I have been reading and enjoying this forum very much. Thanks to all you posters for your informative posts. I don't normally post to such forums but I have had such a fantastic experience with the Isabellina and Red Wine Audio and Vinnie that I'd like to share my impressions with you.
First off let me give you some background and let you know that I am not an audiophile. I'm just a music lover who can hear the differences between various equipment. I appreciate good sound. At least what sounds good to me that is. But I'm not technical at all nor do I have much electronic knowledge. Around 16 years ago I got my first 'high end' system. It was a 2nd hand all Linn system from a Linn dealer. The dealer had lots of different brands but based on what I heard the Linn system sounded best to my ears so I bought it. I loved that system. Around 8 years ago I sold that system in order to buy a new Linn system and go 'active Linn'. Here is the strange thing though; while objectively the new system was 'better', in the sense that it had better dynamics, a blacker background, better bass......etc, I never warmed up to this system the way I had my first one. I know that sounds strange considering it's 'better', but I have in the past 8 years never experienced the pull to this system that I did the first one. Don't get me wrong, it's very good, but.....well I think you get the picture.
A little over a year ago I heard about Red Wine audio. I emailed the company and heard back from Vinnie. I told him about my experience with my system and asked him a bunch of questions about Red Wine stuff. He was very prompt and courteous and informative and helpful in his replies. I had many more questions but was already prepared to sell my system and go all Red Wine. With their 30 day 'your money back if you don't like it' policy I figured I couldn't lose. If I got it and liked it I'd keep it and sell my existing system. At a certain point, Vinnie asked if he could call me. Well of course! So he gave me a call and amazingly he not only didn't push his Red Wine products, he actually spent more time asking about my Linn system, and what my listening room was like and how I had it set up. He then offered me tips on positioning etc that he thought might help improve the sound and bring me more enjoyment from my existing system "before you start spending thousands of dollars on a new system" What a great guy. A true gentleman. I thanked him for his advice and after our call I made some changes. It was an improvement. But the overall sound remained the same so my curiosity to hear Red Wine stuff had not abated. As luck (or not) would have it, I was no longer in a $$position to change systems soon thereafter, so I'd have to wait until I could afford to make some changes.
I kept in touch with Vinnie via email periodically throughout the past year whenever I had any questions, and even though I was not yet a customer he treated me as if I were. He is a very helpful person. Just about two months ago I bought an Isabellina. When I hooked it up and had a listen the first thing I noticed was 'voices sound great' and 'this thing has great tone'. I liked what I heard right away but was mindful of what Vinnie said about how one should not do any real critical evaluating before it's had at least 100 hours burn-in time. However I couldn't wait to do A/B comparison with my Linn cd player so I did. I was feeding the Isabellina via the included usb cable from a Mac using itunes uncompressed wav encoding. At first I thought 'uh-oh, the linn's better'. The linn had more audible detail and bass. Yet I still preferred the tone of the Isabellina. Its tone was superior to the linn. I figured it was an unfair test anyhow because the Isabellina was brand new and nowhere near burned in yet.
Over the next six weeks or so I kept listening to the Isabellina. I can't detail exactly when and what happened, but I can tell you that it definitely kept sounding better and better. By week six, probably at around 150 hours or maybe more, the Isabellina was sounding _really_ good. I found myself drawn to my system in a way I hadn't been since that first system. I was looking forward to getting to sit down and listen each evening. And it kept getting better. I thought I might have been imagining things because it was sounding better literally each day. But I'm sure I wasn't imagining it. The Isabellina is magical. Yes all the audiophile stuff is there, like soundstage depth, height, great imaging....blah blah blah.......and the bass had much improved as well as detail and was on par with the Linn in those respects as well, but what really got me was how it sounded like music. Real music. It's tonal abilities are something special. It sounds like real humans in the room, not 'a stereo'. Another remarkable thing about it is the way it gets emotion across. I really felt the emotion of each performance I listened to. I could feel what seemed to be the emotional intent of the given artist/music. Another thing about it is that it is totally non-fatiguing. I could and did listen for hours with not one moment of feeling 'alright I'm tired of listening to this stereo' in fact I just wanted to listen more and more and.......there are never any cringing moments of harshness. The sound is so natural, hard to explain but when I see reviews have used the word 'organic' to describe it that makes sense to me. Yes it's very organic. I just loved it. I had not felt that excited to listen to my music collection in years. The Isabellina is really something very special and Vinnie is some kind of audio magician! I have never heard digital sound like that. I prefer vinyl to digital 9.9 times out of 10 yet while I had the Isabellina in my system I did not listen to vinyl once. I just kept finding myself pulled to listen to music via Isabellina.
Well, probably not a real 'audiophile review' or anything but those are my thoughts about Red Wine Audio, Vinnie, and the Isabellina DAC. And in case you're wondering why I keep referring to the Isabellina in the past tense, it's because I loved it so much that I sold it and am buying an Isabella with the Isabellina built in. I can't wait until I hear it!
