So I wanted to add to the impressions of this new schiity amp/other. It may seem late, but I wrote down some notes and haven't looked at anyone else impressions to not color my opinion. So I might repeat some stuff that others have covered.
TL,DR
Good: great (maybe best) dynamics I've heard on a headphone amp, don't know need to do a head to head comparison. Transparent, clear, reasonably compatible with wide array of headphones
Bad: lean sounding (source dependent), timber is quick, bass is kind of nonexistent, highs are a little congested
So first the good. This thing hits hard. The dynamics make the music pop. This was with every headphone I tried paradox, omni, lcdxc, hd800, hd650, Akg k1000, ether flow C. The jotunheim is an exciting amp. When I initially saw the 5watts sign I thought it was just gonna be really loud but to be honest the power seem to be there to provide good dynamics which really added life to the presentation. Too many times have I seen a high output rating on an amp and it turns out that the power is used to paint the same picture but larger not really better. Most of the time on the Jotunheim I got to quarter of the volume for listening and I could still hear the dynamics and detail quite well. The only time I got I need to reach the half way point was with the k1000, yup the k1000 get plenty loud at the halfway point. I never switch to low gain because I never felt I needed too.
The amp kind of let whatever else was in the chain decide what the tonality would be. Which is just as it should be I’m not a big fan of amps voicing the system as transducers and source/s (files for digital) already do that enough. While the amp was dynamic it was never a force dynamicism, for instance a whisper had the dynamics of a whisper, ie not much, but hooks and count ins really popped. The presentation of the sound is nicely defined with clear distinctions between different sounds in the ensemble. Except for maybe the highs.
Okay so I should elaborate on this so lets start the bad. The while the Jotunheim is for the most part neutral it is tilting towards the highs. I want to say bright but I usually reserve that word for tremble emphasis with other associated bad features like sharpness (it feels as the sound is trying to stab your ear) or glassy (feels like sound is coming thru glass, sound+high freq vibration of glass), but the Jotunheim tremble just feels like it slightly louder than the rest of the frequency, maybe 5db max its louder but doesn’t really throw its weight around. Funny thing is that the Hd800 and k1000 are known for being bright but weren’t really made any worse than using any other neutral amp, they just had slightly elevated tremble. Though I listen to the hd800 with the u-turn orbit and the k1000 with the dac module so that might explain why the hd800 didn’t try to stick a needle in my ear like it usually does (thought the ortofon cartridges are known for being kind of bright). It was kind of like peanut butter and jelly they compliment each other more than the brought out their bad side. The omni and paradox on the other hand (both headphones on the darker side with shelved highs, slightly anyways) kind of felt like they were forced to go equal opportunity on the tremble instead of being themselves. Here the tremble was present but the headphones sound bright at all just slightly rigged instead of relaxed. More like peanut butter and banana. Sure I like to pay tribute to the king but I usually go for the peanut butter and jelly.
To make matters worst the highs were kind of congested. Though congestion was dependent on the source. The dac module had slight congestion in the mids and the highs were a mess (using my paradox). But then I switched to headphones that specialize on tremble that that cleaned it up a bit. When I tried the hd800 with with the turntable it might have been almost congestion free, hard to tell since I wasn’t using the same tracks. It’s probably why I didn’t mind the highs with bright phones because they were able to become clearer without becoming razor sharp. I borrowed my friends pono and yup the mids cleared up and the highs got slightly better on my paradox(hd650 and omni as well). So I guess its a source+amp thing.
As for the mids I would like them to have a little bit more body but like I said its source dependent, with the turntable it was smooth and with the pono it was warm. The dac module had ok mids but the got a little jumbled if too much stuff was going on. The bass? Well have you heard the hd800 bass? Its like that it pops in but doesn’t hang around for long. When you put it together with the hd800 you get the hd800 bass with more slam and definition. Not bad but not amazing. I donno I like more, what I like to call decay (as longer notes tend to linger around longer in real life so their decay to nothing takes longer).
Overall the bad doesn’t stand out too much, the congestion really depends on the music. If I just listen to a song and didn’t analyze I would notice it for maybe 10 seconds of a 3 min (aka 180 sec) song. The other problems can be minimized by playing with the system, thus I like to think of this more as an amp that an amp/dac combo as using of mimby would probably make the presentation a lot better. While the good (well defined, powereful, transparent sound) is nearly always their. For the price its a really good deal and the amp seem be kind to both dynamics and orthos (electrostats need not apply).
P.S.
The food was awsome!!! Plus the schiit people are anything but schiitty very nice to talk too. It was great catching up with everyone.
. In your opinion, is that worthwhile, or would the internal DAC just be a waste of money?
