SchiitShow @ Marina del Rey, Saturday, August 15,2015 Report

Discussion in 'The Meeting Place' started by purr1n, Oct 11, 2015.

  1. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    Mjolnir 2

    Mojo 2 with the LISST solid-state tubes sounds better than the original Mojo. The familial resemblance is there, but the sound is more refined. The old Mjolnir had sort of a jumpy staticky raw treble. The Mojo 2 seems to have calmed this behavior down. The Mojo 2 with the LISST is actually more neutral and cohesive sounding throughout the audio band compared to the Mojo 2 with the glass tubes.

    The Mojo 2 with the glass tubes is really the spiritual successor to the Lyr. Quite a bit of warmth. That being said, the Mojo 2 with glass tubes is has a very lively engaging sound (and makes more use of the MB Gungnir's capabilities than the metal cans). It's the and obvious clear upgrade path of for those who like the Lyr. Folks I talked to were split on what they preferred. I personally would probably give the nod to the real tubes despite the extra warmth (I could always use HD600s instead of HD650 if you get my drift.) Also, I have no idea what the stock tubes in the Mojo 2 were. I'm sure rolling some vintage tubes would result in a better sound or different tonal balance.

    The Mojo2's improved treble refinement and tube goodness should lend itself well to the HD800. The Rag is still better than the Mojo2. More lively, clearer, better ability to distinguish small differences in volume, the audio equivalent of better shadow detail. Tubes give the Mojo 2 a boost with these characteristics (as well as resulting in a warmer sound), but Rag is still the better amp.

    I actually felt the Mojo 2 was very slightly limiting what the multi-bit Gungnir could do.


    Mr. Speakers Ether

    I like the Ether. It's a really good headphone, good air, good openness. The only minor issue I have with it is its bass performance. The Ether just doesn't quite have that bass articulation, impact, and clean low sustain that other orthodynamics have. Throughout our constant upgrades, I think we sometimes forget to compare the latest and greatest to the old references or even something cheap.

    By this I mean that I actually brought my HD650 (coin and rear-damping removal modded) and got to compare the "lowly" HD650 against the Ether. Guess what? The HD650 is the better headphone. While Ether strives to be neutral, the HD650, past the midbass bump, is neutral. The HD650 is just as open, has a smoother response from the mids all the way up top, and MORE is resolving (notable from even the Mojo2 / multi-bit Gungnir combo). The HD650's biggest weakness is its murky bass, then again the Ether's bass quality isn't much better if at all. Therefore HD650 wins or ties on almost all counts.

    Honestly, I'd advise people considering the Ether to at least audition the HE400S tweaked with Focus pads. I know a few of you guys at THE SHOW commented that the HE400S was sound-quality wise better than the Ethers. I wasn't ready to make that statement yet then, and I'm still not now, but I'm close. In hindsight, I should have brought the tweaked HE400S along with me to make a more decisive assessment.


    Mr. Speakers Ether C

    To put things into perspective, closed cans are simply just a bitch to get right. Many of us here feel the LCD-XC as a good (bad) example of this. What was my comment on the XC? Take the LCD-X and f**k up the midrange.

    To be fair, the extent of the Ether C's weirdness isn't as bad as the XC, but it's still weird sounding. Such is the price of wanting closed cans.

    Regarding the peak someone mentioned, yes, it's there. I was speaking with a few friends at the meet, and the best I could describe it was sort of a treble slap. Like a semi-pain slap in the face. This "slap" is spotlit or tends to be narrow. Not all music exhibited this. I did hear this tendency early on and intentionally put on some marginal B-52s tracks from Cosmic Thing which I suspected would highlight the peak to confirm.

    Also noted (same as others) severely compressed bass, bump in the middle mids (sort of an Audio Techica woody effect), lack of air / last octave, and lack of openness for obvious reasons. I actually disagree with Jude's assessment that the C is the better Ether and that the C is "pretty open" sounding for a close headphone. It's not, but then again everything is relative.

    Lyr2

    A few notes on the Lyr with LISST and Mojo 2 with LISST as I promised I would follow up.

    I don't think going to Lyr 2 with LIIST is worth it from Asgard 2. Would be too close to call and more a case of slightly different rather than better. The Asgard 2 is a really good solid-state amp for $299. It should be on the Leaderboard. I think the only reason it isn't is because people would further accuse us or me of being a Schiit shill.

    In a nutshell, I prefer the Mjolnir 2 with tubes and the Lyr 2 with the SSTs. I'll keep this short as usual:
    • Tubes (real) take the Mjolnir 2 to the next level. While the real tubes shift the tonal balance to "more fun" relative to the SSTs, i.e. more bass and more present mid-treble, tubes really do liven up and increase the "technicalities" of the Mjolnir: more resolving, increased macro dynamics, more gradations of small volume contrasts, and more open. In essence, more engaging, the sort of engaging that makes you NOT want to put the headphones down. In my opinion (and these words are borrowed from someone else), the Mjolnir was always meant to have tubes. I wouldn't worry about the "treble" comment. It's relative to the SSTs and it's not edgy (we are talking about tubes after all), and it doesn't preclude the use of HD800s. The tonal balance comments do need to be tempered by the fact that I don't know what tubes were used. There is a huge selection of tubes what will work, and I know you can get all sorts of different tunings with the 6922s. Finally, I'll say this again: Lyr or Vali fans would very well served by upgrading to the Mjolnir 2. [I'm actually very tempted to pick one up for myself]
    • I know a lot of people like the Lyr 2 because of its bass, warmth, and slam and I totally respect this view. However, the SSTs actually make the Lyr 2 more neutral sounding. The SSTs tighten up the Lyr 2's sound, provide a better transient response, a faster sound with more delineated lines and articulation. This is my personal preference, and to me (again, borrowing words from someone else), the Lyr was always meant to have SSTs. My view is that the tubes for in Lyr 2 offer more bass and more slam but don't actually do enough in the resolution department. The Lyr 2 isn't as technically capable of as the Mjolnir 2, so the good things that tubes normally bring to the table (non-mist clarity, resolution, microdynamics) isn't as evident. So in this case, I'll take more control and more precision rather than more warmth and slam with only very limited gains in resolution.
    • Not disagreeing that tubes in the Lyr don't bring out some of these positive qualities, but more like they don't bring enough of them to offset the bassy warmth (with real tubes) of the Lyr, which is excessive for my taste. Yeah, I'm talking about whatever stock tubes are with the Lyr these days. I'm sort of making the assumption that most people who buy the Lyr wouldn't effectively double the price of the amp by trying and testing a huge combination of tubes. I hate tube rolling more than most people would think.*
    Hope that makes sense and doesn't make anyone mad. In the end, we all have more choice.

     
    Last edited: Apr 1, 2016
  2. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    Last edited: Apr 1, 2016
  3. econaut

    econaut Almost "Made"

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    In case anyone reads this and wonders like me which tubes were used in the Mjolnir 2:

    Nick of Schiit answered me today: "We use our stock tubes. At shows."
     
  4. Mystic

    Mystic Mystique's Spiritual Advisor

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    Phew, that's been bugging me for the last year and a half.
     
  5. econaut

    econaut Almost "Made"

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    You're welcome ;)
     

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