[Fegefeuer]

I heard the Zana Deux in a special version and thought it was a excellent amp, among the best I heard in tonality and soundstage (the imaging). Just not as versatile as the v281 and lacking its grand soundstage and current hungry headphone satisfaction.

The Questyle is below both. By far to be honest.

All my listening was done with the HD800. You can tweak the sound slightly to your liking by adjusting gain settings. You have to try for yourself in the end though.

What's your DAC?

 

[novicez1]

@Fegefeuer

Im presuming the Questyle you are describing are the Questyle mono stack?

 

[Audioscope]

I heard the Zana Deux in a special version and thought it was a excellent amp, among the best I heard in tonality and soundstage (the imaging). Just not as versatile as the v281 and lacking its grand soundstage and current hungry headphone satisfaction.

The Questyle is below both. By far to be honest.

All my listening was done with the HD800. You can tweak the sound slightly to your liking by adjusting gain settings. You have to try for yourself in the end though.

What's your DAC?

 
The v281 has my attention for sure but I just don't understand why there are some less positive reviews of it
 
Currently I am using the Audiolab 8200CDQ as a DAC via USB from my PC.  I have no other comparisons in terms of the DAC.

 

[Mist3rLao]

Audioscope I think the "for $800 less" part is a dead giveaway that Marv was referring to the V200 on that. Also, I just asked Marv something that involved the V281 recently to which he said that the V281 is "pretty good" but find its strident nature a deal breaker for him. Although, he did state in his comment in the link you posted that he thinks this with most ss amp.

 

[Fegefeuer]

   
The v281 has my attention for sure but I just don't understand why there are some less positive reviews of it
 
Currently I am using the Audiolab 8200CDQ as a DAC via USB from my PC.  I have no other comparisons in terms of the DAC.

 
well, you get that with a lot of high end stuff, also with almost universally acclaimed hardware like the HD 800. 
 
Marv is very experienced and has a no BS attitude with hardware when it doesn't meet his standards (it wastes time and people's money), so he's pickier than 99% of others, also very price conscious in his suggestions (also one criteria he doesn't like about the V281). He prefers the HD 650 to the very best modded 800, cares less about soundstage in headphones than others (like me). So while I agree with the spot on tonality of the (modded) 650 I still prefer the HD 800 as I can't give up its staging, bass and detail, trading it for a brighter nature and less compatibility with my music collection. 

 

[sanjeewasam]

Here is some info that may interest you re volume levels, gain and balanced mode- from Fried Reim CEO Vio
 
Me:  ". I bought V281 mainly based on inner fidelity review and the comment on HD800 with V281. I am a fan of HD800 and is my favorite. I also have AKG K812 which I like, Focal Elear and Philips X2. I have sold LCD-2 and K712 and also Burson conductor.
 
Before V281 I was using V850-> Luxman P-200-> HD800 and I loved it very much. Before V850 arrived Chord Mojo-> Luxman-> HD800. I have to agree that V850-> Luxman-> HD800 was very good (smooth, laid back sound/relaxing and excellent sound stage and HD800 was tamed. However. it was thin and base was tight but not boomy). 
 
When I added V850->V281-> HD800 I realized that with factory dip settings I need to turn the volume higher than Luxman to get the same level of sound. Now the question is Luxman being 2W per channel at 32O with no gain switches seems to be louder compared to V281 (much much powerful per spec). Why is that I need to pump up more volume in V281? What are the suggested gain settings for Hd800, K812 and Elear?. I tried HD800 with +6 gain but I did not like what I was hearing that much.
 
I am still using HD800 single ended mode (both Luxman and V281) and when compared to Luxman I noted that Hd800 has more body (thinker), Slightly more impactful in base but smaller in sound stage with V281. Has anyone noted this? I am wondering if this is because HD800 when powered via V281 that has 40v swing in to 600O give HD800 enough W/V within the full range as such it becomes thicker sounding. So my guess is that the bigger sound stage of HD800 is partly created by illusion when thinner sounding? Any comments? "
 
Fried Reim
"The position of the volume knob has nothing to do with the power of an amp.
The position of the gas pedal of a car has nothing to do with the power or the speed of the car.
It is more a questions of circuit design.
We suggest to have the volume control round 12 ´clock for “normal” listening.
To achieve this we created the “Pre-Gain” to shift the gain of our amps according to the power of the source and the sensitivity of the headphones.
Amps without that feature have to take weak sources and low sensitivity headphones into account and so it will happen in the majority of cases that you have satisfying volumes at 9 o´clock position – what means that you have to face unlinearities from the volume control.

Again:
- Our amps offer much more output voltage swing than most competitors due to 60 V internal supply – what is good for high impedance headphones
- Our amps feature sensational low output impedance what is necessary for low impedance headphones
- Our amps offer the Pre-Gain feature to enable low gain when it is useful to achieve a black background noise and operating the volume control at reasonable positions.   
 
Anyway you should modify your HD 800 and Focal Elear to balanced mode to take advantage of the wider sound stage.
Unfortunately K812 cannot be modified, and I don´t know if it is possible with X2. "

 

[novicez1]

@sanjeewasam

You should be using the balanced output. I dont even go past 10 oclock on mine... and thats at -12db on the dip switches and +15db on my RS06.

 

[Fegefeuer]

frequency masking and tonality also take part in the illusion of soundstage, air etc.
 
 
Not going balanced with the V281 is a total waste. Go balanced for better soundstage, detail, kick/power/guts. 
Balanced is not per se better with amps but it is with this design. 

 

[project86]

  frequency masking and tonality also take part in the illusion of soundstage, air etc.
 
 
Not going balanced with the V281 is a total waste. Go balanced for better soundstage, detail, kick/power/guts. 
Balanced is not per se better with amps but it is with this design. 

 
 
This!

 

[13713]

  frequency masking and tonality also take part in the illusion of soundstage, air etc.
 
 
Not going balanced with the V281 is a total waste. Go balanced for better soundstage, detail, kick/power/guts. 
Balanced is not per se better with amps but it is with this design. 

This cannot be stated enough. Balanced out is the way to go for the 281. 

 

[Badas]

This is interesting about the V281 and the excellent Fried sent me a reply.
 
I ordered a few of these to extend my cable run. 4 meter lengths.
 
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Professional-Audeze-AKG-extension-cable-4-pin-XLR-M-to-4-pin-XLR-F-Van-Damme-/142206523760?var=&hash=item211c2b5970
 
and I had the overload fault occur. So I contacted Fried with this:
 
Hi Fried,

Amp is performing well. So nice sounding.

Can you tell me a bit more about that overloading fault?
I've had a few. Just 3 or so with many hours clocked on the amp (about 50).

I have changed things since we last talked tho. I have changed Audeze LCD-3
to the Ether Flow and I purchased a few of these at 4 meters long:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Professional-Audeze-AKG-extension-cable-4-pin-XLR-M-to-4-pin-XLR-F-Van-Damme-/142206523760?var=&hash=item211c2b5970

When I add two of these together in a chain then plug in the Ether Flow cable after an hour or so the
sound goes harsh then I get the overload fault.

If I just plug in one extension then the Ether Flow everything seems okay. That is what I'm doing now.

With the overload fault if I add too much cable is it hard (overloading) on the amp?

Regards

Dono
 
His response:
 
Hello Dono.
 
Long cable run will add large capacity load to the amp.
And I think in your case V281 cannot handle this large added capacity load and begins to oscillate.
Meaning, the amp itself will generate a high frequency (most times not audible) which leads to overload.
This cannot be avoided due to the circuit design !!  

We have made some long cables 5 – 10 m for special clients and tested them in house.
With these cables we did not face those overloads.
That means that the amp is reacting to this specific cable.
Using other cables it might work.
 
Best regards
 
Fried
 
So guys. Keep those cable lengths down. I'm tempted to get Violectric to make me a 5 meter cable.

 

[boomtube]

Curious...is there an amp that's fairly close to the v281 in it's ability to drive hungry HP's and sensitive IEM's?

 

[sahmen]

Curious...is there an amp that's fairly close to the v281 in it's ability to drive hungry HP's and sensitive IEM's?

The Ifi Pro ican?
 
 

 

[project86]

Yep, if there's one amp that matches the V281 in versatility, it's the Pro iCan. I still like my V281 more, but damn if I wasn't severely tempted to buy the iFi amp anyway. I recently sent back the review unit and I find myself missing it.... very solid amp. 

 

[zeissiez]

Yep, if there's one amp that matches the V281 in versatility, it's the Pro iCan. I still like my V281 more, but damn if I wasn't severely tempted to buy the iFi amp anyway. I recently sent back the review unit and I find myself missing it.... very solid amp. 

Hi John, how do u compare the V281 and the iCan Pro in soundstage width/depth, separation, imaging, detail retrieval and naturalness, particularly for the HE1000?

Thanks