Should I jump on the Mojo Bandwagon?
HI all;
I have been lurking around Head-Fi and the other headphone sites for a little while now. I’ve been wading through this thread, I read the beginning including the “3rd post” and picked back up on page 600 and trying to catch up to current but very time consuming. I picked up on One Tall Guy’s Q&A thread since I to am mid 60s and have typical hearing loss for my age and similar concerns.
I’m just getting into the Head-Fi hobby. I’ve been addicted to audio gear all my life and have a pretty high end vintage stereo rig as well as an above average home theater setup. The problem is with my wife home most of the time, I can’t really enjoy the stereo rig without disturbing her.
I have had a pair of Shure E5c’s and some SE4 series Shure IEM for a while and use a Geek Out 450 with them as well as a pair of HE-400s with Focused A pads I just picked up ( my first recent purchase), which I like very much. I have a pair of Fidelio X2 coming in a week or so to evaluate against the 400s’ and I’ve signed up for the Massdrop Fostex TH-00x drop coming in May. I tried the Oppo PM-3’s but I preferred the airiness and soundstage of the HE-400s. The Oppo’s to quote someone from one of the forums, “are quite good and neutral but just boring”. They were comfortable and the closed back was a plus but I just couldn’t get excited about them. I’m hoping the Foxtex will fill that void.
I mostly listen to rock, folk , R&B and popular with a lot of female vocals. I also listen to some Jazz and Classical as well. Some EDM but can’t stand Techno, Opera or most Country.
So hear is my question have any of you new Mojo converts had any previous experience with the Geek Out device and how would you say they compare?
I toyed with the idea of getting a Schiit Vali 2 Tube amp and feeding it with the Geek Out or one of the Schiit DAC’s as a cheap option. I suppose I could also feed it from the Mojo to experiment with tube flavoring.
I just don’t want to spend $600 on the Mojo to find out it is a 1 or 2% improvement over what I’m listening to. I like the GO and from all I’ve read it’s very respectable. I found a couple of comparison with the GOV2 to the Mojo and those people preferred the Mojo but not by a huge margin. I’ve searched and can’t fine anyone who has compared it to the GO450 or the 450 to the V2 for that matter.
I should also mention I would not use the Mojo away from home much if at all. I can survive the quality of my iPad or iPod into the Shure IEM’s for a 4 hour flight now and again. I typically would use it from my Macbook while sitting in the family room and drawing the files from either my Mac Mini HTPC or from a NAS drive that has several thousand AAC and Apple lossless files stored on them.
I’ve been reading how awesome the Mojo is but if I don’t need the portability, should I be considering some other option in a similar price range.
Any thoughts or suggestions would be much appreciated.