Schiit Jotunheim 2

Sure, try it, it's free! Just try halving or quartering the output, that's -6 dB or -12 dB.

If you were to get an in-line attenuator they would be similar value voltage dividers. Which sounds better depends on how your source handles digital attenuation vs the quality of the in line attenuator. Also depends how noisy your source is, the in line attenuator will reduce noise as well as signal.

 

Probably depends a lot on where I post it FS... It's only a few months old and very low use but I doubt anybody on this forum would trade an old cell phone charger for it

Maybe someone on ASR will jump on it. It's just not my cup of tea when I already have an Erish and Archel 2.5Pro for "clean" sound. I have to wait a damn month on HF cuz I've never really used it much and had to make an account and start posting... tedious... Kinda wish I had stumbled on SBAF a few years ago...

 

Granted I'm not very far up the source chain, just using Jriver USB into Gungnir a2 and Bifrost 2. However I don't have an issue running -6db or more almost always. It's still "direct connection" and "bit perfect".
I think the mercury may be in my future though. On Jot 2 I mainly use high gain but been using low more, only have 300 ohm headphones and don't use IEMs at home so non issue for me I guess.

 

Doesn't Schiit's SYS have an attenuator pot?

 

Digital attenuation is also putting something the path - DSP - digital attenuation removes bits from the signal. Whether is it better or worse than using in-line analog attenuators depends on the quality of the DSP. I notice it with Roon (mostly on speakers), and with my old RME ADI-2.

The ADI-2 was clever in that it has a series of relay based analog output levels. As you decrease the digital volume, it steps the analog output down at a certain point and resets the digital attenuation to zero. This way you were never crushing the bits too much. If you would decrease the volume until you heard a click of the relays and then leave it there, there was no digital attenuation. I found that it operated best in these positions.

In any event, experimenting with both digital attenuation and in-line analog pads is definitely a productive adventure.

 

I'd challenge the 'remove bits' aspect, at least in theory. For 16-bit Redbook, resampled for volume only in a 32-bit data path (as most software and internal DAC DSPs do) you can literally attenuate by up to 16 significant bits and still have 15 bits in tact, with potential rounding off to just one least significant bit. Theoretically that allows -90 dB of perfect attenuation before you start throwing away data. That's better than most analogue attenuators, which turn 'on' at -60 dB. [EDIT] Correction, a 50 kR pot should manage -90dB.[/EDIT]

I find it hard to see DSP quality being an issue for just volume control when it is simple division (one of the reasons I now feel chasing 'bit perfect' is needlessly complex and unnecessary). Much more likely to get issues with sample rate conversions, etc. But anything is possible, and the tests are cheap, so definitely worth checking.

 

Totally - point taken. My primary claim is that DSP is also something in the signal path that has the potential to change things. In my modest experience, I have found that some devices do it well, others don't. Soekris 2541 = awesome/perfect, RME and Roon = noticeable changes. I'm not a bit-perfect-fanatic by any stretch, I just know that I have usually preferred analog attenuation where possible.

I would think with the JOT 2 and IEMs, if the amp is not causing any noise issue, it would be worth trying out some analog pads as well as digital attenuation and see what works best.

 

I've been listening to Jotunheim 2 a lot last couple days. It's been my only solid state headphone amp for 3 years now besides recently acquired piety. I have to say this amp is really good out of SE out on low gain with HD650/H600. Going from my crack to piety was disappointing, sounded very 2d and flat. Going from crack to Jot 2 SE is a lot freaking better. I was using Jot 2 balanced with planars and Aeolus for the first 18 months or
so I had it so never investigated the SE out much.

Jotunheim 2 also features our exclusive Nexus™ current-feedback, inherently differential, input/output agnostic topology.

Input Impedance: 50K ohms
Gain (balanced input): 2 (0dB) or 8 (18dB)
Gain (SE input): 1 (0dB) or 4 (12dB)

What I'm curious about is feedback used on the gain schemes, if low gain is essentially Odb then there's really no gain on low gain ?

Is this using feedback on low gain or high gain ? Is it a trade secret type thing ?

Feeding Jot 2 balanced with BF2 and using the SE out on low gain is surprisingly f'ing good to my ears.

 

It's their Nexus, as I understand it, which allows the Balanced/SE conversion in either direction; Gain 1 (0 dB) effectively becomes a differential buffer. The same technology is on Freya (S) which allows for the same conversion schemes. The only difference is Freya has a full passive mode option which disengages the circuit at the cost of not being able to convert Balanced to SE or vice-versa.

With Freya, it does sound just a little "different" than fully passive, but personally I think it's a sin of commission rather than omission, and really not all that much of a sin in the end.

 

Just wanted to toss in my 3 cents about how shockingly good this amp is. @Joshvar kindly loaned it to me and I didn't think much of it at first (before listening). I owned Jot 1 (gen 1) ages ago and it was a fine amp but had some major shortcomings (flat staging, lack of presence, so-so micro dynamics, a bit sterile, etc), so I was not expecting much, maybe a slight bump in performance, as I had not heard much of a hype about it and had not kept up with any threads on it.

WOW. What a pleasant surprise. I was not expecting this level of performance from a $400 amp. I sold my ZDSE recently and was missing it, but this gave me flashbacks to the good times I had with that EC amp. Very liquid, engaging, warm, holographic experience with gobs of resolution and micro stuff, a sharp contrast to Jot 1. It's a little light on slam, but I'm using the SE output (I don't have a headphone at the moment and am borrowing @Erroneous HD580, which is an amazing match for this), and I find slam increases with balanced out on Schiit amps, so I'll be grabbing his balanced cable in a couple days... I'm expecting a bit of a performance increase as well, but the SE out alone is enough to easily call this my favorite Schiit amp (and I've owned or auditioned most of them), and maybe the best SS amp I've heard (aside from the 3F).

Last night I was up way too late with it because I couldn't pull myself away, which is the #1 indicator of a fantastic amp. I feel like this is a hard line where diminishing returns start and the idea of chasing the dragon becomes a luxury. Can't believe this is $400! Bravo @schiit!

EDIT: Have not heard Folkvanger extensively enough to include or exclude.

 

I actually almost prefer the SE out with 300 ohm Senns Check it out later for yourself.
Good amp for planars as well out the XLR !
This had been my only solid state amp since the week it launched in December 2020, until Piety.

 

Josh also loaned me his Piety... it's great as well, but Jot 2 is just flat out better in every way.

 

The SE can be a nice respite from the balanced out when using Jot 2 with a DAC that has harsh-ish or digital-y highs like Modius.

 

I could see that, I mostly use it with BF2 OG. It sounds a little more like piety out of the SE. A tiny bit wetter sounding but this is with HD650/H600. I also like it with Elex on low gain but it's more so I can actually turn it up a little lol.

 

@ColtMrFire what did you move onto from ZDSE?

 

It's in my sig (powered monitors)

 

Spent the day hanging with @Erroneous and drowning in my dating woes, but was cheered up by his INSANELY AWESOME VINYL/SPEAKER RIG. He loaned me a couple balanced cables for the HD580 and a couple Senns from a bygone era (the HD 540 and 250).

Anyway, balanced sounds a bit less warm, more composed/stately/precise... more confident. A bit of an increase in slam, but still behind my old ZDSE in that department (that thing fuckin' SLAMMED). The amp just sounds a bit better overall, as if I needed more convincing to buy one.

Charles also loaned me a couple XLR extensions so I could combine them with my XLR cables and go from Jot 2 into my JBL monitors. Definitely sound better balanced (with the switch from +4dbu to -10dbv).

 

Using @Erroneous black paper HD650 on this amp and I feel it's a noticeably better match than the 580 (which is already an excellent pairing). Shockingly the Jot 2 is not terribly far behind his Stellaris in both technicalities and enjoyment... I don't know how Jason pulled this off.

 

that's the only 650 i have ever liked lmao. glad you're enjoying it on the jot!

 

I’ve been out of the headphone game for a while but still have the HD650 stored away.

Is the Jot 2 still one of the better all in one options at this price point? What dac board is recommended for the HD650?