[cangle]

Volot has a huge soundstage but not much bass with the Susvara. Oor, with the correct voltage set in hypsos, offers great bass and a holographic soundstage but it has a more intimate presentation. It was tough giving up on the soundstage of the Volot but I was missing the fun in music without the bass. I thinks it’s a good upgrade, if you are willing to part with that soundstage. And I think the Volot is also a little brighter compared with the oor.

Thanks for the comparison. I've been looking at speaker amps for susvara / higher end tube amps but oor seems like a great buy around 3k. I like the stage and imaging of the Volot, I agree that's it's stand out feature. I find the bass and slam to be enough but for susvara a little more wouldn't hurt, in my experience the Volot benefits from an hour warm up at least before it starts sounding it's best. I think the 1266 might pair better with Volot than Susvara but it also depends on the music you like.

I have the Formula S and Powerman which has stronger bass than Volot so might give that more of a try with Susvara to see if that helps with the low end. Other amps I'm looking into are WA23, WA33, Mogwai SE, Keces S300 + Preamp, and AHB2

 

[sahmen]

Thanks for the comparison. I've been looking at speaker amps for susvara / higher end tube amps but oor seems like a great buy around 3k. I like the stage and imaging of the Volot, I agree that's it's stand out feature. I find the bass and slam to be enough but for susvara a little more wouldn't hurt, in my experience the Volot benefits from an hour warm up at least before it starts sounding it's best. I think the 1266 might pair better with Volot than Susvara but it also depends on the music you like.

I have the Formula S and Powerman which has stronger bass than Volot so might give that more of a try with Susvara to see if that helps with the low end. Other amps I'm looking into are WA23, WA33, Mogwai SE, Keces S300 + Preamp, and AHB2

With the Keces S300, what preamp do you have in mind?

 

[cangle]

With the Keces S300, what preamp do you have in mind?

Not sure, that's something else I would have to figure out. But I've considered Freya + w/ tube upgrades, HPA4 / LA4, or a passive from khozmo or hattor

 

[dusty.ro]

Very stange how we hear differently, I had the iCan Pro Signature which some say sounds like oor and I vastly prefer Volot and find the bass excellent. I guess it all depends on system synergy and music taste as well.

Interesting. What power cables do you use? Do you use a distributer? Do you use something like a plixir or Niagara? Anything in your chain that could add more bass? What dac do you use? For me and my friends the Volot sounds bass light for the Susvara.

 

[dusty.ro]

Thanks for the comparison. I've been looking at speaker amps for susvara / higher end tube amps but oor seems like a great buy around 3k. I like the stage and imaging of the Volot, I agree that's it's stand out feature. I find the bass and slam to be enough but for susvara a little more wouldn't hurt, in my experience the Volot benefits from an hour warm up at least before it starts sounding it's best. I think the 1266 might pair better with Volot than Susvara but it also depends on the music you like.

I have the Formula S and Powerman which has stronger bass than Volot so might give that more of a try with Susvara to see if that helps with the low end. Other amps I'm looking into are WA23, WA33, Mogwai SE, Keces S300 + Preamp, and AHB2

I know someone who fried the drivers 2 times with power amps. Simply forgot to set the dac in pre mode. I learned from him to never do that. So I would caution against it. In my setup, any amp added more bass than Volot. The ican signature, the soloist GT and the oor. But the level of detail retrieval and sound stage is amazing on the Volot.

 

[cangle]

I know someone who fried the drivers 2 times with power amps. Simply forgot to set the dac in pre mode. I learned from him to never do that. So I would caution against it. In my setup, any amp added more bass than Volot. The ican signature, the soloist GT and the oor. But the level of detail retrieval and sound stage is amazing on the Volot.

That's definitely a concern with speaker amplification but my dac has no volume so I would need a preamplifier in my chain if I got a speaker amp. I feel like that reduces the chance I'd leave the volume at full or something similar but that being said I think I would prefer a normal headphone amplifier to upgrade to over a speaker amp.

 

[dusty.ro]

That's definitely a concern with speaker amplification but my dac has no volume so I would need a preamplifier in my chain if I got a speaker amp. I feel like that reduces the chance I'd leave the volume at full or something similar but that being said I think I would prefer a normal headphone amplifier to upgrade to over a speaker amp.

Yep, a preamp is the way to go.

 

[FiGuY1017]

Interesting. What power cables do you use? Do you use a distributer? Do you use something like a plixir or Niagara? Anything in your chain that could add more bass? What dac do you use? For me and my friends the Volot sounds bass light for the Susvara.

I use a VH audio Flavor 4 PC to Volot and a Venom 3 to my DAC a M2 Tech Young Mkiv VGMkII through a Topaz iso transformer (also aftermarket cable and Dekoni Fss pads) it definitely has plenty of bass for my music taste and maybe that's the difference I e personal preference, music etc I also enjoy more of a neautral sound with Susvara as it fits my music taste. I'll add I thought the iCan Pro Signature gave a bump in bass over Volot and Thr-1 but I love a huge stage and imaging over bass, so maybe that explains why I see it differently. Good for me I guess, as I don't have to continue shopping amps. I even preferred my Kinki Studio Thr-1 over iCan Pro sig , and that probably has more to do with my preferences and music taste. Acoustic, indie, Ten fe, Ryan Adams, Richard Ashcroft John Paul white, Caleb Caudle etc

 

[goldwerger]

Yep, a preamp is the way to go.

I have got a custom switch box built for me (by Zynsonix). I wanted to have 4 XLR and 4 RCA outs so I can choose various amps to output to, and since I'm mixing headphone amps and speaker power amp, all fed from a DAC with built-in amp which I would either bypass for line out (with headphone amp) or use (with power amp), I solved the risk of blow-your-driver/ears-off by installing an extra manual switch, with a red cover on top (like an emergency lever in a cockpit). So the only way I can use one of the XLR and one of the RCA outs would require me to lift that cover and turn on the respective switch on... which will be deliberate enough to require me to remember to change the volume setting on the DaC. I know this is highly specific, but sharing in case this workflow may be valuable to anyone:

 

[dusty.ro]

I have got a custom switch box built for me (by Zynsonix). I wanted to have 4 XLR and 4 RCA outs so I can choose various amps to output to, and since I'm mixing headphone amps and speaker power amp, all fed from a DAC with built-in amp which I would either bypass for line out (with headphone amp) or use (with power amp), I solved the risk of blow-your-driver/ears-off by installing an extra manual switch, with a red cover on top (like an emergency lever in a cockpit). So the only way I can use one of the XLR and one of the RCA outs would require me to lift that cover and turn on the respective switch on... which will be deliberate enough to require me to remember to change the volume setting on the DaC. I know this is highly specific, but sharing in case this workflow may be valuable to anyone:

That’s such an interesting solution. And it looks cool.

 

[goldwerger]

That’s such an interesting solution. And it looks cool.

Thanks.

I was trying to think from scratch how to solve it and figured getting a custom switch box would be the way. The only thing I was debating was adding a passive attenuation into the box (essentially making it a passive amplifier). That would have been the ultimate in workflow optionality, but I was afraid of getting the impedances off in a way that would impact the SQ (great article on this subject: http://mclements.net/blogWP/index.php/2020/01/31/passive-attenuators/). In retrospect I’d have done it and added another switch to control bypass of the attenuation.. well, maybe the next one

 

[damascato]

Got mine today and… wow!!

 

[ZzZzZzZ]

Has anyone here used any EC Designs dac with susvara ?

 

[dcguy73]

So how does the Keces S300 compare with the Pathos inPol Ear in driving both the LCD-5 and the Susvara?

I’ll try this comparison and get back to you. The Keces is temporarily offline due to some technical difficulties (not related to the amp).

 

[hke3g2006]

I am now using 23r but still feel Susvara relatively bass light when comparing with 1266…and it sometime sound thin when listen to pop music….