Yikes Posted September 3, 2006 Report Share Posted September 3, 2006 The B52 sounded quite good driving not only the balanced Senns that Ray had but my Modded SA5000's as well. The bass quality was especially impressive. I liked the chassis as it appeared for the N.E. meet; although I think it would probably look nicer in black. Ray mentioned a projected retail of $5000. I can say that it seems to be one hell of an amp, it certainly sounded better with my SA5000?s than the $10,000+ Rudistor did at the National. Flame away. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bhd812 Posted September 3, 2006 Report Share Posted September 3, 2006 every proto type ray has had was always in the unfinished silver the b52 is, and you know me and my "must have black" ways so you can all take a good guess the production b52 will be black. not sure if there is going to be a silver ver or what but I do know number one will be black with red leds.. (i might keep the blue..not sure). also not sure if its going to be a two tone like the raptor but who knows.. its just to early to say for price,looks, and of course sound..every ray proto sounds alittle different then production also..the raptor proto was nice but the raptor production was a step above. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevin gilmore Posted September 3, 2006 Report Share Posted September 3, 2006 Time for me to speak up again... That $8 switching supply is the same thing that is in the stealth. The ultimate in noisy miserable and unreliable piece of shit. Same thing in those $49 external hard disk drive enclosures. Lasts no more than 1.5 years before the primary rectifier caps explode. And heat will make it worse. Ray is the only person i know that can't even make a simple regulated 12 volt fillament supply thats quiet and efficient. Not sure why, there are at least 50 places he can steal one from. The high voltage supply is under rated for sure. And he is still using a 150 volt regulator part at 250 volts. The price is interesting however. A complete new power supply for $200. Add that to about $100 for the amp board, and you end up with something that really should have a retail price of $499. So those few people that said that the parts cost of the raptor was something north of $900 are completely out of whack. All those people who spent $1295 for a raptor now get to spend $200 for a power supply that runs cool, but is likely to explode 1.5 to 2 years later. What absolutely fabulous customer support. Sell a piece of shit that is way overpriced, then upgrade it with something even worse. How does ray get away with this. Go and buy a new production Zana Deux. Blows the crap out of the raptor for about the same amount of money. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PFKMan23 Posted September 3, 2006 Author Report Share Posted September 3, 2006 I was under the impression that the current production Raptors had the power supply by default. Although I do find it curious that he's cheap to the point where he has to use the existing enclosures... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevin gilmore Posted September 4, 2006 Report Share Posted September 4, 2006 This just in... For all those people upgrading the power supply, ray actually de-solders all the electrolytics in the high voltage part from the old supply board and puts them on the new board to save money. What a high level of quality customer support. Brand new power supply with pre-burned in caps. Guess the 350 hours of burnin does not apply to this unit Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevin gilmore Posted September 4, 2006 Report Share Posted September 4, 2006 Not like i want to beat a dead horse or anything... plitron transformer pricing off line, equivalent hammond pricing $32.67 (100's) cincon cfm40s120 switching supply made in hong kong (EXACT PART!) $22.00 (100's) 470uf/400 volt CDE manufacturer (the blue ones in second picture) $4.99 (100's) 100uf/400volt nichicon $1.81 (100's) circuit board, input recepticle, switch, resistors and diodes, heatsink and regulator chip $20 (absolute max) (oops, lets not forget that oxygen free copper circuit board) So even at $200 ray is still making 100 percent profit even if its all brand new parts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PFKMan23 Posted September 4, 2006 Author Report Share Posted September 4, 2006 This just in... For all those people upgrading the power supply, ray actually de-solders all the electrolytics in the high voltage part from the old supply board and puts them on the new board to save money. What a high level of quality customer support. Brand new power supply with pre-burned in caps. Guess the 350 hours of burnin does not apply to this unit Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thaddy Posted September 4, 2006 Report Share Posted September 4, 2006 Kevin where do you get that information? If that's true and it gets out (well, to Head-Fi), that's quite a problem Ray has on his hands. Although that won't be the only thing he has to worry about. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevin gilmore Posted September 4, 2006 Report Share Posted September 4, 2006 directly from a person who had his unit upgraded. A particular crack on the plastic of a particular cap migrated to the new power supply. Also notice black caps in one picture, and blue caps in the next... Ray is saving $14... A poor immigrant needs to do such things Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hungrych Posted September 4, 2006 Report Share Posted September 4, 2006 Who cares... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest sacd lover Posted September 5, 2006 Report Share Posted September 5, 2006 Who cares... I do! Why should people have to pay to have a problem due to poor product design corrected. Do people pay for automobile recalls when something is declared unsafe or potentially dangerous .... of course not! First and foremost, calling what amounts to a design flaw an upgrade is a lie .... period. Then to be potentially profiting on the problem, however little, is as insulting as it wrong. The "upgrade" should be free. I feel for those people who trusted the hype and bought that amp. I am also disturbed the new design uses a cheap switching power supply and he borrows parts from the old supply instead of just giving the owners a completely new unit .... thats what I would expect. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thaddy Posted September 5, 2006 Report Share Posted September 5, 2006 Then why doesn't this Raptor owner make this public? Sure, his antics piss me off, but I've never owned one of his products, and I probably never will. However, if I paid $200 for an "upgraded" power supply only to find that Ray decided to recycle my capacitors, case, and power cord...well, then I'd have a major problem with that. If this was another manufacturer, it would be aired to the public quite fast, but for some reason Ray always seems to get away with crap like this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hungrych Posted September 5, 2006 Report Share Posted September 5, 2006 I do! Why should people have to pay to have a problem due to poor product design corrected. Do people pay for automobile recalls when something is declared unsafe or potentially dangerous .... of course not! First and foremost, calling what amounts to a design flaw an upgrade is a lie .... period. Then to be potentially profiting on the problem, however little, is as insulting as it wrong. The "upgrade" should be free. I feel for those people who trusted the hype and bought that amp. I am also disturbed the new design uses a cheap switching power supply and he borrows parts from the old supply instead of just giving the owners a completely new unit .... thats what I would expect. I was actually talking about pfk and his questions about the b52 which he obviously will never buy and just wants to spend even more time trashing rsa (although make no mistake it's quite deserved). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PFKMan23 Posted September 5, 2006 Author Report Share Posted September 5, 2006 I was actually talking about pfk and his questions about the b52 which he obviously will never buy and just wants to spend even more time trashing rsa (although make no mistake it's quite deserved). umm wtf... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hungrych Posted September 5, 2006 Report Share Posted September 5, 2006 umm wtf... Come on, the only "new entrants" you mention are the B52 and new Raptor PSU. It's pretty obvious that you aren't going to buy either of those, so why start the thread? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PFKMan23 Posted September 5, 2006 Author Report Share Posted September 5, 2006 Come on, the only "new entrants" you mention are the B52 and new Raptor PSU. It's pretty obvious that you aren't going to buy either of those, so why start the thread? Should I have also talked about the PPX3 XLR? That new Rudistor amp? The new stello HP100 and the knock off of it? We can do that too.... I am considering going balanced and those seem to be candidates. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thaddy Posted September 5, 2006 Report Share Posted September 5, 2006 I've heard about the Stello on a few occasions, and how it's a knockoff. What amp is everyone referring to? Also, does the same go for the DAC? Both aren't terribly expensive, and look quite nice together. edit: Also that new balanced Rudistor looks overpriced, although it does do an unblanced -> balanced conversion, which is pretty cool. However, it doesn't really have any other nice features. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PFKMan23 Posted September 5, 2006 Author Report Share Posted September 5, 2006 I agree about the rudistor, the parts complement seem to be really sparse. The stello loook interesting though the knockoff I was talkig about is the one from that guy in the Uk... I think that the DA100 and the HP100 look interesting, so hopefully someone gets their hands on one in the near future. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
granodemostasa Posted September 5, 2006 Report Share Posted September 5, 2006 Then why doesn't this Raptor owner make this public? Sure, his antics piss me off, but I've never owned one of his products, and I probably never will. However, if I paid $200 for an "upgraded" power supply only to find that Ray decided to recycle my capacitors, case, and power cord...well, then I'd have a major problem with that. If this was another manufacturer, it would be aired to the public quite fast, but for some reason Ray always seems to get away with crap like this. you know what! you headcasers love to talk about how rsa gets away with stuff, or that head-fi is nothing put overblown positive news..... do you really think this would get censored on head-fi? are you afraid of being told off by some rsa fan on the internet? please, then bring it up on head-fi, put a link to this thead or something.. see what happens. if it's locked or disappears, then i've been proven wrong. but i need to be proven wrong before i believe this huffing and puffing. if RSA get's away with anything, it's only because those in the know about the problems like to keep their information, for the most part, private or behind the scenes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nanoha Posted September 5, 2006 Report Share Posted September 5, 2006 you know what! you headcasers love to talk about how rsa gets away with stuff, or that head-fi is nothing put overblown positive news..... do you really think this would get censored on head-fi? are you afraid of being told off by some rsa fan on the internet? please, then bring it up on head-fi, put a link to this thead or something.. see what happens. if it's locked or disappears, then i've been proven wrong. but i need to be proven wrong before i believe this huffing and puffing. if RSA get's away with anything, it's only because those in the know about the problems like to keep their information, for the most part, private or behind the scenes. No, the problem is that it's already been censored before in the past on a number of occassions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bhd812 Posted September 5, 2006 Report Share Posted September 5, 2006 directly from a person who had his unit upgraded. A particular crack on the plastic of a particular cap migrated to the new power supply. Also notice black caps in one picture, and blue caps in the next... Ray is saving $14... A poor immigrant needs to do such things when I lasted talked to Ray (two weeks ago I think..) about the power thingy upgrade w/e you call it I asked him if I can have the old power supply board back and he said yes I can..he told me the only parts he uses in the $200 upgrade is the old chasis (power cord never came with any RSA raptor so you would not give him yours anyway..)... The best of what I know about this upgrad or w/e it is, is that only the chasis is used..nothing else..if you dont believe him then ask for it back..fuck after all you are paying him for an all new inside power supply..you have full rite to. the cheaper power thingy upgrade is just the pilton thing dropped in the exsisting chasis and old board.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dusty Chalk Posted September 5, 2006 Report Share Posted September 5, 2006 Shouldn't have to ask. "Oh, and when you fix my broken axle, can you give me my old axle back so that I know you fixed it?" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
n_maher Posted September 5, 2006 Report Share Posted September 5, 2006 Shouldn't have to ask. "Oh, and when you fix my broken axle, can you give me my old axle back so that I know you fixed it?" Shouldn't have to but any mechanic worth his salt will show you the damaged parts that he replaces. It would be rather unfortunate if Ray was reusing parts from the old PS in the "upgrade". I thought a big part of the whole issue was that the power supply runs so hot it could damage the caps? (power cord never came with any RSA raptor so you would not give him yours anyway..)...He doesn't include a friggen power chord for $1200? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PFKMan23 Posted September 5, 2006 Author Report Share Posted September 5, 2006 He doesn't include a friggen power chord for $1200? Yup, although neither does jack woo on any of his amps so.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
philodox Posted September 5, 2006 Report Share Posted September 5, 2006 The new stello HP100 and the knock off of it?What knock off is this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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