[doctorjazz]

Been listening to Macy Gray's Stripped, vinyl, Linn LP12, Mojo Audio's modded MicroZOTL2, HEK v1, Man, that's nice sounding!

 

[tuna47]

Just looking for a good amp to go with mojo at a $500 price range

 

[JaZZ]

Just looking for a good amp to go with mojo at a $500 price range

 
The Mojo is an amp! 

(with headphone outputs – no dedicated line outputs for bypassing the internal «amp»).

 

[Kalavere]

   
The Mojo is an amp! 

(with headphone outputs – no dedicated line outputs for bypassing the internal «amp»).

 
Are you quite sure? I recently sold my Cavalli LC to a guy that tested it in a coffee house using his phone into the Mojo and then again onto the LC, sounded just fine to my ears. You can put it into a preamp/pass through mode, no?

 

[JaZZ]

 

  The Mojo is an amp! 

(with headphone outputs – no dedicated line outputs for bypassing the internal «amp»).

 
Are you quite sure? I recently sold my Cavalli LC to a guy that tested it in a coffee house using his phone into the Mojo and then again onto the LC, sounded just fine to my ears. You can put it into a preamp/pass through mode, no?

 
Yes, I'm sure. And sure it won't sound bad with an amp, not worse than any other DAC. But (theoretically) worse than the direct connection to the built-in headphone output stage, since an external amp will be fed with the signal from exactly that. The so-called «preamp mode» is just a volume preset to 3 volts, no hardware switching. Moreover, it's extremely unlikely to get a high-quality amp for $500 or less matching the Mojo's existing sound quality. Some may argue that the HE1000 needs more power than the Mojo delivers, but I wholeheartedly disagree. The only thing an amp does in my experience is coloring the sound – which may absolutely be to your liking (as it will add some «authority» in many cases), but you sacrifice transparency and accuracy.

 

[Gibson59]

   
The only thing an amp does in my experience is coloring the sound – which may absolutely be to your liking (as it will add some «authority» in many cases), but you sacrifice transparency and accuracy.

I'm going to respectfully disagree here, because if an amp is providing more power and adding some authority isn't it further emphasizing the inherent characteristics of a headphone?  Not necessarily adding color or diminishing accuracy while that's certainly possible with certain options.  I just would avoid making that generalization.  Assuming it's a TOTL headphone then I want as many of the qualities of that headphone to shine as possible.  I don't define that as adding color.  To me adding color would be changing the inherent sound characteristics of a headphone, not enhancing them.

With that said, i haven't hooked my Mojo up to an external amp so no argument there about pros and cons.  It seems many agree with you that the Mojo sounds it's best by itself.  I LOVE sound of the Mojo with my HE1000s, but when I hooked the HE1000s up to a few more powerful amps all of the elements that the Mojo brings out were just enhanced that much more.  Yes tube amps may change the natural sound of how the headphones were engineered to produce and how the track itself was engineered (some may want that), but the solid state amps i listened to sounded incredibly transparent and just seemed to add that extra juice to bring out the most in the headphones, while remaining very accurate to my ear.  Again though, for a portable option the Mojo most certainly will suffice for me and bring me lots of listening pleasure.

 

[doctorjazz]

Yawn...

 

[JaZZ]

I don't pretend the Mojo alone will sound «better» than combined with any amp to everyone's ears. It's very likely that a lot of people will prefer it with an external amp – because it makes the signal less transparent, adding its own flavor to the mix, and particularly making the sound more forgiving to existing tonal flaws, not least the HE1000's own colorations. What I'm saying is that you can get both increased «authority» and a euphonic, spectacular or whatever sound you like without sacrificing accuracy and transparency: Use an equalizer for shaping the sound instead of amplifier colorations (which in fact primarily consist of homeopathic doses of harmonic distortion). If you don't believe me, ask Rob!

 

[JaZZ]

Yawn...

 
I know, it's boring, particularly for me. I'm just trying to help. The same misconception (see the bit about the Mojo's «pre-out function») shows up several times per month and is repeated a thousand times throughout the year, amplifier recommendations on and on... So the voice of reason – explaining the more plausible and technically better approach, mixed with own experiences from systematic testing instead of just going for the most pleasing sound as an instant gratification – once or twice per year isn't enough. I hope you understand.

 

[Gibson59]

Yawn...

Lol

 

[tuna47]

Receiving my hek v2 tomorrow so new to this forum
Used the mojo with hex sounded great
I had heard mojo needed an amp for hek aren't these forums for helping people
Sorry you're so bored

 

[doctorjazz]

Receiving my hek v2 tomorrow so new to this forum
Used the mojo with hex sounded great
I had heard mojo needed an amp for hek aren't these forums for helping people
Sorry you're so bored

You haven't been on this thread, as you note.
We do this routine about 1-2 times a month.

 

[JaZZ]

 

Receiving my hek v2 tomorrow so new to this forum
Used the mojo with hex sounded great
I had heard mojo needed an amp for hek aren't these forums for helping people
Sorry you're so bored

You haven't been on this thread, as you note.
We do this routine about 1-2 times a month.

 
That makes me question your motivation to post in it. Do you seriously want to have tuna47 buy a $500 amp for «improving» the sound of his Mojo? Why is it that I prefer Mojo and Hugo without any amp I have at my disposal with the HE1000? It's extremely unlikely that I wouldn't hear any sign of strain and overload or lack of control and dynamics. I don't have your MicroZotl which you seem to like (probably justifiedly), but a bunch of other high-quality and high-(enough-)power headphone amps which would clearly show the difference between strained and relaxed presentation. They do show a difference, but in favor of the direct connection – with every single criterion you could mention, particularly naturalness and accuracy. Now the difference between our perceptions could really be caused by the circumstance that I use a carefully equalized HE1000, so don't have to rely on (euphonic) synergetic effects. What do you think?

 

[auricgoldfinger]

   
That makes me question your motivation to post in it. Do you seriously want to have tuna47 buy a $500 amp for «improving» the sound of his Mojo? Why is it that I prefer Mojo and Hugo without any amp I have at my disposal with the HE1000? It's extremely unlikely that I wouldn't hear any sign of strain and overload or lack of control and dynamics. I don't have your MicroZotl which you seem to like (probably justifiedly), but a bunch of other high-quality and high-(enough-)power headphone amps which would clearly show the difference between strained and relaxed presentation. They do show a difference, but in favor of the direct connection – with every single criterion you could mention, particularly naturalness and accuracy. Now the difference between our perceptions could really be caused by the circumstance that I use a carefully equalized HE1000, so don't have to rely on (euphonic) synergetic effects. What do you think?

 
Can you please stop already?  We get the point.  Time to move on.

 

[JaZZ]

 

  That makes me question your motivation to post in it. Do you seriously want to have tuna47 buy a $500 amp for «improving» the sound of his Mojo? Why is it that I prefer Mojo and Hugo without any amp I have at my disposal with the HE1000? It's extremely unlikely that I wouldn't hear any sign of strain and overload or lack of control and dynamics. I don't have your MicroZotl which you seem to like (probably justifiedly), but a bunch of other high-quality and high-(enough-)power headphone amps which would clearly show the difference between strained and relaxed presentation. They do show a difference, but in favor of the direct connection – with every single criterion you could mention, particularly naturalness and accuracy. Now the difference between our perceptions could really be caused by the circumstance that I use a carefully equalized HE1000, so don't have to rely on (euphonic) synergetic effects. What do you think?

 
Can you please stop already?  We get the point.  Time to move on.

 
Why should I have to stop posting, while you're posting such a useless post without any content?