Hi Afterimage and all,
My question is, can the Isabella compete with the top of the line preamps from the brands listed above? I realize there is a lot of variables involved like system matching, personal listening preferences ect... but generally is the Isabella on par?
Yes - absolutely!
From the 6moons review:
?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.?
From the Tone Audio review:
?The tonality of the Isabella is excellent. I firmly believe this is due to the lack of grain from power supply artifacts coloring the signal.?
?The Isabella [combined with the Signature 30.2 power amp] will be tough to beat without spending a lot more money.?
From the StereoTimes Review:
??few preamps in my experience combine quietude, transparency to source, PRaT and tonal veracity with fuss-free operation and friendly, non-Machiavellian designers in quite the way Isabella does.?
2008 Product of the Year in High Fidelity Online:
http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=64150.0Feedback from a couple of dealers who carry some of the competition:
http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=59183.0And of course you can search deep in the RWA forum for lots of Isabella feedback from our
customers.
The power of suggestion is very strong. If someone says, "Oh, the treble performance is so much better, can't you hear that?" you're going to be influenced and start hearing things. If he's being fair, he should let both of you listen for awhile and draw independent conclusions later.
wilsynet is correct! Before even starting RWA, I used to visit dealers and some of them invited me to bring my current equipment (I have no intentions of disclosing who these dealer are, or what equipment was involved - I'm just trying to make a point). Quite a few of them would always suggest how much better the sound was when they swapped in the equipment that they were selling.
Comments like:
"Listen to how much stronger the bass is with our Brand X component" (but to me, I was thinking, "yeah, but the bass is much more bloated and unrealistic").
"Listen to the more detail coming from our Brand Y component" (but to me, I was thinking, "yeah, but it sound too bright and I couldn't listen to that for long periods of time and be satisfied...")
Note - not all dealers are like this, but there certainly are dealers who are going to be biased towards the gear they sell (and we all have biases, as I certainly do as a manufacturer of equipment
).
Also - once you bring your equipment into a dealer, the entire system synergy is radically altered. You are in a different room, mating with different equipment and speakers. So it is possible that in the dealers system, you *might* actually prefer their piece of equipment in their system - which they hopefully voiced to sound good together! If they let you bring it home into YOUR system, you can surely expect to hear things differently.
The best demo is one in your listening room, with your equipment, with your music. This is why I really like the 30-day refund policy approach. Customers can listen to Red Wine Audio equipment in their own settings and decide how it performs for them and their equipment. System synergy is EVERYTHING (I hope I do not sound like a broken record, but this is so important).
And if you have a dealer who offer a return policy (or allows you to take home a demo unit), that is most helpful. The room is at least 50% of what you are hearing, so you need to listen in your own room with your own gear, and you need to feel comfortable when listening - that's what it is all about!
Hope this helps,
Vinnie
