Ray Samuels Audio?

Discussion in 'Leaderboard, Overboard, and Deals' started by electricsheepdreams, Aug 16, 2016.

  1. imackler

    imackler Key Lime Pie Infected Aberdeen Wings Spy

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    Haha! I didn't look that far back.
     
  2. Tyll Hertsens

    Tyll Hertsens Grandpappy of the hobby - Special Friend

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    Ha! I talked to Ray yesterday. He's still willing to do warranty repairs and is selling off all his stock but not building more amps at this time and will not be designing any new ones. He's 70yo, has some nice cars, is happily married, and is on the road to retirement. I expect repair services will go away in the not too distant future.

    Since we're on the subject, I also got hold of Jamey at HeadRoom. They tried to sell the domain name but weren't offered what they think it was worth. He said a number of people expressed interest in the information on the web site to remain, so the site is still up. All purchased are redirected to Amazon. They have no currently active employees...just the employee owners who split the Amazon referral money. So HeadRoom as a company is basically dead. Jamey is continuing to work on a pair of headphones. He's working on it as a project with some Montana State U. students, but there's currently no financial resources to to commercialize the end result. SHould the project produce a successful prototype there might be a possibility of Jamey shopping it around for investors.

    All things must pass.
     
  3. fraggler

    fraggler A Happy & Busy Life

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    That is an understatement! He showed up to a Chicago meet several years back in a Lamborghini Aventador. Never owned anything he made, but he was a really cool dude to chat with. Took me and my girlfriend out to dinner afterwards since she helped with the raffle at the meet.
     
  4. ultrabike

    ultrabike Measurbator - Admin

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    Man! HeadRoom is no more?! Sorry to hear that. Hope the headphones project comes to fruition.
     
  5. imackler

    imackler Key Lime Pie Infected Aberdeen Wings Spy

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    I'm just going to say that the Headroom micro amp and sr-71a both give me incredible enjoyment at the time.
     
  6. pedalhead

    pedalhead Friend

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    Damn shame about Headroom. My first good system was a BUDA/UDAC stack. I can almost forgive @Tyll Hertsens for the 2 x 3pin XLR standard because Headroom were such a great driver of the serious headphone market at that point.

    Whilst RSA gear seemed really popular on HF about ten years ago, I haven't seen many discussions about it for quite a while. Probably a reflection of having more manufacturers on the scene and a slow wind-up into retirement for Ray. I always thought the aesthetics of his gear were excellent. Sadly didn't get to hear much as RSA stuff is pretty rare on this side of the pond.
     
  7. Cspirou

    Cspirou They call me Sparky

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    The F-117 nighthawk phono gets a lot of love. Otherwise i don’t hear much about the other stuff.
     
  8. mkozlows

    mkozlows Friend

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    That is sad about HeadRoom. Not only did I have a HeadRoom Micro DAC/Amp that I loved (since passed along to a friend who still has them in active use), but I'm pretty sure Tyll's HeadRoom ad copy is what sold me on the HD-580 back in the day.
     
  9. Mr.Sneis

    Mr.Sneis Friend

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    Bullshit aside this is hard news to swallow regarding both RSA and HR. Owned several of their products over the years.
     
  10. Dotard

    Dotard Acquaintance

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    Sorry to bump an old thread but I felt compelled to relate, that having been in this hobby a while, to me there were always four names when it came to the cottage country high end tube amplifier market: Eddie Current, Ram Samuels, HeadAmp, & Cavalli. With half of these outfits now closed/closing (along with pioneer headroom) it seems bittersweet to reflect on the current state of the market, despite what your opinion may be of the players involved.

    As Tyll said, all things must pass. Here's to the new generation of valve makers, and of course, a toast to the Aficionado.
     
  11. wnmnkh

    wnmnkh Friend

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    Always very unfortunate to be reminded that Headroom is no more....

    A lot changed back then I first visited Head-FI website in 2003.... Right now it seems only company left is Meier-Audio.

    By the way, Jan Meier is doing this SOUL project.

    http://www.meier-audio.homepage.t-online.de/

    You guys really should check it out.


    Edit : To think about it, I think Jamey should contact Massdrop. Maybe Massdrop is interested in making their own headphones, just like IEMs.
     
  12. Armaegis

    Armaegis Friend

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    Aw man, the Headroom Bithead was probably what started my decent into dac/amp insanity.
     

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