I've been playing my RWA Isabella, with built-in Isabellina dac option, for a few weeks now. I wanted to write sooner but I have been having a very difficult time pulling myself away from listening. I'm no reviewer by any means, but I will say this - Isabella already has FAR exceeded my expectations and I have never heard *any* preamp or dac that like more than this!
So everyone knows I am also using a RWA Signature 30.2 and Gallo Ref 3.1s.
What the Isabella is providing is more dimension and space, more foundation to the sound, a totally effortless presentation, more life and realism to my music than I thought was possible in my system. All this with just adding in the Isabella/Isabellina combo. Granted it is not a cheap upgrade but to me well worth every penny! :)
The Isabellina dac option gives me what vinnie/RWA promised - a natural and emotionally involving musical presentation that does not sound digital AT ALL. I am using a Macbook computer like the one vinnie uses and USB. Such a simple way to connect to all your music and sounds so good. I'm off the grid completely now and loving every minute of listening! the only other dacs that I have used in the past that are close (in my opinion) are the Altmann attraction dac and a modified ack dack. No coincedece that these are also battery powered and non-oversampling. but the Isabellina seems to has deeper soundstaging, more dynamics and pacing, and some more extension on the top end. I no longer own these dacs so I cannot do a direct comparison, so please take this with with a grain of salt since I am just going by my memory but I owned each of them long enough to remember quite a bit. also I am not sure how much the Isabella tube stage has to do with this vs. the Isabellina stand alone product that RWA now offers. Would be interested to see.
What I also like is how the Isabellina dac is built into the Isabella tubed preamp. Everything is in one enclosure so no interconnects needed between a dac and preamp and this makes for shorter signal paths and simplicy on my audio rack. I need to try the RWA interconnects and speaker cables next. When I do I'll report back.
I just read the post from Mariusz:
http://www.audiocircle.com/circles/index.php?topic=57513.msg516421#msg516421
Now that was a very good post and I wish I can explain things that clearly. What I can say is that I am very satisfied with my Isabella/Isabellina, Signature 30.2 and Gallo 3.1s. I never heard it sound this good and I can say that I will no longer be hunting for a preamp, dac, or amp that is so satisfying to my ears. maybe I'll looking into trying new speakers later on, but right now I can't even think of changing a thing because I am pulled in the music and just want to buy more music.
Jeff
