The Mjolnir 2 thread

Gungnir Multibit/Mojo2 setup here. With the UERRs, pretty much a black background on low gain. If going balanced, this is a good setup. It's a step up in power from single ended setups and gives the senns 650/800 some heft. Using Lsst tubes otherwise wouldn't be able to tollerate the treble on my HD800s. Anyone have recommendation for a "warm" budget tubes for the Mojo2? Tried some gold lions and they made my ears bleed. I saw the previous posts but $300 for tubes.. rather buy a cavalli LC and be done with all this.

 

http://www.tubeampdoctor.com/en/sho...s_Tubes_Odd_Ball/ECC88_RFT_E_Germany_NOS_3069

These did it for me, full disclosure: my experience tube rolling is bare bones and I would say these are not significantly warmer than LISST. Just a bit warmer. If your ears bleed using LISST I doubt you would have a great time with any tube in mojo.

 

Ears bled with gold lions, stock and others that I tried. LISST are actually neutral to slightly warm for me. Thanks for recommendation!

 

bump. got some Philips Miniwatts which really improved the soundstage for my HD800/LCD-X. I do find them a bit too peaky on the upper end though but I'm very surprised with how detailed they are over the LISST.

 

How does the Mjolnir 2 fair as a preamp? I want an upgrade to my Project Ember that pairs well with my Gungnir Multibit. I'll pick up a used First Watt at some point for the HE-6. I've been using the Gungnir Multibit with the Liquid Carbon and I love the smooth musical sound but it doesn't have the dynamics swing that I sometimes want. I know it's been said that the original Mjolnir and now the Mjolnir 2 are excellent for that.

 

I think I'm confused. It is a solid speaker pre-amp, but a f'ing expensive headphone pre-amp?

 

Lol is that actually a question or your opinion with a question mark attached? I would be using it with my powered monitors as well. I could run balanced out for monitors, single ended for sub ( with volume compensation), and use the headphone out for the majority of my headphones. The HE-6 is a different beast and I'll be hooking it up to my Pioneer Spec 2 power amp and down the road I'll get a better amp for them.

My question was, how well does it work as a preamplifier? I know SBAF likes it for most headphones.

 

I'm unsure of any higher order sound description of the preamp outs, but I can simply tell you it works just fine with my jbl lsr305 powered monitors. One important caveat is that unlike most Schiit amps, mjolnir 2 does not mute the preamp outputs when a headphone is plugged in. Because of this I have my monitors on theirnown power strip to easily turn them off

 

Haha, yes, the question mark indicates me giving a hesitant answer to what I feared was a trick question. I was mostly teasing because you said "as a preamp" but then listed no speakers and talked about the he-6 instead. To be clear, I would not recommend buying a mjolnir2 to feed into a first watt for the he-6... I suppose it could be awesome, but it would definitely be expensive and redundant.

I also use it as a preamp for lsr305's, and it functions very well in that capacity with the caveat of non-muting described by poochzag.

 

Mjolnir 2 arrives tomorrow. From a technical standpoint, are the single ended inputs "gimped" like the single ended outputs?

 

You can go single ended in, and still get all 8W out of the XLR headphone out, if that's what you mean. It just wouldn't be a completely balanced chain because the signal in isn't.

 

No they are not, it's just the single ended output that is "gimped" as it were with the summing stage. The single ended inputs don't go through any sort of phase splitter before the amp or anything like that, like what some other amplifiers might do.

 

That's what I thought, just wanted confirmation. Thanks!

 

Just wanted to write a quick thing about my Mjolnir 2 undergoing an inferno and the great repair process, I feel it's equally helpful to note good customer service when it happens, as there's often much focus on the bad.

A couple weeks ago my left LISST tube blew out, I bought it used so they estimated a small repair fee plus shipping, very fair I thought, and sent it in. I put real tubes in and for a couple days and the same left channel starting acting scratchy and whatnot. Later, the amp stopped outputting sound and got super hot, eventually shutting itself off. It was the hottest thing I have ever touched in my adult life, which is impressive because I work in a laboratory.

Sent Mjolnir 2 right in (under warranty), noting the left channel symptoms and mentioning the LISST from a few days ago was also in the left, but never directly implicating fault by the amp. Schiit repaired the amp in two business days and sent it back. I never heard anything about the LISST tube other than it was received, but I opened the Mjolnir 2 box, and there was a LISST.

I found it a nice touch that they replaced my out of warranty LISST tube, likely because the amp took it out. Verdict was the output transformer failed

So props to Schiit (although Mjolnir 2 did cause a minor supernova, so that's not ideal...)

 

Update to above over last couple weeks:

Turns out that LISST didn't actually work, they were again awesome and sent another... also doesn't work. So I now have 3 and 1 works (the surviving original).

I'm really curious if it's just a bad LISST batch problem or something strange with the fixed Mjolnir 2, but works fine with tubes again. I hope to find out and will report back (no response yet surprisingly)

Edit: Turns out the two new ones work with eachother, but do not work when installed with my original, in which only the original works. Weird. They're having me keep the two good ones and sent me a label for my remaining original to test out

 

I also had an issue with a LISST going bad in my Lyr 2. The amp checked out fine though and I was able to get the LISST replaced with a working one.

 

I've been using tubes for a while in the MJ2. EH 6922's, Tungsram E88CC's and the stock tubes. They're all quite nice, but I'm not joking when I say that the LISST's are my favourite. Any MJ2 owner owes it to themselves to give the LISST's a fair shot - don't just throw them in for a few minutes and dismiss them!

I really dislike tube rolling and I think I'm going to be sticking with the LISST's for my headphones for a long while. For anyone curious, I'm using HD800's (stock, but using a good quality copper XLR cable and Sonarworks EQ), HD650's (quarter modded and rear foam removed) and Paradox Slants. I have to say that the Charleston Cardas cable for the HD800's made a bigger improvement over the ZY cable than I was expecting - probably bigger than the differences between a lot of tubes.

LISST's to me strike the perfect balance between technicalities, neutrality and involvement.

My signal chain is: PC ----> Wyrd ----> Ciunas Converter (BNC) ----> Gungnir Multibit ----> Mjolnir 2

EDIT: If anyone feels that they have tubes that are a significant step up from the LISST's, please let me know. I've ultimately been disappointed by the tubes that I've tried and I don't feel the need to upgrade any further, but if there's more for the Mjolnir 2 to offer then I may check it out one day down the line.

 

It was this way for me. Ultimately, I found tubes that had better dynamics and punch than the LISST, and other tubes that had slightly more plankton retrieval than the LISST - but I couldn't find any tubes that had did both better while maintaining the LISST's neutral tonal balance.

 

So I am looking at just jumping straight into a Gungnir Multibit/mjo2 stack despite my temptation to just go the high end DAP route... what is holding me back is feeling comfortable that I can have a nice path forward with mid to high end headphones that I will actually enjoy and not regret.

Before I blabber on about what I think I am looking for, I was hoping you all would jump in a play a quick round: If you had to pick 3 to 5 full size around ear headphones, open or closed does not matter, to pair with this stack what would you pick?...and list them in your rank order. The idea here is have variety and excellence to compliment most any genre of music and have a level of engagement more so than technicalities that appeal to your own sense of audio values. What would you pick?

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Just based on what I have read, I would think the Ether, Ether C, HD800S, HD6X0, would be on many lists among other headphones. I am very nervous about upper frequencies being a bit hot as I have experienced on many mid-tier headphones like my HD700 (I can find reasons to love it, but at the end of the day I want a divorce). I know most here don't think highly of the Nighthawk, but I really like it through the portable amps I have heard in store demos and the comfort was fantastic. That is a big thing for me... I know I would love an LCD-X but I don't like heavy headphones and since I have fairly large ears, cup and pad design are critical for me (I might keep my HD600, but comfort is just barely adequate on my head). I have another much maligned headphone, the EL-8, and on my current Gustard stack I think it performs really well. If it were just a tad lighter and the pads a tad more generous, it would be a keeper for me. It seems like every time I make a list of 3 or 4 headphones that I would love to be able to rotate through on listening sessions or different days/moods, it is easy to find great feedback for pairing with one or two but nearly impossible to cover more than that without massive compromise.

 

This is kindof a fun way to ask for advice, I have the stack, my two cents:

HD800- preferably modded. Ultra detailed, comfortable, sound-stage like no other, illuminates tube rolling differences well, don't underestimate the LISST for smoothing out treble. Huge pads

HD650- A nice warmer, laid back break from the above. Mod it to increase bass impact, perceived openness and make slightly less dark. Large pads

ZMF Blackwood- Great closed option with deep subbass, and a fun signature without getting overly colored. Like a tamed TH-x00 that isolates. Large pads, kind of heavy

HE-6- I'm a recent speaker amp convert, and my thoughts on that vs Mjo 2 aren't fully formed yet, but I think it's good enough out of Mjo2 to still be worth the while. Incredible bass slam and definition, midrange has no issues, a but bright not a good respite from HD800. Comfy with Vegan but still quite heavy, large opening

Ether- Polarizing opinions around, but I like this one especially as a one-headphone-to-do-it-all situation. Bass is certainly there but if it's your main draw, look elsewhere. Incredible midrange, build and comfort (super light for an ortho). Fwiw Ether was my main headphone with Mjo2 when I auditioned the Gungnir Multibit and found it worthwhile. Fairly large pad opening

Cheaper options worth mentioning:
HE-500 is a cheaper option that does most things well imo in similar vain of Ether for cheaper. Heavy though
AD2000 great soundstage, incredibly mid focused, comfortable, a great choice for specific genres when in the mood. Pad is sortof an on ear thing, shallow

Stay away from: cIEMs, noisefloor on both BA cIEMS I have (single ended out at least), dynamic IEMs seem ok

Edit: added some comments about weight and pad size. HE-6, 500 and just maybe Blackwood may be bad options for @GreggoEggo due to weight as astutely noted by @aufmerksam