Schiit Valhalla 2

Wish I could help you out there. I also use the hd650s and valhalla 2 right now with the Yggdrasil. I have a DS gungnir too but it's just sitting in a box at my friend's house. I do plan on eventually getting a better amp when I have the money. Like drfindley said, the Yggdrasil is PROBABLY not worth it for the V2 over the Gungnir Multibit. That being said, I do have a speaker system so it just made more sense for me to the best dac possible for the money since it work for both of my systems.

If you do get a Gungnir Multibit, you might get the "what if?" question if you don't ever get the chance to hear a Yggdrasil for yourself. If you can afford it and want the absolute word on resolution, imaging and soundstaging then go Yggdrasil. It'll have the best available dac technology as it becomes available to schiit.

 

Thanks guys, appreciate it. I'll have to give it some serious thought. Argh.

 

I'm thinking of purchasing a Valhalla 2 for my HD650 (currently using Vali). Are the stock tubes good? I like more neutral tube amps, but I want to stay far away from tube rolling.

 

Stock tubes are pretty good. You don't have to go crazy with rolling tubes or anything.

 

Good to hear. Valhalla 2 will probably be my Christmas present this year.

 

I know I mentioned this in an earlier post in this thread here:
http://www.superbestaudiofriends.org/index.php?threads/schiit-valhalla-2.175/#post-3852

But since Christmas is coming up I am really strapped for cash so I am going to have to wait on an Isobar (although I am extremely interested in the power strip/noise suppressor purrin suggested, I just cannot find where he put that link).

Anyway, I noticed something very interesting just a few minutes ago. I noticed with the gain switch set to low, there is no buzzing at all, it's only when I turn the gain switch to high gain that the buzzing is loud on the V2, and the HD800's seem to bring out the noise even more than the 650's (probably because it is a better headphone or something to do with more sensitive drivers impedance etc. not sure) - anyway, I noticed something interesting. If I have the V2's gain switch on high and touch it with my finger and hold my finger on the gain switch while it is on high-gain, the buzzing significantly quiets down. It is still there, but it is a heck of a lot quieter. Anyone know why that could be? Could it be bad ground and somehow when I touch it it grounds the switch a little bit thus lowering the buzzing sound? I just thought that was interesting that the buzzing would significantly quiet down even on high gain if I kept my finger on the gain switch.

Like I said, I still want to try a Isobar or even better, that power switch/line conditioner/noise suppressor that purrin posted a link to (I still cannot seem to locate his link).

Any ideas?

Thanks everyone -this V2 buzzing is driving me nuts.

 

thank you purrin - that was the one I was looking for. unfortunately I will have to wait until after Christmas, got to get my son his Christmas presents. Hopefully that will do the trick. Still kinda odd though that when the V2's gain switch is on low, there is no buzzing at all - when set to high gain (especially for the HD800's) the buzzing is a lot louder -but if I hold my finger on the switch when it is in high-gain, the buzzing noise goes down significantly - it is still there, but it is a lot less noticeable.

 

That sounds like some sort of grounding issue or feedback problem. Some sort of antenna effect going on as well O_O. I am not sure power line isolation will mitigate that.

 

hmm..I cannot figure out what it could be. I do not have any antennas, I have tried turning off different electronic devices - I am just at a loss - just know that buzzing is driving me nuts.

 

Do you hear the buzzing if you take this to a friend's or family's house or at work in a quiet room? Like, have you isolated the fault to the fact that it is your wall plugs and the incoming AC current that's causing the buzzing? I would go nuts over that kind of buzzing. Perhaps try wrapping a multi-strand wire (any speaker wire or anything else will do) around the high/low switch, and attach the other end to some kind of metal (bedframe, chair frame, desk legs, etc) and see what happens. That's really weird. What is Schiit's take on it when you contacted them?

 

Schiit was really cool, they actually sent me 2 replacement units, both both of those had the same issue - so my only conclusion is it has o be something in my house or a neighbors house causing this. I loaned Gunner my V2 a couple of times and he is in a different state and he said he did not hear buzzing so it has to be something in my home or a neighbor on either side of me. I know the neighbor to my left has a satellite dish -I know that might be far-fetched, but I cannot figure out what it could be in my home. I have even went so far as to make sure almost every single electronic device was turned off in my home. Microwave unplugged, cellphone off, TV, Blu-ray, DVD all unplugged, I dunno what else to try in my home other than your suggestion of trying a wire around the switch. I do not have a speaker wire, can you suggest another type of wire I could try? and Thank you for your support and help in trying to help me resolve this issue.

 

What kind of wire do you have? Practically any isolated wire can work. Telephone line wire, antenna wires, any kind. Just something malleable to be able to wrap the conductors around the switch and the grounding metal of sort. It really seems like a grounding issue, or somehow something in the amp is acting like an antenna. You can even buy the $2 speaker wires in the dollar store. Try grounding both the power switch metal and the gain switch metals, maybe even attach one with scotch tape/electrical tape, to the aluminum chassis itself.

My mind is the kind that even the buzzing you get from turning a TRS plug in a phone annoys me, or even a fridge buzz. So, I can completely understand your pain, and I would have probably thrown my Valhalla 2 at the wall if I heard buzzing from it (and it wasn't the tubes).

 

I'll give it a try - I'll try to pick up a cheap speaker wire. What should I ground the wires to? Or just wrap them around the switches and attach the other end of the wire to the chassis with electrical tape.

 

Usually you want to attach it to some other piece of metal, like a bedframe, table/desk legs or chair legs. Although, maybe try connecting the switch to the chassis itself, but I don't think that can fix it. This is of course a temporary fix until you can find some sort of AC isolation like you described above. It's just that you found a way of quieting down the buzz by holding the switch, which means if the chassis or the switch were grounded to another metal, the issue should become minimized.

 

thank you kapanak

 

I actually have the exact same problem with my V2. The thing that confuses me is that the buzzing noise is present only when connected to a particular laptop; when hooked up to a Macbook for example, the background noise is completely silent. It also disappears completely if I unplug the power supply from the "noisy" laptop. Please let me know if you come up with a practical solution for this!

 

Sure thing

 

I ran into something confusing. On my V2 I am using AMPEREX ORANGE GLOBE 6DJ8 ECC88 VACUUM TUBE 1969 MATCH PAIR like these:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/AMPEREX-ORA...928493?hash=item33ae610eed:g:D3cAAOSwuWVWFCmN

I have them inserted into the back 2 slots of the V2 - which I was told are the output tubes. However, the description on ebay says they are input tubes. Aren't the input tubes on the V2 the front pair of tubes and are smaller then the 2 tubes in the back? And aren't the front tubes supposed to be smaller than the back tubes? I am really confused. A friend of mine uses Amperex Orange globes 6DJ8 in the front - is it ok to do this? IS it better to have the orange globes as input tubes or output tubes? I am really confused...