6moons review of Red Wine Audio Isabella - completed!

Vinnie R. · « **on:** 6 Oct 2008, 10:13 pm »

All,

Below is a link to the completed 6moons review of the Isabella (fully-loaded with Isabellina dac board and headphone output stage):

http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/redwine10/isabella.html

A total of 5 pages, covering everything from notes on the design concept, built-in Isabellina dac board, comparison of using Macbook as a USB transport vs. using a high-end dedicated CD transports via SPDIF, the headphone output stage, and of course - the preamplifer stage (with the Signature 30.2 power amp, and with other amplifiers)

I am very proud, honored, and thankful to see the review concludes with the 6moons Blue Moon award:

I want to thank Srajan Ebaen / 6moons for the extensive review of the "fully-loaded" RWA Isabella.

He has been extremely busy these past couple of months and has still made a big effort to take on this review and cover all the topics that I mentioned above, and seemed to have some fun doing it in his new listening room in Switzerland.

Some quick quotes from the review:

Quote

For guts, fleshiness and wallop -- in short, the illusion that the ghostly phantom images in your sound room have bodies and arteries with flowing blood -- the Isabella delivers more than class leaders at twice her price.

Quote

What's undeniable is that Isabella the package -- particularly with the Isabellina option -- is the most ambitious Red Wine Audio product yet. Equally true from personal dealings, reader feedback and forum posts is that this company treats its customers with respect and courtesy. Lastly, those who focus exclusively on the apparent value of things are nearly bound to overlook that considering what it competes against, the Isabella continues to be a good value. With it, Red Wine Audio now simply competes on higher ground.

There is also a funny Britney Spears comment at the end, but I'll leave that for the reader to check out in the review

Thanks again to 6moons, and thank you all for your continued interested and support!

Vinnie

IronLion · « **Reply #1 on:** 6 Oct 2008, 10:27 pm »

What a great review, thanks to Srajan and congratulations to Vinnie! I'm curious to know Vinnie, it looks like in one of the photos that the batteries of the Isabella are soldered to the connecting wires? Does that mean you have to replace the batteries at the factory if they are to be replaced? In any case, I hope to try out an Isabella in the near future...

Profbratsch · « **Reply #2 on:** 6 Oct 2008, 10:29 pm »

Vinnie,

Congratulations on yet another Blue Moon Award. It is well-deserved!

The 30.2/Isabella combination is growing on me each day. After about thirty hours of listening I am starting to hear an expansion of the soundstage, better frequency extension, particularly in the low end, and more detail. I am really looking forward to getting my dedicated computer hooked up to see what USB can do. In the meantime the preamp and my Exemplar 5910 seem to work very well in tandem.

Thanks for a great product and your exemplary service!

Vinnie R. · « **Reply #3 on:** 7 Oct 2008, 12:46 am »

Thanks, Guys!

Quote

I'm curious to know Vinnie, it looks like in one of the photos that the batteries of the Isabella are soldered to the connecting wires? Does that mean you have to replace the batteries at the factory if they are to be replaced? In any case, I hope to try out an Isabella in the near future...

Hi IronLion,

You are correct, and this is also true for the Isabella, Isabellina, Signature 30.2 and 70.2 units.

The user can replace them if they are comfortable with doing so (there are a total of 4 wires - 2 per battery) and the Users Manual has directions. We also gladly offer this service...

Best regards,

Vinnie

nonoise · « **Reply #4 on:** 7 Oct 2008, 05:42 am »

Congratulations Vinnie!!!

Another well deserved, Blue Moon award to add to your mantle.
Make sure it's wide enough for the next one, or two, should you
decide to tinker some more

.
(a battery powered LCD TV would be nice)

nonoise

Srajan Ebaen · « **Reply #5 on:** 7 Oct 2008, 08:02 am »

Just to be sure, this review is not yet complete. Really.

There will be a follow-up comparing the Sig 30.2 amp + Isabella to the Sig 30.2 integrated - and the latter with Isabella to the former twosome, to give people with integrated 30.2s some input on what the Isabella addition brings to the party as an upgrade path.

Seeing that I had a lot to cover as it was, this would have made the review even longer and ungainly so that follow-up will be a separate piece. And if I can get my two reference digital pieces fixed in time (moving is a bitch), I also want to create some additional context for the USB DAC performance versus expensive ($10,000 and $35,000 respectively) CDPs run thru their analog outputs.

But, that'll still be a little while as I'm under quite an amount of backlog still from the move and need to handle some other assignments first. So just a heads-up that these weren't the last words yet on the subject. Phew

jwes · « **Reply #6 on:** 7 Oct 2008, 03:40 pm »

Srajan,

That's going to be a great comparison! If I get the Isabella, it will be with the DAC, so that I can have some fun moving back and forth with my ModWright transporter. I can compare the digital out from that to the Isabella DAC. Then a MacBook vs. the Transporter, etc. All these options because of flexible outputs. But the question of amp direct vs. going through Isabella will be interesting to read!

Vinnie R. · « **Reply #7 on:** 7 Oct 2008, 06:44 pm »

Quote from: jwes on 7 Oct 2008, 03:40 pm

Srajan,

That's going to be a great comparison! If I get the Isabella, it will be with the DAC, so that I can have some fun moving back and forth with my ModWright transporter. I can compare the digital out from that to the Isabella DAC. Then a MacBook vs. the Transporter, etc. All these options because of flexible outputs. But the question of amp direct vs. going through Isabella will be interesting to read!

Hi jwes,

Yes - you can even connect the Transporter's modded analog outputs and its digital output (to the Isabella's dac) and play them at the same time, switching them "on the fly" with the input select switch - for easy comparion..

Quote

There will be a follow-up comparing the Sig 30.2 amp + Isabella to the Sig 30.2 integrated - and the latter with Isabella to the former twosome, to give people with integrated 30.2s some input on what the Isabella addition brings to the party as an upgrade path.

Very cool - thanks, Srajan!

Vinnie

Mariusz · « **Reply #8 on:** 7 Oct 2008, 11:09 pm »

Congrats to Vinnie on another, well deserved "Blue Moon Award"
I believe the Ebaen Srajan review was accurate and spot on in regards to DAC and preamp section. I can not comment on the headphone stage evaluation since my Isabella doesn't have that option (but it might in the future. Vinnie told me that I can upgrade at any time - that is the top notch service ).

Looks like Ebaen Srajan had his hands full trying his best to finish the review and settle in his new home and place of work.
I can only add that Isabellina dac did improve on the allready great Consonance Droplet CDP ($3200) which I own.

To bad that Rho Haigner were the main speakers used in the review and that there was no compareson to recently reviewed Dodd - which I also owned. It would have been interesting to hear the differences between the two from another source rather then my own poorly written notes.

Ones again congrats to Vinnie and big thanks to Ebaen Srajan for his effort as well as honest and fair review under such a hectic circumstances.

Regards
Mariusz

Alwayswantmore · « **Reply #9 on:** 8 Oct 2008, 12:47 am »

Quote from: Srajan Ebaen on 7 Oct 2008, 08:02 am

Just to be sure, this review is not yet complete. Really.

There will be a follow-up comparing the Sig 30.2 amp + Isabella to the Sig 30.2 integrated - and the latter with Isabella to the former twosome, to give people with integrated 30.2s some input on what the Isabella addition brings to the party as an upgrade path.

Seeing that I had a lot to cover as it was, this would have made the review even longer and ungainly so that follow-up will be a separate piece. And if I can get my two reference digital pieces fixed in time (moving is a bitch), I also want to create some additional context for the USB DAC performance versus expensive ($10,000 and $35,000 respectively) CDPs run thru their analog outputs.

But, that'll still be a little while as I'm under quite an amount of backlog still from the move and need to handle some other assignments first. So just a heads-up that these weren't the last words yet on the subject. Phew

Srajan, thanks for the great review of Vinnie's lastest product. Was the entire review with stock tubes? Kent

Jon L · « **Reply #10 on:** 8 Oct 2008, 02:41 am »

"*While definitely intended, the obvious comparisons -- between MacBook/USB and the analog outputs of the Prime and UX-1 -- couldn't be made. The Prime suffered a bad channel regardless of 6H30 to suggest a defective part, likely a capacitor; and the UX-1 retaliated with a dead channel. Both machines need fixing but worked swell as transports."

How in God's name do two very expensive players develop such severe defects? I would have loved a comparison between Red Wine DAC vs. those players' analogue outputs.

mytubes211 · « **Reply #11 on:** 8 Oct 2008, 03:28 am »

Hi Vinnie

Also I'm very happy for you,that your hard work was appreciated and I think Isabella will be big hit at coming show at Rocky Mouthans.Now I can be for sure glad,that I did buy one for my self

,before you sell them all

Cheers Ritchie

Srajan Ebaen · « **Reply #12 on:** 8 Oct 2008, 05:55 am »

To Jon L: How can two expensive CD players develop failures? Not sure yet what exactly went wrong but moving a 40-foot container from one country to another and having that container sit outside in Hamburg for 3 weeks in very hot and cold temps might have something to do with it. Ever been inside a 40-foot steel container while it was 40 degrees outside? It gets very hot very quickly as I can attest to loading the thing in the Cyprus sun -:)

In the case of the Ancient Audio machine, I suspect a capacitor. In the case of the modified Esoteric, it could be a bad solder joint somewhere as in one channel, the tube filaments don't come on.

To MariusZ? Not sure what you don't like about the Haigner Rho. Ever heard one? I can assure you it's a very fine speaker that plays my space very well.

And yes, I used the stock tubes exclusively. I have a set of Mullards but as the review is long already,I decided not to get lost on a tube rolling tangent. There's a useful thread on that here already...

Alwayswantmore · « **Reply #13 on:** 8 Oct 2008, 12:57 pm »

Quote from: Srajan Ebaen on 8 Oct 2008, 05:55 am

And yes, I used the stock tubes exclusively. I have a set of Mullards but as the review is long already,I decided not to get lost on a tube rolling tangent. There's a useful thread on that here already...

Thanks. Good news the Isabella came out this good with stock tubes, leaving room for owners to tweak the sound to their tastes via tube rolling.

krmathis · « **Reply #14 on:** 8 Oct 2008, 07:07 pm »

Vinnie, congratulations with another highly positive review on 6moons!

The Isabella looks really great, like the rest of your products. Sure hope I will be able to audition one some day..

Mariusz · « **Reply #15 on:** 8 Oct 2008, 07:10 pm »

Ebaen,
It's not that I do not like them,........I am simply not familiar with their sound characteristics, limitations etc.
The picture would have been a lot more transparent if the speaker choice was less exotic and painted with more familiar brush and colors.
Please do not get me wrong....I am not criticizing your review in any way.
I know what the Isabella sounds like and you did exceptional job with this review.
Surely, you will have more play time with Isabella next time around......perhaps in the follow up that you promised to do in the future.

Regards
Mariusz

Vinnie R. · « **Reply #16 on:** 8 Oct 2008, 08:27 pm »

Thank you, guys!

Jeff at Tone Audio mentioned that his Isabella review is almost done and the October Issue of Tone will be out in just a couple of weeks

Off to RMAF tomorrow!

Vinnie

jimdgoulding · « **Reply #17 on:** 11 Oct 2008, 03:02 am »

Salude, Vinnie.

6rs · « **Reply #18 on:** 13 Oct 2008, 03:35 am »

Quote from: Alwayswantmore on 8 Oct 2008, 12:57 pm

Quote from: Srajan Ebaen on 8 Oct 2008, 05:55 am
And yes, I used the stock tubes exclusively. I have a set of Mullards but as the review is long already,I decided not to get lost on a tube rolling tangent. There's a useful thread on that here already...
Thanks. Good news the Isabella came out this good with stock tubes, leaving room for owners to tweak the sound to their tastes via tube rolling.

I concur. I would go as far as to say that tube rolling can bring the Isabella to another level. Citing Srajan's conclusion:
"If you're looking for a propulsive 'fast' sound, this is too meaty. If you're looking for lit up, this is too centered and grounded."
With Siemens CCa for example, you WILL get a propulsive, fast sound, also lit-up. More spacious, more liquid than stock tubes. Sound is still centered, maybe not as grounded though.

Vinnie R. · « **Reply #19 on:** 6 Feb 2009, 10:46 pm »

Quote from: Srajan Ebaen on 7 Oct 2008, 08:02 am

There will be a follow-up comparing the Sig 30.2 amp + Isabella to the Sig 30.2 integrated - and the latter with Isabella to the former twosome, to give people with integrated 30.2s some input on what the Isabella addition brings to the party as an upgrade path.

All,

Srajan Ebaen of 6moons followed-up on his promise above!

http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/redwine11/m+m.html

This is an excellent follow-up and does a great job on explaining how the Isabella is contributing to
the sound (in front of the 30.2) vs. the 30.2 integrated.

Thanks to Srajan for taking the time to do this "mixing n' matching!"

Best regards,

Vinnie