I havenāt heard the fa12 but I can go off the fa10,
technicality wise I would rank the v200a over the flux and solidly over the rebel but it all depends on the headphones. Signature wise the flux was a more fun slightly laid back neutral, the v200 is def a bit warmer smoother in the treble, and the rebel was more forward and energetic, kinda almost brighter fun depending on the headphones. Stage wise the v200a is the widest sounding stage, the flux is wide but not as wide, and the stage on the rebelamp was a bit average. For impact the flux takes the cake here but the v200a has the most control imo. Dynamically the v200a sounded the most impressive but with harder to drive headphones that liked a bunch of current the flux pulled ahead, rebelamp wasnāt as impressive. Timbre wise the v200 and flux have both solid but not excellent timbre, on the rebel it was good but slightly wonky almost. And then for speed control and detail I do think the 200a ends up being the winner here
Overall I would say for what type of signature you are going for the v200 fits it the best, but it would really depend on what headphones you plan to use. Dac wise the adi 2 dac does pair well with the vio, but personally later on I would grab a soekris dac1541 (or 2541) as I think that would improve staging, speed, and dynamics over the rme (similar surface level detail and timbre, but more lower level detail on the soekris as well imo). But for now the rme should pair well imo
The flux would still be a solid fit and it would be more dense and meaty than the vio but not as capable, but would be a nice alternative. I personally wouldnāt suggest the rebelamp in this case though as itās just not as capable as the other amps and a signature mismatch for what you are after
Hey @M0N , thank you for the quick and detailed answer it really helps.
I own and/or planning to own K702, K361, Nighthawk Carbon, A2000Z, TH900. (Heard them all already) Also looking for an openback at a later point, for now itās between Clear or ERA-1. Does these would do good with the Vio in your opinion ?
I was already more leaning toward the Vio or the Flux, i guess i can rule out the Rebelamp since some of my stuff can already sound bright.
Does the Vio takes the cake for precision and space recreation over the Flux ? Lastly do you know if they do well with IEMs by any chance ? I mean, hissing and stuff ? Thatās also one the reason iām thinking about the RME, on top of the features it has a great IEMs output. If one of these do well then i guess i could just go with a Soe 2541.
Cool, imo all good matches with the v200 although the hawks may be pushing slightly too dark at times for my tastes
I think the clear is a pretty solid pairing with the vio imo, havenāt heard the era-1 on a vio though
For me yes
So with insensitive iems no issues but some hiss with sensitive iems, I would grab an ifi iematch for both either way, you can set it on ultra mode and just remove hissing and noise floor, without really any sonic impact tbh. So honestly I would just grab one of those and get the soekris instead of the rme unless you really really want the built in eq or dsp
I wish there was more talks about the FA-12S but it seems to be all about the FA-10 lol. There might be a reason. Anyways for about the same price i might just go that way.
Lastly and iām deviating a bit from this thread but is the Soekris any good with Tubes amps ? Or the RME would be a better pairing ? I have no experience whatsoever with Tubes, i was thinking of getting either a Tor Roger or an Auris Euterpe (during sales itās 1Kā¬) as my first entry to this. Any idea if those cans mentionned could work with Tubes ? I was thinking none of them is hard driving so no reason for hybrid.
Not sure, I friend had a fa10 so I got to go listen to that but he wasnāt interested in the fa12, perhaps itās because the fa12 doesnāt stand out as much on paper as the fa10 does
Hm, so personally neither the soekris nor the rme are my fave combo with the tube amps, but if I had to choose one or the other the soekris would still be my pick (the 2541 is rumored to be a bit better pairing with tubes so that could be better), for the headphones you have I would consider something like the cayin ha-1a mk2 for the headphones you have and the price point you are at, the roger is solid as well. Personally the euterpe is good but a bit pricey for what it is tbh. You also might be able to get away with a feliks espressivo mk2 but I might be slightly concerned that it could be too sloppy with some of the headphones. For the headphones you have and are planning to have, really none of them are something I would call very tube friendly (at least under 1k for the amp) tbh, but with the tor and the cayin they would be solid enough and still provide a potentially worthwhile experience.
The problem is that most of the tube amps under 1k donāt tend to play the best with lower impedance as they have higher output impedance, but it shouldnāt be too much of an issue if you get a nice transformer coupled amp and the headphones you have arenāt all that current hungry
I meant the S version, itās the baby one at $500. I believe the balanced version (FA-12) compete directly with the same priced FA-10. FA-12S is a direct competitor to the Rebelamp imo, it has a preamp and itās priced the same. But yeah very few infos online so far. Will have to be patient.
Ok iām curious, did you have something else in mind ? Any dacs alternatives in the same price range ? Or any combo perhaps ?
Iām trying to get the best out of those, especially the TH900 so iām open to any recs tbh.
Yeah thatās what i thought. The Tor stuff is rated for 25ohms though hence why i considered it but it might be just as you said anyway.
If none of those really benefit from it iāll either just get the cheapest (Roger) and skip the higher stuff like Cayin and Auris. Or completely skip tubes (for now). However this might just push me more into getting the Clear which i heard do well with tubes ?
Ahhh totally missed that, my bad lol, was thinking of just the fa12
So the issue is that the dacs I like with tube amps tend to not play the best with the violectric, the schiit bifrost 2 and denafrips ares ii do pretty well with most of the tube amps I like under 1k but they donāt do that well with the vio imo (the synergy with the soekris and vio is super strong, and I donāt think the bifrost 2 and ares ii do as well as the soekris does with the vio)
Hm so personally I might be a more minority opinion here but I am not a fan of the clear with tubes, to me it removes what makes the focals special, it does add more body and improve stage width, but kinda dulls the dynamics a bit, smooths it out too much, and also kinda decreases itās raw speed and resolution, and personally when I think of the clear I think of something neutral, resolving, dynamic, and intimidate but really immersive and deep stage, and most of the more sub 1k tube amps kinda tilt that too much for my tastes. I do think it sounds good on something like an eddie current studio t, linear tube audio mz3 or an apex pinnacle 2 ultra but those are way more than you would want to spend for a clear (but if you have a utopia those are def worthwhile, although a lta mz2 is within reach possibly, as would a dragon inspire iha-1, both of those are solid more neutral tube amps that keep what makes the clear special imo)
No worries the naming is a bit confusing tbh, they shouldāve went with different numbers perhaps.
Ohhh i see. So thereās no perfect solution in this price range at least ? Ideally i wanted to have a Tube and SS paired with the same dac since itās for desktop usage and place can be an issue with near field monitors and whatnot.
I guess iām gonna put the tubey idea on a sleep for now. Doesnāt seems worth pushing for it with what i have.
Is the V200A + Soekris the best pairing for the sound iām after in that price range ? (under 2Kā¬ currently). In particular for TH900 ? I might just add the ERA-1 to my shopping list in this case, since i donāt own planars and with SS it would most likely pair better than tubes in this price range.
Gotcha, that makes sense.
Iāll look on some of the stuff you mentionned but if itās in the same ballpark as the Utopia i wonāt be able to afford it whatsoever .
Thank you again for all the helpful answers, this is what i like about this forum, many great users willing to share their experience and actually help others. All that with a very welcoming manners.
There isnāt a perfect one but I donāt think you would be dissatisfied with the soekris on a tube, but I would agree it might be worthwhile to hold on for a tube amp for now
For what you are after I do think it is one of the top contenders, I think other options that you might like would end up pushing budget too much, so I would start off with the 200 with soekris first
The ones to look at are the lta mz2 or the iha-1 lol
The MZ2 seems reasonable to me and it looks nice although a bit on the beefy side for my liking. Is it worth it in stock form tho ? Not sure if it was the LPS power supply i saw on the pics but that thing was HUGE lol.
Actually already knew the iha-1 but forgot about it. I think itās entering price territory iām not ready to cross tbh. Especially if it was to complement only one headphones well.
Well i guess this conversation was definitely worth it, both for my knowledge and my wallet (i couldāve spend more than i should). Iāll keep in mind the MZ2 for future considerations, until then iāll firstly try this combo and see how it goes. After that iāll reopen the tubes case if i feel like exploring more (i say this as if thereās a chance i wonāt fall deeper in the rabbit hole, but it simply doesnāt work like that, right ? )
Itās not as big as it looks tbh, I do think the lps is worthwhile in the future but for the headphones you have the stock psu would work out well and you could upgrade later on
Grabbed me a 2nd hand one last weekend (2011 or 2010 model). Was a good deal and sounds great with my 2016 LCD2F bamboo. I was running that off an ican SE with the ifi neo idsd as a dac. Still using that neo idsd DAC now with RCA to the v200.
I just get the feeling the high-mids are slightly recessed compared to other amps, and after listening a while it can be ever so slightly congested with all that mid and bass warmth.
Does anyone have experience modding op-amps or switching the AC and DC amplification modes? Considering how low my unit seems to go I think the last guy set it to unfiltered DC amping.
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