The All Purpose Advice Thread

Agreed. The UERR has smoother and more relaxing sound. It just didn't have the WOW factor for me. And also agreed on the source pairing fussiness of the Andros. And the fit is borderline for me so I can appreciate how nice it would be to have customs.

I've been listening to the Andros all evening and been completely immersed in the music, having to turn around or hit pause to check if sounds on unfamilar tracks are coming from the earphones or my wife doing things around the house, as well as rediscovering old favourites. It's great that there are so many different options to suit individual tastes

 

I haven't noticed anything audible other than mechanical relay clicking on any Schiit products thus far so... contact them again, IMO.

 

Yeah, currently trading emails with Nick at Schiit.

 

Does any of your other equipment have transformers that also hum/buzz? Could be DC offset on your power line. If so, this would fix it:

https://emotiva.com/products/accessories/cmx-2

 

I'm thinking about eventually moving into one of these high end tube amps from mjolnir 2, but am trying to figure out exactly which one.

Headphones are HD800 SDR, Eikon, and AD2000 (and possibly HD650 again), I don't anticipate changing that or ending up with any other planars so I no longer need the extreme versatility Mjolnir 2 provides.

I really like the low end weight of Mjolnir 2, but would like a smoother, wider, more resolving presentation (if possible).

What should I be setting my sights on? ZDS seems obvious, and would represent my upper price limit. Maybe a used DNA Sonnet 2?
Multiple inputs, variable outputs and XLR headphone out are bonuses but not required (I realize ZDS doesn't have the last two).

Or is Mjolnir 2 pretty damn great for dynamic drivers and I'm wasting my time and money? Just not sure how they compare as Mjolnir 2 has been my only amp above $500 and with these headphones

Edit: DAC is a Gungnir Multibit and always will be

 

I haven't heard everything, but I have never heard my HD650 sound better than out of a ZDS. I can't imagine the HD800 or Eikon not sounding amazing out of it either. Can see if we can convince @ogodei to bring his to the Chicago meet coming up.

 

T3 deserves consideration too. Only hesitation is your "wider" requirement as a somewhat frequent critique is a slightly narrower stage than some amps (which may synergize even better with the HD800's exaggerated width). Can likely be remedied to a certain extent with the right tubes (paging @bazelio).

Edit: Torpedo 4 development is in the works, so patience may be rewarded (either in buying one of those or snatching a used T3 from someone upgrading). No guarantees T4 comes to fruition.

 

When I put my ear on the Jotunheim, it has a faint hum where the power/transformer is. But schiit says all transformers hum and that as long as you don't hear it from more than 1 meter away it's within spec, so I'm not sure...

FWIW when I hook the Jotun up to my Bluray player (bypassing the Modi Multibit), I don't get the irritating sound that was coming out of the Modi Multibit, so I'm wondering if it's just the Modi Multibit doing this... it's the weekend so schiit is slow to respond with follow ups right now.

Also, I've had the HD800 for over a month, and I did not have this problem the first few weeks, if it was the power in my house, it should've been a problem from the beginning. Could just be a faulty Modi Multibit.

 

I'm hesitant to tell people to make expensive purchases, but FWIW I felt going from mjolnir2 to a 445 was a major step up and definitely not just chasing the last few %.

If ZDS is the top of your budget then I would get a ZDS. If you get anything lesser you'll probably end up with a ZDS later anyway, and then you will have wasted time and money. For example I doubt Sonnet 2 would be much of an upgrade over mjolnir2 (I owned mjo2 and a Sonnet 1 at the same time, with the best tubes I could find for each of them they sounded almost the same).

 

I'm thinking about getting a turntable just for listening sometimes. Not amazing. Buying used, on craigslist. I just don't know what to look for.
Any thoughts on vintage turntables, and what to look for in a cheap one?

 

If you have problems on the power feed to your house, such as noise and DC offset, they may vary from time to time. Many of these problems will be effects caused by other power consumers, especially heavy-duty and industrial usage. See if there is a regular pattern to the problem (or lack). Many people find their systems are better late at night and one reason is that the power is often much cleaner at that time. (Also, there is less ambient noise pollution).

 

I suspected that, but time of day doesn't seem to matter.

 

From the Jotunheim thread:

Is the volume control in foobar2k transparent? I've been using it to lower the levels enough to get to a reasonable o'clock on the pot with my Andromedas. Haven't noticed any artifacts. Somebody on reddit said it was amazing

 

If you don't notice any problems it is probably fine. I use Jriver and Roon so I can't speak to Foobar.

 

I agree with @Azteca

Since you are doing something on playback it is not like making a permanent change. If down the road your perception changes, there is no harm done.

I cringe when I read on (other) forums that someone is ripping their large CD collection to MP3 or AAC because they cannot hear the difference (and especially if they are getting rid of that CD collection upon completion). That is a lot of work (if one is particular about metadata as I am). There is no going back and doing it lossless after they no longer have the CDs.

If they upgrade equipment or a lightbulb goes off and they start hearing a difference they are screwed. If that happened in your case, you just stop using the volume control in foobar2000.

 

Thanks @Azteca and @Dino. I just wondered if there were players with known "transparent" digital volume controls or if there was an objective way to determine if it's transparent. That reddit thread mentions f2k upsampling to 32-bit and doing the level controls there. I can't be stuffed to poke into it any further. I guess if I'm at 0dB it should be outputting bit-perfect to the DAC, and then it'll start doing things if the volume is adjusted. And I can't hear anything weird so it's all good so far.

I thought the Poweramp app and its EQ was transparent until I tried UAPP out of my phone rather than to my DAC. Then I heard the difference ...

 

How can I use Modi MB with Windows XP? I tried to download Schiit's Vista drivers, but Setup.exe complained that the platform wasn't supported... I know XP is EOLed, but I'm still hoping there is a way to get the Modi MB to work there.

 

First a useless quote

Then a useful one:

Try the current W8, W7 driver, failing which try the one linked by the 2nd quote here.

 

There can certainly be differences. I did a quick Google and didn't find a lot of info on Foobar's volume control but check this to see how Jriver's volume control works:
https://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Volume

Internal volume is best, and I always use that. Just make sure you're skipping the Windows sound stack if you're worried about ultimate fidelity. Though honestly, if you aren't that is totally fine. Sometimes I just listen to Spotify and it sounds fine. I used to mess with running all system audio through JRiver and it is good but I don't feel driven to do that every time.

Ah! actually did find one semi-useful post in a turd of a thread: http://www.head-fi.org/t/100344/does-foobars-volume-control-degrade-sound#post_1178282

And to discourage further hand-wringing (I say this lovingly):
http://archimago.blogspot.com/2013/06/measurements-part-i-bit-perfect.html
http://archimago.blogspot.com/2013/06/measurements-part-ii-bit-perfect.html

 

I skimmed through it and though he didn't seem to say anything about volume controls, it looks like foobar2k is a good as anything else. Glad somebody's already done the heavy lifting.