RSA Tomahawk Reflection (Pics!)
I’ve had Ray Samuels’s The Tomahawk headphone amp for about a full month now, so I felt it was about time to report back my experiences. This month gave me time to run it through the first set of batteries and some of a second set. This should have been long enough to fully burn the Tomahawk in. The electronics take 300-500 hours or so to really settle in and emit their final sound signature.
Aside: I can’t bring myself to call this a review because I don’t consider myself much of an genuine audiophile, and I don’t feel I’m really qualified to seriously critique this product. Also, this is the first headphone amp I’ve ever experienced, so I can’t really compare it to anything.
The Tomahawk is a very highly acclaimed headphone amplifier. I’ve read numerous reviews and comparisons – mostly on head-fi.org – about this amp, and everyone seems to think very highly of it. My experience has been just excellent. The amplifier adds smoothness/shininess to the sound that is just a joy to listen to through the E500. In the interest of preserving my hearing, when in a quiet room, I like listening at low volumes. This combo retains thick & juicy dynamics while emphasizing the fact that this little box eliminates ALL hiss/buzz produced by my mp3 player and presents nothing but pure music over a deep, black background.
As for size & build, there is absolutely nothing to complain about here. The Tomahawk is built like a tank… and a very, very tiny one at that. Ray’s amps are built with plenty of TLC, and he doesn’t just throw together these things with whatever chips happen to be cheapest. Each amp is built with the same, high-quality components.
What’s most amazing is the punch that this thing produces. One should not come under the impression that this amp will drive only IEMs. In fact, it will drive all but the most exotic and demanding of headphones with juice to spare. If that wasn’t amazing enough, it will actually perform its duty for over 400 hours solid, about 17 days, or as Ray says, 6 weeks at 10 hours per day. (Apparently, more demanding headphones will start to clip towards the end of the battery life.)
I must also comment on Ray’s customer service. Ray is a really great guy and a pleasure to do business with. He likes to talk to his customers on the phone, so if you’re interested in his products, call him up!
Pics over the jump!
2 Comments to RSA Tomahawk Reflection (Pics!)
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Actually I compared it to the line out of my iriver iHP-120, and it the two are actually quite difficult to tell apart.
Now, I’ve tried using this amp out of an ipod headphone out, and yeah… that is a lost cause.
I read on head-fi that there are worse things one can do than amping the headphone out on these X5′s … it actually sounds quite good.
AudioLineOut will make you a DOCK style connector for the iAudio X5. I just ordered one today. Get your sweet audio line-out hookup to that badass amp.