[ken6217]

I was interested in these headphone amps. Will be paired with Hifiman HE-560 or 1000's.
 
Has anyone heard both of these amps and care to share their opinions?
 
Thanks,
Ken

 

[NA Blur]

I found the HE-1000 from the Violectric V281 to be a bit boomy and too up-front sounding for my taste. I will say that with the HD800 the V281 was my preferred amp.
 
That said, I did enjoy the HE-1000 with the Eddie Current Black Widow which is $1000 cheaper than the V281 and has a 4-pin balanced out if you are into that sort of thing.
 
I have not heard the Auralic Taurus MKII so hopefully someone else will chime in in that regard, but the Black Widow is one heck of an amp and if I did not already have a BUDA I would be looking into it as my next upgrade.

 

[Gray]

  I was interested in these headphone amps. Will be paired with Hifiman HE-560 or 1000's.
 
Has anyone heard both of these amps and care to share their opinions?
 
Thanks,
Ken

If you are still interested I have just posted a review of the HE1000's and Violectric V281,having just replaced my Taurus mk2 amp with the German amp. Its on the Official HIFIMAN HE1000 impressions thread. Only posted it today. 
The main conclusion of my review is that the Violectric is a superior amp and has sonic benefits that the Taurus lacks. Its presentation is simply more powerful and smoother, whereas the Taurus could sometimes get a little muddled in complex passages of music....Had a tendency to be a little bright in the treble as well with certain music.
Unlike the other commenter I have not detected any Boomy upfront sound at all when driving the HE1000's. Its an awesome combination believe me.

 

[ken6217]

 
If you are still interested I have just posted a review of the HE1000's and Violectric V281,having just replaced my Taurus mk2 amp with the German amp. Its on the Official HIFIMAN HE1000 impressions thread. Only posted it today. 
The main conclusion of my review is that the Violectric is a superior amp and has sonic benefits that the Taurus lacks. Its presentation is simply more powerful and smoother, whereas the Taurus could sometimes get a little muddled in complex passages of music....Had a tendency to be a little bright in the treble as well with certain music.
Unlike the other commenter I have not detected any Boomy upfront sound at all when driving the HE1000's. Its an awesome combination believe me.

Thanks. I'll take a look.
Ken

 

[NA Blur]

  I found the HE-1000 from the Violectric V281 to be a bit boomy and too up-front sounding for my taste. I will say that with the HD800 the V281 was my preferred amp.
 
That said, I did enjoy the HE-1000 with the Eddie Current Black Widow which is $1000 cheaper than the V281 and has a 4-pin balanced out if you are into that sort of thing.
 
I have not heard the Auralic Taurus MKII so hopefully someone else will chime in in that regard, but the Black Widow is one heck of an amp and if I did not already have a BUDA I would be looking into it as my next upgrade.

I should also note that I used the singed ended output from the V281 because the balanced output sounded distorted on the unit I was testing.

 

[tunes]

Has anyone compared the HEK with V281 versus Schiit JOT??

 

[Asteron70]

At the risk of reviving an old, dead thread...

I stumbled into this forum as I am trying to sell my v281 and seeing what people thought of the amp. I don't think it's possible to beat the v281 if you're after a solid state headphone amp.
In my experience of owning it for 12 months, I found that it blew all the other SS amps I ever heard out of the water - particularly in balanced mode. It would crush the Schiit JOT - and also the Auralic Taurus Mk II.
The v281 (with the upgraded RELAY volume stepper) is to my ears also superior to the GSX Mk2, which I found to be a little too bright. YMMV.