[sahmen]

Sadly i don’t have the fa10 anymore, so comparing specifics might be difficult but having spent a 5 weeks with it and the fa12 I should be able to comment more generally and from a technical, if not tonal stand point there are a lot of similarities between the 10 and 12.

@sahmen i am interested to hear how the 10 & 12 compare the v281, particular in the midrange from a detail point of view, do you have any comparative impressions you can share on this? For example while I still found overall that I preferred both fcn and fa12, the questyle cma800r was more resolving in the mids.

My pre and maybe miss-conception is that the violectric will be more neutral and uncoloured than both the flux’s, a more nuanced version of the a90, which you too I believe.

Personally I’m not to concerned about the power of the amp, as I’m back listening pretty much 100% via the stellias. That said while they are easy to drive they scale wonderfully with better amplification, in fact better anything in the chain in front of them, so much so I’ve yet to find their limits. They sound great with the fa10 and 12, but they do also sound lovely with good clean power and I’m keen to find out whether I’m hearing the full potential and the true uncoloured characteristics of the Venus2 dac. I suspect I’m not and that the v281 might not be on a par either.

Sorry not quite sure what my point is here, it’s been a long day, but yes I’ll report back as soon as I have something useful to share

Well noted, although at the moment, the FA-10 is away to get its caps modded, so I shall have to get back to you on this question when the unit is back here. At that point though, I shall be comparing that modded version with the V281, and that should be taken into account in weighing my impressions because the modding tends to elevate the
FA-10's detail retrieving powers, among other alterations, according to @Slim1970 . I wish I could recall enough of the sound of the unmodded FA-10 to do a fair comparison with the V281 now, but i do not think that comparison would be reliable of fair, giving all the limitations of audio memory. With that said, I can still do a comparison of the stock V281 and A90 against each other, and also against the FA-10 when it comes back, and I am hoping that would still be useful to you

 

[tholt]

Well noted, although at the moment, the FA-10 is away to get its caps modded, so I shall have to get back to you on this question when the unit is back here. At that point though, I shall be comparing that modded version with the V281, and that should be taken into account in weighing my impressions because the modding tends to elevate the
FA-10's detail retrieving powers, among other alterations, according to @Slim1970 . I wish I could recall enough of the sound of the unmodded FA-10 to do a fair comparison with the V281 now, but i do not think that comparison would be reliable of fair, giving all the limitations of audio memory. With that said, I can still do a comparison of the stock V281 and A90 against each other, and also against the FA-10 when it comes back, and I am hoping that would still be useful to you

Are you doing the same mod as @Slim1970 ?

 

[Slim1970]

Agreed on all counts. Btw, regarding the question you asked about item #2, or what one might call the more apparent "versatile matchability" of the V281 with multiple headphones, and even iems, or with a wider range of varying efficiencies and impedances, one related feature I forgot to mention was its manually adjustable "pre-gain" settings, which lends themselves well to accommodating those differences and variables where needed. I typically do not use that function, as the unity gain setting is usually enough for all my needs, which is why I forgot to mention it in my answer. I have updated that answer now, but I won't change anything I have said about the FA-10, at least not until I have received my modded unit back

Nice, I really considered the V281 FE before getting the FA-10. It is the more flexible amp by a long shot. As far as pure amplification goes the FA-10 is a very strong suitor. I can’t wait to hear your thoughts on the mod. I’m really loving the open, airy treble response that’s been gained/added to sound. The FA-10 sounds so, so detailed and imaging is outstanding.

Before the mod, I slightly preferred the RME Pro with the FA-10. After the mods, the FA-10‘s transparency levels have been greatly improved. All the strengths and good things you hear about the TT2/HMS combo are clearly on display. So much so, that I’m really thinking about selling the RME pro. The TT2 is just leagues above it sound quality wise regardless of the feature set on the RME. With that said, I’m happy to report that the modded FA-10 let’s you hear those differences now. This is how good it has become.

 

[sahmen]

Are you doing the same mod as @Slim1970 ?

Yes, that is correct: The very same mod, as far as I know.

 

[Slim1970]

I've been doing some comparisons with my new Soloist and FA-10. The Soloist is naturally detailed, even more so than my modded FA-10. It’s the Soloist only advantage over the FA-10. I really like the Soloists clean, fast, dynamic, transparent presentation. It also has a nice, impactful sub bass. What’s missing from the Soloist sound is midrange presence and some musicality.

On headphones like my Audio-Technica ATH-AWKT's, which are borderline neutral, the Soloist makes them sound somewhat thin and bright. Even my new HE6se V2's sound bright on it. Surprisingly, the Soloist sounds fantastic with my Susvara's and TC's. That's something I wasn't expecting at all.

I might try the V6 Classics to infuse some musicality back into the Soloist. As of right now, the Soloist definitely falls into the neutral camp of headphone amps. It's a trend I'm not liking. In comparison, the FA-10 is fuller sounding, with a meatier midrange, and has a more weighted sound. I just love how it fills out my headphones with class A sound. The mod definitely improves the FA-10’s technicalities. Giving its sound a performance boost in soundstage, spatial cues, details and resolution. But it still falls short in detail retrieval compared to the Soloist.

The FA-10 is still my favorite amp to date. If this trend towards “neutrality” continues then it will also be a mainstay in my collection for some time to come.

 

[NickT23]

I've been doing some comparisons with my new Soloist and FA-10. The Soloist is naturally detailed, even more so than my modded FA-10. It’s the Soloist only advantage over the FA-10. I really like the Soloists clean, fast, dynamic, transparent presentation. It also has a nice, impactful sub bass. What’s missing from the Soloist sound is midrange presence and some musicality.

On headphones like my Audio-Technica ATH-AWKT's, which are borderline neutral, the Soloist makes them sound somewhat thin and bright. Even my new HE6se V2's sound bright on it. Surprisingly, the Soloist sounds fantastic with my Susvara's and TC's. That's something I wasn't expecting at all.

I might try the V6 Classics to infuse some musicality back into the Soloist. As of right now, the Soloist definitely falls into the neutral camp of headphone amps. It's a trend I'm not liking. In comparison, the FA-10 is fuller sounding, with a meatier midrange, and has a more weighted sound. I just love how it fills out my headphones with class A sound. The mod definitely improves the FA-10’s technicalities. Giving its sound a performance boost in soundstage, spatial cues, details and resolution. But it still falls short in detail retrieval compared to the Soloist.

The FA-10 is still my favorite amp to date. If this trend towards “neutrality” continues then it will also be a mainstay in my collection for some time to come.

Hello, is the Soloists nuetral Class A amp ? Is this the one you are referring, https://www.bursonaudio.com/products/soloist-3x-performance/ ?
Sorry, am not very familiar with it, willing to learn about it.

 

[manishex]

Hello, is the Soloists nuetral Class A amp ? Is this the one you are referring, https://www.bursonaudio.com/products/soloist-3x-performance/ ?
Sorry, am not very familiar with it, willing to learn about it.

Yep that's the one. Burson house sound has always been rich and musical but the newest iteration tries to be more neutral. They've changed their design philosophy from large transformers and caps to small caps + DC (24V) which maybe have caused this shift.

 

[NickT23]

Yep that's the one. Burson house sound has always been rich and musical but the newest iteration tries to be more neutral. They've changed their design philosophy from large transformers and caps to small caps + DC (24V) which maybe have caused this shift.

Interesting but is it Class A topology ?

 

[manishex]

Interesting but is it Class A topology ?

Yep it's Class A, fully discrete with the ability to swap op amps. They give you 4x Burson vivid v6 discrete op amps which is about 200 dollars worth. You can also get the burson conductor 3(x) reference which is an amp/dac but at a higher price point.
Note that slim also has the sparkos op amps ss3602 which are technically superior.

Just found an interesting read on class A amps: https://www.passlabs.com/technical_article/leaving-class-a/

 

[NickT23]

Yep it's Class A, fully discrete with the ability to swap op amps. They give you 4x Burson vivid v6 discrete op amps which is about 200 dollars worth. You can also get the burson conductor 3(x) reference which is an amp/dac but at a higher price point.

Just found an interesting read on class A amps: https://www.passlabs.com/technical_article/leaving-class-a/

Thanks but too technical for me to understand. Am only specialize in audio and A/B

 

[SQ13]

Just had quick listen after 15hr burn in. Soloist is neutral, clean, fast, dynamic and transparent. Will give it some more time before I buy some Sparkos or add a tube buffer to tune to my preference. For less than USD1k (after BF discount), it’s a decent amp given the build quality and sound.

sorry, this is a Flux Lab thread, let’s focus on the FA discussion.

 

[Slim1970]

Just had quick listen after 15hr burn in. Soloist is neutral, clean, fast, dynamic and transparent. Will give it some more time before I buy some Sparkos or add a tube buffer to tune to my preference. For less than USD1k (after BF discount), it’s a decent amp given the build quality and sound.

Yep, that’s how I hear it too. It‘s almost at the opposite end of the sound spectrum compared to the FA-10.

 

[rmsanger]

I've been doing some comparisons with my new Soloist and FA-10. The Soloist is naturally detailed, even more so than my modded FA-10. It’s the Soloist only advantage over the FA-10. I really like the Soloists clean, fast, dynamic, transparent presentation. It also has a nice, impactful sub bass. What’s missing from the Soloist sound is midrange presence and some musicality.

On headphones like my Audio-Technica ATH-AWKT's, which are borderline neutral, the Soloist makes them sound somewhat thin and bright. Even my new HE6se V2's sound bright on it. Surprisingly, the Soloist sounds fantastic with my Susvara's and TC's. That's something I wasn't expecting at all.

I might try the V6 Classics to infuse some musicality back into the Soloist. As of right now, the Soloist definitely falls into the neutral camp of headphone amps. It's a trend I'm not liking. In comparison, the FA-10 is fuller sounding, with a meatier midrange, and has a more weighted sound. I just love how it fills out my headphones with class A sound. The mod definitely improves the FA-10’s technicalities. Giving its sound a performance boost in soundstage, spatial cues, details and resolution. But it still falls short in detail retrieval compared to the Soloist.

The FA-10 is still my favorite amp to date. If this trend towards “neutrality” continues then it will also be a mainstay in my collection for some time to come.

I'm not surprised that the Soloist sounds more clean than the FA-10 given the Burson house sound profile and it being a "fully balanced" config. Many people say the Soloist 3XP has a better amp section than the Conductor 3XR so that is quite impressive.

Regarding the synergy with the Susvara and TCs would you say its a better pairing than the FA-10? Do the TCs lack musicality/impact with the Soloist compared with the FA-10? The biggest issue I've had with my TCs is amp pairing and finding something with a good synergy; I've tried 6-7 amps and they have all fallen short (A90, Lyr, Phonitor, V281, Liquid Platinum, Holo Mammoth, SP200).

 

[Slim1970]

I can agree that the Soloist has a better amp section than the Conductor 3XR I had. It has a better low end as well. It’s nice and punchy. The lack of midrange is troublesome to me at the moment. I really hope the midrange opens up with more burn-in. Then I think it’ll be on par with amps costing a lot more.

As far as synergy goes with the Susvara and TC’s, the Soloist is not bad. I like it better than some of the amps I’ve heard them on. It doesn’t have the raw power or drive of the FA-10, but it‘s very good at detail extraction. I like how the Soloist enhances the Susvara’s and TC’s low end, resolution, maintains their wide and deep soundstage and pinpoint imaging. All of which sounds like very good things, but something is missing from the Soloist sound that makes the FA-10 a much more enjoyable listen. I haven’t quite figured it out yet, but more listening is needed.

The modded FA-10 hits a bit harder, and has gained a much better sense of soundstage depth and width that is missing in stock form. It doesn’t give up much to Soloist’s resolute sound but if I’m being honest it doesn’t quite reach Soloist technical ability either. The midrange presence of the FA-10 goes a long way to adding body to both headphones. Whereas the Soloist just gets out of the way.

This could be a good thing in a sense. Having an amp that just amplifies a signal without adding a sound of it’s own is worth owning. But I find that these types of amps tend to work better with warmer sounding headphones. That kind of sound also gets boring over time. Listening to poorly recorded music on a neutral amp will have looking for a different sound signature in hurry . I’ve been down that path already. In fact, this is what lead me to Flux Labs. To me, the FA-10 is a better pairing with a wider variety of headphones because of its musicality and the mod improves it technically. It’s what I enjoy my Susvara’s and TC’s on the most.

 

[rmsanger]

As far as synergy goes with the Susvara and TC’s, the Soloist is not bad. I like it better than some of the amps I’ve heard them on. It doesn’t have the raw power or drive of the FA-10, but it‘s very good at detail extraction. I like how the Soloist enhances the Susvara’s and TC’s low end, resolution, maintains their wide and deep soundstage and pinpoint imaging. All of which sounds like very good things, but something is missing from the Soloist sound that makes the FA-10 a much more enjoyable listen. I haven’t quite figured it out yet, but more listening is needed.

The modded FA-10 hits a bit harder, and has gained a much better sense of soundstage depth and width that is missing in stock form. It doesn’t give up much to Soloist’s resolute sound but if I’m being honest it doesn’t quite reach Soloist technical ability either. The midrange presence of the FA-10 goes a long way to adding body to both headphones. Whereas the Soloist just gets out of the way.

Yeah the lack of mids is a bit puzzling at first glance but one probably needs 100-200 hours of burn in to get a full picture plus it likely needs to be warmed up for quite some time. I would also think the rolling of op-amps will be a significant change to the signature to possibly make it a bit more linear than the V curve you describe.

I'll be stalking the classified section for one in the new year! Good luck and happy listening...