Sound Impressions
Summary
The VOLTA has a near-neutral signature that smoothly balances the bass and mids, with a small brilliance region peak that gives it some welcomed energy.
The presentation has a pleasing warmth and fullness to the mids, making every listen comfortable and engaging.
The sound stage sizing is only slightly above average but is backed by a strong technical performance that ensures a dynamic presentation. Detailing and texturing from top to bottom is competitive with its peers.
Just as I felt about the SONORA, the VOLTA’s tuning fails to wow out of the box with boosted extremes or any single aspect to hook you, instead showing its value through multiple listens.
This style of earphone grows on you over time, and through its competence and consistency displays why it belongs in the upper echelon of the earphone segment.
Bass
The bass from the VOLTA’s dual isobaric dynamic drivers is evenly emphasized from lower to upper bass, with sub-bass regions seeing a small but significant bias.
The presentation brings just the right amount of power and warmth to the signature, leaving the VOLTA sounding very natural.
Extension into sub-bass regions is excellent. This, along with the mild sub-bass bias, results in extremely deep notes having a delightfully visceral feel that gives off a satisfying rumble that doesn’t intrude or sound excessive or out of place.
The texturing of these drivers is fantastic and grungy, with crunchy notes sounding appropriately detailed and dynamic. Combined with the visceral lower bass presentation, the VOLTA’s bass is very immersive and involving for the listener.
The dual isobaric configuration also helps with speed, giving off rapid attacks and decay qualities that display plenty of control. Every note is clear and distinct, free of bloat or smearing.
Mids
VOLTA’s midrange is clear and prominent. The tuning balance means that there are no notable peaks needed to bump presence and keep the mids from being overshadowed by the other frequencies.
The presentation is reasonably thick with an appropriate warmth that benefits vocals, especially female vocalists. Detail and clarity are good, and while I never felt I was missing out on the finer nuances of a track, those details never really stood out either.
While the VOLTA’s midrange peaks around 3k, it is barely elevated over the surrounding frequencies. And yet, percussives attack with confidence and control, giving the VOLTA an appropriately urgent and effortless sound with fast tracks.
Sibilance management from the VOLTA is something other brands should strive to match. Tracks with a hot vocal mastering have the edge taken off and are much more listenable through the VOLTA than much of the competition.
Treble
Twin electrostatic drivers control the high range of the VOLTA. Where the tuning in the bass and midrange is quite even with small peaks and smooth transitions, the high range is like that until around 7k and 8k where a more prominent spike occurs and the brilliance region bias kicks in.
While this adds some notable energy to the presentation, it is far from extreme. It simply serves to give the VOLTA some sparkle and shimmer that does nothing to detract from the general balance and naturalness of the overall presentation.
As I found with the mids, the detail and clarity in the treble region are quite good but not class-leading. I never struggle to hear the finer details, but they’re also not blindingly obvious or shoved forward, and the result is vibrant but non-fatiguing.
Thanks to the application of electrostatic drivers, notes attack and decay very quickly. Even on congested tracks, each note remains distinct and defined, free of the unintended slop or splash that can plague other driver configurations or lesser-tuned products.
Staging & Dynamics
The sound stage of the VOLTA is spacious but not abundant. The default vocal positioning starts at the edge of the inner ear and spreads from there in a rounded and balanced way.
Sounds and effects can move very close, which helps set the mood on an intimate track, and spread decently far, stopping just before the shoulder. This, mixed with an even impression of height, width, and depth, gives the VOLTA an immersive stage.
While immersive, the stage size isn’t much beyond average. So, unlike with the SONORA, I did not find myself being tricked by track elements into thinking I was hearing something in my surrounding environment.
Moving to the VOLTA’s technical performance, there is nothing to fault. Channel-to-channel movement is crisp and nuanced, regardless of whether we’re moving just off-center or out to the edges of the sound stage.
Tracks sound deep and layered, with distinct spacing that helps with the immersive quality mentioned earlier. Also impressive is the VOLTA’s ability to separate individual instruments, keeping them clear and distinct from one another.
Picking out and following a single instrument, even on congested tracks, is no problem, though the VOLTA’s electrostatic driver can’t pull out as much detail and texture as the AMT found in oBravo’s Clio. The VOLTA comes very close, though, while sounding more natural.
Synergy
Efficiency
The VOLTA has a sensitivity of 109 dB/mW @ 1 kHz and an impedance of 10Ω @ 1 kHz. It is quite efficient and easy to bring up to volume.
Like its stablemate, the SONORA, the VOLTA does not take on the qualities of the source in play. If paired with a warm DAC or DAP, it retains its neutral signature, and likewise with cooler, brighter sources.
I was expecting some background hiss when paired with certain devices, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was a rarity and minor when present.
Earstudio’s HUD100 gave off the expected pop when plugging the VOLTA into the high output port intended for hard-to-drive, full-sized headphones, but after that, there was just the slightest hiss present.
Everything else I ran the VOLTA through sounded clean with a black background, free of unwanted interference. The VOLTA synergizes well across devices of varying price and quality.
Pairings
Given the cable arrived terminated with the 4.4mm balanced output option, the VOLTA was tested with the SNOWSKY RETRO NANO, Questyle M15C, and Shanling M1 Plus.
Through the RETRO NANO, the VOLTA sounds decent but lacks dynamics. Staging loses depth, and the presentation is missing the low-end grunt experienced when pairing the VOLTA with other, higher-end products.
The RETRO NANO can still get it up to volume easily, though, and can even output at extremely low volumes, which is ideal for quiet environments, all with a black background.
Given the price differential between the two products and how their target audiences are, well, completely different, this duo isn’t all that bad.
Questyle’s M15C pairs better with the VOLTA than with the SONORA, as I didn’t hear any of the subtle background hiss that pairing experienced.
The overall experience was excellent, with the M15C enabling a snappy, well-rounded performance that compliments the VOLTA’s neutral tuning.
The bass digs deep and provides satisfying visceral feedback, the mid-range is forward and clear, and the treble presentation is well-extended with a crisp, well-controlled note presentation. The VOLTA’s excellent staging also shines through when paired with the M15C.
Shanling’s M1 Plus could easily drive the VOLTA properly at very low and very high volumes. It never left the VOLTA sounding anemic or unnatural, there was never any background hiss, and it allowed me to enjoy the music and the earphones without interruption.
While not something I feel the VOLTA needs, as the stock tuning is nigh perfection, the M1 Plus contains extensive tuning options, from filters to EQ’ing, that you can use to alter the VOLTA’s output.
If you want more upper-end energy or presence in the low end, you can achieve that when pairing the VOLTA with the M1 Plus.
