Video Review: ZED Audio RA

[edouble101 314]

Here is my review of the ZED Audio RA. Not the most technical but should give you and idea of it's function and performance.

Pics of RA, amp and sub.

[edouble101 314]

Anybody else that has the RA can add their review here as well.

[Aaron Clinton 2,372]

Thanks for posting the review.

[ssh 924]

How does it effect the sound? Basically I'm asking why use it?

[edouble101 314]

Thanks for posting the review.

I hope it is helpful.

How does it effect the sound? Basically I'm asking why use it?

The RA affects the input signal by adding to the frequencies center at 45 and 32 hertz.

The amount of signal added and level of the signal is adjustable.

Zed Audio calls it a sub woofer control preamplifier.

You would use it to "exaggerate" the sub bass input signal. Basically to put more bass in music.

[ssh 924]

Thanks for posting the review.

I hope it is helpful.

How does it effect the sound? Basically I'm asking why use it?

The RA affects the input signal by adding to the frequencies center at 45 and 32 hertz.

The amount of signal added and level of the signal is adjustable.

Zed Audio calls it a sub woofer control preamplifier.

You would use it to "exaggerate" the sub bass input signal. Basically to put more bass in music.

So it's basically just an EQ with two points to boost around.

[Impious 1,476]

Thanks for posting the review.

I hope it is helpful.

How does it effect the sound? Basically I'm asking why use it?

The RA affects the input signal by adding to the frequencies center at 45 and 32 hertz.

The amount of signal added and level of the signal is adjustable.

Zed Audio calls it a sub woofer control preamplifier.

You would use it to "exaggerate" the sub bass input signal. Basically to put more bass in music.

So it's basically just an EQ with two points to boost around.

No, it's more like an Epicenter with two center points instead of one. The RA uses a similar idea to add "synthetic" bass to the music. The Epicenter used 1 center frequency, this offers two center frequencies.

[cobra93 47]

Very nice review, thanks.

Have you brought the problem with the knobs to their attention, possibly exchanging the unit?

Very nice stealth install, the fake radio was implemented quite well.

[edouble101 314]

Thanks for posting the review.

I hope it is helpful.

How does it effect the sound? Basically I'm asking why use it?

The RA affects the input signal by adding to the frequencies center at 45 and 32 hertz.

The amount of signal added and level of the signal is adjustable.

Zed Audio calls it a sub woofer control preamplifier.

You would use it to "exaggerate" the sub bass input signal. Basically to put more bass in music.

So it's basically just an EQ with two points to boost around.

The RA is much more than an equalizer. The manual explains the sub-harmonic synthesizer much better than I can. Here is a direct quote from the manual.

"Once the signal leaves the low pass crossover it is routed to the Sub Harmonic

Synthesizer. I bet that most have never heard of such a device but they are common in

pro audio and have been made for car audio however in much simpler forms. The basic

principle is to take a band of frequencies and synthesize them down to half their original

frequency (one octave down). We have taken this one step further. The signal is fed into

two separate filters, each tuned to a different frequency and these are individually

synthesized and then via two level controls and a master level, the synthesized signals

are mixed back with the original signal.

The two level controls at 32Hz and 45Hz may be set to suit the taste of the listener and

then the master level sets the amount of synthesized signal mixed into the main signal

path. The effects of this are truly amazing."

Very nice review, thanks.

Have you brought the problem with the knobs to their attention, possibly exchanging the unit?

Very nice stealth install, the fake radio was implemented quite well.

I did not contact Zed Audio about this issue. Sometimes small manufacturing imperfections like this are not worth the hassle to have repaired imo.

[3stagevtec 2]

I just got me one of these and my 1st impression was slightly disappointing. I did notice the same problem mentioned before with the alignment of the potentiometer knobs and the face plate. The faceplate was not properly centered at first, so I slackened the two Allen nuts on both sides of the plate and repositioned it. That allowed all the knobs to rotate freely with no resistance.

The 2nd problem I found was the knobs themselves are not perfectly made. When you turn them, you can see a wobble in the movement.. similar to having a bent rim on your car. They also stick out at different heights from the faceplate, which looks unprofessional.

I do like the general look of the unit through. It is much smaller than I originally thought, the unit itself is 4.25" across while the faceplate is 4.75". The faceplate has a nice thick beefy look to it and the print for the controls looks very clean. The RCA connectors at back looks 'high end'.

When I get it hooked up, i'll give my personal view on how it sounds..

Edited October 12, 2011 by 3stagevtec

[Kanaworm$ 292]

[edouble101 314]

I just got me one of these and my 1st impression was slightly disappointing. I did notice the same problem mentioned before with the alignment of the potentiometer knobs and the face plate. The faceplate was not properly centered at first, so I slackened the two Allen nuts on both sides of the plate and repositioned it. That allowed all the knobs to rotate freely with no resistance.

The 2nd problem I found was the knobs themselves are not perfectly made. When you turn them, you can see a wobble in the movement.. similar to having a bent rim on your car. They also stick out at different heights from the faceplate, which looks unprofessional.

I do like the general look of the unit through. It is much smaller than I originally thought, the unit itself is 4.25" across while the faceplate is 4.75". The faceplate has a nice thick beefy look to it and the print for the controls looks very clean. The RCA connectors at back looks 'high end'.

When I get it hooked up, i'll give my personal view on how it sounds..

I am glad to see that somebody else is posting a review of this product.

[Aaron Clinton 2,372]

Shot an email to ZED about two people now having a face plate alignment issue.

[3stagevtec 2]

Here's the rest of my review..

- The line drive was not as powerful as I had hoped. I prefer to keep the gains on my amplifiers at a minimum and feed them with a strong signal (since that helps with keeping noise to a minimum), but I still needed to raise the gain slightly on my sub amplifier for the bass to match my front stage. I currently have an Audiocontrol Overdrive on my front stage and that is a far more powerful line driver. (I'm not saying the RA has weak line drive, it's just not as strong as the Overdrive I used for comparison..)

-The Compressor feature works pretty good. It kicks in on peaks in the bass and attenuates those peaks according to the Threshold settings. It can be set up in such a way to protect your subwoofer from over excursion when pushing your system to the limit.

- The Sub Harmonic Synthesizer is really only for the bass heads out there. For those who appreciate SQ, this is not for you. When I raised the 45Hz band and fed in the SHS volume, I got noticeable unnatural bass being produced. This unnatural bass was noticed with most music I tried. The 32Hz band works alot better IMO and does not have such a pronounced unnatural sound to it. With the 32Hz activated only, the deeper bass notes got extended lower, giving a cool rumble with an almost natural sound! (I only tested the 32Hz band on 80's pop / rock music. Did not try it on any bass heavy material)

The RA has some nice features some would require in a sub amplifier line driver, but it's not for everyone. The build quality issues make it a hard recommendation, especially for a product in that price range.

[freshkryp69 0]

I bought the new V2 version of the Zed Audio RA... It's full din size now. Has more functions, new face plate and knob's plus it has 3 more knob's for adjustment now, the face plate does not hit the knobs now. The line driver has plenty of power, my gains were set to minimum! Opening it up I see some high grade components.. All the bug's have been worked out according to Zed. Ive only installed on the bench just to get familiar with it.. It doe's everything Zed says it doe's now! It can really help tailor the sub's sound to just about any system I would think.. Ill come back and edit in a review when I get it installed.

[ou812 16]

Did he ad a subsonic filter?

[edouble101 314]

I bought the new V2 version of the Zed Audio RA... It's full din size now. Has more functions, new face plate and knob's plus it has 3 more knob's for adjustment now, the face plate does not hit the knobs now. The line driver has plenty of power, my gains were set to minimum! Opening it up I see some high grade components.. All the bug's have been worked out according to Zed. Ive only installed on the bench just to get familiar with it.. It doe's everything Zed says it doe's now! It can really help tailor the sub's sound to just about any system I would think.. Ill come back and edit in a review when I get it installed.

Will you post pics of the V2? The website shows the version I had.