Review: Audiovalve Solaris – Oh Baby!

Solaris is linear and it doesn’t put bass, mids or treble up front. Its sound is balanced with great left/right balance and excellent 3-dimensionality. The positioning of the instruments is spot on. Sound stage wise the Solaris excels both in wide and depth. You get great extension on both ends, with great layering. Spaciousness and separation are exactly right for my ears. The Solaris’ tonality is to the warmer and smoother side of neutral but for a tube amp the Solaris is actually fairly to the neutral side. The music is delivered in a smooth and oh so lovely musical way.

Another thing I really love about the Solaris are the dynamics and speed with which it delivers your music, the Solaris has great PRaT. On top of all this you from bass to treble get a very high resolution, the level of detail just is impressive. A high level of detail doesn’t mean this amplifier is analytical, cause it is not. Think musicality over pure analytics but always with great clarity. If female vocals are your thing (they are for me), then you will love this amp, but in general the Solaris voices are exceptionally good, natural and romantic.

The Solaris does everything so effortless, it is a pure pleasure to listen to. It’s musical, rich, extended,  easy on the ear and completely non-fatiguing. What’s not to like?

Bass goes deep and shows great layering. The level of bass detail is high and the presentation is always tight. Body wise bass is just right for me, that means it’s a little over neutral but not too much. You get great punch and impact in combination with detail and depth. It’s yum. The mid part flows perfectly from the bass and it’s just as rich. The mids have good layering and the right amount of space to let the richness come fully out. It’s also a bit on the warmer side and as said the voiced are to die for. Treble is smooth and also slightly warmer. Treble is extended, dynamic and precise but it is softer on the ears. Treble won’t sound harsh or sibilant but it’s really easygoing.

As you’ve noticed it is extremely hard for me to say something bad about this amplifier, but if there’s anything I’d give a little push, it would be a little more aggressive treble. That’s just me however and treble as it is very good to say the least, it’s just soft and smooth and perfectly in line with the rest of the sound.

Headphones

The Hifiman HE-1000 V2 is one of my favorite orthodynamic high end headphones and for me it seems as if the Solaris was made for it. In Single Ended mode you get great bass, really rich mids and soft romantic treble, all of that with an incredible precision. In balanced mode, the HE-1000 V2 sounds even wider and spacious but it’s a little lighter in body. Treble is a bit more how I like in balanced mode but both SE as well as balanced mode with this headphone are impressive. A great match.

The Focal Utopia is an incredible dynamic headphone and from the Solaris it in Single Ended mode sounds spot on, rich, exceptionally layered and precise. The Solaris and Utopia combination is excellent 3-dimensional wise, your music is spacious and you can pinpoint each and every position. The only thing I like a little less is the bass as it for some reason sounds a bit looser. The voices ore more upfront but that’s the typical Utopia presentation, not the amp’s. In balanced mode bass is more under control and you get an even better balanced sound from bottom to top.

From Sennheiser’s HD800 (using the OTL output setting), you get a detailed HD800 with a touch of soft- and smoothness. Bass is great and of course the width and depth of the HD800 are legendary. For a lot of people the HD800 is a little harsh in the treble region but with the Solaris that for me is absolutely not audible. The difference in balanced mode with the HD800 is not as evident as with the other headphones used in this review.

The Klipsch Heritage HP-3 we reviewed a few weeks ago, sound very full bodied, smooth and musical. Bass might be a bit big for some people though, especially as it’s just a bit looser. The mids are very rich, smooth and warm and treble is soft and very forgiving. I don’t have a balanced HP-3 cable to test it in balanced mode though.

After hearing how great the Hifiman HE-1000 sounded from the Solaris, I expected a lot the orthodynamic Kennerton Odin but to me the magic in single ended mode just wasn’t there as much. Sure you get great detail and a natural presentation with great vocals but the depth, spaciousness and especially bass presence is a bit missing for me. In balanced mode you do get more body in bass and mids and the Odin sounds a whole lot better, but it still isn’t the best match to my ears.

As the Odin and Audeze LCD-2 in many ways are comparable to me, I was pleasantly surprised to hear that the LCD-2 sounds excellent from the Solaris. Yes it’s somewhat softer, but it’s musical, punchy, more spacious and the LCD-2 has bigger body. In balanced mode the LCD-2 it loses a bit of the body in bass and mids and I as a result prefer it in single ended mode.

With the Hifiman JADEII headphone, the Solaris performs well, but you always have to put it in high gain and the volume goes up quite a bit. I would need to experiment more with other electrostat headphones, but at his stage I would say that the Solaris isn’t the most recommended for this type of headphones. The sound is smooth and layback, but less energetic compared to the JADEII amp.

End Words

Waw, waw, waw. This amplifier impressed me in all possible ways. Sure you might not love the way it looks but that’s personal. The Audiovalve Solaris doesn’t come cheap but in return you get a reference headphone amp, with a large number of in -and outputs that can handle low impedance, high impedance and even electrostat headphones all in one. If that’s not enough for you then there’s also the perfect build quality, the integrated phono module and the fact that you can use it as a speaker amp.

The Audiovalve Solaris is a prefect TOTL do-it-all amplifier, and yes, I love it.

Features & Full Specs can be found on the last page