Schiit Jotunheim impressions

Has any Jot +phono users use just the phono section by itself? Can it be used independent of the amp?

 

I believe it's just a board, so.. not easily.



..or isn't that what you meant?

 

Yeah, thanks. I was just wondering I could also use the phono to my current amp also. And yes I know there a $99 Schiit option..

...side note, The Z review of the Jot gives me diabetes.

 

Via the pre-out of the Jot, I suppose- which could be balanced.

 

I just noticed the "pre-out" of the Joddie is labeled "Rec Out".

Shouldn't rec out not be affected by the volume? I assume the theories to play and album on the phono and have a tape deck hooked up line in and rec out. One would also assume the user would be listening to the album and might want to change the volume during playback, while recording. If the user changes the volume, the tape will be fucked up.

I have rec out on many receivers and none of them change the output when the volume is playing. Odd.

 

'Rec(ord) Out' is typically just a loop out (line level) and is does not run through the volume pot.

 

Website shows the silkscreen as pre out for both rca and xlr. Is the backplate different for the phono version??

 

My bad, it does say pre out. An unfortunate combination of looking at the lettering upside down and with cables plugged in, and not the best eyes in the world made me see rec out. Apologies.

 

Pre out to your amp, never tried the Mani but early reviews have suggested the Jotono is better.

I'm convinced he can't describe sound because he's literally going deaf. I was listening to the loaner Jotono at 9 o'clock on high gain with the balanced input while he's listening at 2 o'clock.

 

He starts the video with this "alright let's make this review real short" and ends up with a 19min video blabbering...

 

We should play a game "how many incorrect things were said in the Z review of the Jot"...

Jason should ask for a retraction of 90% of that dumpster fire...

edit - I apologize for bringing Z reviews up to begin with. I should know better then to expect quality content from that goof ball...

 

Oh god, that guy, the bellend with the GoPro on his head. Yes, he has a serious case of self-indulgent rambling- see also his adventures with Stax.

 

Im a bit upset right now that you are right... I wont go so far as saying it sounds like crap but it definitely is better than the Cayin. I wanted to dislike your post and wanted you to be wrong but you are right.

I first compared the Cayin to the Jotunheim with the Jotunheim taking balanced from my Pavane.

Rednet3>Pavane>XLR>Jotunheim>650/HE-6
Vs.
Rednet3>Pavane>RCA>Cayin IHA-6 > 650/HE-6
And the results were that the Cayin had equal bass slam and control but was slightly less clear and the background was blacker on the Joti. Actually I thought both were clear but the Joti was even clearer.

Then...

Rednet3>Pavane>RCA>Jotunheim>650/HE-6
Vs.
Rednet3>Pavane>XLR>Cayin IHA-6 > 650/HE-6

STILLLLL the same thing only slightly less extreme but still.

This IHA-6 is going FS ASAP. At a very low price.

Well since the Cayin is out of the picture it is the Jotun vs TH2 vs iCan Pro tonight.

see above... Thought it'd tickle your fancy.


Dangit... I was really avoiding this hype train but this thing is disruptive...

 

Jotun is impressively resolving and transparent, it works well tonally with hd650s. It even lacks all glare and other major flaws of ss amps. But in my opinion it has one serious and fatal flaw, absolutely 0 sound stage depth!!! I mean like holy shit everything sounds like the worlds thinnest pancake. I literally feel like if i move my head forward I will pass through the plane of music. No sense of realism. This is what the soundstage looks like only much thinner:

 

haha at first i thought that was phineas gage taking a pipe to the head but then i realized the pipe penetrated his skull at way more of an angle. i'm an idiot. nice description though @SteelCannon i was curious what folks would say about the joti soundstage. i think bw (at least the v2 i've been using) has a more deep / realistic soundstage than the joti, which still has plenty of merits as mentioned in your comment as well.

 

What to you use for source?
I agree that the individual sounds are high contrast 2D, but in a very much spherical headroom. Going through the headroom layers feels like peeling an onion. There are thin layers and almost nothing in between. Ime it still does better than other solid state amps.

It's inner dac has this sheet of sounds for soundstage, but that is inherent to all s-d dacs I have heard.
You can throw a 2A3 amp to it and the inner dac is still 2D.

 

I am using tidal/@thegunner100's amb gamma 2/jot/modded hd650s. I can do more testing with my Gungnir Multibit later this week, but the issue is definitely the jot's presentation as my torpedo 3 and @sphinxvc's stratos plus reproduce much more depth and a more realistic soundstage.

With the jot, everything is on a large 2d plane. I don't get a clear sense of the positional origin or distance of sounds. It is hard to describe because separation is quite good but all the sounds are coming from the same plane into a huge very thin central image.

 

Maybe it's so transparent that it's pointing out flaws in your DAC/source....or recordings
I had this sort of thing happen to me once. I kept blaming my amp when it was my lousy HRT Music Streamer II.

Once I even found that a powered USB hub was degrading the sound of a DAC. I even had a (MOV based) surge protector degrade the sound of an amp. On some headphones you can't even hear these minor things.

Maybe the Jotunheim is good at finding flaws in our equipment setups. Sounds like my kind of amp!

 

I don't think that's the case here. I agree with what has been said about the Jot, it has a tendency to compress the stage along the z axis. Combined with a relatively weak centre image it results in the smearing or panning of vocals across your face along you jaw.

This sort of presentation would make sense as if you were sitting a few seats back at a show, but the rest of the performance is so up front that it becomes disconcerting.

 

I'd love to hear these sorts of spatial differences side by side. I don't have enough gear or experience to be able to conceptualize it. The physics of it seem impossible but the experiences here fly in the face of that. I'm drawing no conclusion, mind you...just frustrated at having no reference to relate to.