Schiit Valhalla and AT AD900, Sharing my thoughts

So, I think im starting to go down that slippery slope of audio gear.

First it started off with me going crazy looking for headphones that i could drive with my iPhone, and Now Ive just bought an amp.

I just wanted to share my thoughts with my setup:

iPod Photo 40gb + Dock Line Out (Had to dig this thing out of a drawer after i read that it had a wolfson dac)

BJC MSA-1

Schiit Valhalla

Audio Technica AD900

Lossless Audio

I spent the last few days listening to a fair amount of music, and comparing back and forth between my AD900's driven by the amp and by the ipod (I guess this is the downside to having headphones that are able to be driven by a portable device)

Theres some music where I cant discern the difference, mostly Pop and Hip Hop music. It's difficult for me to tell where it's coming from.

But then there's other music that I've dove into, and they make the iPod headphone jack just sound dull and boring. The music that I hear this best is Vocals, acoustic, Kenny G, and Santana.

When I first heard a difference, I couldn't figure out what it was, except that it was just way more pleasing coming through the Valhalla. And the best way I could describe it to my friends was that it made listening straight from the iPod sound dull and boring.

El Farol by Santana just sounds more full in sound, warm, and colorful. It's like I don't want to get up and take my headphones off, but with the iPod i felt indifferent to whether i wanted to stay and listen or not.

Forever in Love by Kenny G, the sound was way smoother, warmer, and it made me go like this:

So those are my thoughts for now, I'd love to have your opinion on my setup and answer any questions about it. Also any suggestions on how to get an even better sound from my setup?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arion 

What you decide on the Valhalla rather than the Asgard as the Asgard is made for low impendent headphones and the Valhalla is made for higher impendent headphones and since your headphones are so close to the output Impendence which is 32oms I am curious how they sound with Electronic music

Thanks,

Arion

I didn't have a buying plan, but from as far as 6 years ago, I wanted a tube amp. I also read a few posts that the ad900's sounded great on the valhalla, and they do. I bought the ad900's because i wanted to use them primarly in the office driven by my iphone, and right now i'm looking at getting some Q701's or DT880 600's.

Let me load up some daft punk and i'll be right back.

So the things that pop out to me right away when using the valhalla over the headphone jack on my ipod:

-More details

-Better note separation

-more tamed treble.

Daft punk - Verdis Quo, Derezzed (and glitch mob remix), adagio for tron teddy bears remix)

I would say that I almost prefer the presentation of sound stage BETTER with my SE530's. the way these tracks are presented, the sound stage is small, and it sounds like its coming out of the headphone vs somewhere else. But with the SE530, the placement is a bit better, and is less fatiguing. 

I've never been a bass head, but bass is tight, and not muddy. I don't really know if I would call it lacking, but I've never been a fan of large, boomy bass.

I don't usually think about electronic music in a way where I can give you good feedback, perhaps if you asked me a question I could answer it better.