Schiit Jotunheim impressions

In my experience amps that work well with the HD650 usally don't work well with the HD800 and vice versa. The HD650 needs an aggressive amp with fast voltage swings to come alive, it should be on the neutral to bright side. The HD800 can have a fast and transparent amp, but if so the top end needs to be silky smooth and it should be on the neutral to dark side. There is also something going on with the impedance/dampening; I know they're both 300 ohm headphones but I've had some amps work really well with the HD650 but then they made the HD800 all wobbly and imprecise in the bass. Weird.

 

Y'all are making me want to get a 650 in addition to my 600. Damn you!

 

Liquid Carbon vs. Jotun anyone? Anyone have any good comparisons?

 

I had this issue with the Vali 1, BH Crack (with speedball) and with Project Ember as well...the ZDS takes care of both of them with equal ease

 

HF post #828

 

I kinda speculate that your choice in headphone would greatly influence you choice in amp. Like an HD800 may be better on the LC, where something slower more relaxed would benefit from the Jotunheim. I'm so tempted by this with the Elear...

 

To me, what Schiit brought to the table is a sense of great confidence in the company. Confidence that you are getting your money's worth, and that their product will at the very least perform at its price-point and usually above. This sense of confidence in the company, pricing, and its engineering is huge in a world populated with opaque companies and over priced audio products. Other companies may have great products, but it's very hard to discern which ones have jacked up prices, or simply have products that aren't that good. Schiit achieved their perception by creating a sense of transparency and openness about their business through Jason's (@schiit) online book (yes, brilliant piece of marketing, but it also happens to work), their presence on the audio forums, their product site with detailed specs and pics of their internals, they don't try to hype anything snake oily, and they are very credible as excellent engineers.

Ok, shill mode off.

Edit: One more shill, they seem to be innovating at an astonishing rate. Game changers.

 

Makes you want to sell all your warm amp / bright headphones and go the other direction

 

I disagree in extent of 95 % with that statement.

Every amp that has made HD800 sing for me has done so to HD650. Stratus, EHHA, EC 2A3, Pinnacle.
On unlistenable amps there are some variances.
HD650 really sucks on some old receivers (vintage cheapo-fi Sony, Sansui, Marantz) while HD800 will be horrific on high feedback designs in general (yulongs, op-amps).
I bet, based on Merv's, Ravi's and other's experience that I know that modded HD800 will be alright with Jot. I will know soon enough.

 

So a lyr 2 and modi uber is better than this for 800's?

 

Well... those are all high-high-end tube amps! You're in the 5% of users being able to afford such luxuries

And tube amps generally work well with both HD650 and HD800, it's more that a too warm, soft and syrupy tube amp can destroy what makes the HD800 special in the first place. Or it can make you fall asleep when using the HD650.

The comparision I'm making is more for SS and low to mid-fi, the category the jotun fits in.

 

Valhalla 2... I think his point was that if an amp can present the HD800 well, it is very likely to do the same with the HD6X0, and I would agree with that statement.

 

more like .05%

 

Anyone compared it to the O2/ODAC? Pondering an upgrade.

 

I am one of those who think HD650 is almost as picky of upstream nasties (also in a good way = resolving) as HD800. I hate HD650 with lo-fi mushy amps. I'd rather listen to some mid-fi closed cans. I hate HD800 with lo-fi gear as well, but for different reasons and usually different gear. I love HD650 and HD800 in good systems for the same reasons.

I hope Jotunheim is not in the same leaque as next random ss amplifiers. I am not betting it to be as good as uber SET-s or anything, maybe along the lines with tricked out EHHA. Which I very much regard hi-fi.

LOL

 

No need to compare, the Jotun (amp-only) will destroy the O2. I'm fairly certain that the internal Jotun dac will probably be significantly better than the ODAC as well.

 

I'd imagine for you, just the fact that you can drive your LCD-3 balanced w/mucho power out of the Jotun would be good upgrade over the O2, let alone any/everything else better about the Jotun.

Balanced vs. single-ended LCD-X out of a decently powerful amp (Liquid Carbon) in my case was appreciably noticeable.

 

I've not heard them both in the same room at the same time, but even then, I'd be pretty confident in the O2 getting smoked. Not exactly scared to stick my neck out on this one.

 

I've never heard anyone actually mention how this works; the O2 certainly gets loud enough when I turn up the dial. Exactly what about having more power makes it sound "more full" as it were? I can certainly hear it comparing the Ember to the O2, but I'm not sure how the O2 can be more anemic even though it's "loud."