[HOWIE13]

If it's any help, I found sibilance a fairly regular feature of many 6DJ8 tubes, using amps other than Schiit's, which I haven't yet tried.
When I switched to the lower amplification (though still amply loud) Russian 6n6p tubes there was no sibilance problem. These tubes are warmer, though slightly less detailed, than some 6DJ8's in my experience, but to my ears suit choral music very well. I think you can use them with Vali 2, though best to check with Schiit first. 
Incidently, I would like to purchase a Vali 2 (or Valhalla) but there are none yet being shipped to the official UK seller and he is out of stock of Valhallas too.
I find that very annoying. 

 

[Designer79]

@HOWIE13, You don't necessarily need to order through the official UK seller. If you don't mind paying 50 USD for shipping (FedEx International), you can also order directly from Schiit in California. I had to do so as well, because the official European distributor neither accepted payment through PayPal nor a wire transfer. Of course in case of any return or a technical issue You'd need to send the gear back to the US. Funny, even with shipping and the expected vat the order directly from Schiit turns out to be cheaper than through the European distributor. Cheers.

 

[HOWIE13]

  @HOWIE13, You don't necessarily need to order through the official UK seller. If you don't mind paying 50 USD for shipping (FedEx International), you can also order directly from Schiit in California. I had to do so as well, because the official European distributor neither accepted payment through PayPal nor a wire transfer. Of course in case of any return or a technical issue You'd need to send the gear back to the US. Funny, even with shipping and the expected vat the order directly from Schiit turns out to be cheaper than through the European distributor. Cheers.

Thanks for your help Designer79
I did some maths this afternoon and the US price plus UK VAT/Royal Mail processing fee comes to around the same as the total UK price plus shipping. Unfortunately, then I need to add shipping from the US which is $38 for tracked/insured delivery.
It just annoys and bothers me that a company as universal as Schiit can't get their sales outlets stocked in a timely manner. 
In addition it's so frustrating reading how you are all having so much fun!

 

[valarking]

So my parents asked me what I wanted for Christmas and I said the Vali. I wanted to try it out again my Magni 2U and use one at work and one at home.

Just my luck (and probably several others'), after they got it, Schiit added Vali 2 to their product list. I just got the Vali itself from my parents and was thinking of calling Schiit and asking if it's ok to pay the price difference + shipping and swap it for the new one.

Assuming they will do this, is it a strict upgrade that's worth the time and hassle or is it more of a sidegrade like the Magni 2U to Vali 1 was? This would be into HD600s.

 

[Currawong]

The sibilance thing is interesting. I guess with different headphones, that is similar to what I was experiencing when I felt the stock tube is forward and a bit aggressive. I'm glad to get a difference perspective on that. Funnily enough I was scratching my head about the tube complement in my Studio Six and found, of all things, a Russian metal-base 6N8S solved a similar issue when I swapped it in. At least the Vali 2 only has one tube. 6 can be a PITA to synergise!
 
Quote:

So my parents asked me what I wanted for Christmas and I said the Vali. I wanted to try it out again my Magni 2U and use one at work and one at home.

Just my luck (and probably several others'), after they got it, Schiit added Vali 2 to their product list. I just got the Vali itself from my parents and was thinking of calling Schiit and asking if it's ok to pay the price difference + shipping and swap it for the new one.

Assuming they will do this, is it a strict upgrade that's worth the time and hassle or is it more of a sidegrade like the Magni 2U to Vali 1 was? This would be into HD600s.

They have a re-stocking fee, but if it is within two weeks of purchase they'll do it AFAIK. 

 

[h2rulz]

So my parents asked me what I wanted for Christmas and I said the Vali. I wanted to try it out again my Magni 2U and use one at work and one at home.

Just my luck (and probably several others'), after they got it, Schiit added Vali 2 to their product list. I just got the Vali itself from my parents and was thinking of calling Schiit and asking if it's ok to pay the price difference + shipping and swap it for the new one.

Assuming they will do this, is it a strict upgrade that's worth the time and hassle or is it more of a sidegrade like the Magni 2U to Vali 1 was? This would be into HD600s.

Was in the same position and had my Vali exchanged for the Vali 2. Only had to pay for shipping the Vali back to Schiit. You don't pay the restocking fee since you're getting another one of their products. Just fill out the form online and you'll get an email with instructions for return.
Just let them know when you're filling out the return form that you'll be getting the Vali 2.
 
As for wether it is an upgrade,
Personally, the elimination of ringing, gain switch, matching brushed metal finish with the uber series, and the ability to roll tubes are enough to be considered an upgrade.
I also find them an upgrade in sound (although the stock tubes are forward and a bit aggressive as Currawong stated above, despite the improved soundstage and low end.).
And you do have the ability to customize the sound with the right tubes.

 

[hagenhays]

I see what all of the fuss is about. I'm hearing details in cds that I've never heard before. And there's finally some bass present in my Senny. 598s. I don't think I could tell the difference between swapping tubes at this point, but it sure sounds crystal clear. For giggles I streamed some 320mp3s and they sounded horrible in comparison.

What are people's opinions of CD vs flac rips? Just wonder if it's ever worth my time to rip my top cds at some point to flac and put them on a drive?

Sorry to get off track.

 

[NewEinstein]

I just received my Vali 2 today ... also my first piece of Schiit equipment

running a chain like this right now: Foobar (FLAC) - USB WASAPI output - Audioengine D1 DAC - RCA pre-out - Schiit Vali 2 with stock tube - Senn HD 650

I guess I will stay with the stock tube for a few weeks until it is fully burned in. I want to get a feeling for the sound first to know what direction I want to go with another tube.

---

I dont have much to compare it to. I can just say that it sounds better than directly out of the D1 ... not really surprising though as it also has a lot more power to control the 650s. Will be interesting how much it improves further during the burn in (especially for the tube)

I will soon meet up with some friends ... then I should be able to give a better comparison with other amps (and we can maybe test other headphones on it as well)

I have seen that someone wants to bring the Garage1217 Solstice to the HeadFi meet here in Boulder in three weeks. Will try to compare those as some people requested that.

 

[painted klown]

I see what all of the fuss is about. I'm hearing details in cds that I've never heard before. And there's finally some bass present in my Senny. 598s. I don't think I could tell the difference between swapping tubes at this point, but it sure sounds crystal clear. For giggles I streamed some 320mp3s and they sounded horrible in comparison.

What are people's opinions of CD vs flac rips? Just wonder if it's ever worth my time to rip my top cds at some point to flac and put them on a drive?

Sorry to get off track.

 
Congrats on the new amp!

 
To answer your question RE: Ripping your CDs.
 
IMO, yes, it is worth the time to rip your CDs to a drive and have them all conveniently located on your computer. If you play your CD player and PC/Mac though the same DAC, you should hear zero differences, at least not enough to be able to tell them apart in a blind listening test. FLAC, ALAC, WAV, WMA Lossless, etc are all good to use, depending on your needs and sources. If you decide to rip your CDs to your drive, just be sure to use a lossless format (such as FLAC that you asked about).
 
A great (free) tool to us is Exact Audio Copy, if you want to rip to FLAC. It can be downloaded here: http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/en/index.php/resources/download/
 
Alternately, if you are using Apple devices, you can simply download the latest version of iTunes and set it to import lossless as ALAC. You can also tick the box to do error correction while ripping. It takes longer, but IMO, the peace of mind is worth it. This is what I do as I have an iPhone 6.
 
If you do not want to hassle with downloading new software (and your on a Windows PC), you can simply use Windows Media Center to rip to lossless WMA files.
 
Any of these will essentially be a "bit perfect" copy of your physical discs and will sound exactly the same as spinning the silver circle.
 
Once your music is all ripped to your computer, you can use Foobar 2000 (it's free and great) as your playback software. It seems to play just about everything under the sun (audio files) and with wasapi out, you have a perfect bit stream to send to your DAC for decoding.
 
Good luck, and if you have any additional questions, please feel free to ask.

 
 
Quote:

  I just received my Vali 2 today ... also my first piece of Schiit equipment
 
running a chain like this right now: Foobar (FLAC) - USB WASAPI output - Audioengine D1 DAC - RCA pre-out - Schiit Vali 2 with stock tube - Senn HD 650
 
I guess I will stay with the stock tube for a few weeks until it is fully burned in. I want to get a feeling for the sound first to know what direction I want to go with another tube.
 
---
 
I dont have much to compare it to. I can just say that it sounds better than directly out of the D1 ... not really surprising though as it also has a lot more power to control the 650s. Will be interesting how much it improves further during the burn in (especially for the tube)
 
I will soon meet up with some friends ... then I should be able to give a better comparison with other amps (and we can maybe test other headphones on it as well)

Our systems are nearly identical. The only difference is our DACs. In my case, I am using an Emotiva DC-1. I imagine there is very little (to no) differences in the way our systems sound.  This is a great sounding chain IMO. The 650's seem to do VERY well with the Vali 2. Better than I have heard them before (from my portable devices and Emotiva's headphone amp), and the smooth and forgiving nature of the 650's allow you to play VERY loud with no stridency issues at all.
 
A match made in heaven IMO!.

 
Congrats on the new amp! Please keep us updated with your thoughts as you put it through its paces.

 

[valarking]

I see what all of the fuss is about. I'm hearing details in cds that I've never heard before. And there's finally some bass present in my Senny. 598s. I don't think I could tell the difference between swapping tubes at this point, but it sure sounds crystal clear. For giggles I streamed some 320mp3s and they sounded horrible in comparison.

What are people's opinions of CD vs flac rips? Just wonder if it's ever worth my time to rip my top cds at some point to flac and put them on a drive?

Sorry to get off track.

If the difference between CDs and 320 is horrible on your setup, then rolling tubes should be a night-and-day change in comparison.

 

[Designer79]

Wanna test if your headphone - amp combo is prone to sibilance? There is Pharell Williams' "Happy" (Despicable Me 2 OST) ... If ever there was a treble happy soundengineer mastering songs, he worked on this track. Listening to it right now on Tidal Hifi, it's definitely a good test recording for male vocal sibilance. I still haven't received the Vali 2 / Modi 2 U combo yet, so listening to the song directly through my current chain (HTPC running Tidal HiFi --> Direct Out --> Logitech Z 5000 internal DAC --> Beyerdynamic T90). Far from a good sounding setup yet, I know ... But definitely a very revealing headphone!

 

[Currawong]

Big and small, just for fun:
 

 

 

[jaywillin]

  Big and small, just for fun:
 

 

 
 

this could be a "caption contest" 
 
"giant killer" 
"and the effect of the tube dampeners brought the vali 2 dangerously close to that of the alo"  

 

[hagenhays]

At some point...like this summer when I have the time I will try ripping my cds to flac...I have around 450, so it will take a good while. It would be nice to have a digital copy of all my musi for backup.

In the meantime...does anyone have any good recommendations for a sub $300 CD player? Or am I just better off using my cheap blu Ray through my modi (which I'm currently doing.) I'm sort of under the impression that digital out is digital out and your dac won't know the difference between blu Ray or CD?

Guess I just need to roll up my sleeves and convert them all to flac. I need someone here with common sense to make the decision for me. I think the 320 stream sounded scrappy because it was spitify from iPod streamed over airplay to Apple tv to dac...just a hunch !!

Painted klown please help me out.

 

[Tunkejazz]

If you have a dedicated dac with spdif input, almost any bluray/dvd/cd could be used as a transport.

I have no experience with blurays, I like the pro-ject cd box S. Very small footprint, it can be used as a transport and I believe it has a decent dac built-in...for that price.

Good luck!

EDIT: I strongly recommend to rip to a lossless format: flac, alac, ape...you can always create mp3s or m4a from those very easily.

For macs a good ripping software is XLD (free).