(MAXIMUM POWER) Flux Lab Acoustics Mentor - Amp Analysis

The successor to Flux Lab Acoustics' fantastic FA-10 has arrived as The Mentor. The Mentor is a dual mono class-a amplifier with a modern and sophisticated style. The Mentor on it's own is a real powerhouse, but it has a stick up its sleave to go... even further beyond!

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Chapters
0:00 Introduction
1:00 Build
3:03 Teardown - The Nerdy Stuff
4:44 Sound Performance - FA-10 vs Mentor
11:10 Dual Mentor Mono Blocking
13:53 Sound Performance - Dual Mentor

#audiophile #headphones #reviews​ #mentor #tungsten @FluxLabAcoustics

[CrackaSlapYa]

I've had my Mentor since January and I damn LOVE IT.

[vaneast]

looks like a good relatively inexpensive option for the Tungsten thx
dual mono sounds awesome

[Yodamanjaro]

Using my Tungstens, I went from the Jot2 to a single Mentor and the way I described it was like going from a small closed room and opening a door to the outside world.

[JTB--]

Very informative Video. Great choice for the Tungsten. Too bad the Mentor will be hard to come by and be sold out most of the time

[Ratseeker]

Oh nice you managed to get that champagne colored faceplate in your FA-10.

I wish that was still an option. The blue option was what I got. Was great.

I wiah they wouldnt use metal switch toggles for the buttons. The FluxLab Volot has actual push-in buttons that you dont need to worry about them metal rods breaking in shipping.

[JohnnyADi]

THANK YOU, I thought I was going to have to make a video myself which I didnt want to have to do. Finally theres a second review of a mentor amp, unlike the volot.

I LOVE my flux mentor.

[staticosaur]

Can you compare Audio GD Master 9 or their alternatives to single Mentor for the Tungsten?

[Djimbe]

Tungstens legit do need something with SERIOUS power and Speaker Amps are the only Budget Friendly move thus far - it honestly needs its own solution - Mass Kobo 465 ($20K tho), Dual Flux Mentors, Ferrum Stack + Wandla, Dual Monoblock Thomann T.Amps (the 150 MKII w/35v gain are the cheapest option shipped, Soncoz SGP1, Black Ice F22/F35 ... collab amps are currently in the works with Enleum and Black Ice to power the things properly . - I preamp mine with a SPL Phonitor 2 for that sweet 120v swing - +60 VOLTS! plus THAT thing is in HIGH GAIN (an additional +24, I think?) And still it made me take the SP200 (once thought beefy AF) out of my Amp Rack and now it just collects dust on the floor a90/LA90 same fate (RIP) The (SUPER underrated) SP400 (w/all the Phonitor preamping) sounds better than AHB on it because of all of the (18?) Amps that thing is pushing perhaps, but its what I edit with now as the Imaging and accuracy of timbre is insane (yeah, who knew?, and the L70/A70 from topping are passable but still a TOUCH flat, but that may be the way they do the nested feedback thing which SMSL seems to have figured out better than they. The 281 only really worked when fed that much voltage and sounds phenomenal, but before that was, honestly, no better than HE1k was on it, despite the inverted impedance saddle.


I am SUPER glad that there is a company out there like Flux Labs that is making the Amps that I would make for Tungsten if I was a maker of Amps. I have been in the business for decades and that is a SERIOUS components list!!! I think that after I buy my Wife (A sound tech and video editor) her own pair of Tungstens that Flux Labs is getting my Money for SURE! Thanks for a great review and focusing me in on whats good - They have been on my radar, but I was not sure and was on the fence - no longer. The Monoblock Mentors sounds like what I have been looking for. all along.

[stTank]

Absolutely great review. Specially liked the point where u pointed out how to connect 2 of em. One question comes to mind. Which dac are You using with 2 mentors? I heard from Flux that they prefer 2r2 ladder dacs.

[markhershberger]

Hi Master, thank you for your enjoyable review of the Mentor, which echoes others I have heard or read about it. I have ZMF Vérité Open and Closed models as well the Calera Open. Zach recommends amplifiers with 1 ohm or greater output impedance so as to avoid over damping. Do you have any idea or experience as to inform you how these ZMF’s would perform with the Mentor, especially in the bass region with respect to Zach’s recommendation? I am aware that the Mentor’s is .01, so its very low output impedance concerns me, but I know there can be exceptions to rules of thumb. Any experience with the ZMF’s or thoughts about this as they would relate to the Mentor?

[KXP]

Would you be able to get a Burson Soloist Voyager for comparison?

[VitaliiIlchenko]

btw, all jokes aside (but quad-stack for 8Ohm IEM is, actually, funny one) - what about +/- sensitive stuff? I currently have HiFiMAN Serenade and Meze Liric, for example - it's a quite noisy combination. It sounds good as for me, but I definitely need ifi imatch for them :(

[RsdntAln]

Anyone compare a single mentor with an Audio Gd Master 9, Schiit Mjolnir 3 and an SPL Phonitor XE ?

[FabioKasper]

I should probably get a stack of these to power my 8 ohm IEMs.

[m-zurowski]

I could see this being someone's endgame amp. Considering what people say about it, and what you just tested with 2xmono setup, I'm really thinking about getting this to, once and for all, stop this stupid part of my brain that wants to connect speaker amps to my headphones XD

[TheVeganVicar]

I was very close to buying a Flux headphone amplifier, but eventually, I purchased an iFi Phantom.

[blejzerosamigos]

20 to 25% is not enough performance bump for you to justify it?
If your percentage is accurate this is huge difference and well worth the extra cost.

[thepedanticcreature]

I really, really want to support Flux Lab Acoustics but there is a PSA that needs to be applied whenever their products are discussed: None of them are currently CE (conformité européenne) licensed. At least in the EU, this risks problems with insurance claims from a house fire, even if the amp was not the source.

[Djimbe]

There's No Kill Like OverKill!!!

(If you know, you know)

[admiralnorman]

"DVI looking port" ...Am I old? And that is why i know what that really is?