[castleofargh]

Sadly that too depends on the design and I'm too much of a noob to talk about a particular amp unless I've read all about it. In general, I see no issue going all the way up. It's just not convenient because then you can't go to 11 when you wish to be a little crazy and loud for a while. You have to change the gain, adjust the volume knob... it's a bother.
That would really be my main reason to switch to high gain if my usual listening level was really close to the max at low gain.

What scares me most of the time on amplifiers is going too low and getting channel imbalance. I'm weirdly paranoid about that after a few bad experiences. I guess we all have our own obsessions. I fear that and audible background hiss.

 

[iFi audio]

What scares me most of the time on amplifiers is going too low and getting channel imbalance. I'm weirdly paranoid about that after a few bad experiences. I guess we all have our own obsessions. I fear that and audible background hiss.

That's the reason why we many of our products have utilities (gain and iEMatch) that designed to move above channel imbalance and still have plenty headroom left

 

[ProtegeManiac]

Lol to confuse things more a prominent reviewer on youtube said that Schiits equipment is meant to stay on high gain to sound best.

1. It could be higher THD and he likes the distortion pattern. Does that mean you would? You need to make that decision by trying it out yourself, just be aware it can be higher THD+N.

2. Maybe he has lower sensitivity headphones compared to yours.

-----------

I have a Cantate.2 that I keep on high gain. But that's because low gain is for IEMs and very high sensitivity headphones like Grados and is set to -10dB. "High" gain is 4dB...which is only high when Low Gain is -10dB. I can crank it up full and barely scratch my eardrums with an HD600 if it's on low gain.

Your amp is 0dB low gain and 18dB high gain.

 

[szore]

Not a noob question at all, actually a very good one. On my M8, low gain has no body, or its body is too thin, med gain is perfect and high gain sounds shouty. On my Jot2, always low gain.

 

[Johnnyde94]

Not a noob question at all, actually a very good one. On my M8, low gain has no body, or its body is too thin, med gain is perfect and high gain sounds shouty. On my Jot2, always low gain.

Why always low gain on the jot2? Would that apply to the Jot 1 as well (have the jot 1 at work jot 2 at home)

 

[szore]

Why always low gain on the jot2? Would that apply to the Jot 1 as well (have the jot 1 at work jot 2 at home)

The gain is just too high...the 'sweet spot' on the volume dial becomes tighter, like 1/2 inch, any deviation and its either too loud or too low, and even when the volume is just right, it sounds shrill and strident...on low gain, you get more room to breath on the volume dial, and there is a balance between decent volume and excellent dynamics... niether too thin, nor strident. Good balance between all the check boxes, if you will. Of course there is exceptions, some iems need power, like my Szalayi. THAT I always use highest gain, but that is a 14mm planar driver, and planars thrive on power. And I'm also obviously only referrinf to IEMs, not cans. Thats a whole different deal...