Schiit Jotunheim impressions

I could be in the lab listening to my reference system: RN D16 -> MC-3+ -> Yggdrasil -> ZDSE -> HD800
But this relatively inexpensive system is quite captivating; just plain fun listening. I'm content to stick with this tonight.

 

Show off.

 

When using as a preamp, or the Mjolnir 2 for that matter, are the balanced and SE outputs active at the same time? For instance, can I feed balanced to my amps and SE to powered subwoofers?

 

Since only the inputs can be selected, I would assume all the outputs are active at all times.

 

Yes

 

@Bill-P Damn it, I ordered a tripp lite isobar because of your post. I needed some extra outlets anyways... . I'm sure it'll help clean up my Yggdrasil, Virtue One.3, and PC power as well. I'll report back if I receive it via amazon same day delivery today.

 

OK, I can give you a half-assed response to the first part now. Subjective rather than amatuer-measured, so please deploy a pinch of salt. Lots of conjecture as well as observation follows. I have mostly been playing with HD650, HE400i, Modi Multibit and Chord Mojo.

I love the sound of the Magni 2U, it's a gutsy little amp-that-can. It's clean, powerful, but not the most resolving, possibly not the fastest. However, I have been running it with my Modi Multibit and occasionally the Mojo, and it has done a sterling job. The sharper detail presentation of the Modi possibly has punched through a bit better, making for a really enjoyable listen, especially on my unmodded HD650s. Although a very "relaxed" sound, it was extremely easy on the ears, and there was plenty going on.

The HE400i sounded a bit.. sharp on that setup, the transients were maybe having some issues. I don't know how much the Magni 2U overruns, and what the HE400i does itself, but the combination was troublesome on some brighter material. I think the HE400i have a mid-treble spike somewhere too possibly- maybe this exacerbates it?

Flash forward to the Jotunheim...

Fed by the Modi Multibit, the HD650s sound.. well, the amount of detail is initially overwhelming. In contrast to the very laid-back, slightly rolled-off sound of the Magni 2, it sounded jarring at first. It took a while before my brain caught up and I could enjoy the sound. Bass is more defined, details are very crisp. Going balanced leads to a little bit more fine detail (after making a half-arsed effort to volume match). As an example, in "Word On A Wing" by Bowie, there is a xylophone low in the mix. On the Magni 2U, you can hear it, it sounds sweet and pleasant. On the Jotenheim, even SE, it's much clearer.. and if I go balanced on the HD650, the initial tiny sharp attack of each note is audible. Wow. We're not in Kansas any more. It's going to take some time for my brain to burn in and get used to the sound, but it has a lot of potential. Both SE and balanced sound good- the difference between SE and balanced isn't night and day, but is worth having.

The HE400i really surprised me, so far. This is a very preliminary comment, as I don't have a lot of time on this combo. Going SE only (I don't have a balanced cable for them yet), it sounds.. really nice! I was expecting the more serious resolving power of the Jotenheim to make the slightly harsh/bright SS sound more of an issue than it was, but they are behaving much more politely then they did on the Magni. I have a crackpot theory that goes "something something better impulse response means less overrun that sounds exaggerated on this slightly quirky planars.." but since I am currently too lazy to attempt even a set of gonzo measurements, could be barking up completely the wrong tree. I am seriously tempted to get the HE400i cabled up for balanced- though they're easy to drive in a lot of ways, there may be an audible improvement.

I still find that on either headphones, I am not yet used to the extra detail and crispness. I suspect that's not because there's much wrong with the what I'm hearing, just that the Magni 2U is surprisingly laid-back for SS in some respects (at least to my ears). Of course, it also doesn't manage the sheer level of transient detail that the Jotenheim can manage. However, I am still irrationally fond of it, and feel bad about it sitting there unplugged and unloved.

Downsides:

I have discovered that I am one of those people who can hear the difference between 256k AAC and lossless, now I have upgraded my amp (going Modi Multibit->Jotu->HD650 balanced). I did some ABXing of that newish Macy Gray binuaral album, and gave up after getting the first ten right. Maybe that was just a massive fluke.. or maybe I am going to have to start being sensible and storing everything lossless, and converting it to AAC for my mobile devices. That does imply a lot of faff though- I'd probably want to make space for a little Linux server that I could use to to the conversion nicely with FDKAAC, rather than kludging something up on my Windows desktop using either the Fraunhofer or Apple encoders.

I would have to tidy the spare room for that, it's a lot of effort and expense, but knowing that I can hear the difference will gnaw at me.. grr!

Additional:

The Mojo sounds less underwhelming through the Jotenheim than it did through the Magni 2. I think it's a bit too polite in how it presents detail for an amp that isn't a detail fiend. It actually sounds pretty good- though I don't have enough time on the Mojo/Jotenheim to be more definite. I actually think I need to have some uninterrupted listening time to adjust to the new sound, and form firmer conclusions- even subjective ones.


Sorry if the above was hand-wavy nonsense, it was a bit stream of consciousness. It's WOT I RECKON after a very short period of listening, mostly with only two pairs of headphones, and only one one them with a balanced cable available. Executive summary- it really is an upgrade over the Magni 2U, and bloody well should be, at three times the price

(..whether you want to upgrade to another SS amp or go tubular, of course, is a whole 'nother matter. I'm lazy and love the robustness and simplicity of SS, though probably would enjoy the sound of a well-matched and clear tube amp on my HD650, if I was less lazy and richer.)

 

Thanks for the comments.

If you are using an iPhone and iTunes for your library (I can't see your profile, you have it locked down), you can store everything in ALAC and then when it copies music to your iPhone, it will automatically convert it to 256 AAC, or less if you need more space on your phone.

 

...

 

So is there a consensus on the best headphone pairing with this amp? I know I'm asking backwards, but currently I don't have an amp or 'phones... so I'm looking at a whole package.

My all time favorite setup was HD 800 & Eddie Current Super Seven, followed by LCD-X & BMC PureDAC. I'm all over the place, I know. I value detail first, euphony second, then anything else.

 

Isn't the Jot single-ended as well?

 

Do you think that the SE on the Jotun is so good because of the new Pivot Point topology and the balanced to SE conversion or something else? The SE on the Jotun is phenomenal with the UERMs and if there's not much of a difference between balanced and SE with the UERMs then I'd rather not have to deal with aftermarket cables. I'm still waiting on my damn cables from USPS.

 

Ahh, ok. Makes sense

I would say a lot of folks here also love spending money on shit that arguably isn't better in a DBT, but thems fightin' words to some, so I wont press it.

I'd love to see a jot with no card slot and a three way output switch (HP, preout, both).

A $200 SE jot might just be what the Magni 3 is.

 

What are you stacking your schiit under?

 

Aye, sadly, it's not that simple, for me- what I use is already too hetrogenous. The only real way to do it would be "properly", by butchering some of my old mass conversion scripts (originally for remuxing MXFs and updating logging notes, I think) to handle this- or write some ugly Python to do it. At which point, I may as well build yet another Linux box, and sling it on my network- one with enough grunt to do AAC coding relatively snappily as well as serving SMB. (The good thing is that the Fraunhofer encoder scores about the same as the Apple one in blind tests, and you can build FFMPEG to use it if you know how, so it's not a second-rate option.)

The reason that I haven't done this yet is that it's literally too much like work, except with no-one paying me to do it

I would say "more resolving" rather than brighter. If a proportion of the errant fine detail is higher frequency, then it could sound subjectively brighter at first, despite theoretically being a more accurate sound. Someone using shrill headphones like Grados (or some of the brighter AKGs, maybe) could find this problematic. Mind you, a long-term user of either of those headphone options might be used to what a pain in the ass they are to pair, anyway, and probably has their EQ game on point to control matters.

The Jotenheim does something noticable to the HD650 sound. However, I don't think it's just exaggerating some high frequency bands where some lost detail lies; I'm hearing more detail and texture in the bass as well, which is more tight and controlled too. I think it's just more resolving, and producing more detail in general. I think we're at home to Herr Doktor Slew Rate, amongst other things.

I think it sounded a bit brighter to me because I was used to the slightly slow-sounding Magni 2, which can't quite get as much out of fine detail and sharp transients. I really enjoyed that combo, it was like comfy old slippers... but returning to grown-up shoes may have been a bit of a shock.

Of course, all of this could be expectation bias, but if it is, then it's a very sophisticated version, that also confers increased ABX powers.

 

The material under the Jotenheim and spacing the others in the stack is Belkin simple black mouse pad cut to appropriate size. No feet, keeps devices from moving about and acts as a vibration damper. All for a few dollars per mouse pad.