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Author Topic: RSA The Intruder  (Read 12420 times)

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The Headphone Viking

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RSA The Intruder
« on: November 04, 2012, 02:53:11 AM »
Was wondering if anyone here has heard this new powerhouse from RSA? And if so, would anyone be able to comment on it compared to the Blackbird or maybe the real contender, the ALO Rx Mk3b?

I've personally owned the latter, and am considering the intruder if its an all new amp, and not 'just' a SR-71B with a Dac glued on the rear. Apart from the crazy gain/power and the the not completely black background I've so far found the Rx Mk3b the most impressive portable amp soundwise, but Ray Samuels seems to have a more solid feel, better formfactor and better synergy with IEMs due to lower gain levels, better matched channels on pot-meters and blacker background. So if this new amp also is an improvement in sound, on top of power to match the Mk3, he's got a winner in my book...
p;)
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Marvey

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Re: RSA The Intruder
« Reply #1 on: November 04, 2012, 05:17:08 AM »
Are you referring to this:



I have no idea. Never tried it.
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rhythmdevils

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Re: RSA The Intruder
« Reply #2 on: November 04, 2012, 05:30:01 AM »
I tried it.  Really really smooth, and packs deep, tight bass.  Very transparent and revealing of future bowel movements. 
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ultrabike

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Re: RSA The Intruder
« Reply #3 on: November 04, 2012, 05:43:15 AM »
For a "blacker background" there is also the obsidian version

Very affordable too...
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Marvey

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Re: RSA The Intruder
« Reply #4 on: November 04, 2012, 06:33:55 AM »
On a serious note...

I don't know why I answer these kinds of questions because they usually mean that people have already made up their minds and want validation. Hopefully this is not the case. And if I ever find out you purchased the RSA, I will ban you permanently.
  • The ALO brick mk3 seriously kicks ass. It sounds close to a good desktop unit. The noise you mentioned is an issue with IEMs.
  • The next best thing I've heard is the UHA-6S. Works fine with IEMs.
  • Everything I've heard from RSA sounds the same. That is pretty good / OK.
I don't have anything personal against RSA nor do I have an axe to grind, but I have serious reservations about RSA products. The build quality looks great. However, the bill of materials for the parts of RSA products (which I've seen the internals of) which actually deal with the "sound" aspect seem to be low in comparison with the external chassis / cosmetic elements.

RSA portable headphone amps all sound the same more or less, use off-the-shelf chips, and nothing more than variations of a CMOY (do a search term on "CMOY" or "Tangentsoft".) Maybe some of the more expensive portable models have a buffer chip. I have not heard nor seen the internals of the the Intruder though.

I really didn't care about RSA much until recently (so what? overpriced CMOYs, who cares?), but the DarkStar amp is really what turned me off RSA. It looks really really nice, but the amp is essentially a chip amp, the OPA541. You go to the TI website and read the spec sheet, you will realize that there are not that many ways you can implement it. That being said, a few days ago, I did have 4 x OPA541 chips in front of me in balanced configuration for headphone output. Not running off insane 40V rails of the Dark Star, but more like 20 or something. I can tell you this: The OPA541 sounds like shit for a headphone application. It does do some things well, very well in fact. But overall, it sounds like shit and does not belong in a $3,500 amp.

I dunno, maybe RSA has some secrets in tweaking it. (TI does document the schematic of the OPA541's internals quite well.) But an examination of other RSA portable amps seems to indicate pretty much standard textbook implementations according to spec sheets. In the end, the chassis is pretty, and this may certainly have an effect on perceived sound. Some people like his stuff and are willing to pay for it. So no harm done. Customers are happy and RSA gets to make a lot of money.

There's just too much of a dark cloud over the RSA stuff, like the whole Class A or not Class A Headfonia shill thing with the Dark Star, or cheap CMOY implementations of portable amps costing hundreds and hundreds of dollars. I would go with the well known names mentioned here: HeadAmp, Leckerton, ALO (only the CLAS mk3). AMB, etc.
« Last Edit: November 04, 2012, 07:01:24 AM by purrin »
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khaos

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Re: RSA The Intruder
« Reply #5 on: November 04, 2012, 07:11:32 AM »
Listening to the Intruder is like starting to get frisky with a beautiful girl and finding out that she has a [Redacted].
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Deep Funk

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Re: RSA The Intruder
« Reply #6 on: November 04, 2012, 07:14:06 AM »
Quote from: khaos on November 04, 2012, 07:11:32 AM
Listening to the Intruder is like starting to get frisky with a beautiful girl and finding out that she has a [Redacted].

Where is your adventurous spirit? There is more than one angle and positions change  p;)...
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kevin gilmore

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Re: RSA The Intruder
« Reply #7 on: November 04, 2012, 01:51:08 PM »
The ALO mk3 is a very well done piece. Light years ahead of the previous stuff from them.
And yes its a bit noisy, which is a result of the overly complicated design. I could probably
take their power supply design, and change a bit of the audio stuff in the middle to get
the same result and take 6db off the noise figure, but for super efficient iem's, it would
still not be enough.

The RSA thing is not a cmoy, its a meta42. which means buf634's as the output chip
in a feedback loop with a generic amplifier.  Add a opa1632 as the unbalanced to
balance converter. Version with the dac is the standard TI usb chip and a 16/44 dac.
And still a lousy silk screen paint job. Exactly the same as sr71,sr71a,sr71b,intruder.
And the same miserable battery charging circuit.

You can get the identical performance from the ibasso, for half the amount of money.
Its the identical chips.

The darkstar is truely awful in every single way, and has minimal amounts of
class A power. No way to tweek any of that, nothing at any of the pins that would
allow the bias to be increased. Plus no heatsink etc...

The rumored RSA solid state electrostatic amp should be something to behold.
Likely the APEX high voltage opamps. Because ray does not know how to do
discrete.
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Anaxilus.

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Re: RSA The Intruder
« Reply #8 on: November 04, 2012, 05:47:59 PM »
If you ever do a DIY guide on the ALO RX3 I'll be all over it.  Despite the noise it is the best portable amp I've yet heard.
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kevin gilmore

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Re: RSA The Intruder
« Reply #9 on: November 04, 2012, 08:26:59 PM »
I have the schematics, was not planning on publishing them.
Evidently the thing was designed by 3 professionals, and the
buck boost power supply is the best thing i have seen so far
in a portable, on the same level as the switchers pete millet
uses/has designed in the past.

The way the digital volume control is done is very cute and
very different from just about everything. And is unfortunately
a bit noisy.  I would do this part of it differently. With standard
256 level digital controls, and more firmware.

Increasingly items like the intruder are about to become miniature
boat anchors on the ship of FAIL as there are now 3 high resolution dap's
(korg,ibasso,iriver) with 3 more that i know of coming soon. As soon as one of
these things comes with a beefy output section, the portable amp market
is going to shrink bigtime.
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