Schiit Jotunheim impressions

Something to do with voltage swings and headroom. It's science meets voodoo, minus the voodoo.

Think of it like a car. A Prius can go 110 (don't ask me how I know), but a Ferrari can do it with less strain, shaking, and odd looks. Also doesn't inspire as much of a guilty "I'm doing it wrong, my mom is going to be mad at me" feeling.

 

There's a huge difference between "loud" and "driven properly". HD650 straight out of a Mojo goes loud, but it sounds like ass, distinctly anaemic- lacking bass and high end sparkle. HD650 out of a Magni 2 Uber goes loud enough that it could sterilise distant cows- but the bass is still a soupy mess, and the whole sound is laid-back to the point of having fallen over.

I'm not sure what the actual missing factors are, probably someone better at analogue electronics will chime in soon and say something wise about voltage swing, or remind us of Ohm's law in a patient manner. However, once you hear the difference (assuming that your source and transducers are up to the job), you'll do a sex wee.

 

And I reckon 'driven properly' is a largely subjective term that differs from person to person, that's dependent on what the resulting sound is from the combination of the sound of the headphone, amp, and dac.

One example would be my personal experience with the HD800 driven off uberfrost/asgard2 vs uberfrost/valhalla2. Some people prefer it with the Valhalla2, I definitely prefer it with the Asgard2. Some people might like the more aggressive midrange on the Valhalla2 and thus consider that as a properly driven HD800, I considered the warmer sound and more refined bass of the Asgard2 as better driving the HD800.

 

I'm not sure that it is, there are many many things that can make an amp fail to drive headphones properly- factors that can be measured and quantified. For example, output impedance being too high can cause uneven frequency response- and can also lead to a low damping factor that increases THD. It's not subjective, and can be measured quite handily with a dummy head and some suitable mics.

There are lots of other factors which cause measurable degradation of the performance of headphones. If I wasn't ignorant and sleepy, I'm sure I would bore you with them. Luckily for both of us, I'm a tool.

However, not everyone keeps a dummy head about their person at all times, so if headphones that you know to be capable are sounding really terrible due to bad amplification, it's often enough to just say so and live dangerously with the lack of precision. If you get down to really tiny differences, then maybe you can dismiss it as nowt but subjective- but when the frequency response is miles outside of spec? Not so much.

 

We just went over how a less than desirable damping factor could lead to a more pleasing sounding amp-headphone combination. When it comes down to it, nearly all amps are going to objectively measure great-- even good tube amps will measure great. The major differences lie in components used in the amps, which can lead to subjectively better sound qualities, but that doesn't mean a lesser amp isn't driving a headphone improperly, it's just not doing as good compared to a theoretical better amp.

I've never liked the notion of 'properly driven,' it's one of those head-fi trendy terms I've seen get thrown around too much. What people are after is a good subjective pairing between the headphone and its upstream components, otherwise known as synergy, which is more of a thing than being driven properly.

To put it in other words, improper vs proper is very black and white, compared to the shades of gray that you'd get with progressively better amps and synergestic pairings. There are a few rare cases where an amp just craps out trying to push enough power for a headphone, but in cases like that you'd definitely know what is wrong.

 

While @jexby's comparison of Jodie's internal DAC to the M4490 is quite helpful, I'm wondering if anyone could offer any thoughts as to how it might compare to the BF4490. Similar sound? A more balanced tone would be intriguing. I favored the BF4490 over its Modi counterpart on account of its flashier technicalities. More spacious, better extension.

The amp is undoubtedly the star of the show here, but, like @schiit said, a (quality) balanced 4490 implementation is nothing to sneeze at. Strikes me as a pretty freakin' huge value for an extra 100 bones. The prospect of a balanced system without additional components and/or cabling is an appealing notion to anal retentive aesthetes like myself.

 

I dunno, I see your point, but one person's "properly driven" is still another's "not operating within spec", due to cloth ears and human frailty. What people are after is first of all an amp which doesn't fail the basic specs hurdle to drive the headphones correctly- low enough output impedance, enough power, non-marginal voltage swing etc.. After that, then yes, once you get into qualitative piffle, it becomes gloriously subjective. However, it's more than possible to fail to drive headphones properly long before you ever get to the point of stroking your luxuriant beard and "hmm"-ing over the finer subjective aspects.

If someone tries to plug a pair of HD650 into a phone, and claim it's "subjective" whether they're working properly, it may be stretching things a bit- even if they get them to go loud.

Edit: Oh crap, you said something similar:

Fair dos, you are probably largely right.

However, it is worth remembering that the line can be deceptive- and there's a lot of people who just claim that some horrid, flappy underdamped bass is just a "subjective" preference, when what you have is an actual impedance issue that the manufacturer would be unhappy with.

 

I just received my Jotun, and I will be writing up a comparison between that the Liquid Carbon that I own. Seems fair, considering they're both balanced amps in (very roughly) the same price point range.

And for @AllanMarcus this goes for you too - don't know if you know this, but I am chowmein83 on HF and I'll try to get that comparison written up (not sure if I can do it by this week, Jotun arrived later than I originally thought apparently due to the popularity of the amp).

 

Maybe this deserves a sticky somewhere.

 

So... should people looking for a headphones and speaker solution go for Ragnarok or Jotunheim and whatever 2ch thing Schiit comes out with next?

I hate waiting.

 

The Rag brighter than Jotun?

 

Never thought of Ragnarok as bright with unmodded HD 800 or HD 800 S. I might not be sensitive to bright, though.

 

I now own this amp and agree with @Hands' impressions. I am still waiting for another set of XLR cables before doing a careful comparison between it and the Jotun, but the Jotun has a lot of family resemblance to the Mjol2.

 

Got my balanced CIEM cables finally. First impressions? I don't really notice much of a difference. Goes to show how good the Jotun's SE output is! The balanced output is slightly noisier than the SE output but that's to be expected. There's a little bit less volume knob usage as well. I'll do some more listening after dinner and then figure out if it was worth $225 to get these cables and its adapters (most likely not).

On a side note, the Forza Hybrid cable is really nice looking and feeling. However, the nylon sleeving adds a little bit of weight to the cable so I would have preferred the cable without it. It's fine while sitting down, so I'll have to see how the cable is when I'm on the move tomorrow.

 

I found Ragnarok sterile, not euphonic, cold. With Yggdrasil and HD 800. I guess that's what you guys are calling bright. Overall not engaging or pleasant.

I'm really hoping for Elear and Jotunheim to be a more pleasant experience without losing too much plankton.