[Jamie G]

Hi,

I'd be interested to know you guys thoughts on this. I use the preouts on my Jotunheim to feed signal into my Darkvoice, and yesterday i thought i'd do a little experiment. I still have a first gen Modi knocking about that i've never gotten around to selling so decided to give that a run in place of the Jot and well...I felt like i could hear more. I wouldn't say it was better exactly, but certainly more open and expansive. The Jot was still smoother and more refined, but i'd almost say the sound was veiled next to the Modi.

So that got me thinking, perhaps the Jot has been holding back some of the tubey goodness from me! I'm pretty sure the DAC in the Jot is equal or better than that in a first gen Modi (correct me if i'm wrong there guys) so could it be that i'm 'pre-ing' to the DV that's influencing the sound? Does audio first go through the Jot's amp before being sent out the preouts? (sorry for the newb question!) Tried looking for info online but couldn't find much. I did find people stating that adding more gain controls to an audio chain is not great though.


Appreciate any feedback from you ever-helpful head-fiers

 

[ProtegeManiac]

I'd be interested to know you guys thoughts on this. I use the preouts on my Jotunheim to feed signal into my Darkvoice, and yesterday i thought i'd do a little experiment. I still have a first gen Modi knocking about that i've never gotten around to selling so decided to give that a run in place of the Jot and well...I felt like i could hear more. I wouldn't say it was better exactly, but certainly more open and expansive. The Jot was still smoother and more refined, but i'd almost say the sound was veiled next to the Modi.

So that got me thinking, perhaps the Jot has been holding back some of the tubey goodness from me! I'm pretty sure the DAC in the Jot is equal or better than that in a first gen Modi (correct me if i'm wrong there guys) so could it be that i'm 'pre-ing' to the DV that's influencing the sound? Does audio first go through the Jot's amp before being sent out the preouts? (sorry for the newb question!) Tried looking for info online but couldn't find much. I did find people stating that adding more gain controls to an audio chain is not great though.

The signal is going through the active preamp of the Jotunheim. You're either hearing it coloring the sound or just because you're sending a louder signal than what would have come out of the DAC into the Darkvoice.

 

[Jamie G]

Yeah, this is what I figured was happening. For clarity I have the volume on the Jot set to just north of 12 o'clock, this means the volume out of the darkvoice is pretty much on par with that of the Modi direct.

Little disappointed that I feel like I'm losing something using the Jotunheim pre out. So would it be better to get a higher quality dedicated dac to feed both amps?

 

[ProtegeManiac]

Yeah, this is what I figured was happening. For clarity I have the volume on the Jot set to just north of 12 o'clock, this means the volume out of the darkvoice is pretty much on par with that of the Modi direct.

Little disappointed that I feel like I'm losing something using the Jotunheim pre out. So would it be better to get a higher quality dedicated dac to feed both amps?

Not necessarily. You can use the Sys as a signal switcher. It's a passive unit so it can be wired in reverse and just leave the volume pot at max.

 

[Jamie G]

Not necessarily. You can use the Sys as a signal switcher. It's a passive unit so it can be wired in reverse and just leave the volume pot at max.

I'd still be outputting from the Jotunheim's preout though wouldn't I? So wouldn't any colouration of the sound still be there? Or am I totally missing something?

Thanks mate

 

[ProtegeManiac]

I'd still be outputting from the Jotunheim's preout though wouldn't I? So wouldn't any colouration of the sound still be there? Or am I totally missing something?

No - you'll wire it up as

Modi > Sys > Jotunheim
> DV336

 

[Jamie G]

No - you'll wire it up as

Modi > Sys > Jotunheim
> DV336

I see what you mean now, I think I've confused things. I don't actually want to use the Modi in place of the Jotunheim to feed the darkvoice, I just noticed the darkvoice sounded better through it in some ways. I'd really like the best aspects of both. Guess my query was just whether what I was hearing was normal and to be expected.

 

[ProtegeManiac]

I see what you mean now, I think I've confused things. I don't actually want to use the Modi in place of the Jotunheim to feed the darkvoice, I just noticed the darkvoice sounded better through it in some ways. I'd really like the best aspects of both. Guess my query was just whether what I was hearing was normal and to be expected.

You're just putting a higher voltage signal into the Darkvoice by running it through the Jotunheim first, which can easily make for audible differences since the Modi only outputs 1.5V.

 

[Jamie G]

So would this be a characteristic of any DAC/Amp preout? If the signal isn't fed lineout from the DAC it will be affected (coloured) by the amp?

It does sound like I should get the Darkvoice its own dedicated DAC. Going to try my Dragonfly Black over the weekend, just to see how that sounds.

 

[ProtegeManiac]

So would this be a characteristic of any DAC/Amp preout? If the signal isn't fed lineout from the DAC it will be affected (coloured) by the amp?

Pretty much, unlesss it's a passive preamp, which is why people came up with those. Although in some cases what most people think is active coloration when otherwise properly used (ie the active and passive preamp are both feeding a dedicated power amp) is partly attributable to not making sure that the output level is equal on both.

In your case the other problem is that you're using two preamps along the same chain - the Jotunheim's and the DV336's.

It does sound like I should get the Darkvoice its own dedicated DAC.

Why not just use the Sys to direct the signal form the Modi to either the Jotunheim or the DV336?

 

[Jamie G]

Pretty much, unlesss it's a passive preamp, which is why people came up with those. Although in some cases what most people think is active coloration when otherwise properly used (ie the active and passive preamp are both feeding a dedicated power amp) is partly attributable to not making sure that the output level is equal on both.

In your case the other problem is that you're using two preamps along the same chain - the Jotunheim's and the DV336's.




Why not just use the Sys to direct the signal form the Modi to either the Jotunheim or the DV336?

As I mentioned previously, I'm not keen on using the Modi to feed the DV. I'd just noticed that in some ways it seemed a little better, just not enough to switch to it totally.

Jamie

 

[bixby]

@ProtegeManiac covered all the bases nicely, one other thing, the Darkvoice is um, a bit "dark", the Modi is bright and perhaps leaner, simpler texturally in comparison to the Jot. Result with your setup, Maybe a bit more open sounding, hence the difference you described.