Schiit Jotunheim impressions

Not sure I agree. The Jot has a lot of muscle down low with my modded 650s and doesn't strike me as too bright or harsh. In other words, I don't hear it as thin, lean, or bright.

I might change my mind on that later after doing some comparisons with my Mjol2... but for now that's my take on it.

 

The Joti has me thinking I need to try the HD650 again. I love the 600 but I think the 650 might pair slightly better.

 

Yeah I am concerned about the presence of feedback, even current feedback. Feedback steel is the one thing I can't stand in the treble, even more than forwardness or DS glare. No Sabre glare though. Sabre glare is a nailgun. I don't want to say bright as stuff like the Magni 2U/Linn type speaker amps aren't actually bright in hte treble in terms of the volume of the treble being louder, they just have this steely treble timbre that's oh so fatiguing even on low 70db volume. Which means that even if the tonal balance (as in volume) of an amp is neutral, it might not have a high fidelity timbre or neutral balance even being good for that amp; I find myself having to shelve the treble on most powered monitors due to the crappy class D amps in them.

 

Yeah, I know what you're talking about. That's what the Staxen sound like to me. Also the T50RP mods that haven't tamed the upper midrange distortion have a steely, nasty sound.

I dislike that sound too. I don't hear that timbre with the Jot, but I think I'm not as sensitive to it as you're describing yourself, so I might not be the best ears to compare to.

 

Yeah, I'd agree with Philip here. I think Jot depends so much on the DAC to set its tonality that it's hard to put in context wnevhat Jot actually sounds like without mentioning which DAC/system it's being hooked up to.

One week later and that's pretty apparent to me. Jot simply doesn't have a character in and of itself. It seemingly passes along what the DAC or the other end is doing. So if you're hearing steely/sharp treble timbre, it may just be the other end?

On that note, though, the shoutiness issue that Marv mentioned may actually be real. I have a bit of a hard time listening to Jot with stock HD580/600, but stock HD650 is just very nice.

 

With speakers it's not so bad and even some class d speaker amps are not terrible (the one in hte JBL 305 is okay except for humming when not in use) but with headphones or say the ones in the Yamaha HS 5/7/8 series (O2/GS-X MK2 LEVEL PAIN!) I just can't do it; I would rather just listen with Koss on a phone and a tiny bit of EQ.

Yeah the T50rp mods and the Audezes that don't shelve the treble totally all have this grain to them but I would call that a different flavor of unpleasantness. Grain vs steel vs glare vs brightness vs Beyer actually making stuff out of steel are all differnet tortures.

@Bill-P I am just hypothesizing about upgrading even though I just bought an Asgard 2 for Class A, no feedback goodness. I guess the only way is to try it myself eventually. The mention of "feedback" is actually what scared me off blind-buying the Jot day 1.

 

Yeah I should have mentioned that I don't find the Jotun bright with my hd650s or UERMs with the Yggdrasil. Of course if I plug in a dt990, I'll still find them bright no matter what. @Psalmanazar sorry, I don't remember what dac you're using right now.

 

God Damnit! I finally got mine yesterday, and have been taking notes and comparing to my Valhalla2, all excited to share my thoughts. I check this thread for the first time in days and read this. This is pretty much what I hear, with emphasis on the bold sections.

I am testing on HD650, DT150, UERM and lsr305. Recent amps of relevance include Mojlnir 2, Ragnarok, Asgard 2. DAC is modimbo. On the songs I listen to for bass quality I am really impressed by the slam Jotun can give, it smokes the Valahall2 in this regard; it has capital-B Balls. On songs I listen to to see if the amp can keep up with complex passages, the Jotun is effortless, but on some of them, especially if strings are involved, the valhalla 2 simply puts me there. Both are able to produce goosebumps on the songs I listen to for the feels. Vocals are a bit more dominant with Jotun than Valhalla2, but its not distracting or overpowering. I don't really think the Jotun suffers on staging compared to Valhalla 2. I would put them pretty much on par with one another, but I think the realism you get from what Marv calls "microdynamic shading" on the Valhalla 2 makes it feel more expansive. (if that makes sense?)

Honestly, if the only transducer I used was the HD650, I would keep Valhalla, no questions. But the availability of balanced (for longer run to powered monitors) and the capability to drive many other headphones well, the similarities are enough that Jotun wins out. As a pre-amp to speakers, the comparison is simply not fair. The difference in detail retrieval, to me, is apparent and Jotun wins.

As between the SS schiit offerings, it reminds me more of the Rag than the asgard 2, but that is probably only because I haven't heard those amps as recently as mjolnir 2, and the jotun has gobs of f'ing power like the rag. To @Psalmanazar's question about Jotun v Asgard 2 for the HD6X0, by my memory of the Asgard 2, Jotun is much better. Jotun has the most authority in bass I think I have heard from schiit except for the rag (it may actually be better, but I don't have them next to each other), and it does not have any of the hardness in treble I remember from Asgard 2.

 

I agree that sometimes the Valhalla 2 just puts you there, it has this wonderful holographic element to it that made me feel like I was walking through a garden of sound, able to enjoy it at my leisure. But it doesn't have near the bass quality of the Joti or the versatility.

Also agree that if someone is only using a Senn and no other transducers, especially if they don't need balanced, the Valhalla 2 may be the better pairing.

If Schiit ever puts the Val2 on closeout for $200 or less I'd probably pick another one up just for its expanse and depth.

 

My jotun is finally on the way arriving early next week probably.Its been painful reading all these impressions waiting for my preorder.
Gonna test it out with the modded hd650 and modded he560 and compare to the Asgard 2.

 

How did you preorder it?

 

SBAF(or someone with access to every schiit) should do an all encompassing Schiit Headphone Amplifier(s) comparsion/shootout/guide. I gonna bet my schloog that it's going to be a very hot topic.

@Marvey, @zerodeefex , @Hands, @Torq, @Tyll Hertsens

 

@Hands
I'm from Asia... so demographically speaking my "schloog" is rather small.

But my guess is SBAF should have the resource/organisation/motivation to pull(steal/loan) together the 8 amps(9 if you include fulla) to do #big schiit 2016 (at the next local/international meetup?)

# as inspired from:
http://www.innerfidelity.com/category/big-sound-2015

 

Too lazy to make a flowchart...



How much money do you have?

1. Not enough to snort a line off a dead hooker
   1. toobs?
      
      1. Yes = Vali2,
         
      2. No = Magni2
2. About tree fiddy
   1. boobz?
      
      1. Yes
         
         1. twin boobs?
            
            1. Yes = Valhalla2
            2. No = Lyr2
      2. No
         
         1. Do you want to put dinglehops into your crackerjack?
            1. Yes = Jotunheim
            2. No = Asgard2
3. I be pimpin'
   1. are you big daddy?
      1. Yes = Ragnarok
      2. No = Mjolnir2

I hope this chart has been helpful in making your amp purchasing decision.

 

@thegunner100 were the ether flows bad with the jot, or just bad in general?

 

Just bad in general. Considering how neutral the Jotun and transparent is with the Yggdrasil, it really shows how a headphone sounds like.

 

That's.. beautiful *sniff*. (So much so that I refuse to snip the quote while replying). Shiit should turn it into a responsive javascript select-o-tron on their site!

 

I really should make this the official amp selector on the site.

 

To be more specific, they were my Flows and I like them in general.
The bass was much better , the best bass it produced was on the Jotunheim.
Extremely supple and nuanced.

So the issue was not amp matching.
The issue was the rest of spectrum.
With thgunner100 setup, you were able to detect weaknesses on comparison to the other headphones.

All the other headphones tested at the time were more open sounding and had better spacial layering .