The All Purpose Advice Thread

Now @MattRG , didn't I tell you to hide your wallet for a while and enjoy what you've got? You should listen to me

 

The cheapest way to do that would be to snag a used Jotunheim. Jot don't care if it's SE or balanced in, and SE or balanced out. Whether you'll enjoy the sound or not, of course, is another matter..

That said, I'd wait, and listen to them in SE. You might be pleasantly surprised.

 

Early reports show that the Eikon is a tiny bit on the dry side and closed in side, and it could benefit from a powerful slightly warm amp and tubes could add a bit of width to the stage, maybe something like Lyr2. Running balanced wont necessarily sound better than a single ended system. I think the best advice would to hold still, try what you have, go to a meet or two with eikon and experiment with what you like.

I don't know if Jot would be the best pairing with this, my experience with jot is that it works well at bringing warm or slower cans (like hd650) to life, but time will tell.

 

I believe someone asked about using the NuForce as monoblocks in another thread (can't remember, will link when I do FOUND ) and the advice is to skip it altogether.

 

I don't really find the Eikon to be dry at all. I pair mine with a Jot, and find your statement about it bringing warm cans to life actually applies very well here. With the excellent sub-bass of the Eikon and the emphasis in the mids, the Jot doesn't seem to color any of that further, and tonally the result is pretty awesome in my book. The soundstage doesn't have much depth, but it images well and is wide enough you still get a sense of space. I think that's why I preferred the Eikon on my Jot over the Elise. YMMV

 

@MattRG The Mjo2 can be had for $700ish used. Not to muddy the waters, but that'd be another option for you. No idea how it sounds with the Eikon, but it's balanced and got POWAH

 

I see lots of wires. I'm not opposed to wires, mind you, but it does make me wonder why so many.

Well, my Milo arrives today. I guess I'll find out the hard way if I like it or not. I might even crack the case and see if I can get sprained eyes like @Torq. haha

 

I have a hard time believing this dual nuforce thing is going to be more ideal for the Eikon just because it is balanced. Owning both, but not together, I would actually speculate Lyr 2 and Eikon would be a good match. Lyr would likely give some extra slam and dynamism to the Eikon, which already does the former well but not so much the latter. Tube usually can't hurt in regards to stage and spaciousness. Eikon isn't the most resolving headphone already, so IMO it wouldn't be held back by Lyr. @philipmorgan suggestion of Mjolnir 2 is a good one if you really want balanced, as it also has great slam and is in a nuthshell a more resolving Lyr.

 

Thanks folks, that's exactly what I am looking for. I will skip the NuForce amps (although I'm still interested in the DC-1 because of it's feature set and price point) and just run with the Lyr 2 for the time being. I am in no way displeased with the Lyr 2 but there's always that little voice that says "yeah, but...."

 

I'm also somewhat interested in trying a DC-1, but Emotiva is all but missing in my part of the world (so is the Schiit multibit stuff).

 

My thoughts were running along a similar path, actually. I have experience with the biocellulose driver in the TH-X00's and I did not like the initial pairing with the Lyr 2 and it's stock tube versus the Fostex HP-A4BL that I had at the time. The solid state amp in the Fostex just seemed to pair better and knowing that the Eikon is also a biocellulose driver I thought a good, powerful SS amp would treat it well. (Also, I remember impressions from the Chicago meet last year and how many people enjoyed the Eikon on the Lake People V281 (or 280?, I can't remember)

I will say my impressions of the Lyr 2 and the Th-X00 changed for the better in a mighty way once I installed the 75 Reflektor tubes.

Yeah, I went ahead and ordered it. Amazon Warehouse stuff is usually a safe bet and at a hundred bucks off it is at least worth hearing it and comparing it to the Modi Multibit considering its features.

 

After hearing the HeadTrip I felt most of the hype was down to the raw price of the thing. Yes, it has great drive authority, but I didn't find it at all engaging. Unless you really need that much power (it'll give you about double what a Ragnarok will do into most loads) it's not that interesting. Certainly didn't make me want to break open my wallet. At a couple of thousand it'd be a somewhat different matter (though I'd still balk at the build and a lot of the component choices), but at $7,000 there are just too many options that completely outclass it on everything except raw power.

For me, at least.

I hope you enjoy it, and look forward to hearing what you think about it. As I said, I've not heard the Milo ... and it's a vastly different value proposition to the HeadTrip so it could be an entirely different kettle of fish!

 

I hope so too! I'll put some brief impressions up in another thread. All I'll have is the Jot and UD-503 to compare it to, unfortunately, so... Apples to grapefruits kind of comparison.

 

If you do pop the lid, feel free to sprain everyone's eyes with some pics

 

EyE SprAiN INCOMING

(Later tonight, that is.)

You all want a full unboxing / pic thread or something? I thought unboxing things were frowned upon here, but I could be confused... again.

 

Personally, I'm less interested in the overall unboxing/packaging experience, but actually quite interested to see inside the thing. Don't mess with your warranty on my account though! I'm just hoping it's a bit more coherent in it's design and execution than the HeadTrip ... which has some, shall we say "really interesting" component choices. I have to assume, based on absolutely no Milo-specific data at all, that a unit at $1700 (or so?) has to be more sanely engineered!

 

Hey all. I've been having some problems with my 2012 Apple SuperDrive when ripping CDs for playback in iTunes (I'm ripping to Apple Lossless with error correction enabled). Most rip fine, but I get an occasional CD that rips with skips and dropouts in the lossless files. The CDs are new with no scratches. When playing directly from the disc, the skips/dropouts disappear. Re-ripping the disc will occasionally work, but sometimes not.

Anyone else with this issue? And in case it's the drive, any recommendations for a reliable external drive I can connect via USB or Thunderbolt? Portability is not a concern.

Thanks!

 

Ditch the Apple unit and grab one of these.

Ignore the fact that it is a Blu-Ray burner. It'll give you faster ripping speeds with fewer issues, and is a simple plug-in-and-go deal. Yes, it's ugly as sin, but it's the single-best drive I've found for ripping anything. It works fine with USB 2 or 3. And I've done thousands of CDs, and hundreds of BRDs with the drive that's at the core of the thing.

 

Thanks @Torq. Ordered!

 

Pics will have to wait, I'm exhausted. Tomorrow night!