[Pharmaboy]

It's odd, most people seem to be running their Violas at -12 dB. We better hope Fried doesn't read the posts and start shipping low power amps for girly-men

I must be a girly man--one of my favorite amps is low power (M Stage Matrix HPA-1).

I suspect the reason that many run their V281s at reduced gain is due to 2 factors:

• There seem to be more relatively efficient, high sensitivity headphones out there. You can readily see this (for example) in the high-end offerings from Audeze, Hifiman, Final, Meze, etc.
• I also suspect that more DACs are departing from the nominal output voltage of 2V that used to be standard. It would be very hard to prove this, admittedly. But reading DAC specs, I come across higher-than-usual outputs fairly often.

 

[gimmeheadroom]

I think you're right, the standard for lineout voltage seems to be changing. But I think some amps really sound better when driven harder. When I got my junior R2R DAC recently I noticed it didn't sound nearly as good through a headamp I was using before with a Chord Mojo running plugged in. And I realized it's because lineout mode on the Mojo is pretty hot. When I cranked up the R2R's output, the sound filled out, the bass came back, and it sounded like it wasn't 2nd to the Mojo anymore.

This and some other things I observed recently make me convinced driving amps hard is a good thing for sound quality. But there are some pieces of hifi gear that come from pro audio companies that probably push things more than expected and maybe one unintended consequence is that running headphones at the end of the chain can be challenging as far as range of volume control goes.

 

[Pharmaboy]

I think you're right, the standard for lineout voltage seems to be changing. But I think some amps really sound better when driven harder. When I got my junior R2R DAC recently I noticed it didn't sound nearly as good through a headamp I was using before with a Chord Mojo running plugged in. And I realized it's because lineout mode on the Mojo is pretty hot. When I cranked up the R2R's output, the sound filled out, the bass came back, and it sounded like it wasn't 2nd to the Mojo anymore.

This and some other things I observed recently make me convinced driving amps hard is a good thing for sound quality. But there are some pieces of hifi gear that come from pro audio companies that probably push things more than expected and maybe one unintended consequence is that running headphones at the end of the chain can be challenging as far as range of volume control goes.

Did that R2R have a volume pot? If not, how did you crank up its output?

Your R2R story has me wondering whether you proved that amps need to be driven harder; or whether one particular amps needs to be driven harder.

I'm also wondering whether this R2R might have the same results w/a different amp (ie, higher DAC output voltage = better sound).

This whole gain thing is complicated: 1st because sonic benefits from higher gain are so subjective; 2nd because more complicated systems contain >1 volume pot (making it harder to identity where the sonic benefits, if any, are really coming from).

 

[AudioPowerHead]

I think you're right, the standard for lineout voltage seems to be changing. But I think some amps really sound better when driven harder. When I got my junior R2R DAC recently I noticed it didn't sound nearly as good through a headamp I was using before with a Chord Mojo running plugged in. And I realized it's because lineout mode on the Mojo is pretty hot. When I cranked up the R2R's output, the sound filled out, the bass came back, and it sounded like it wasn't 2nd to the Mojo anymore.

This and some other things I observed recently make me convinced driving amps hard is a good thing for sound quality. But there are some pieces of hifi gear that come from pro audio companies that probably push things more than expected and maybe one unintended consequence is that running headphones at the end of the chain can be challenging as far as range of volume control goes.

What is your “junior R2R dac”? Just curious.

 

[gimmeheadroom]

Did that R2R have a volume pot? If not, how did you crank up its output?

Your R2R story has me wondering whether you proved that amps need to be driven harder; or whether one particular amps needs to be driven harder.

I'm also wondering whether this R2R might have the same results w/a different amp (ie, higher DAC output voltage = better sound).

This whole gain thing is complicated: 1st because sonic benefits from higher gain are so subjective; 2nd because more complicated systems contain >1 volume pot (making it harder to identity where the sonic benefits, if any, are really coming from).

Yeah the Audio-gd seem to have standardized on offering line out mode (which was kinda anemic) and variable out mode. I did try it with several amps to compare to the way the Mojo sounded.

The setup was Chord Mojo or R2R-11 into a headamp and into a mini stereo stack. In both cases the Chord sounded much better. It took me a while to figure out what was going on.

What is your “junior R2R dac”? Just curious.

Audio-gd R2R-11. There are a couple of threads here about it. It's a wonderful little unit and the transaction was much better than expected. Really, Audio-gd exceeded my expectations end to end. Super little dacamp, even not considering the price.

 

[Sound Eq]

who represents vioelectric here on head fi, as I want to send them a message

 

[gimmeheadroom]

As far as I know, nobody. You can find contact info on the websites.

 

[Fegefeuer]

info@lake-people.de

 

[Pharmaboy]

who represents vioelectric here on head fi, as I want to send them a message

The U.S. rep for Violectric & Lake People is a very nice & knowledgeable fellow, Arthur from Power Holdings. There's a "Contact" pop-up (= email) on the website:
https://power-holdings-inc.com/Violectric-HPA-V280-Headphone-Amplifier-p136295539#zbwid-2e5d3573

 

[vkenz]

Anyone here uses the Plixirpower Elite BAC 400 with the V281?

 

[jamesng45678]

Anyone here uses the Plixirpower Elite BAC 400 with the V281?

I do! Omg it is perfect haha

 

[sahmen]

Has anyone swapped the caps in the V281 just to hear the results, or know someone who has? If so, could you share your impressions?

 

[Justin_Time]

No information about this. Sorry.

 

[Slim1970]

I just took deliver of my first Violectric product. I’m a little late to the party, but I guess it’s better late than never. What a great sounding amp the V281 is!

 

[Fegefeuer]

What did you pair it with so far and what do you particularly or generally like about it?