The All Purpose Advice Thread

RE-00 over P1, easily. P1 for my ears had nothing the HD650 does.
The RE-00 actually has, but it is brighter and leaner. Mids are good though. Tone is dense and meaty as it should be, like HD650.
Do try the Orion first, it is reportedly very good, probably bests both upper recommendations.

 

Hiya Friends,

Got got some tax back and I'm looking to upgrade my system.
Got a bit of a mixed bag at the moment.
Got an HRT headstreamer as a dac/amp and Beyer T51 and sen HD700.

I'm thinking of getting the Schiit Jot and a HD650 but it's quite a massive investment for me at the moment having 2 small kids.

I got the 700's quite cheep and there are some 650's on sale at the moment so I'll just sell whichever pair I like the least and probably I wont loose too much.

If I do go down this route I'll be spending a lot more on amp/dac than headphone which seems to be breaking a rule of thumb but it seems like a recommended system and I like the idea of getting a nice amp so I can get other headphones or iems.

I was originally thinking of getting the Hifiman he400i and the Modi multi and Vali 2.
Still playing around with that idea as I really like the idea of multibit.

It's sort of hard for me to get to places to listen to things as I'm out the in the country and getting time away from the kids is pretty difficult. So thanks for your help

 

I found the improvement between Lyr 1 and Mjolnir 2 fairly substantial, less warm, hit harder, more detailed, but idk how similar Lyr 1 and 2 sound. Idk what you have, or are looking for in an amp, but primary headphones at the time of that transition were HE500, Ether, Alpha Dog and a franken AD2000

 

Jot is a good value purchase, probably will make you sell your HD700 if you get the HD650 with it. In the long term you'll save money by getting right stuff to begin with.
You can get the Jot barebone and use with you current dac and later add Modi MB or maybe even MB slot dac to Jot if it comes available.

 

I had to go figure that one out. It was theShure SCL3's. I used them for a while for both live music monitoring and music listening. I thought that even the Westone single driver UM Pro 10's had better detail and more focused low end. I'm currently using the Dual driver UM Pro 20's.

 

Thanks Priidik, yeah one of the things I'd like to avoid is buying gear that I'll just want to replace later. I do here that a multi-bit dac will come out for the jot eventually. Happy to wait for that, plus the current dac module I think will be orders of magnitude better than what I have.

Well I have the Beyer's which are amazing portable headphones and the HRT is a usb powered amp/dac so it's great for on the move, well not so much on the move but say for working at an office.

I'm thinking that I could get a better sound with desktop style gear for less money.

 

Source?

Mike has said otherwise, so unless something has changed I wouldn't hold out for it...

http://www.head-fi.org/t/818323/schiit-jotunheim-review-preview-head-fi-tv/465#post_12835563

 

http://www.superbestaudiofriends.or...august-27-2016-so-cal.2500/page-21#post-73870

 

If there isn't a mult-bit for the jot coming out then I'd very much consider the vali2 and modi multi.
Would I be loosing out on much? Or even gaining....

 

Regarding the Savanna, they have very clear and open mids/highs, excellent transparency and vividness at the cost of cohesion and transition between lower and upper registers. Bass takes a back seat in the mix and bass notes are a little round overall, definitely requires a good seal and perhaps a warm source to get the most out of it. I liked it most for acoustic music, but found it a little emotionally uninviting with rock and synthpop.

 

Careful on the RE-00, while they have great tone, clarity, and balance, my pair has no weight/bass to it at all.

 

interesting! the savannah, cheaper campfire (e.g., orion) and a couple others (e.g., pinnacle p1) are also on my radar for a more price-friendly IEM. hard to decide without hearing them... if the savannah lack bite, that would be sad, but the tonal balance seems pretty solid.

 

That's the wildlife mod.

 

Thanks for the impressions. I listen to a lot of metal and a little synth pop/retro wave etc so I think I will have to give a listen to the Savannah first if I went that route.

 

Any recommendations for a desktop amp to pair with He500s and Yulong D100 DAC <$500? I've been using Lyr 1 with Amperex PQs for the past couple years, to be honest I've been quite happy with this pairing but since I listen to a lot electronic music I find myself craving a more extended and defined low end. I'm considering going back to solid state, but I do like the tube sound in a lot of ways. Are there any real upgrades from the Lyr 1 under $500 (including used) or just sidegrades?

Gustard H10 and Lake People G109A are the only two that have really caught my eye so far.

Anyone compare Lyr 1 to vali 2? Im assuming this would be a sidegrade or even downgrade from the Lyr 1, but I keep hearing great things about it.

 

What are people's opinion of Ragnarok in the context of the recently announced Schiit components? I have picked up Yggdrasil to use with BW and I am now looking at upgrade paths for speakers. Yggdrasil is my single source and I am only looking to drive bookshelf speakers for the foreseeable future. Remote control isn't important to me. It also seems to me that Ragnarok could be useful to drive any HPs that BW may not play nice with in the future. I figure a second hand Rag would probably come in at a similar price to Freya/Vidar and might make more sense for my usage scenario, unless there is a substantial performance delta or some other consideration I am unaware of?

I realise the new Schiit is still in production and that not many people have heard it but I guess I'm just thinking out loud. With BW and HD600/Slants it feels like headphones are 'done'. Speakers are a new direction for me. I am looking forward to learning more about them and perhaps trying my hand at building a few sets...

 

There is a clean slate with speakers. I used to have Focal monitors but sold them when my kids were born (and my share of the house was relegated to half of a cupboard).

I guess I was looking at Rag as a convenient way to drive speakers and (occasional) headphones from my one source and weighing this convenience against the relative performance of separates. I just don't see myself using the full functionality of a preamp in my setup, unless I'm missing something about preamps? Jotun to Vidar might be a solution then...