[rush1]

What would you guys say is the best amp to go with Mojo2?

I am using the tsuranagi and lovin’ it.
Imho it has neutral sound, good note weight. With it the mojo2 has better soundstage and separation with clearer air between the instruments. But YMMV.
Hope its helps.

 

[Guy Fawkes]

Not sure what your budget is or if you have a preference for headphones over IEM's.....But ive just upgraded from a pair Campfire Audio ARA to there Solaris Steller Horizon IEM. WOW........Ya want soundstage and detail, these deliver in spades and them some. Massive dynamic soundstage and able to zone in on any micro detail contained in the song. Thats as far as my reviewing skills will stretch to!!......Hope it helps......

I agree with you, Ara is amazing

 

[lolhero]

I am using the tsuranagi and lovin’ it.
Imho it has neutral sound, good note weight. With it the mojo2 has better soundstage and separation with clearer air between the instruments. But YMMV.
Hope its helps.

I am also looking at Tsu, I will be able to test it on the 2nd May hopefully in Vienna. I see you use a 3.5 IC. I was thinking if I buy Tsu, I would porbably also take Brise Audio IC cable but I think the 4.4mm one is avail. It would work if I go from 4.4 bal to Mojo unbal with adapter right?

Also what color setting are you using when you feed the Tsu? Blue or Indigo?

 

[MgMGM]

I agree with you, Ara is amazing

Yes it is, but I was referring to the steller horizon........They are a big big step up from the ARA and also a great match for Mojo2 or TT2

 

[BS5711]

I am also looking at Tsu, I will be able to test it on the 2nd May hopefully in Vienna. I see you use a 3.5 IC. I was thinking if I buy Tsu, I would porbably also take Brise Audio IC cable but I think the 4.4mm one is avail. It would work if I go from 4.4 bal to Mojo unbal with adapter right?

Also what color setting are you using when you feed the Tsu? Blue or Indigo?

A 3.5mm to 4.4mm adapter plugged into the Mojo with a cable into the 4.4mm input of a balanced amplifier will be feeding the balanced amplifier with a single ended signal.

The negative side of each amplifier channel will be connected to the ground of the Mojo.

 

[adubg]

Has anyone compared the Mojo 2 against Topping G5?

For me it's about the feature set. Having the ability to use DSP and crossfeed make the difference.

 

[Hypops]

Has anyone compared the Mojo 2 against Topping G5?

Sound quality aside, there is no optical input on the Topping and only one USB input, which would mean I couldn't use it at my desktop. The Topping also wouldn't put out enough voltage over SE for my needs. So in my case, the Topping would already be a non-contender before I even get to a sound quality comparison.

 

[lolhero]

A 3.5mm to 4.4mm adapter plugged into the Mojo with a cable into the 4.4mm input of a balanced amplifier will be feeding the balanced amplifier with a single ended signal.

The negative side of each amplifier channel will be connected to the ground of the Mojo.

I am still to novice to properly understand this but thanks for explanation, is that acceptable and wont hurt either the amp or Mojo right? From how I understand it, it means that I am basically converting the signal to single ended and it will work just fine.

 

[BS5711]

I am still to novice to properly understand this but thanks for explanation, is that acceptable and wont hurt either the amp or Mojo right? From how I understand it, it means that I am basically converting the signal to single ended and it will work just fine.

It means you definitely won’t hurt the Mojo, may not hurt the Tsuranagi but almost certainly will achieve nothing in terms of sound quality over using the 3.5mm input.

The output might be louder but you are definitely not getting the best out of the balanced design.

With an amplifier that expensive buy a source designed for a balanced output if you want to use the balanced input.

 

[Daniel Johnston]

I am still to novice to properly understand this but thanks for explanation, is that acceptable and wont hurt either the amp or Mojo right? From how I understand it, it means that I am basically converting the signal to single ended and it will work just fine.

You.lose all benefits of balanced (6db gain and common noise rejection) by using SE to bal adapters. You're better off just staying SE if possible. Some HP amps use a balanced output that just separates grounds to the heaphones that some feel have sonic benefit. These amps may or may not give more power than the SE.

You really gain nothing by using SE out to balanced in to an amp other than it being the only choice you have. You won't damage your amp this way. You most certainly can damage a balanced amp with something like 4.4mm to 3.5mm SE headphone adapter. Your effectively shorting the grounds from the amp. This can be disastrous.

Jason Stoddard over at the Schiit happens thread has a nice chapter on balanced applications in audio. Well worth the read.

 

[rush1]

I am also looking at Tsu, I will be able to test it on the 2nd May hopefully in Vienna. I see you use a 3.5 IC. I was thinking if I buy Tsu, I would porbably also take Brise Audio IC cable but I think the 4.4mm one is avail. It would work if I go from 4.4 bal to Mojo unbal with adapter right?

Also what color setting are you using when you feed the Tsu? Blue or Indigo?

It is great if you can test it before.
Yes I am using 3.5 to 3.5, I emailed Brise for advice on connection with Mojo2 and was told to use 3.5 to 3.5, thus I had the cable custom locally.
I don't know whether it would work from mojo 3.5 to Tsu's 4.4 balance. I think you better email Brise in that regard, because there's quite a bit warning in the manual in regards of the amp connection for the grounding concerns.

I attached photo for the color on Mojo2 output level, definitely not blue it is on the lighter of Indigo ones. Somehow the color on the photo doesn't match the real color.
Anyway, with that level from Mojo it can drive the Raven loud enough on the volume setting around 1:30 on Tsu.
I use the same output level on Mojo2 as when I used it as desktop DAC connected to a desktop amp.

Hope it helps.

 

[Beh0lder]

I wanted to plug the mojo2 into PB5 amp but since the input is balanced I passed on the idea as to not hurt the amp. Balanced to single ended is suboptimal but ok for the amp.

 

[BS5711]

You most certainly can damage a balanced amp with something like 4.4mm to 3.5mm SE headphone adapter. Your effectively shorting the grounds from the amp. This can be disastrous.

If you mean plugging headphones into a balanced amplifier that isn’t correct, at least in the specific application you stated.

You can go single ended 3.5mm into 4.4mm balanced because the 4.4mm has a ground. Specific adapters are made by iFi and ddhifi for exactly that. I have both for a certain application.

They connect the positive from each channel and the ground to the ground with the negative of each channel not connected. Nothing is shorted at all.

That approach essentially creates the same circuitry outside the amplifier as exists inside to create a 3.5mm output from a balanced amplifier.

Of course the application is limited but it is technically possible to use a 3.5mm cable if that is all you have into a 4.4mm amplifier if that is the only output available.

Further details here: https://ifi-audio.com/products/headphone-adapter-3-5mm-to-4-4mm/

 

[Daniel Johnston]

If you mean plugging headphones into a balanced amplifier that isn’t correct, at least in the specific application you stated.

You can go single ended 3.5mm into 4.4mm balanced because the 4.4mm has a ground. Specific adapters are made by iFi and ddhifi for exactly that. I have both for a certain application.

They connect the positive from each channel and the ground to the ground with the negative of each channel not connected. Nothing is shorted at all.

That approach essentially creates the same circuitry outside the amplifier as exists inside to create a 3.5mm output from a balanced amplifier.

Of course the application is limited but it is technically possible to use a 3.5mm cable if that is all you have into a 4.4mm amplifier if that is the only output available.

Further details here: https://ifi-audio.com/products/headphone-adapter-3-5mm-to-4-4mm/

Not universally true.

The problem is “balanced” is a very vague term used by manufacturers. Is the output truly balanced or just using a balanced output jack? Yes you can get this adapter as you mentioned, and you won’t damage the amp most likely. You probably are safer with transformer coupled adapters by the way. But, there is no guarantee that this arrangement will sound good or actually work well. Not blowing up amp and working well two different situations.

My point is I wouldn’t recommend using this adapter (or adapters in general of this nature) from a true balanced out to SE device unless your confident the combo is safe and sounds good. And where this ifi adapter may be good, others may not be so well designed. I would in general suggest just don’t recommend it. Except for headphones like Grados, just buy a balanced HP cable and get the full balanced goodness.

I can’t think of many if any non pro devices that are balanced only. Only Geshelli comes to mind. Most of the time I read people thinking the balanced out is somehow better than the SE on the device in question and, instead of getting a balanced cable for their HP, they do the adapter instead.

So I stand behind my statement and recommendations. IMHO and YMMV of course.

 

[BS5711]

Not universally true.

The problem is “balanced” is a very vague term used by manufacturers. Is the output truly balanced or just using a balanced output jack? Yes you can get this adapter as you mentioned, and you won’t damage the amp most likely. You probably are safer with transformer coupled adapters by the way. But, there is no guarantee that this arrangement will sound good or actually work well. Not blowing up amp and working well two different situations.

My point is I wouldn’t recommend using this adapter (or adapters in general of this nature) from a true balanced out to SE device unless your confident the combo is safe and sounds good. And where this ifi adapter may be good, others may not be so well designed. I would in general suggest just don’t recommend it. Except for headphones like Grados, just buy a balanced HP cable and get the full balanced goodness.

I can’t think of many if any non pro devices that are balanced only. Only Geshelli comes to mind. Most of the time I read people thinking the balanced out is somehow better than the SE on the device in question and, instead of getting a balanced cable for their HP, they do the adapter instead.

So I stand behind my statement and recommendations. IMHO and YMMV of course.

I believe with 4.4mm it is all but universally true even with fully balanced amps, there may be some oddball device of course.

There are some amps that don't use the ground of the 4.4mm headphone output so in that case the adapter simply wouldn't work, you would only have the two positives connected and nothing else so no circuit and no sound but no harm.

With a normal balanced amplifier that has a functioning ground and the positive and negative per channel the adapter simply makes a single ended circuit leaving the negatives unconnected so no short and no risk. That is what is happening inside most balanced devices with a 3.5mm jack, they don't usually have a dedicated 3.5mm amplifier, they use the positive from each channel and a common ground just like the adapter does. The adapter will sound exactly the same as the 3.5mm output.

It isn't rocket science and there isn't anything odd going on it is just a basic circuit. I checked this stuff with a very qualified chap via private message and he confirmed my assumption on the circuit created and the 3.5mm single ended output from most balanced devices.

Also iFi are unlikely to make adapters that are fundamentally dangerous, their website explains how they work.

Of course there might be bogus adapters from dodgy sources but that doesn't alter the basic premise that it can be done.

Whether there is any need or value is of course another mater and in principle I agree the less adapting the better, if only for the sake of technical niceties.

Reversing the concept and using the adapter on an input as in the case above that started the conversation is obviously technically different. In that case the adapter will connect the 4.4mm negative input of the amplifier to the ground of the 3.5mm source device but that is the input side so essentially all that is happening is the negative side of the amplifier doesn't receive the negative signal, the voltage isn't being received by the amplifier and there is no short That isn't dangerous but as we both stated isn't going to make proper use of the balanced architecture anyway so it a pointless exercise.

This is all just technically interesting, to me at least, and has some limited application but for the most part isn't of great practical application although I do occasionally use the concept in one set up and have tried it with many others with no ill effects and perfectly normal sound quality.

I get your point but I believe that technically it is very rarely true and I just think it is best that folks understand what is technically accurate, there are lot of comments about blowing things up which, for the most part, are based on a lack of understanding of the circuitry.