If You Love High Quality Headphones Then This Amplifier is For You

Rogue Sounds situated in Brodheadsville, Pennsylvania and they’ve made some of my most loved gadgets so I was pondering when they would get around to handling earphone speakers. They have with the RH-5 and It retails for $2,495/£2,495. Which is sensible for a made-in-the-US top of the line segment. Beyond any doubt it’s costly, but If you’ve as of now put resources into a bundle of audiophile review earphones it will be cash well spent.

The RH-5 might be an earphone amp, but at the same time it’s a fine preamp, with three stereo RCA inputs, one stereo XLR info and stereo RCA and XLR yields. I began my tryouts tuning in to it as a preamp with a Bel Canto REF500 control amp and Magnepan.7 level board speakers. The sound was smooth and loaded with body, and stereo imaging was huge and roomy.

The RH-5’s machined aluminum front board sports two blend 6.3 mm/XLR earphone jacks and separate left and right channel three-stick XLR earphone jacks. Three pick up settings permit the RH-5’s yield to coordinate for low, medium or high otherwise known as difficult to drive earphones. The simple to-peruse front board show demonstrates the chose input, pick up setting and volume level. You can play two earphones at any given moment with the RH-5.

Specifications:

The back board has three sets of stereo RCA and one sets of XLR inputs; and there are stereo RCA and XLR preamp yields. There’s likewise an extra cost ($500/£500) phono preamp for moving-magnet/moving-curl phono cartridges, so you can play your turntable through the RH-5, an uncommon choice for amps like this.

The RH-5 is an immaculate simple gadget, it doesn’t have a worked in computerized converter, which bodes well on an item like this. After all computerized tech is still propelling, so an implicit converter would be out of date in a couple of years, but the earphone amp may stick around for 10 or even 20 years. I utilized a Mytek Brooklyn converter for the greater part of my listening tests.

The RH-5 is a half breed tube/strong state plan, with two 12AU7 tubes in the preamp area and high current transistor control yields. Despite the fact that you may expect the RH-5 is only a reinforced preamp, Rogue Audio reveals to me it’s a unique outline.

Definition:

The RH-5’s steel suspension measures 15×13.5×4 inches (381x343x101 mm), and it measures 19 pounds (8.6 kg). The amp comes with a three year guarantee.

The sound is hotter and sweeter than my reference Pass Labs HPA-1. Earphone amp/preamp ($3,500/£3,500), yet the RH-5 isn’t deficient in determination, not by far.

With the RH-5 my Oppo PM 1 earphones sounded more unbiased and straightforward than I recalled that them. I’m a fan, yet PM 1s tonality can be less striking than contending planar attractive earphones from Hifiman and Audeze. The PM 1 sounded all the more supplied connected to the RH-5.

Which reminds me, the new Hifiman Susvara earphone a standout amongst the most costly earphones. I’ve ever been fortunate to attempt had an extraordinary proclivity for the RH-5. I’ll audit this earphone soon, yet it’s a mammoth to drive. No other amp in my accumulation was strong to draw out the best in the Susvara. The HPA-1 amp battled with very unique recordings over the Susvara, the RH-5 played them without breaking a sweat. The RH-5 sound was likewise lusher. More full than the HPA-1 which sounded lean by correlation making it impossible to the Susvara.

Next I kept tuning in with one of the most effortless to drive earphones, my Grado GH1s. The HPA 1’s straightforwardness and flow surpassed the RH-5’s, but there was no denying the RH-5’s curvy midrange was beautiful. The RH-5 cajoled awesome sound out of the GH1. It’s a superior earphone than I thought it was.

Issue, I had a couple. The shoddy looking dark plastic remote conflicts with this top of the line segment’s generally fantastic form quality. More awful yet the situation of the RH-5’s energy on/off catch beneath the volume catches is appalling. More than once I killed the RH-5 when I attempted to bring down the volume. Once killed the RH-5 takes 15 seconds to restart.

Summing up the Rogue Audio RH-5 is in the top rank of earphone amps. Even better it’s more affordable and more completely highlighted than a large part of its kind.