Schiit Jotunheim impressions

Yes, and they have served me very well since. I did not like the DT880s, bright, glare infested sun beams in your ears, so I had written off Beyer, but wanted a step closer to HD800 land, and you had them for a steal, so I bit. I still think they are too treble happy at times, but 95% of the time, they're great. I will have them with the Jot, but I had them with a SS amp before, and the treble didn't bother me. Plus Modi Multibit should smooth things out.

I am pretty close to pulling trigger on HD650, and may end up trading T90 and cash for a used HD800 and have 650 as a complimentary can. One guy on head-case was gonna trade his HD800S for my Valhalla2 and $800 cash, but I am not popping bottles like that right now. Too much. A $700 used HD800 sounds about right, and I can mod them and see how I feel, but I loved the sound when I demoed them.

 

$700 is a lot for a used HD 800 considering it's $899 at focuscamera new with full warranty.

http://www.focuscamera.com/sennheiser-hd-800-reference-dynamic-headphone.html

 

Yes, head-case is almost worse than a pawn shop, but I have a solid rep there via trading/selling/buying, so I (stupidly) try to stick around. I figure I can knock $700 down to $650. Ebay is even worse.

 

@ColtMrFire yeah man, seems like 700 shipped is actually the going rate for used hd800s these days. that's what i sold mine for a couple weeks ago, but it was in perfect shape so just make sure it's newish! jesus that headphone for 650-700 is super sick. who woulda thought.

 

I finally heard the Jotunheim. Technicality wise, it's a great amplifier with tight grip, stop start control of the HD 650 drivers in the low end.

Treble tone and timbre? Terrible; steel, possibly from the class AB feedback, and glare. Someone at the meet described it as "Sabre". Yes, the Jotunheim deserves Sabre as an adjective. The HD 650 driver moving lockstep to the recording for the kick drum in non-sample replaced/triggered black metal blast beats but the snare and cymbals were screaming at me "Should've chosen a different amp for this dumbass!"

AB comparisons with other amps in the same meet:
Lyr 2: Jotunheim has way better driver control, no bloom, and about equally fucked treble. Lyr 2 is dirtier in the treble while Jot has more glare.
Rag: Jot has better driver control but is hazy in comparison. The Rag is clearer with better timbre except for the Rag grit.
Asgard 2: Jot wins in driver control; Asgard 2 is clearer and infinitely better tonally. Asgard 2 still has the best timbre of the Schiit amps.
Cavalli Liquid Gold: The Liquid Gold has a cleaner treble than the Rag, Lyr 2, and Jot but adds in a dose of Cavalli syrup and sweetened mids. The most tonally colored but the treble timbre isn't offensive like the non-Class A Schiit amps.

 

@Psalmanazar What DAC were you using for this audition? Is it really that bad in your estimation, or should I consider your impression as being doused with a considerable does of hyperbole?

 

Bifrost Multibit, Yggdrasil, and Modi 2U AK4396 with the sound of each accounted for. The treble problems come from the amps except for the sigma-delta treble of the M2U AK4396 but that's an entirely different problem than the steel, glare, and grit I am talking about.

Maybe. There's definitely something odd about the Jotunheim's treble timbre though that's not there on more forward but "cleaner" amps like the Moon Neo 430. The slightly glare on the Jot was off-putting but not as bad as most decent Sabres (X-Sabre and M920) or kill yourself Hellraiser bad like the typical awful chifi/dongle Sabre or Yamaha powered HS series monitor.

 

Jason verified that focus is no longer an authorized sennheiser dealer, so no warranty.

 

Ah.. good to know. Glad I didn't buy one.

You could probably use that to get Amazon to price match, though.

 

Too bad most of what I listen to never had and never will have all-analog pressings.

Optical transport -> Bifrost Multibit -> Jot -> HD 650 was the chain and the Jot was on for a couple hours when I heard it. That's probably why the timbre was only "off" and not painful. Glare was present on only some cymbals; others were just "steel" or "This is ever-so slightly off timbre from other amps but I can live with it" but again not the "What the hell is this? How the hell did they manage to f**k this up so bad?" feeling you get from Led Zeppelin, Ride the Lightning, and certain pieces of gear which embody Christopher Lee's death ray/third nipple from the The Man with the Golden Gun.

 

I thought Amazon only matched prices on TVs
https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=201133150

 

Also good to know. Now, where are my car keys?

 

so wait, is it terrible and painful sounding, or something you can live with, or something that only makes itself known on certain recordings? genuine question, since i'm curious about this lil amp that could.

 

This my dear sir is what I wanted to hear. I have the Slants permanently hooked up to the BW1. The Jotunheim should hopefully land up (along with the LCD 2.2 vBill-pmod2) in a week's time. It should be great to compare BW1/Jotunheim with the Slants/LCD 2.2. And after that, I need to test-drive the HE6 with the big J.

 

It's worth noting that Psalm primarily loves black metal which is some of the most abrasive and treble-y music one could find. So if there is something to fatigue you in the treble, black metal would be a torture test. The older stuff tends to be a harsh lo-fi mess and the newer stuff a harsh slightly slicker mess.

 

In other words, YMMV, IMO, etc.

 

Yes, I put all of Psalm's posts through a Satanic makeup filter and they make much more sense that way.