[eswng679]

Looks like my unit was DoA. =(

Reached out to @CEE TEE and he was great about it. Sucks that I won’t be able to spend more time with it in the mean time but glad it will be resolved.

Sent my Piety back to Christian this morning. Probably won’t get to him for another week or so….and another week after that to get it back. Until then, I will live vicariously through all of your impressions.

I did spend about an hour or so with it before packing it up. When paired with a RME ADI and the HD650s, it sounded very good and pleasing to the ear. Granted my 650s are not stock (Custom Cans copper modded) but I resound with the adjectives of “sweet” and “open” shared by others on this thread.

I have a Jot 2 and while I’ve always enjoyed my cans with that amp via XLR, going back and forth the Piety, the Jot 2 can be a bit intense with certain tracks. Bass impact and overall presentation is more “in your face” on Jot 2 but surprisingly stage is slightly narrower than Piety. Piety is not soft by any means and it has a bit more of finess in its presentation. A middle ground between Jot 2 and Asgard 3 that I previously had. Stage and presentation on the Piety leaves more of an impression than say the standard Magnis.

All in all, I can’t wait for this RMA process to be over and get back to listening. Keep those impressions coming!

 

[O8h7w]

Holy Schiit.

I'd forgotten that this hobby can be this much fun, mainly listening to my HD650s out of a Fulla 3 with an iEMatch+ for the last few months. Did visit two local shops and sampled some headphones, but did not hear anything like THIS. Which is weird, transducers should be more important, right? On the other hand, in one of the shops the Fulla 3 smokes all the headphone amps they have there.

Listening with HD650 and an almost equally new to me Modi+, started listening to the latter with the Fulla 3 as amp a couple days ago.

I can't put a finger on what I'm hearing, but I can say what it reminds me of: some of my favorite hifi experiences ever. All of them many years ago. Cerwin Vega DC15 (which my brother had) with good electronics (when he needed to sell them so they were set up at my place for a few weeks). HD800 just a year or two after their introduction, at a show, I had heard them many times before with amplification that did not suit them very well and in one of the quietest rooms at that show I found them driven by the Tim de Paravicini EAR HP4. And a DIY hifi meet even longer ago where someone had put some 15 inch fullrange drivers of unspeakable cost in giant enclosures of unspeakable hideousness in unfinished MDF...

And the last one of those memories, that was a system that only did one thing well. A very special aspect of sound that I also noted when I found myself as an unprepared sound engineer at a Poetry slam event earlier this year. That thing where somehow, to make a voice have a tangible presence in the room, you actually need to excite a LOT of the air in the room. You need BIG woofers, the bigger the room, the bigger the woofers you need. Despite there being very little information in the low frequencies with just a voice... but it is way more apparent the deeper the voice is. A system can be able to play bass, loud and fairly deep, without properly pulling this off. It needs to be able to play VERY deep for this to happen, and even then, it seldoms happen on playback of a recording, for the most part it only happens live. Many (maybe most) recordings appear to not be able to show it off. The same phenomenon is quite apparent on drums, instead of voices, in the drum interlude in the track Søvngjengersken on the album Live by Kari Bremnes. For a vocal example, try Leonard Cohen's You Want It Darker, not a perfect recording for this but so deep that it fairly easily shows.

I don't know if there is a word for this aspect of sound quality that I'm clawing at here. I have no idea how it works. I have no idea why so many systems cannot do it.

But I do know that this one can, to the extent that it can be done with headphones more or less (HD800 with the added spatiality to the sound can do it better). And for doing it with playback of a recording this is easily the most affordable system that I've heard do it.

All the other aspects of the Piety? Maybe tomorrow. Suffice to say, I'm very glad I bought two, one for the home and one for the office. This thing might be real hard to be missing for me.

Thankyou, Cee Tee, for starting up Nitsch and bringing this small wonder into the world.

 

[BS5711]

Modi + shipped to pair with the Piety.

In the meantime todays listening set up is Fiio M11 Plus streaming Tidal into ifI Gryphon into Piety on low gain powering Dethonray Tender 1 planar IEM.

David Chesky - Graffiti Jazz = sublime.

Gryphon XBass on, gorgeous nuanced rumbling background sub bass and lovely airy sound with plenty of trebly details.

Plug for the Dethonry - if you are in the market for a planar IEM more refined than the usual ChiFi offerings (as much as I love the S12) the Dethonray Tender 1 are well worth a listen. They do need plenty of power, comfortable loud on Piety is low gain at 3 o'clock and I can max out the volume on low gain for a short time.

 

[kumar402]

Roon + HQPlayer + Chord Mojo + Piety + HD650 =

 

[BS5711]

You might try a device other than Chord as a test. Piety has a pretty standard input impedance of 50 ohms, high enough that you’re probably not getting current gain from the amp’s output stage. I looked into using a dongle once to feed an amp. Someone commented that Chord DACs (which I don't own) only use one gain stage. Not sure they meant current or voltage, but you need both. Perhaps Piety is doing all the heavy lifting in a way that’s related to that.

Andy,

Not that it is critical but just for reference.

I saw the specs on the Piety review, the input impedance is 50,000 ohms, Magni I believe is 25,000 ohms, up in that range or even over 100,000 ohms is pretty typical for an amplifiers input impedance.

As I understand it, and I would no pretend to be an expert, that means that the signal transfer is essentially all voltage swing and next to no current is involved.

How the Mojo works so well with a line level output impedance of only around 1 ohm I am not sure. The ifI Gryphon line level output impedance is 200 ohms.

 

[adydula]

Great to see so many folks enjoying this Jason Stoddard design. It is indeed a very nice amp for this price point and what it delivers.
I have many amps here....too many! LOL.
I stopped listening with the Piety the other day and hooked up my old Vali 2 +, with a 6CG7 NOS tube...very nice then swapped out the 6CG7 for the original 6BZ7A tube...WOW, Instant big smile here with ADX 5000's ( my take on what a HD 8xx should have been ).

So even though the Piety is sweet, the Vali 2+ is also sweet...having the luxury of several amps here I am amazed at what ones brain and sensories react when a new or different sound comes into play.

Its like having a new toy syndrome every few days....

Good stuff...enjoy the music!
Alex

 

[adydula]

lol I'm assuming having an actual tube amp allow you to scale up and down depending on tube used.

I've heard of tales of someone using a $300+ tube on Vali 2+ then it makes it amazing LOL.

I guess with tube amp we always need to decide at which point the tube out weights the cost of the amp itself.

$300 on a tube IMO is really boarderline ridiculous! Yup ridiculous.
The stock tube that came with my Vali 2+ is as good as many of these NOS tubes.
Yup, it is. ( for my ears that is..).

But if you want to spend big bucks on this crazy hobby have at it...been there done that many times.

Crazy for sure...

 

[Jimmyblues1959]

Same here. Mine left Lathrop on 11/29 and still shows it's in Lathrop 4 days later. It'll probably just show up on the doorstep
within a few days. Mine also has a delivery date of 12/6.

My Piety arrived this evening. The headphone amp looks great. Excellent fit and finish and the card from CEE TEE was both a very professional as well as personal touch. Have not had time to listen to the Piety (haven't even plugged it in yet), so I will post impressions in the future.

I noticed that the serial number on the bottom of my Piety does not match the number listed in my purchase order.

Not a real issue, just curious as to why.

Congrats again Cee Tee on your successful launch of this neat product, and to all of the new Piety owners!

 

[ku1185]

Piety was out for delivery this morning, but I don't think it's coming today. There was construction on my street most of the day, so that may have blocked access for the delivery truck. Sigh.

 

[wolfstar76]

For the next product from Cee Tee, unfortunately, it will be a $2,599 DSHA-SFN.

 

[Jimmyblues1959]

My Piety arrived this evening. The headphone amp looks great. Excellent fit and finish and the card from CEE TEE was both a very professional as well as personal touch. Have not had time to listen to the Piety (haven't even plugged it in yet), so I will post impressions in the future.

I noticed that the serial number on the bottom of my Piety (0722) does not match the number listed in my purchase order (0547).

Not a real issue, just curious as to why.

Congrats again Cee Tee on your successful launch of this neat product, and to all of the new Piety owners!

On another subject, there's a DNA Sonett 2 just listed on the SBAF forum for $900 net to owner. Serial number 6. These are the rarest of the line of DNA headphone amplifiers with less than 20 produced. They are scarcer than the proverbial hens tooth. If I did not have a DNA Starlett due in early 2023 I would try to snap this little gem up.

 

[theveterans]

Roon + HQPlayer + Chord Mojo + Piety + HD650 =

I mentioned it before a couple of posts back but I’ll say it again: Piety + Mojo = amazing combo

 

[Runrunsmithfly]

I hope the Modi+

$300 on a tube IMO is really boarderline ridiculous! Yup ridiculous.
The stock tube that came with my Vali 2+ is as good as many of these NOS tubes.
Yup, it is. ( for my ears that is..).

But if you want to spend big bucks on this crazy hobby have at it...been there done that many times.

Crazy for sure...

I used a Fisher 500C for many years and amassed a large collection of 12ax7 tubes. Back then you could still buy Telefunkens, Mullards, Bugle Boys, and all the great old tubes at a good price. I still use a Harman Kardon A500 integrated tube amp so those 12ax7 tubes still come in handy.
I recently bought a Vali 2++ and the most expensive tube I've seen is the Western Electric 396A. A NOS one from 1958 goes for around $180 which is more than the amp. No need for that because there are many used tubes that test strong that go for ten to twenty dollars. A NOS JAN GE 5670W from the 1980's can be had for $20. I just had a GE 5670 Five star delivered today that cost $20 and it sounds great. I'd never buy a tube that cost more than the amp. I'm not sure you could find a three hundred dollar tube for any Vali. I might be wrong though.
Anyway, the Piety sounds like a remarkable little amp and it's great to read these posts of people enjoying them. You guys really hit the jackpot and congrats on your purchase.

 

[BS5711]

I have paired the Piety with Mojo, Gryphon, Diablo, M11 Plus, ifI Go Bar and an Apple Dongle.

They all sound good and frankly I don't hear any magic with any DAC option available to me.

I ordered a Modi Plus as permanent desk set up, I am sure it will sound the same as the others I have tried.

I probably don't know what to listen for ...... it is probably cheaper that way

 

[ckhirnigs113]

My Piety arrived today, and I’m using it right now with my BF2 and Meze Elite in high gain. So far this thing is impressing me greatly considering the price. I’ll need more time with it to see if there are any trade offs vs my more expensive tube amps, but so for it’s definitely exceeding my expectations. Great job with the release @CEE TEE!