Schiit Mjolnir headphone amplifier - Page 38

Just if anybody cares: 

Mjolnir is written Mjølner in Norse/Norwegian and pronounced like this: 

M - J (as in the Y in "you") - Ø (as in the U in "dub") - L (a "thin" L as in the L in "liquid") - N - E (as in the E i "expect") - R (a thin, rolling R, like the Irsih, or upper class British R)

Mjølner/Mjolnir is the hammer that the God of Thunder and Lightning "Thor" used to create all the the thunder and lightning. He also rode across the sky in a chariot pulled by some mean goats.  

Anybody knows if Nordost and Schiit is related - I mean because of all the norse naming and stuff? Or are Americans just generally more prone to norse naming than I thought?

I can verify that that is the correct pronounciation

Here's if you want to see how to spell it for real: http://www.omniglot.com/writing/runic.htm

Well, I noticed all of Schiit's products were of Norse mythology.

I found the Bifrost and Mjolnir's naming to be particularly "smart"; the Bifrost, the bridge, is the "bridge" from transport to amp, and Mjolnir being a incredibly powerful amp.

Quote:

Originally Posted by kstaken 

 

The Mjonir is more resolving and reveals more detail but is also drier. Images are clearer with cleaner edges. It does a better job of unraveling complex music with a lot of layering. It better handles large dynamic swings. It generally does a better job of presenting stage depth.

 

The Mjolnir is drier than most other high end amps, this is what I have been trying to put my finger on. Thanks.

Drier as in sterile?

Quote:

Originally Posted by brunk 

The Mjolnir is drier than most other high end amps, this is what I have been trying to put my finger on. Thanks.

What's meant by drier?

Go find any Yamaha sterero or home theater receiver made after the late 1990s.  Plug headphones into headphone jack.  Listen.  You'll be drier than the Sahara desert.

To me, "dry" means little body, little romance, little liquidity, and no life in the music.  Imagine the old midi sounds from early computers vs. a vinyl record. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by preproman 

What's meant by drier?

Yep. I too like the naming. The Nordost names seem less intuitive, except the most expensive cables are called Valhalla (Viking heaven). But I'm not really into norse mythology anyway. 

But I'm looking foreward to the Schiit Sleipner (Sleipner is Odins eight legged horse), and especially Frøya/Freya, which indeed must be a tube amp...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Girls Generation 

Well, I noticed all of Schiit's products were of Norse mythology.

 

I found the Bifrost and Mjolnir's naming to be particularly "smart"; the Bifrost, the bridge, is the "bridge" from transport to amp, and Mjolnir being a incredibly powerful amp.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ardilla 

Yep. I too like the naming. The Nordost names seem less intuitive, except the most expensive cables are called Valhalla (Viking heaven). But I'm not really into norse mythology anyway. 

 

But I'm looking foreward to the Schiit Sleipner (Sleipner is Odins eight legged horse), and especially Frøya/Freya, which indeed must be a tube amp...

 

 

She is HOT!!!

dry 1) Describing the texture of reproduced sound: very fine-grained, chalky. 2) Describing an acoustical space: deficient in reverberation or having a very short reverberation time. 3) Describing bass quality: lean, overdamped.

Then this may not be the amp for me...

Quote:

Originally Posted by hodgjy 

Go find any Yamaha sterero or home theater receiver made after the late 1990s.  Plug headphones into headphone jack.  Listen.  You'll be drier than the Sahara desert.

 

To me, "dry" means little body, little romance, little liquidity, and no life in the music.  Imagine the old midi sounds from early computers vs. a vinyl record. 

 

A bit more OT: There´s also a comic series about Valhalla, the nordic gods and norse mythology. It´s in danish (and translated into a few other languages) though, so maybe only interesting to a few.

http://comicwiki.dk/wiki/Valhalla

Quote:

Originally Posted by m2man 

It's certainly not lacking in body, nor is the bass lean or over damped. I can hear what Brunk is talking about...I think it's just the detailed mids/highs. He didn't say it was a dry amp, just drier than other high end amps. It's not a bad description but I think you are reading too much into that comment.

Yeah...you guys that don't own the Mjolnir are WAY overreacting on the term dry. If it was a major downfall for the Mjolnir, I would've said so. The Mjolnir does revel in showing off detail and transient information in the recording. For example, you can easily discern if a "live" or "hi-res" recording was just a vinyl rip. You can also hear that ever-so-faint tube hum in guitar amps, even while they're playing soft music, not just a short pause. You can also clearly discern a soloist breathing before singing and moving their tongue and lips beforehand too. To sum up, the Mjolnir has body, PRaT, dynamics, sound staging with the only "sacrifice" being a little on the dry side so it can bring these qualities out. For $750, it's a steal. In the current market, it's worth about 3x it's price tag IMO.

I want to make it clear that I said "drier" than the Peak, my statement was purely relative. I do not find the Mjolnir to be even close to as dry and etched as some of those vintage solid state pieces can be. It is not fatiguing in any way to me and there is plenty of life in the music. That said it's not a romantic amp either but then neither is the Peak. It's very clear, transparent and revealing so that you can hear your source fully. Use a crappy source with this amp and you're going to hear it sound crappy. The Peak is technically the same way too but it has a tube in it that does romance the sound just a little bit and changing the tube changes the sound. Full tube amps will definitely romance the sound more.

Quote:

Originally Posted by hodgjy 

Go find any Yamaha sterero or home theater receiver made after the late 1990s.  Plug headphones into headphone jack.  Listen.  You'll be drier than the Sahara desert.

 

To me, "dry" means little body, little romance, little liquidity, and no life in the music.  Imagine the old midi sounds from early computers vs. a vinyl record.