[Alfredo3001]

I was wondering exactly the same, so finally some comparisons were done in this thread (see a couple of previous posts). It seems like new Violectric line is more mid-forward with strong bass, so that laid-back sound of old Violectric line is somehow 'lost'. They also say new line is more 'technical' cleaner sounding.

This sums it up really nice and accurate.
The v222 is mid forward or uppermid forward. The bass is strong, tight, and again forward.

I never felt the v222 was warm. It is "cleaner" and "clearer" than the wide and relaxed v281.

From my little experience it pairs well with wide headphones like the hd8xx I had, and the focal clear if you want to be slammed a little bit. I'm not sure about the Utopia at the moment. The Utopia is more aggressive than the clear, + the v222 midrange is kind of too much sometimes. I actually miss the clear og bass slam with the v222. The Utopia punchs harder too, but it's kind of tight instead of the loose fun bass from the clears.

 

[sahmen]

V222 landed earlier today. I'm giving it its first couple of hours of run-in paired with a Schiit Bifrost 2/64, with both fed by an Opticalrendu + Denafrips Gaia DDC combo, and out of the gate, it seems to be doing an excellent job driving the Hifiman He-1000se. So far the most striking aspect of the performance of the v222 seems to lie in its bass response, which is not to say its other characteristics are not remarkable. It seems to resolve details well through out the frequency spectrum, and sounds quite spacious and airy, in spite of the attention-grabbing bass. I have not heard anything in the first couple of hours that I might call displeasing about the sound.However, it seems to be entirely too soon to be saying anything extensive about performance.

BTW, does the V222 have any recommended "run-in' or "burn-in" time?

Speaking of excellent jobs, to say that @ArthurPower has produced a V222 transaction in a way that puts Drop to shame is perhaps to make the understatement of the Year. Thanks to @ArthurPower for helping me to place in the rearview mirror, about 5-months of disappointment and unpleasantness from Drop.

 

[c34webb]

With having the V222 for a few days, now I feel like I have a firmish grip on what this amp has to provide. To start right off the bat, the very first and most noticeable characteristic is the sound is just fuller. It’s more detailed pulling out nuances that lesser amps fail to provide. The bass to treble line is strong throughout the frequency band. It’s like taking generic vanilla ice cream and adding real vanilla beans and cane sugar. It really transforms the sound to another scale. Powering hifiman organic and soon to be modhouse tungstens.

 

[Strale]

Let me think…the Asgard is a good amp, but I find it lacks detail (after having the RME, JDS Labs Element III, and the V222). It has more than enough power, but I don’t find it as fun, and clearly it doesn‘t scale well out of its price range. It’s really not fair to compare the 2 to be honest. However, I think the Asgard 3 and Modi MB 2 are a great combo for the price.

Does that help?

Thanks for the feedback, that is what one could expect based on other reviews about Asgard, which should be more on a 'relaxed' side, thus probably lacking details and definition compared to V222, I guess.

 

[AnamCeoil]

@AnamCeoil did you maybe have a chance to connect Zen DAC to V202? I am very curious about your impressions of such combination. Especially Zen DAC (alone) Vs. Zen DAC + V202...what exactly V202 brings to it...?

Afraid I have not been able to carve out any listening time, and am on a work trip until next weekend so won't have anything to share before then...apologies! Was listening to the Zen stack a lot at work this week with my HD600 and was a lovely sound, particularly with the Xbass engaged. But no chance to try it at home with the V202 unfortunately. Sorry!

 

[Strale]

Afraid I have not been able to carve out any listening time, and am on a work trip until next weekend so won't have anything to share before then...apologies! Was listening to the Zen stack a lot at work this week with my HD600 and was a lovely sound, particularly with the Xbass engaged. But no chance to try it at home with the V202 unfortunately. Sorry!

Not a problem ...Zen DAC although 'small' and budget friendly device, sounds very nice IMO. It brings some sweetness to the vocals which is quite addictive for me. Whenever I would try some other DAC, even much better technically in all other respects, somehow I would miss that sweet timbre from Zen DAC, especially when listening female vocals and some blues guitar. Also, I was never a fan of any EQ, but as you said that bass boost button (although different in Zen DAC compared to Zen CAN) is really another league, especially for open back headphones, since it does not touch upper mids and treble at all.
If you ever find some time for that pairing (Zen DAC + V222) it might be interesting...

 

[Strale]

Since new Violectric amps are leaning more towards clean, mid-forward, neutral rather than warm sounding, then I suppose it makes sense to compare it to SPL Phonitor? Did someone had opportunity to do so?

 

[Guy Fawkes]

Since new Violectric amps are leaning more towards clean, mid-forward, neutral rather than warm sounding, then I suppose it makes sense to compare it to SPL Phonitor? Did someone had opportunity to do so?

I haven't compared it to a Violectric but these were my impressions with the Phonitor XE:

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/vio...ssor-to-the-v281.947586/page-67#post-17946035

 

[FinHifi]

Since new Violectric amps are leaning more towards clean, mid-forward, neutral rather than warm sounding, then I suppose it makes sense to compare it to SPL Phonitor? Did someone had opportunity to do so?

I have listened to Phonitor E: Phonitor had a smaller soundstage, bright and colder tonality and less bass impact. Build was excellent. Because of colder tonality, I precieved more details in some songs, but would not describe it as being more detailed. If you prefer clinical tonality, this would be a strong contender, V222 has a slightly romantic sound.

 

[Strale]

I haven't compared it to a Violectric but these were my impressions with the Phonitor XE:

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/vio...ssor-to-the-v281.947586/page-67#post-17946035

I have listened to Phonitor E: Phonitor had a smaller soundstage, bright and colder tonality and less bass impact. Build was excellent. Because of colder tonality, I precieved more details in some songs, but would not describe it as being more detailed. If you prefer clinical tonality, this would be a strong contender, V222 has a slightly romantic sound.

Thanks for a nice comparisons!...I see....that mid-forwardness of V222 confuses me sometimes, it made me think it is on the edge of being a bit aggressive in upper midrange (especially a bad matching with headphones which FR is kind of boosted around 2kHz for instance), so I thought V222 might be entering a different league than Violectric 200 series from before...

 

[Strale]

I am finding something odd here...Through all those lines describing the sound of V222 two terms are repeating: mid-forward (sometimes upper mid-forward) and smooth. How is it possible to have mid-forward and smooth sound in the same time? Mid-forward should be somehow opposite of relaxed (smooth) and is usually something to be avoided. Human ears are most sensitive on frequency range of 2 - 5 kHz (upper mids). So, if amp timbre is such to create a feeling of mids pushed forward (amp frequency response curve is certainly flat so the timbre/harmonics or whatever is creating equivalent feeling of raised mids), then I do not see how it could be a smooth and easy listening experience?

If we take for instance some very popular headphones like HD650, their popularity is easily explained (very simply speaking): they are not 'hitting' you there where you are most vulnerable (their upper midrange is not piercing you).

Maybe I am lacking some experience in that regards or it could be a wording issue...what do you mean by mid-forward?

 

[Alfredo3001]

I am finding something odd here...Through all those lines describing the sound of V222 two terms are repeating: mid-forward (sometimes upper mid-forward) and smooth. How is it possible to have mid-forward and smooth sound in the same time? Mid-forward should be somehow opposite of relaxed (smooth) and is usually something to be avoided. Human ears are most sensitive on frequency range of 2 - 5 kHz (upper mids). So, if amp timbre is such to create a feeling of mids pushed forward (amp frequency response curve is certainly flat so the timbre/harmonics or whatever is creating equivalent feeling of raised mids), then I do not see how it could be a smooth and easy listening experience?

If we take for instance some very popular headphones like HD650, their popularity is easily explained (very simply speaking): they are not 'hitting' you there where you are most vulnerable (their upper midrange is not piercing you).

Maybe I am lacking some experience in that regards or it could be a wording issue...what do you mean by mid-forward?

Let me give you a piece of advice. I'm not an expert on the matter. Audio terms are hard to understand. Most of the time you need to hear It yourself to understand. I recommend you to try the v222 yourself.

Have you experience uppermid glare? sibilance? They are not the same. You can hear glare without sibilance and vice versa. Also, midrange is a broad range of frequencies. For example, lower mids adds warm and upper mids adds shoutyness for example.

I'm one of the people that found the hd650 + asgard 3 + modius shouty. It was soft sounding but shouty.

Either way. If you are posting out of curiosity. That's awesome. You are keeping the thread alive. If you are like me (an overthinker) I recommend you to try it yourself.

I traded my v222 for a v550. The other party liked the v222 more that he downgraded . Another v550 user wanted to go back to the v222. Another user didnt like the v222 and went with the v550 which he loves. I got both the v550 and v222. I preferred the v550, but needed to drowngrade.

 

[lowrider007]

I am finding something odd here...Through all those lines describing the sound of V222 two terms are repeating: mid-forward (sometimes upper mid-forward) and smooth. How is it possible to have mid-forward and smooth sound in the same time? Mid-forward should be somehow opposite of relaxed (smooth) and is usually something to be avoided. Human ears are most sensitive on frequency range of 2 - 5 kHz (upper mids). So, if amp timbre is such to create a feeling of mids pushed forward (amp frequency response curve is certainly flat so the timbre/harmonics or whatever is creating equivalent feeling of raised mids), then I do not see how it could be a smooth and easy listening experience?

If we take for instance some very popular headphones like HD650, their popularity is easily explained (very simply speaking): they are not 'hitting' you there where you are most vulnerable (their upper midrange is not piercing you).

Maybe I am lacking some experience in that regards or it could be a wording issue...what do you mean by mid-forward?

Probably due to the extra-bass-slam/mid-forward/high-roll-off combo that's takes that 'edge' off the upper mids but doesn't recess them, I think it's unique tuning that gives you a fun listen but it isn't v-shaped which is what is normally attributed to 'fun' sounding gear.

 

[Ichos]

I don't think that the V222 is mid-forward or anything like that. The amplifier is dead flat. Some sound "coloration" is because very low harmonics are shaped so that even harmonics are most time a bit higher than the following uneven harmonics. Everything else should be attributed to headphones or source matching.

 

[FinHifi]

I am finding something odd here...Through all those lines describing the sound of V222 two terms are repeating: mid-forward (sometimes upper mid-forward) and smooth. How is it possible to have mid-forward and smooth sound in the same time? Mid-forward should be somehow opposite of relaxed (smooth) and is usually something to be avoided.

When I say that V222 is mid forward, I mean vocals mainly. For example compared to Phonitor E and MJ3 the singer is slightly closer to you. It does not make V222 sound harsh and Phonitor E was harder on my ears than V222. Now is it really mid forward? I don't know, only compared to those two and SA-1 and those had the singer slightly in the back.

Also what people think as mid forward must come from previous amps that they tried, maybe V222 is dead middle and previous amps were just recessed.