Schiit Midgard Review, Impressions, Measurements, Science

Focal drivers are *extremely* floppy. With the Clear, you can give them a tiny little blow of air, and they move a *long* way. None of my other headphones do that.

But for something like the Focal, Halo vs non-Halo doesn't interest me. Not nearly as much as Halo vs negative feedback. That's an impossible comparison, but on a conceptual level it is far more interesting.

 

The thing with Focals makes sense given not only their 'floppy' drivers but also their impedance profiles (which are related, through the primary resonance of the driver). Eg the Clear's impedance is above 300 Ohms at its resonant frequency but around 55 Ohms elsewhere. Vary the power along such a profile (which is what the variable feedback does, no?) and there'll be noticeably different bass amplitude & distortion (and hopefully not so much of them reaching their excursion limits and 'banging' during loud EDM sessions).

 

To the extent that halo is supposed to reduce transducer distortion I suspect an extremely rigid (edit: but floppy in the sense of high excursion, high voice coil movement) diaphragm might be ideal. The amp can only "know" what the diaphragm is doing to the extent that it gets electrical information fed back from the voice coil moving through a magnetic field. If you have a very flexible, deformation prone diaphragm (an old paper cone speaker, say) wobbling around to produce distortion, that's only going to be very imperfectly transferred to the movement of the voice coil.

(I don't remotely understand how this is supposed to work at the amp end).

 

I have two questions for purr1n ....

Do you prefer the Piety or the Midgard for overall sound quality?

Do you prefer the Piety or Midgard for treble quality?

I know you have not had much time with the Midgard. But, I wondered how these two compare given your experiences?

 

Since Marv reports a difference in headstage between Halo or not (SE out), maybe the error correction has a measurable effect on crosstalk? If so, that would be quite peculiar since the Midgard is internally not balanced.

 

The balanced out has 2R output impedance, versus the TRS at essentially zero R. I suspect this means that the balanced out has a small series resistance on the ground return to make Halo happen. This would change measured crosstalk, even without the amp being internally balanced.

But, I could also be completely wrong.

 

@purr1n

How does the Midgard stack up to the Jotenheim 2? Would you say the Jot 2 is worth the extra $180?

 

I must be one of the few that liked the Magnius. Some reason when I got the Modius E the amp really clicked. Listening with hd580 and LCD2 PF, maybe there was some special synergy there.

I've recently got a Utopia and have been looking for a budget amp (I'm done with $1k+ amp/dacs) to pair with it. Sort of interested in the Midgard, so will see how this thread pans out. And if anyone has a 2020 Utopia they could pair with it.. thanks!

 

Off topic, but thank you for inadvertently agreeing that the Taylor's Versions are too... stilted. Liked listening to the first couple ones for about a week each before I got annoyed and went back to the OGs. Unfortunate about their circumstances but eh.

When's your remaster due to release?

I always felt the Piety had a bit more sizzle to the highs relative to the Magni 3+ but in retrospect (the gain switch is still bjorked so I'm terrified of using it for too long) could just have been the Piety mids being as rich and lush as they are making the highs "worse" by contrast. I wish there were a way to get Piety Low Gain highs but Piety High Gain everything else.

 

Knowing nothing about amplifier circuit design, I wonder how Jason's design here differs from Doug Savitsky's with the DSHA-3F "Ravenswood".

I recently got the Nitsch version, and it is truly remarkable with my Focals (Utopia 2020 and Clear OG). The amp also sounds great with the ZMF dynamics I've tried with it!

Thanks for the update purr1n!

 

HAH, bit hard to sing so sincerely about high school crushes when you're about a decade and change removed from it all, yeah. Looking forward to checking the remasters out! Yep, the new ones were less jarring on the ears but they overcorrected.

Kinda was a bad combo of things between that and how much less emotional the Taylor's Versions are, ergo me just listening to folklore which is probably my fave album of hers at the moment besides 1989. Really should get around to checking evermore out.

 

Totally off topic, but who is Taylor Swift?

j/k. Honestly hard to not know who she is, but not sure if I have ever heard any of her music. Maybe at a party or a club, and might recognize it to hear it but not know who it is. Any recommendation for best album to listen to see if I like it?

 

I liked some of her last album, Midnights. Anything else by her is not to my taste.

Im close to ordering a Midgard fwiw

 

Is there further context regarding the spacious headstage such as 'for the price' or 'for a midsize Schiit amp' or is it simply a spacious amp?

I'm using a Dekoni Cobalt(Gustard X16->Drop THX One) and pleased with the neutral-bright sound overall. The Cobalts are spacious fullstop(but not open like an openback; like a huge damped studio in sound maybe) and I'm curious if the Midgard would enhance that. Based on conversation so far they seem a good candidate(16ohm, high eff) but maybe its too much effort buying amp+cables for a sidegrade?

I've never been happy with tubes longterm despite enjoying what they can do for headstage during the honeymoon period so a spacious SS amp is right up my alley.

 

She's that girl Kanye humiliated made famous on stage at the 2009 VMAs.

 

When Taylor was a part of the Nashville hit machine, all the people involved all obsess over vocals and do tons of takes because they are striving for #1's, and then comp all the best phrases down to one perfect vocal performance. Now it is just Taylor involved and I wonder how much she is being "pushed" by her producer (if she has one) for the best performance, and/or going through the level of scrutiny or vocal obsession.

We used to hear all kinds of wild tales some singers would go through, like Barbara Streisand requesting a specific serial number Neumann M49 for rental when she does recording sessions. So not just the same model, one particular microphone. And Martina McBride, having not only her own mic, but a rack of processing gear will also show up in the studio to go along with and the studio will be provided with an XLR line out to use for her performance. And you think some of us have nervosa.