[jerick70]

Will my Violectric amp benefit from a better dac than the dragonfly red. If so what would the cost be?

I would have to say absolutely it will.

What are you looking to have your dac do better?

FYI... The XMOS DAC upgrade board that Violectric sells for the V281 is outstanding. If you listen to DSD or MQA it will not do those formats though.

 

[Pharmaboy]

Speaking of which, I've only come across a couple of in-depth reviews about the v850. It sounds even better with the DAT RS 05 IMO, but does anyone have an opinion on how the v850 itself performs? Does it perform at its price range? Above? What does it compete with now? The v850 topic here is a lot shorter and seems to draw a lot less interest than the v281. A disappointment, I'm a happy customer at least.

Never heard any Violectric DAC so can't directly answer.

But IMO the DAT RS 05 is most interesting. Finally met Arthur of Violectric USA at NYC CanJam...he had one hooked up to the DAC + V281 system there (which I didn't hear--way too crowded for listening). But he told me some who own other endgame DACs use them w/the DAT RS 05.

 

[Malcolm Riverside]

Will my Violectric amp benefit from a better dac than the dragonfly red. If so what would the cost be?

The answer to that is an emphatic yes. I’m actually really surprised that anyone would find their way to owning an amp as expensive as the V281 while still having a Dragonfly. Not to knock the Dragonfly at all—I used to have one and it’s an excellent product—but if you want to maximize the potential of an amp as badass as the V281 you gotta kick your dac game up accordingly. I’d say at least the internal Violectric dac module or a Schiit Modi Multibit. V800 dacs are pretty cheap used nowadays as well. You do raise an interesting question about how much to spend on components to maximize your dollars/sound quality ratio. If I had about $1800 to spend on a dac and amp I don’t know if putting $1600 towards the amp alone is the way I’d go, but others might disagree.

 

[Luke Thomas]

The answer to that is an emphatic yes. I’m actually really surprised that anyone would find their way to owning an amp as expensive as the V281 while still having a Dragonfly. Not to knock the Dragonfly at all—I used to have one and it’s an excellent product—but if you want to maximize the potential of an amp as badass as the V281 you gotta kick your dac game up accordingly. I’d say at least the internal Violectric dac module or a Schiit Modi Multibit. V800 dacs are pretty cheap used nowadays as well. You do raise an interesting question about how much to spend on components to maximize your dollars/sound quality ratio. If I had about $1800 to spend on a dac and amp I don’t know if putting $1600 towards the amp alone is the way I’d go, but others might disagree.

Yes I might find out, many say dacs are over rated

 

[apollogreed]

Hey guys, I need some help. Currently I'm running Line outs from my RME UFX into my V281 then into my HD800s, and I've been thinking of getting the V281 it's own dedicated DAC. Can anyone recommend me a good DAC? I'm looking to spend between 1000 - 3000$. Since I use my headphones for mixing I tend to value more neutral sound signatures. I'm hoping the new set up with the DAC would be better then my current set up

 

[zhgutov]

Hey guys, I need some help. Currently I'm running Line outs from my RME UFX into my V281 then into my HD800s, and I've been thinking of getting the V281 it's own dedicated DAC. Can anyone recommend me a good DAC? I'm looking to spend between 1000 - 3000$. Since I use my headphones for mixing I tend to value more neutral sound signatures. I'm hoping the new set up with the DAC would be better then my current set up

Hmm, Violectric V850 or Lake People DAC RS 06? I use V800 with RS 05.
This combination is pretty neutral, natural and musical.
It has very good linearity, so it can be used both to control sound and to enjoy music.

 

[111MilesToGo]

I auditioned the Violectric HPA V281 yesterday at my dealer, using my Chord Hugo 2 DAC and my Sennheiser HD 800 S headphone. (Remark: Cables were AudioQuest RCA Golden Gate from Hugo SE output into the V281 SE input, and both the SE and balanced Sennheiser stock cables into the 800 S.)

In short - wow! I am truely amazed at what the V281 can do for a Hugo 2 / HD 800 S combo, given that both the DAC and the HP are just among the very capable ones. The V281 leaves all - ever so often lauded - technical features of the Hugo 2 intact or even betters them, in particular power and authority, and in particular again in the bass department. Please forgive me for not going into more details here.

Plus, what was most amazing: Going up the ladder

• SE 6.3 mm headphone out from the Hugo 2 to the 800 S,
• Hugo 2 RCA SE output in fixed voltage (3 V) line-out mode into the V281 SE input (-12 dB or -6 dB input gains, resp.) , and then
  • SE 6.3 mm headphone output from V281 into 800 S, or
  • balanced headphone output from V281 into 800 S,

made the smile on my face broader and broader with every step. The entire presentation did transcend more at every step, ending up with a very "musical", organic entity. Great soundstage, every instrument / hands on the piano etc could be clearly identified without spending even the slightest effort on it. It is this magic of a "musical", organic entity (words do fail me to describe this) that makes the whole effort worth it. I can just vote here (okay, just my 2 cents) for the Hugo 2 as a DAC combined with the HD 800 S, which is a combo where every good characteristics is brought to a maximum (well, probably not THE maximum, whatever that might be to every individual) when the V281 is inserted into the chain. It takes the balanced input to the 800 S to work best. And my gut feeling is to go for the stepped relais volume attenuator, @Fegefeuer ... Furthermore, I consider this a "balanced" chain given that the price points of each of the three components are roughly in the same range, plus cables.

Well, I'll think it all over and recap my experiences in my head...

I listened to acoustic music only, symphonic, small jazz ensemble, solo piano, since I think such recordings should be among the natural ones.

@apollogreed, you might read this as a recommendation regarding your question right above.

PS: Two more remarks. Probably, the AudioQuest Golden Gate RCA cable maybe is not on a similar footing as the other components. And I did compare the V281 to another headphone amp at approx. 2/3 of the price point - too bad for that device, no match to the V281 (don't like to say what brand, please).

 

[Luke Thomas]

Hey guys, I need some help. Currently I'm running Line outs from my RME UFX into my V281 then into my HD800s, and I've been thinking of getting the V281 it's own dedicated DAC. Can anyone recommend me a good DAC? I'm looking to spend between 1000 - 3000$. Since I use my headphones for mixing I tend to value more neutral sound signatures. I'm hoping the new set up with the DAC would be better then my current set up

im looking for a dac also. A few have suggested i need to spend over $1000 on a dac to beat my $200 dragon fly red.. I might do the Shiit product since they have a return policy.

 

[jerick70]

Hey guys, I need some help. Currently I'm running Line outs from my RME UFX into my V281 then into my HD800s, and I've been thinking of getting the V281 it's own dedicated DAC. Can anyone recommend me a good DAC? I'm looking to spend between 1000 - 3000$. Since I use my headphones for mixing I tend to value more neutral sound signatures. I'm hoping the new set up with the DAC would be better then my current set up

For neutral sounding DACs here are a few DACs you may want to look at:

1) RME ADI-2 DAC or Pro
2) Wyred4Sound DAC-2V2
3) Exasound E32 MKII
4) Benchmark DAC3 HGC

 

[FumblingFoo]

Hmm, Violectric V850 or Lake People DAC RS 06? I use V800 with RS 05.
This combination is pretty neutral, natural and musical.
It has very good linearity, so it can be used both to control sound and to enjoy music.

Yes I'd like to vouch for the DAT RS 05 as well. Playing around with the up and down sampling can yield some interesting sonic results. After software upsampling a 176khz stream to 192khz, I then downsampled back to 176khz with the DAT RS 05 and the music sounded clearer and crisper than being stuck with the 192khz out. Again, I discovered that the sound gets a bit thinner and, well, maybe not lifeless but clinical when 4x upsampling, a good plus for pairing headphones. IIRC downsampling a 192khz stream to 96khz seems to do something too. Very interesting piece of equipment the DAT RS 05 is.

 

[zhgutov]

Yes I'd like to vouch for the DAT RS 05 as well. Playing around with the up and down sampling can yield some interesting sonic results. After software upsampling a 176khz stream to 192khz, I then downsampled back to 176khz with the DAT RS 05 and the music sounded clearer and crisper than being stuck with the 192khz out. Again, I discovered that the sound gets a bit thinner and, well, maybe not lifeless but clinical when 4x upsampling, a good plus for pairing headphones. IIRC downsampling a 192khz stream to 96khz seems to do something too. Very interesting piece of equipment the DAT RS 05 is.

This is probably due to different added jitter level at the input side of the DAC.
It seems like the resampling algorithm itself does not affect the sound.
At least, my expiriments confirm that.
The best possible jitter for V800+RS05 is @ 88.2 kHz sample rate.
It sounds slightly more transparent and precise, IMO.
I think the different DACs, even V850 or RS06 can have different effect here.
This is a complex system, there are lots of variables, so you need to expirement here.

 

[FumblingFoo]

Yeah. Actually today is the first day I started trying this lol . I'm starting to notice a bit more keenness in my hearing for say low vs high bitrate songs and some other sonic qualities too, especially with some of the music from hdtracks. Really surprised me that I was hearing a difference, looks like I wasn't too far off the mark at least .

 

[Fegefeuer]

For anyone curious. John Grandberg's Niimbus US4 review is up, with comparisons to the V281.

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/rev...r-includes-large-high-end-amp-roundup.886668/

 

[jerick70]

For anyone curious. John Grandberg's Niimbus US4 review is up, with comparisons to the V281.

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/rev...r-includes-large-high-end-amp-roundup.886668/

Ooooohhhhh This looks tasty.

 

[Pharmaboy]

For anyone curious. John Grandberg's Niimbus US4 review is up, with comparisons to the V281.

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/rev...r-includes-large-high-end-amp-roundup.886668/

just WOW