decent enough in its price range. I myself owned two different Corda products, the Headfive and the HA-2 MKII SE, and enjoyed both of them while I owned them. Going from the HA-2 MKII SE to the PPX3 Slam was a significant step up, though, and for not that much more money.

Wasn't being mean, just giving him a taste of how far down the rabbit hole goes.

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I have experience. I think the hornet sounds shouty and grainy (m version). It's not bad mind you, but for the price it is (even taking account the case). If you are willing to pay shipping there are people who may be willing to loan you other amps. I would offer to let you hear my supermini (cost less than half the hornet used) and destroys it in my opinion(you can also roll opamps and stuff in it). BUT FILBY HAS THE AMP YET HE DOESNT LET ME LISTEN TO HIS PINTS T-T

For what it's worth I didn't like the aria much at all, so maybe our tastes are opposites... I liked the porta corda and stuff, but his new lineup(basically everything in silver cases) doesn't do it for me.

I suggest dumping both amps. lol.

For the money you can get out of both you can probably get something really worthwhile. What is all the gear you have?

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i had the hornet for like 6months... I got it at the presale price, which was still pretty pricey. It sounds nice for what it is... When you start comparing stuff, and your using other people's opinons on where it goes in the scheme of things, it's becoming a dick measuring contest where the metric for comparison isn't even something everyone agrees in. It's like why asking the question "why does ray samuels suck?" begging that his gear does suck, and that you read a tidbit that says yea u should feel that way for justification. Your basically asking for a post that's going to shit all over rays gear if you ask here...

Not trying to be rude, since i know it's hard to really know what your sound is or anything at first. That's the only point I was trying to express.. The minimum i think most can agree on is that people like his gear cuz it looks cool, and most people will admit it sounds decent. If u go on head-fi, some guy started a whole 10 page thread on how cute his new raptor is and how he wants everyones opinion on how it matches his gear because to him that seems to be all that matters. He also buys really ugly headphones too for the same reason... If it all it takes to please u is a gray case with blue light, enjoy ; ).

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heh wow, you need someone to tell you if your amp is good? Can't you form your own opinion? Long story short, it's overpriced and cute looking... if it were a fire hazard, i'm sure you would've read about it by now. people here are very opinionated, and asking for an unbiased opinion here is just as bad as headfi, in a negative way. No one is going to say they like that map here really, except for like billy.

I agree with the exception of me liking it.

The hornet is sold on options more then Sound, its a good sound but anything can be called good. if you want the RSa sound with those options being a must then thats it..

as far as where it stands with the rest of my RSA amps I would say its in last place. the m-mod made it better but not much enough. to be honest I publicly said before i think the hornet was produced with a different goal then the other amps from RSA. it came because people wanted charging and gain switches on the sr-71 that was before it.

I look at the portable amps and the home amps very differently from RSA, maybe i am biased in this view thinking portables are toy's and home amps are more serious.

finding a used xp-7 with power supply can be had for $300-ish range and hr-2's have been had for $400-ish range lots of times before, at this price they are a contender and a nice contender.

Remember one thing..

Why did you buy the hornet in the first place?

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Brainwashed. If you like pretty case and features stay with it. There are many portables that sound much worse. If you care about sound quality though, there are a few amps that are both smaller and sound much better across the spectrum. They seem to all lack nice cases though :P

XP7 does look nice and probably sounds good and is kind of portable. Then again a portable pimeta with the same size and features would be about a third of the used xp7 price :/

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I agree with the exception of me liking it.

The hornet is sold on options more then Sound, its a good sound but anything can be called good. if you want the RSa sound with those options being a must then thats it..

as far as where it stands with the rest of my RSA amps I would say its in last place. the m-mod made it better but not much enough. to be honest I publicly said before i think the hornet was produced with a different goal then the other amps from RSA. it came because people wanted charging and gain switches on the sr-71 that was before it.

I look at the portable amps and the home amps very differently from RSA, maybe i am biased in this view thinking portables are toy's and home amps are more serious.

finding a used xp-7 with power supply can be had for $300-ish range and hr-2's have been had for $400-ish range lots of times before, at this price they are a contender and a nice contender.

Remember one thing..

Billy,

I wish the XP-7 and HR-2 can be had for that price. However, Trose49 wants almost 900 dollars for his and someone else now want 780 for the HR-2. I can't recall seeing the HR-2 went below than $600 bucks. Personally, I think people are paying too much for portable amplifiers. When I want to do portable, I only take my DAP and my E500 and that's it. BTW, I like Ray's SR-71.

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It's another piece of shit made by Ray. It's about $50 dollars in parts depending on how much that enclosure cost him. It's a craptacular, derivative design. It sounds like crap compared to almost all commercial non-portable amplifiers, a number of commercial portable amplifiers, and any DIY amplifier, portable or non, near its price.

SR-71 is respectable.

As for the Aria, it's okay. I'll actually put it at just mediocre. Thin, dry, bright, somewhat shrill, lifeless, etc. Still respectable however. It's Meier. That is what is expected.

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Billy,

I wish the XP-7 and HR-2 can be had for that price. However, Trose49 wants almost 900 dollars for his and someone else now want 780 for the HR-2. I can't recall seeing the HR-2 went below than $600 bucks. Personally, I think people are paying too much for portable amplifiers. When I want to do portable, I only take my DAP and my E500 and that's it. BTW, I like Ray's SR-71.

Trose is an asshat. He thinks his "special" hr2 which just adds a gain switch warrants such a price. He likes everything personalized and special, then when he sells them, he prices them the highest, believing everyone idolizes him and would pay extra for something he owned and something specially made for HIM.

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Hi maschuu and welcome to Head Case.

Great question. I agree with everyone here in regards to needing to listen to the amp on your own. Everyone definitely has different tastes for sure. I have a friend that can't tell much difference in sound with my Singlepower PPX3 Slam and his computer headphone jack. But, if he's satisfied and happy than I told him that's all that matters IMHO. He definitely saved a lot more money than I ;).

I'm like you where I need to purchase an amp since there isn't much opportunities to listen to good headphone gear where I'm at. I do find that some cans sound better with different amp but YMMV. Good luck on your search for your amp and enjoy the journey. :dance:

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The Hornet is a good portable amp and sounds better than a lot of amps out there, but then there's more out there that sound better than the Hornet. I prefer the SR-71 and PRII by far, but they aren't exactly portable. The Rockhopper mini^3 beats it for sq at 1/3 of the price. I've only read of the Xin amps, but will hear a selection this weekend, along with Justin's portables, which I've also never heard.

I've never heard a Meier amp (strange, now that I think about it).

Welcome to head-case, maschuu!

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Trose is an asshat. He thinks his "special" hr2 which just adds a gain switch warrants such a price. He likes everything personalized and special, then when he sells them, he prices them the highest, believing everyone idolizes him and would pay extra for something he owned and something specially made for HIM.

Yes, and that is very disturbing to me. My Maxed PPA can definitely best his amp for much less. Back in 2004, the MPX3 6SN7 was compared favorably to the RSA Stealth and earned the Bluemoon Award from 6moon.com. I thought the Raptor was a lower model than Stealth...so what's so speacial about the Raptor. Trose49 probably generates serious cash flow for RSA at the moment.

Purk

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The Hornet is a good portable amp and sounds better than a lot of amps out there, but then there's more out there that sound better than the Hornet. I prefer the SR-71 and PRII by far, but they aren't exactly portable. The Rockhopper mini^3 beats it for sq at 1/3 of the price. I've only read of the Xin amps, but will hear a selection this weekend, along with Justin's portables, which I've also never heard.

I've never heard a Meier amp (strange, now that I think about it).

Welcome to head-case, maschuu!

You haven't heard the good side of portable audio yet boom >:D Maybe you wouldn't have been so "disturbed" had you heard these offerings :P

I still agree though. The way things are going with the reduced power predator, the headsix, and all the like- it seems ultra low power is the vogue :-\

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First of, i'd take a honest answer, and may it sound strong 10x over an "every-thread-is-an-appretiation-thread" answer over at headfi, so thanks for all opinions!

Why did i buy the Hornet? Basically because of the praise over at the "other site", so in retrospective brainwash fits the bill pretty good.....

And as i'm based in Europe it's always hard to score something good at the headfi "for sale" forum (i only bought used till now, money is tight...), since many won't ship to Europe.

So one day the Hornet popped up in the FS forum, europe based, very decent price, and i bought it. I rather wanted a Xin amp (Macro or Micro), but there were none at the time so i thought: "There so many good opinions about, so why not..."

And of course JB is right: I only can learn by hearing it myself (for all i know you could be all mental assholes round here as well >:D )

I think i will take a good look at the DIY options out there.

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And of course JB is right: I only can learn by hearing it myself (for all i know you could be all mental assholes round here as well >:D )

I think i will take a good look at the DIY options out there.

nah, we're not insane assholes, but kevin gilmore is our unofficial insane-god. :dance:

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Billy,

I wish the XP-7 and HR-2 can be had for that price. However, Trose49 wants almost 900 dollars for his and someone else now want 780 for the HR-2. I can't recall seeing the HR-2 went below than $600 bucks. Personally, I think people are paying too much for portable amplifiers. When I want to do portable, I only take my DAP and my E500 and that's it. BTW, I like Ray's SR-71.

They can but you need to wait. Trose i heard sold his for $875.00 claiming the upgrade..funny thing is yes Ray will do stuff if he knows you and is in a mood...but i have never seen Ray charge for anything like that. not saying he didn't but i did not see or know of $200.00 charges extra. either way he sold it for its brand new price which is amazing..

I have bought an xp-7 with p/s for $300ish cant remember how much but it was that cheap. i seen many hr2's go into $400 price range.

again its like audiogon where you need to wait for the person wanting to sell and not caring. lots of older hr2s out there and people think they won't get much so they price them low.

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Oh, and on topic, the Raptor sucks. >:D

Well with your headphones this is clearly true.

And of course a B52 is a (raptor) + (raptor) which means it (sucks)*(sucks)

or in terms of money

$1300+$1300 << $5300

A simple modification will allow the raptor to sound much better, but only with high impedance headphones (==300 ohms)

:dance:

There, I feel better now. A day without trashing my good friend ray is like a day without sunshine.

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