[sahmen]

This is too much i think, but discount for exitsting clients would be nice

I'm sure people will take whatever break they can get : discounts, trade-ups, B-stock sales, and/or whatever Fried might feel generous enough and able to serve up

 

[Fegefeuer]

Sell your V281 and half of your headphones and you're almost there.

 

[sahmen]

Lol! Yeah "almost", indeed

Actually, i do find that approach tempting, except that, I am currently also dreaming of a Metrum Pavane level 3 DAC, and if I should sell my v281 and half of my cans so that I can "almost" get the Nimbus, I might find myself having to sell the remainder of my cans and the Nimbus, in order to get the Pavane, at which point I may have no cans or amps left to go with the Pavane, and wouldn't just that be a "pickle" of a situation to find oneself in?

Seriously though, as much as I find the Nimbus to be tempting, I think I am going to have to sit on the sidelines as a distant admirer, for now, until something changes... I do not know how long that would take, at this time

 

[llamaluv]

I'm shopping around for something to drive the Susvaras, so now I'm thinking about the Niimbus. But have a couple questions...

Is the US4 amp class A?

Are gain settings really only changeable by using the DIP switches on the back? If so, for anyone who's used the amp in practice, did you find this to be a major impediment to usability when switching between various headphones?

 

[TSAVJason]

I'm shopping around for something to drive the Susvaras, so now I'm thinking about the Niimbus. But have a couple questions...

Is the US4 amp class A?

Are gain settings really only changeable by using the DIP switches on the back? If so, for anyone who's used the amp in practice, did you find this to be a major impediment to usability when switching between various headphones?

We haven’t had one to play with yet. We’re still trying to find out when they arrive but also trying to expedite the pre-orders too.

 

[fdg]

@llamaluv

About dip-switches on the back.
There are tons of items in the market not offering any gain adaption via dip-switches or by other measures.
So a reasonable question to all other manufacturers would be: "Why don´t you employ such on your gear."
Instead you are asking the guys who offer a really outstanding gain adaption of nearly 40 dB (= factor 100) why these dip switches are situated on the back.
Well, there are two reasons:
1. For our opinion those dip-switches are not looking good on the front panel
2. The dip-switches are an aditional measure to optimize the amp.
You will have 98 % of the performance without touching the dip-switches.

About Class-A
Up to a specific output current all our V200 technology based amps, V200, V220, V280, V281, US 4, US 4+ will operate in Class-A.
Class-A was invented to reduce distortions of early semiconductor circuitry.
This is 60 years ago and the industry was busy to develop new and much better semiconductors in the meantime.
Nowadays, when there is (nearly) no distortion on well designed gear there is no need for pure Class-A.

Thank you, Fried

 

[fdg]

We are proud to annouce that our amps Niimbus US 4 and Niimbus US 4+ are finally ready.
The first series had been shipped to our general distributor www.cma.audio
The delays had been caused by the guys machining the front panels who shocked us with 14 weeks delivery time ...
The first exhibition where the new amps had been on display was the "DEUTSCHE HIFI TAGE 2018" November 3rd + 4th in Darmstadt, Germany.
The second exhibition is the upcoming "Audiovista 2018" in Krefeld, Germany, November 24th + 25th.

Thank you, Fried Reim

 

[Fegefeuer]

I don't see the point in having DIP switches at the front for "usability" with an amp of such power. There's a very low probability of such a use case to happen a lot during usage to justify such a design.

My V281 is set to -14db (aka the lowest input gain) and it never goes beyond 12 or 1'o clock with the HD-800 for 90% of my music which goes through almost all genres, except J/K-Pop, Turkish, Arabic, Botswanaen Dubstep or Islamic State War Chants.
Neither does this change when switching to the LCD-2 Classic, HE-500, K7XX, MA900 or other headphones I listened to with it.

Maybe if you alternate between the HE-6 and one of the above you might consider going to +0dB, but I don't have any experience with that. Even then it's fine as the volume controls are extremely clean with very low channel imbalance at low volumes, so your less sensitive headphone
doesn't suffer because of the HE-6.

Plus you can still go overboard and move towards +12db

 

[llamaluv]

Okay, thanks for the counter-arguments.

I like to switch off frequently between something sensitive like the Utopia and then the Susvara, which is why I'm asking about gain controls.

I look forward to getting a chance to audition the amp.

 

[ken6217]

I

I don't see the point in having DIP switches at the front for "usability" with an amp of such power. There's a very low probability of such a use case to happen a lot during usage to justify such a design.

My V281 is set to -14db (aka the lowest input gain) and it never goes beyond 12 or 1'o clock with the HD-800 for 90% of my music which goes through almost all genres, except J/K-Pop, Turkish, Arabic, Botswanaen Dubstep or Islamic State War Chants.
Neither does this change when switching to the LCD-2 Classic, HE-500, K7XX, MA900 or other headphones I listened to with it.

Maybe if you alternate between the HE-6 and one of the above you might consider going to +0dB, but I don't have any experience with that. Even then it's fine as the volume controls are extremely clean with very low channel imbalance at low volumes, so your less sensitive headphone
doesn't suffer because of the HE-6.

Plus you can still go overboard and move towards +12db

I agree. Anyone that already has a Violectric V281 knows that you set the switch when you first get the amp, and then you don’t touch the switches again. There’s no need.

 

[Malcolm Riverside]

If the Niimbus is anything like the V281 those dip switches will be gathering dust for the life of the amp, though I am getting an HE-6se in soon and that might have to change! Otherwise the volume is comfortably between 9-1 with every headphone I’ve thrown at it, from the LCD-X to the HD800S. And at least Violectric puts their switches on the back, I had a Phonitor 2 for a while and it’s dip switches were on the underside of the amp

 

[Fegefeuer]

Cool. Curious to hear your impressions of the HE6-SE on the V281.

Anyway, if I had a Niimbus I'd instantly move towards the lowest gain and start my listening there. The factors are even nicer this time: -15 / -12 / -6 / 0 / +6 / +12 / +18 / +24 dB
Also, 7W@50 Ohm. Hello HE-6SE.

 

[jlbrach]

I don't see the point in having DIP switches at the front for "usability" with an amp of such power. There's a very low probability of such a use case to happen a lot during usage to justify such a design.

My V281 is set to -14db (aka the lowest input gain) and it never goes beyond 12 or 1'o clock with the HD-800 for 90% of my music which goes through almost all genres, except J/K-Pop, Turkish, Arabic, Botswanaen Dubstep or Islamic State War Chants.
Neither does this change when switching to the LCD-2 Classic, HE-500, K7XX, MA900 or other headphones I listened to with it.

Maybe if you alternate between the HE-6 and one of the above you might consider going to +0dB, but I don't have any experience with that. Even then it's fine as the volume controls are extremely clean with very low channel imbalance at low volumes, so your less sensitive headphone
doesn't suffer because of the HE-6.

Plus you can still go overboard and move towards +12db

I have the susvara and i use it with the 281 and can easily and comfortably use the -12 setting which enables the volume knob to be between 10-2 most of the time......

 

[TSAVJason]

I have the susvara and i use it with the 281 and can easily and comfortably use the -12 setting which enables the volume knob to be between 10-2 most of the time......

That’s interesting! I’ll have to give that a try today

 

[jlbrach]

many times it depends on the source...i am using roon nucleus with dave/blu2.....others using different sources report different volumes etc..the 281 is a really fine amp