Violectric V226

Violectric DHA V226 DAC, Headphone Amp and Pre-Amp

PROS: Versatile DAC, amp and pre-amp with a natural, smooth and very enjoyable sound, high power and very low noise, useable with extremely sensitive IEMs, excellent build quality, good value.

CONS: None.

Disclaimer

The Violectric V226 was very kindly made available to me on a long-term loan by Dune Blue and Violectric. No incentive was given for a favorable review.

V226 features

Analogue stereo inputs, unbalanced via RCA
1 digital input, USB-C with up to 32 bit and up to 384 kHz for PCM signals, DSD 64 256
32-bit DAC with typical 130 dB dynamic range and -115 dB THD+N
+/- 18 dB Pre-Gain for a perfect match of the DHA V226 between source and headphones
Volume control with Alps RK 27 attenuator, big 38 mm massive aluminium knob
4 powerful amps offering 3500 mW Pmax into 100 Ohm and 23 V RMS into 600 Ohm
Delayed coupling of the headphones to the amp after power-on
Headphone path and line-out path individually switchable
Headphone outputs: 1 x 4-pin XLR, bal. / 1 x Pentaconn, bal. / 1 x ¼” jack, unbal.
Line stereo outputs: unbalanced via RCA
1 toroidal transformer, > 22.000 uF filter capacity
Price: €1,399

Links:

Preamble.

A couple of years ago my friends at Dune Blue, the specialist head-fi distributor for The Benelux and Scandinavia, introduced me to Violectric by lending me their V380 DAC/amp. At the time (and to my eternal shame) I did not know much about this highly regarded German brand. Dune Blue’s kind introduction quickly rectified this gross negligence. The V380 became a wonderful introduction into the world high-quality desktop amps and DACs, as well as into the delights of a neutral desktop source done right.

The performance of the V380 was impressive and it proved to be an extremely capable and versatile tool. Like a Swiss army knife, the V380 effortlessly adapted to anything I wanted to use. From planar headphones such as the Final D8000, to high-impedance legends such as the Sennheiser HD650, to extremely sensitive IEMs such as the Empire Ears Wraith, the V380 did it all. No hiss with the IEMs, not breaking a sweat driving the headphones to their full potential, and all sounding great. So, when I once again found myself in need of such a versatile source, I knocked on the door of Dune Blue to see if they still had the V380 around. Instead, they suggested I could also take its newly released little brother, the V226, for a spin. Well now, there is a coincidence! I had previously asked Fried Reim (the man behind Violectric) for a unit of the V226 to review, which unfortunately did not happen. Not being the type to pester people for review units, I kindly left it at that, but I remained very curious about the V226 nonetheless. In the spirit of ‘all good things come to those who wait’, I now got the opportunity and of course I agreed. Moreover, Dune Blue and Violectric worked together in order to allocate a unit for a long-term loan. Thanks guys!

This time there was a specific tool I needed and it posed a particularly paradoxical challenge. My plan was to revive my ‘Masters of Classical Music’ series (a series about finding the very best gear for listening to classical music) and I really wanted the aforementioned Wraith to be the next instalment. The challenge here was that the Wraith need both a lot of power to fully engage the older generation estat drivers, as well as an extremely clean source due to their impedance of only 4 Ohms and a sensitivity of 117 dB/mW (141 dB/V). Normally it is not the end of the world if the Wraith are not driven by a source with sufficient power, you just lose a little treble extension, but they remain very enjoyable. With the Masters of Classical Music series, however, this treble extension is essential to push the Wraith from ‘good’ to ‘amazing’. Within this context the Wraith actually work as a type of stress test for any source. I tried quite a few, even those with special ‘noise reduction’ features, and none have really been able to make the Wraith shine like I know they can. Closest was the Shanling M8 DAP, which still amazes me at how clean it is while using its “turbo gain” feature. The V380 of course did better, but I didn’t have that around anymore. What about its little brother then? How well does the V226 perform? Let’s have a look and find out…

Unboxing.

At times like this I often wonder why I even bother writing an unboxing section, but let’s try and stick to the format for a comprehensive review.

As I mentioned in my review of the V380, the people at Violectric are sensible people. Under the motto “tools, not toys”, they packed the V226 in a box with a lot of Styrofoam to ensure safe transport and didn’t bother with a lot of fancy details to create an ‘unboxing experience’. (If the experience of unboxing an item you bought has to come from the box rather than the item itself, you probably wasted your money.) Other than that, the box simply contained the V226, the power cord and a manual. Simple and to the point, just how I like it.

Design.

The V226 is a beautiful piece of equipment with an understated elegance to it. Where brands such as VivA Audio produce amps that can be painted in any color to match your interior, or indeed your Lamborghini Huracan, Violectric’s designs are more purposeful. At a distance it looks like a fairly unassuming black box with dials and switches, but when you get closer you start to see the attention to detail. Every aspect of the V226 looks and feels like it has been designed not to impress the observer, but the user. Close up you see the lovely brush work on the 5mm thick aluminum front plate. Every dial and every switch feels solid, and the V226 soon entices you to turn it on and plug your headphones in.

The layout is logical on both the front and the back. At the front (from left to right), there is the buttery smooth volume dial that feels solid and is easy to use. This is followed at the top row with the input (RCA 1, RCA 2, USB) and output (Headphone, Off, Line Out) switches, below which sit the 6.3mm single ended, 4-pin XLR and 4.4mm balanced headphone outputs. On the far right it ends with the On/Off button. On that subject, the headphone outputs are temporarily cut when turning the V226 on (i.e., delayed coupling) in order to protect any connected headphones from interferences. This takes about five seconds and I can say from experience that I greatly appreciate this sort of extra safety feature and it is a testament to Violectric’s attention to detail for the actual day-to-day use of the amp.

At the back we find the power socket on the far left with indicated what voltage the unit is set to, either 230V or 115V. This can however be manually switched inside of the V226 (see the manual for instructions). The power socket is followed by the RCA out and Pre/Post button. On the right side are the inputs that can be selected at the front, so again, RCA 1, RCA 2 and a USB-C socket for the digital USB input. Below the USB socket sit the Pre-Gain switches and I love these. These DIP switches allow the user to set the headphone amp pre-gain for each channel and offer seven settings; Off/0dB (all switches down), -18dB, -12dB, -6dB, +6dB, +12dB and +18dB. Note: To achieve -12dB, both -18dB and +6dB switches need to be switched on (up), while for +12dB the +18dB and -6dB switches need to be switched on (up). You can put the switches in other settings, it won’t harm the V226, but it won’t do anything either.

Especially with highly sensitive IEMs, I find that I can combine the -18dB setting with the volume of my transport (usually Tidal playing on my MacBook Pro) to allow me to set the volume dial to its ‘normal’ listening position of 12 o’clock. This provides plenty of room to play with the volume and should reduce the self-generated noise from the amp to an absolute minimum (more on that later).

The V226 itself is a really nice size and I actually prefer it over the size of the V380. I have plenty of desk space to place even a much larger amp, but I like the small compact size of the V226. Perhaps it is an indication of how chaotic my desk looks when I work, compared to the neat minimalistic images I create for my reviews. The manual states that the V226’s overall size is 170 x 49 x 306 mm. I think a typo slipped in there because the height is actually 69 mm instead of 49 mm. It is a very nice size and should be easy to fit on any desk, except for perhaps the smallest of student desks.

Under the Hood.

The V226 is a pre-amplifier, balanced headphone amplifier and DAC in one and within Violectric’s line-up represents the entry-level ‘DHA’ option. The ones above it are the V380² (an updated version of the V380 I previously reviewed), the V590² and the top-of-the-line V590² Pro, before moving onto Violectric’s high-end sister brand Niimbus. -Pardon me, I appear to have started drooling.- Each DHA offers more features such as 32-bit resampling, Balanced and XLR inputs, and a 256-step relay, as well as power and performance upgrades. The V226 might thus on paper feel fairly basic compared to the more feature rich higher-end models, but thanks to its outstanding performance achieves the same ‘Swiss Army knife’-type of versatility as the others.

The heart of the V226 is the amp, which is the successor to the V200, V280 and V281 amps that Violectric previously offered. It is a powerful amp that consists of:

“4 powerful amps offering 3500 mW Pmax into 100 Ohm and 23 V RMS into 600 Ohm“.

Here we again see how sensible Violectric is, as even their marketing is transparent. Max power is delivered at 100 Ohm and max voltage at 600 Ohm. Indeed, the manual has a neat table that shows exactly what amount of power and voltage corresponds to what resistance. Here you go:

Because of the Wraith, I actually started to become interested in these power curves and found that information about this is almost never given with DAPs. DAP manufacturers like giving the highest possible figure and leave it at that. Knowing exactly what you are buying is important and so I greatly appreciate the information that Violectric includes. That might well be more common for desktop gear than portable, but then it would underline that the portable industry still has some growing up to do.

The DAC is based on Cirrus CS 43131 with a typical 130 dB dynamic range and a THD as low as -115 dB. Here you do miss out on the 32-bit resampling offered on the higher-end models, which is able to achieve 180 dB dynamic range. I used this feature on the V380 and felt the difference was noticeable enough to simply leave it on all the time. The V226’s DAC comes with a USB-C terminal and supports PCM signals up to 32 bits and 384 kHz sample rate as well as DSD up to 256.

The lovely big volume dial is connected to an ALPS RK27 potentiometer. Quite honestly, I am not enough into these technical details that I can say anything sensible about it. However, the manual provides some background on the choice. (I could paraphrase it here and pretend to be a very technical reviewer, but that would be disingenuous and people who know me a little, know I am a ‘music lover’ audiophile rather than one who is more into the technical aspects.) Indeed, for a lot of the technical aspects I can highly recommend reading the manual. Rarely have I found a manual as useful as this. I am a man after all, and male stereotyping demands I ignore manuals and instead bash the IKEA cupboard with a hammer because the pieces won’t fit how I think they should fit.

The amp’s self-generated noise is claimed to be inaudible and I of course put this to the ultimate stress test by using the Wraith. When I did, I was very surprised that indeed the noise level is exceptionally low. There is some hiss noticeable in the background, but it remains at a level so low that it is barely noticeable once the music starts playing. Only with classical music is it noticeable during very quiet sections or chamber music such as Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons. I didn’t find it to be very distracting even though I am extremely sensitive to hiss. All-in-all I found the performance here very impressive when you consider that at 16 Ohms the V226 is already putting out 1,500 mW. So already I can say that the V226 passed my rather paradoxical test. That said, it does make me very curious whether or not top-end models such as the V590² Pro or Niimbus US 5 Pro could get the Wraith dead silent.

As indicated, I am a music lover-type of audiophile and all these things are relevant to me only in relation to the quality of the sound.

Page 2 – Sound analysis and Conclusions.