[ab_ba]

Hey has anybody else taken the plunge after reading John's review? It sounded like a few people were right on the verge... what did you decide?

 

[Chik0240]

  Between those choices, I would definitely choose V281. I owned Taurus MK2 and V281 using them with my HD800, LCD3F and HE6. V281 is a winner.
I also tried Ragnarok with HD800 and LCD3 at the local shop here, it sounds very good but V281 is better in both sound and build quality.

May I ask for a bit more detail on the comparison between the V281 and Taurus Mk2? I am currently enjoying my HE500 very much and would be interesting to learn a bit about where the V281 can be better

 (colour me interested to burn some more hard earned money lol)

 

[ellevoid]

For me V281 has a warmer sound compare to Taurus Mk2 and has a better output power.
 
At that time, I changed my headphone from HE500 to HE6 and HD800. I found Taurus was a bit brighter when using with them and I had a feeling that it can't drive HE6 to full potential, so I sold it and bought V281.
 
To me Taurus mk2 is a perfect match with HE500, so if you don't have a plan to change your headphones to HE6 or HD800 or other brighter cans. I think you better spend your money on something else like a better DAC or a music server or maybe Audeze's cans.

 

[Gibsonmac]

  Hey has anybody else taken the plunge after reading John's review? It sounded like a few people were right on the verge... what did you decide?

 
 
I ordered the V281 because of that review... I had a *broken in* Taurus mkII for a couple weeks that I rented from The Cable Co. and was more or less sold on it.  It sounded pretty good with most of my cans, though it was just a touch bright and I did NOT like it with the HE6 at all, but since no amp can be all things to all people I accepted the concession, I could always EQ (GASP?!) to fatten things up a bit. 
 
Enter "The Review Heard 'Round the World"... So an amp that performs as good or better than the Auralic, BUT is not quite as thin/bright???, and sounds killer with the HE6??? YES PLEASE!!! In about 20 minutes, I went from, "going to buy an Auralic" to, "Not anymore!"  At first it did seem a little too good to be true, can one actually have their cake and eat it??  Well, I will certainly find out very soon to come, but its looking good so far.  I ordered the black unit with gold feet, because who doesn't like a bit of bling now and then, and went with the top-end volume control, because, well why not.  After sufficient burn in, I'll post a proper review...
 
 

 

[Ultrainferno]

You'll love every single bit of it, I have the same as you.

 

[Zkadoush]

   
 
I actually just sent my own personal V281 over to Tyll from InnerFidelity. He has assembled a bunch of top amps including the Simaudio 430, Auralic Taurus, Schiit Ragnarok, the big Woo Audio monoblocks, HeadAmp GS-X mkII, and probably a few others which I'm forgetting... should be a fun comparison. We were trying to figure a way for me to fly out there and listen with him but the scheduling is proving difficult. But he might be able to snag some of the other InnerFidelity contributors to get more ears in the mix. 

What's with Tyll and Violectric?! He keeps praising the 430HA with its cute little red digits on the front panel, and sure it's a nice looking Amp, but the V281 measured better and is almost exactly half the price. He's never been able to say one little positive thing about Violectric and the last time he was in Munich, he failed to interview Fried Reim who was there everyday at the show!!

Tyll also failed to measure SNR, which is a significant value to be considered when reproducing 48/88.2/96/176.4/192 kHz 24bit High Resolution Audio, and where the V281 outperforms the 430HA by a 10dB margin!

Don't know what he's got with Violectric, but he can't bear to make one little compliment to any of the Amps that we all know are the very best built, engineered and performing out there, let alone at their price point. No big deal, really, it just annoys me that he can be so hardheaded and have such nonsense preferences.

Anyhow, my Violectric "fan-boy" rant of the day!

 

 

[Chik0240]

And I read from his measurement that the v281 actually rolled off in the bass region a bit, which I didn't expect considering this amp is said to be warm in tonality

 

[gonzfi]

What's with Tyll and Violectric?! He keeps praising the 430HA with its cute little red digits on the front panel, and sure it's a nice looking Amp, but the V281 measured better and is almost exactly half the price. He's never been able to say one little positive thing about Violectric and the last time he was in Munich, he failed to interview Fried Reim who was there everyday at the show!!:basshead:

Tyll also failed to measure SNR, which is a significant value to be considered when reproducing 48/88.2/96/176.4/192 kHz 24bit High Resolution Audio, and where the V281 outperforms the 430HA by a 10dB margin!


Don't know what he's got with Violectric, but he can't bear to make one little compliment to any of the Amps that we all know are the very best built, engineered and performing out there, let alone at their price point. No big deal, really, it just annoys me that he can be so hardheaded and have such nonsense preferences.


Anyhow, my Violectric "fan-boy" rant of the day!
 

Tyll 'reviews' certain headphones and amps before he's turned the power on! Bit silly really. However in fairness to Inner Fidelity they did give the V281 a glowing review just not with Tyll as the reviewer.

 

[project86]

 
What's with Tyll and Violectric?! He keeps praising the 430HA with its cute little red digits on the front panel, and sure it's a nice looking Amp, but the V281 measured better and is almost exactly half the price. He's never been able to say one little positive thing about Violectric and the last time he was in Munich, he failed to interview Fried Reim who was there everyday at the show!!

Tyll also failed to measure SNR, which is a significant value to be considered when reproducing 48/88.2/96/176.4/192 kHz 24bit High Resolution Audio, and where the V281 outperforms the 430HA by a 10dB margin!

Don't know what he's got with Violectric, but he can't bear to make one little compliment to any of the Amps that we all know are the very best built, engineered and performing out there, let alone at their price point. No big deal, really, it just annoys me that he can be so hardheaded and have such nonsense preferences.

Anyhow, my Violectric "fan-boy" rant of the day!

 

 
 
I wouldn't read too much into it. Everything is all very preliminary at this stage, and very little has actually been said about most of the amps so far. Plus I wonder if Tyll isn't overcompensating a little for my having already reviewed the amp in a very positive light - wouldn't want to make it seem like a forgone conclusion, or to give unfair attention. Bob Katz has talked a lot about how he enjoys the Burson, and Tyll hasn't commented on it at all either. 
 
The measurement routine is still a work in progress anyway. I imagine SNR will show up eventually. I'd also like to see these amps measured at lower volumes.... I suspect Tyll is measuring at full throttle which equalizes the amps in terms of volume control quality. Back them off to 1/4 or 1/2 volume and I bet you'd start seeing channel imbalance showing up more often, among other things.
 
I'd also like to see balanced mode used. As we know, the V281 is only using half of its potential as measured. So this is more like a V200 or V220 measurement if you want to look at it that way. The Taurus mkII is also very different when using the balanced out, so it would be worth adding that measurement. Not sure how the Simaudio amp differs between balanced and SE, but the measurements would help use figure that out one way or the other.
 
In short, give it some time, it will all hopefully come out in the end. 
 
 

And I read from his measurement that the v281 actually rolled off in the bass region a bit, which I didn't expect considering this amp is said to be warm in tonality

 
 
Yep, I was surprised to see that as well. It certainly doesn't line up with what I hear at all. But to keep it in perspective, it's only down 1dB below 30Hz, and less than 2dB by 20Hz. That's pretty insignificant. I'd be curious to see if the balanced output measures the same way.
 
 

Tyll 'reviews' certain headphones and amps before he's turned the power on! Bit silly really. However in fairness to Inner Fidelity they did give the V281 a glowing review just not with Tyll as the reviewer.

 
That was me who gave it the glow.
 
And no, Tyll doesn't typically come into his reviews with preconceived notions. If there was ever a person to cut through hype and price tags to give a bad review, he's the guy. I'm sure, like me, he looks at the design of an amp and thus has some expectations based on that.... but those don't always end up being true. 

 

[Chik0240]

 
I'd also like to see balanced mode used. As we know, the V281 is only using half of its potential as measured. So this is more like a V200 or V220 measurement if you want to look at it that way. The Taurus mkII is also very different when using the balanced out, so it would be worth adding that measurement. Not sure how the Simaudio amp differs between balanced and SE, but the measurements would help use figure that out one way or the other.
 
In short, give it some time, it will all hopefully come out in the end. 
 

That sounds interesting, since at least in the Taurus I'd heard a audible difference in clarity and tonality between the single ended and balanced mode. It'll be interested to compare the Auralic approach of combining the ORFEO modules in single ended mode and separate them when used in balanced mode to the more traditional approach of the V281 that just shuts down half of the amp section in single ended operation as well

 

[Gibsonmac]

And I read from his measurement that the v281 actually rolled off in the bass region a bit, which I didn't expect considering this amp is said to be warm in tonality

the comments said he didn't have his settings right, or some other user error

 

[ab_ba]

 
Quote:

 
And no, Tyll doesn't typically come into his reviews with preconceived notions. If there was ever a person to cut through hype and price tags to give a bad review, he's the guy. I'm sure, like me, he looks at the design of an amp and thus has some expectations based on that.... but those don't always end up being true. 

 
I appreciate what Tyll is doing immensely. My only quibble with his approach to this is that I wish he would listen first, measure second. The concern with measuring first is that you "know" what to listen for, and things that might have gone unnoticed become un-ignorable. You can't un-see those measurements when you listen. I always enjoy it when Tyll says in a review, "I was hearing ___ so then I measured them and  sure enough there was ____ ." Doing it in this order, I fear there's going to be some confirmation bias. 
 
+1 for measurements (and listening comparisons!) in balanced mode. To my ears, that's where the V281 really differentiates itself.
+1 for the discrepancy between the measured low-frequency fall-off and the warmish sound I hear in SE mode. I agree those just don't jibe, even if the measured effect is only a few dB.
+1 for getting more people to Tyll's studio so we can hear a breadth of opinions. There's no other place like that in the world. John, are you going to be able to get out there?

 

[project86]

It's funny because I see where you are coming from, and the flip side is a barrage of comments at IF calling for an even MORE rigorous, objective approach. Seems Tyll is too objective for some and too subjective for others. Oh well.
 
Unfortunately I won't be able to make it out there. Too many other things going on. 

 

[richard51]

i dont know anything about Tyll hence i dont want to comment to  a specific individual.... Just a 2 cents remark.... I i was an engineer designing amp i will scuplted the sound i want with my ears and feed back measurement apparatus...the same for headphones.... But i am only an audiophile ordinary customer searching for the best i will in the first place look for some expert  and experienced ears for advise.... Measurements will only add a marginal weight to the balance of my decision  at the ends... But its Very important that some guy made all this measurements ( thanks to Tyll )

....But to made decisions based only on that will be illusory at least....

 

[ab_ba]

  Seems Tyll is too objective for some and too subjective for others. Oh well.
 

Yup, meaning he's probably doing it just about right. At least in my experience, when I've had the chance to compare his reviews to my own listening experience I can usually hear what he describes. For me, same as with movie critics or anything else - when my experience jibes with theirs, that's a reviewer I'll keep going back to.