Much to my chagrin I’ve had too much else going recently on to reply to this in a timely fashion, but here is my long overdue write-up on these two amps:
Firstly, the THX 789 definitely lives up to its specs. In fact when I first got it and plugged in my Utopias I actually had a moment of wondering if I still needed the V281! The THX has lots of power, clarity, spaciousness, and a linear, uncolored sound. I find the Utopia to be a great pairing because it shares a lot of those characteristics with the amp. I currently use the THX 789 as the amp in my “B” rig so obviously, I will not be replacing my V281 with it, but in terms of quality sound reproduction the two amps are not so far apart as you’d imagine based on the vast price differential between the two (and I have the relay volume control V281 model.) The V281 has more grip on the music if that makes sense, just that little extra oomph and palbable feeling to the notes that I really like in this amp. I found the Massdrop THX amp to have a little more brightness that sometimes gave it an edge in clarity over the V281 with some recordings but other times became a bit grating to me and meant I had to turn my music down or switch amps in the middle of listening sessions. So there can be a listener fatigue factor that I don’t ever get with the Violectric amp.
The V281 is also more versatile in terms of headphone pairings for my money. Despite its impressive power specs I found the THX a bit too polite when paired with my more demanding headphones, like the HE6se and the LCD-4. That said, it is more than capable of handling those beasts and it is nice to have a gain knob on the front to make adjustments, it’s just that the V281 added some real juice to the dynamic swings that I feel are the strength of those headphones while the THX was a bit more of neutral observer. I haven’t given the THX AAA 789 much of a run out with my HD800S or Eikon headphones since they see almost exclusive use with my tube amp nowadays, but I do enjoy listening to my Sony MDR-Z1R’s on it. So you can see that for such a cheap amp the THX AAA scales well with totl headphones, but is still bested in my opinion by the V281’s flexibile, supple sound signature.
In terms of other features besides sound the V281 shows its quality (and price) pretty quickly. It’s build quality is such that I imagine you could drop it from a moving vehicle and have it still work, while the THX 789 would probably explode all over the pavement (though it is well-built). The pre-amp functionality of the V281 is very well implemented and a big plus, the volume knob and power button have a much more quality feel, there’s a 5 year warranty, remote, etc etc. Given the fully upgraded V281 costs about 9 times as much as the THX AAA 789, it damn well better wipe the floor with the cheaper amp on those factors! So from that perspective you get what you pay for, but if we’re just talking about sound... the THX holds its own. Now if anyone has heard the Benchmark HPA4 ($3000 msrp) w/THX AAA technology and can compare it to the V281 I’d love to know what you think.
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