I ended up requesting a refund for the Volot instead of the replacement I mentioned. Refund hasn’t come through yet but I ordered a Formula S amp on Thursday which just arrived. Probably will pick up the powerman with the Volot refund. Anyways I don’t expect to participate more in this thread but I’ll leave it open in the hopes that other owners might find some of this info helpful.
Turns out I will be getting another Volot. For those that have not seen the developments on the Head-Fi thread, they implemented a fix to all Volots that avoids the issue I encountered. And the fix was developed using the Volot that I returned. I wasn’t expecting to get another Volot but Flux reached out and said that as an apology for the failure I experienced that they would send me a free one.
That Volot just shipped so hopefully I will have it within the next couple of weeks and I can continue my impressions with the 1266 and my newly acquired LCD-5. Also I’ll be interested in seeing how it stacks up to my current amp, the XIaudio Formula S and Powerman
I’ve been very happy with how Flux has handled this situation. After I had requested the refund and returned the amp I didn’t expect to hear from them again so the surprise of being sent a free Volot was great. Plus I don’t have to worry about the same issue since they fixed it with a protection circuit.
I’d suggest making sure to communicate your story / experience with them on headfi. IMO the early defect issues they have plus the subtraction Of the pre amp really killed the momentum for that product. I know it stalled my demand for it.
I’ve made a couple statements on that thread talking about how I’ve been happy with how they handled everything. I will probably post again about that once the new Volot gets here and assuming everything goes well with it for a week or so. Don’t want Flux to suffer financially just cause of one bad unit.
Volot arrived this morning. Doing some initial listening mostly to make sure the amp works and all is going well. Will probably have some impressions later today.
Volot is sounding good so far and I still agree with what I posted earlier about this amp: Old Impressions
I think the bass has a bit more quantity than the Formula S and Powerman but the size of the stage seems a bit smaller compared to that. Tonality between the two is very similar. The first time that I heard the Volot it was my first experience with a nice amp so I was really impressed with the sound. Now that I have been using the Formula S and Powerman for awhile, the sound does not impress me as much as it first did. That’s not to say it’s bad just to say that I won’t have the enthusiastic reaction that I had to hearing it for the first time.
I’m going to use the Volot for a while in my setup and then come back to the comparison once I’m accustomed to the sound. One other thing is that while the Volot is nice with more inputs and different gain levels, I’m starting to appreciate more the compact size of the Formula S and Powerman just cause the Volot seems unnecessarily big after getting used to a smaller amp.
I haven’t been on hifi guides much as I’ve started to participate more in audio related discord servers more than the forums but wanted to update this thread with my thoughts on the Volot and how it compares to the Formula S + Powerman.
I’ve had the Volot now for 3 months and all is still going well with it. My initial comparison between the two amps has changed, I think the Volot breaking in or at least my ears getting adjusted to it play a part in that. The two amps are very close in performance and depending on the headphones I use I tend to slightly prefer one over the other. The Volot sounds larger and more 3d but the imaging on both is about the same. The Volot is a bit more musical sounding. I know that word is kind of vague so the way I hear it is that the Formula S and Powerman sounds perhaps a little more detailed but in a way that can take away from the enjoyment of the music (another word for this might be dry). The Volot doesn’t have that trait and allows me to focus on the music more than the gear. The bass on the two is similar but the Formula S + Powerman slams a bit more and has longer decay in the bass. However the differences in the bass is really only apparent when using the 1266.
For pairings with my headphones I prefer the Volot with the LCD-5 as it expands the stage so it sounds less in your head. I also prefer the Volot with the 800S but I don’t use them very much. The 1266, I still prefer with the Formula S + Powerman as the synergy is better especially with the bass. However all the headphones sound good on both amps. Generally if I’m looking for a spacious and slightly warmer / relaxing sound, the Volot is a good choice. And if I want a more engaging presentation then the Formula S + Powerman is what I choose.
