Virtue Audio One.2 review w/ 30v/80w power supply & (2) 12v x 5 amp battery power supplyAs a follow-up to my early impressions posted prior in this thread ...
I’ve had the One.2 for 17 days now w/ ~ 60 hrs. of loaded run time. Let me say up front that I have been a budget audiophile for a great many years, & this product definitely fits in my “budget audio” hall of fame right up there w/ Spica TC-50 speakers, AR turntable, Premier MMT tonearm, Grado cartridges, Superhon Dual Revelation preamp, Oppo BDP-83, etc..
The One.2 is great fun, silly good value & a real joy to listen to!
I sampled w/ & w/o my servo sub (Rythmik F12) & w/ (2) sets of speakers: av123 ELT525 towers w/ Skiing Ninja master upgrades (Sonicap Platinum bypasses, No Rez) & GR Research N2x’s w/ Sonicap upgrades & No-Rez. I A/B’d against my Denon 90w/ch AVR.
I listened to lots of CD Redbook familiar material thru my Oppo-BDP-83SE, enlisted my unbiased wife to hear a few choice tracks (she immediately noticed the One.2 improved sound), & repeated a given same song many times to compare. Typically I set volume to 82- 85 dB dB peak range in my 17' x 11' x 8' den.
Engaging the One.2 80 Hz jumper, switching fuses w/ a 6.3 amp slo-blo, & adding the (2) 12v x 5amp battery power supply garnered the best results for me: more inner detail, deeper soundstage, subtle but sweet nuances, a little more punch. Connecting the sub out to the servo sub filled-in the bottom end nicely.
The One.2 strength is tight, dynamic bass. It takes you aback esp. given its diminutive size. Detail is another big plus. It has a real clean sound to it. Listening to Smashing Pumpkins Geek USA, there is a rapid kick drum run at the beginning. The One.2 coupled w/ the servo sub brought out detail & impact that I had never heard from this song.
I played Silver from the Pixies-Doolittle for my son (who has those younger ears w/ superior hearing to mine) & he said it sounded like a live performance. No better compliment than that!
I never experienced listener fatigue which I am fairly susceptible to. It’s quite smooth, but it’s still solid state. On a couple of hot mixes, I picked up some sibiliance (moreso on the N2x planar tweeters). I can see where the Dodd Audio tube buffer could be an ideal fit to address less than optimum recordings.
Both the 2.2 uF & .1 uF Virtucaps sounded good, but I know from experience that the Sonicaps w/ platinum bypasses would definitely be a worthwhile upgrade.
Thanks Mariusz for setting this up & thanks Seth for the pleasure of auditioning your products. The One. 2 is truly a giant killer for what it does. I can easily see this as a permanent fixture in my 2 ch rig, unless I drop some more moolah to get the Sensation w/ tube buffer & Sonicaps upgrade …