RITA-880 who's got one? And what do you think?

today I purchase the 2nd to last unit. Whomever has the distinction of having grabbed the last unit please identify yourself!
 
Wow that's great! Did you purchase it locally or are you having it shipped? What kind of system will it be driving?


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I ordered a new one I presume from Rachel. She said after me there was only one left. It will arrive at my friends place on the 24th and I'll be in town to see it on or after the 27th where I'll hear it with Tekton Lores. At my place I'll connect them to Thiel SCS3, and at a nearby buddies place I can try them on Vapor Stiff Breeze, Revel, Nola Boxer, and AV123. To be clear, I bought this amp without a plan. It was all "I want" and no "I need". I've never owned a class A amp nor a pure tube amp, and when I read the new units were being sold into extinction it made me impulsive.

Sound Dragon -- your in Queens? I'm in Jersey City. I have a friend in Queens who's also packing a small concrete apt with serious gear. I'm lucky to have a giant listening floor, but I'm unlucky to be lacking a means of cooling it, so I need to get things up and running before the June temps force me out of my audio attic. This is very much a seasonal hobby for me.
 
2696 I have read a number of reviews that say the RITA runs very cool. I hope this is the case as I live in Florida and the summers are hot.


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Stew, I think it's funny that you are going from an "av receiver" to the RITA. You have denied yourself the enjoyment of incremental upgrades and just fast forwarded to the end. If we all did this then we could save lots of money.

The very first thing I'm going to do is plug it into a kilowatt to observe the watt consumption at idle and cranked. My hybrid amp is class A up to 50 watts (so I read) and it idles at 210watts, so I figure the RITA will idle around 185? And because it's class A, my guess is that number won't climb with the volume. Who knows though because my friend has a 3wpc class A integrated that burns 270watts at all times (and it weighs about the same as the RITA).
 
I wasn't hooked on the audio hobby when I bought the av receiver a few years back. I recently got hooked and couldn't pass on the opportunity to get the RITA before she went extinct, as you so appropriately called it. I've got my listening room all set up and hope the amp arrives tomorrow as planned.


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To be clear. If you place your hand above the tube vents on the case, you will feel heat rising. However, The case is touchable and does a great job dissipating the heat. I used to live in Georgia and can understand the heat concern.Rest assured that Rita is an all season AMP as far as I am Concerned. Please be mindful guy's that RITA is a heavy Amp and may require an additional set of hands to lift into place. As for extinction, I wonder if she would still be available on a special order basis? Also what is the standard tube compliment?
 
I'll weigh in if I may.....I am sitting here with the the audio for the hockey off and RITA fired up for the first time in a couple of weeks or so.
I've had RITA for about 1 1/2 years now. For the longest time I was always real critical of what I was hearing and I think it ruined the my listening experience. (I figure I was still trying to 'quantify' the cost/benefit of my cash outlay)
Now I just sit and listen, more like having headphones on. (I always lie in the dark with headphones with nothing else going on)
Despite not having much to compare to what I currently have, I 've got to say she sounds quite OK to me. I'm not much for all the usual cliches when it comes to describing what one hears, but given the constraints of the space my setup is in, if I keep the volume down lower than the point where the room gives in, it once in a while delivers you one of those, "did I just hear that?" moments. Have to replay that.
To you guys who've just bought RITAs, I hope you enjoy them.

86

Oh, and RITA doesn't run that hot at all for those guys thinking about that.
 
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Awesome to hear that Rachel/Ian have 'almost' sold them out. I was sooooo close but in the end I wanted something different and felt that my GF A-88 with the upgraded tubes is/was still good enough in my room with my listening environment. I went with a NAD C375bee for a second option (Solid State). Now I'm debating on getting an Anthony Gallo Reference SA to activate the second voice coil of my gallo Ref 3.1's and if I do that I'll have the A-88 for the top end and solid state refinement for the lower register. Just wish I could find to listen to first to see if I would benefit from it in my room
 
My RITA arrived yesterday evening via UPS all in one piece. The UPS man was a beast - he was able to lift the 100 pound amp by himself and had it all the way up to chest-level. I unpacked it, connected the tubes and fired it up, only to find that the front left KT88 was the only tube not glowing. I shut down the amp and inspected the tube to find it was damaged inside. Consistent with her great customer service, Rachel from GF promised to have a replacement tube shipped out first thing Monday. What a terrible tease to have the amp all ready to go, minus one tube. I will say it looks like a hell of a piece.


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I would suggest buying an extra tube or two for backup, for those times when the least expectation happens. :)
 
RITA comes biased from the factory. It is a self biasing amp. Although Ian show me how to manually bias it quite some time ago. I never had to bias mine all the time I owned it.
 
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My RITA arrived yesterday evening via UPS all in one piece. The UPS man was a beast - he was able to lift the 100 pound amp by himself and had it all the way up to chest-level. I unpacked it, connected the tubes and fired it up, only to find that the front left KT88 was the only tube not glowing. I shut down the amp and inspected the tube to find it was damaged inside. Consistent with her great customer service, Rachel from GF promised to have a replacement tube shipped out first thing Monday. What a terrible tease to have the amp all ready to go, minus one tube. I will say it looks like a hell of a piece.


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Any news on getting the new tube installed?
 
2496 - have you gotten the RITA? Have you had a listen yet? I'm waiting on the replacement tube and am hoping it arrives Monday or Tuesday.


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I have to wait longer than you Stew. I had to ship to a friends house because I was out of town and I'll be picking it up this Saturday. The only news I got was "Christ it's heavy!".

There's a good chance I'll be using the KEF Reference 201/2 to break in the RITA.

Q: These KEFs are supposed to be 8ohm nominal but fall as low as 4.2ohms. If I use the 8ohm taps would the RITA swing down to 4ohm for momentary bursts, or should I consider using the 4ohm taps (and what are the implications of that)?
 
I had my first listen to RITA last night and it sounded WONDERFUL! Unfortunately I am having some issues with a finicky power switch. The power does not stay engaged after pressing the power button. Have any of you had this issue? Any advice?

Once I resolve the power button issue I will post some observations of the sound.


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yikes, I read about that last week in this 2008 review.

I assumed that GF would have answered this, but since you encountered that with a brand new unit then it's likely I will also.

Before I plug the amp into the wall I'm going to practice with the switch, and maybe try my hand at improving it. Those rapid power cycles can't be good for the tubes.
 
Just a quick FYI for the New owners, The power switch issues as described in the 2008 review where supposed to be resolved. That would mean that the issue Stewbombs is experiencing is indeed another issue altogether. Neither myself not the 3 or so other RITA owners currently posting have this issue as far as I know.
 
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