Better bass control, better transient response and decay, slight increase in treble quantity, considerable increase in imaging and separation, of course, DAT soundstage.....at least on the V281.
SE isn't taking full advantage of the amplification power available in a balanced Violectric amp. For the V280/V281 specifically, only when using a balanced headphone cable will you have access to all 4 of the internal amplifiers simultaneously. This also means that a single ended headphone cable only allocates access to 2 of the 4 internal amplifiers. The rated power being output isn't equal between the two. A power hungry headphone will most definitely benefit from having more available even within the same amp! As for SE vs. XLR headphone outputs sounding different on the V280/V281, this is likely the cause.
I got an email from violectric usa maybe an hour ago that they're having a sale.
Must.. resist... yet another audio purchase during the 2016 calendar year. Is there a rehab I can check myself into? My poor wallet. x_x
V181 vs V280 vs V281. hmmm... leaning toward the V280, but I don't think I'll part ways with my V181 either.
Just unboxed mine so haven't had too long to listen. The one thing I noticed immediately was the slam and how robust the power supply is. I actually had to set the preamp to -6db and that's with the LCD-X. I had a RWA Audeze previously and while that drove the LCD-X OK I had to turn it up past 3 o'clock to get the neccesary volume. I think one thing that worked against that amp is that it has only single-ended inputs, thus lower gain from my DAC.
First (and very brief) thoughts after 2 days on break-in...
1) Very powerful, drives the LCD-X with authority
2) Music emerges from a black background, zero noise in between passages.
3)Fantastic bottom end, much better than the RWA Audeze amp.
4) A little harder upper midrange than I'm used to. Not a brightness and it doesn't extend up past 3k or so.
5) Soundstage not as wide as the RWA, at least not yet.
Caveats:
a) the amp only has 48 hrs of break-in.
b) I needed to use a new pair of interconnects to get it hooked up. I am familiar with the way they sound but they aren't broken in yet either. They are silver which ultimately might not work. I needed an XLR Y adapter and the one that was made for me uses the same silver cable the fabricator uses for his other XLR cables.
My guess is that the sound of the amp will smooth out a little bit but that I am ultimately going to have to find another interconnect solution.
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