darmok

Nonetheless, they still want you to buy their USB conditioners and power supplies :) (but of course you can use those in front of non-iFi things too).

Used to think I was deaf for struggling to differentiate but yeah, Thorsten did seem to do a great job with those units. Barring the need for greater power delivery it's kinda just a case of nervosa no?

Probably not given the in-house development of their own delta-sigma solution.

@internethandle forgot about that, genuinely rather exciting to eventually try out. Still, wonder why they specifically went with ESS after the AKM shortage a while ago

I much prefer Cirrus and Texas Instruments DACs over ESS stuff, it's just way more natural sounding.

I like when the music is what the gear makes me hone in on! I gave my Vali 3 to my eldest daughter. I do miss it!

My work setup is similar. MMB2 and Vali 2++ / Piety. I just need some sort of loki + syn

@Lyander yes, I did. My ears got plenty of time on the driver covers and their embossed L/R indicators. My recollection of the sound is: scratchy, like the outer part of my ears were rubbing up against a scratch piece of fabric with embossed letters. I don’t remember anything else, sorry. It went back too soon.

I read something on a camera site about the rest of the world moving out of making-in-China. Sennheider is behind the times?

@Thad E Ginathom depends how large the gap in cost structure is between the two regions; even with tariffs it could still be profitable. “Out of China” might also mean Vietnam, not Romania.

Time to shoot (the) Schiit an email I suppose. They've been genuinely helpful with sorting my dead MMB2 issue out. Haven't gotten the replacement board yet but slow going with international stuff as always, massive props to them. That said, sucks that QC seems to miss things sometimes.

Damnit, I’ve got work to do today.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DrO9ySwbTjo

@Lyander it’s definitely better with MMB2, but oddly it seems like there’s crosstalk since the headstage width is much narrower than Valí 3. I’ll give it a whirl with Modius + PI-2XX tomorrow.

Turns out it is broken. Audible distortion in the right channel. Will take some measurements, then try to convince Schiit not to charge return shipping on a DOA.

Don't say that it is for science: it will be banned!

Do you have any thoughts on multibit card vs 9028 card for Jot2?

@AlPastor Nope, don’t have a 9028 card. All I can say is that I wasn’t a fan of Modius E with Jot 2. To be honest I only like that DAC through output transformers into Pietus, so that may not be helpful to you.

@AlPastor I spotted a good opportunity to grab a 9028 card wrapped in an Asgard 3, so watch this space!

…and the display, and the antenna BT.

... Bluetooth functionality and tubes just seem amazingly incongruous to me. I seem to like the sound of hybrid designs but this better STOMP the competition for what it costs relative to the TA-66.

@rhythmdevils the DAC is what made it interesting to me. Not a lot of ROHM DACs on the market, and this one is also modular and can accept other DAC cards.

Call it an even $10,000 with Mjolnir 3 and a Noire X thrown in and it's practically a steal!

I suppose one solution would just be to switch the power strip that's hanging under my desk to something mounted right-side-up on a tray that's hanging under the desk. Then I can hide the brick without worrying it's going to fall down and break a toe while I'm working.

Oh that smashed toe thought is a terrible one!

NAD 3020 vs toe: https://i.imgur.com/C1mUatq.jpg . Lost the nail a month later.

The internal amp is a touch upper-mids pushed, but far from a deal killer, but I agree for $150-ish it's quite good especially with slightly dark headphones. DM13->MMB (OPA modded)->Vali3 is a stellar "cheap" combo. My only real concern is longevity of the transport mech.

@yotacowboy ha, DM13 -> MMB2 -> Vali 3 is my current setup for dozing off in the Eames chair

to the extent I've noticed it, I think the upper-mid-forward thing is a common trait in CS43131 DACs. It doesn't bother me nearly as much as upper-treble fuckery does, and in the case of the DM13 I've heard worse things for quite a bit more money

Just got that update as well. We need to combine our powers of patience, of which I have none.

Team Nocturn or Emberstone?

@RestoredSparda Emberstone! Can’t wait to see it in person. And sorry, no extra patience here either

Isn't shopify also that one platform that's oddly keen to host all the white nationalist, hate-speech-forward stuff on their platform? All the middle fingers indeed.