[Audiofiend1]

whoops excuse my double post, my power cut right when i posted my first one

 

[Ojisan]

Yup i was crazy enough to go through with it! I think you are 100% spot on because i do not think that the airline i flew offers any kind of fragile service handling for cases, so i think it was completely at the discretion of the air hostess that felt pity for me. I really shudder to think what could of happened if it had been checked through normally.

I was considering the Jot with the multi upgrade but i do not know how good it is/comparable to the Gumby multi + MJ2 ?

@Globox Hey! I just looked up the Fostex HP A4BL it looks like an interesting combo. Any idea how it stacks up to say a Jot?

As far as the pelican case goes, i settled on a 1535 Air edition. When i say that it is a perfect fit, it is literally a PERFECT fit as if it were built for this combo. There is not a single millimeter of space extra for the MJ2 + Gumby, It only moves a teenie bit within the foam. I could move the case violently up and down and the Gumby +MJ2 would not move it feels very secure and it was easy to cut the foam to match the exact dimensions,

i even removed foam bits at the back for the plug end that stick out to make sure that it fit even better so my foam cutout is a bit of an odd shape but it works 100%. If i even need to move it again somewhere i don't think there is a better case out there, however airline check in is something i won't do twice no matter what case it is in.

What headphone are you trying to drive? That might help people chime in on suggestions.

 

[Audiofiend1]

What headphone are you trying to drive? That might help people chime in on suggestions.

It would need to drive an HD800s and a LCD 2. i would be willing to spend up to around $1k on a decent amp/dac combo that would obviously need to be portable. The Jot looks to be okay but i'm sure there is better?

 

[Ojisan]

It would need to drive an HD800s and a LCD 2. i would be willing to spend up to around $1k on a decent amp/dac combo that would obviously need to be portable. The Jot looks to be okay but i'm sure there is better?

Ok, I can't speak for LCD2 but I do use HD600/800. I have used Jot (with AKM DAC) for 2 years before I upgraded to GMB and then Yggy for DAC and GSX mk2 for amp. I do believe that Jot is a capable amp to drive HD800 (and I assume HD800s) and it gives you the balanced connection option. Compared to GMB and tube amp, I think the Jot does tilt towards more clinical, flat, less bass weight, and flatter soundstage (less spacious). Small step down in my opinion but you might perceive differently.

I haven't had a chance to try the MB DAC module for Jot. Maybe it closes the gap. I think Jot is worth a try unless there are other features that stand out with other one-box solutions. I'd be curious to see if there is a DAC+amp combo with the power and resolve of Jot that gets you to few percentile of GMB's performance.

 

[artur9]

If you're buying a used Gungnir then the warranty is not transferrable. OTOH, if it has the older USB and you upgrade it to Gen5 then you get a fresh 2y warranty, IIRC. That's worth considering.

Ditto if you upgrade from Gungnir DS to Gumby.

 

[tcellguy]

Well i have a bit of a horror story here goes...(it does have a happy ending though).

A few days ago i was travelling intentionally out of San Francisco, i was going abroad for quite a few months and so, i decided i wanted to take my Gumby multi + MJ2 with me. I packed them both into a pelican case with foam perfectly cut out to match their dimensions. There is absolutely no play in the case for them to move around, the fit is perfect and i felt that the case was doing a good job of protecting these items. I showed up at the airport and the airline informed me in no uncertain terms that their policy had changed and i was not allowed to take an extra carry on item as i had done many times before.

With my plane taking off in 2 hours i was faced with a choice, either miss my flight or check in my pelican case containing my Gumby multi + MJ2 as check in luggage. All i could think about were the horror stories of cases being thrown around and roughly handled, furthermore i was scared that someone might steal my pelican case. I argued with the airline check-in lady that how was i to know that their policy had changed as i make this flight several times a year sometimes. They agreed to check my bag through as priority business with the highest clearance for no extra charge and so i agreed.

Ten minutes later i was still not happy and ran back to the desk and asked the lady if there was anything else we could do, as i stressed the contents of the case were extremely fragile and i was petrified to say the least. She said she would see what else she could do and on my way i went.

When i arrived at my final destination i went to the luggage carousel (ran is more like it) and was among the first to see the first set of cases coming out. What i saw shocked me as cases were being thrown more then 6 feet and landing on the carousal quite hard After roughly an hour of waiting to see my pelican case rudely thrown onto the carousal and watching people pickup their bags i was beginning to think my pelican case had been stolen. 15 minutes later the last person picked up their bag and the carousal closed, great i thought close to $3k in equipment stolen.

Just as i was about to walk away a lady approached me and asked me if a pelican case was mine. She walked me over to another area and there was my case. She explained it had been carefully checked through as it was classified as fragile and so was not placed with the other check in luggage. There was also a big fragile sticker on the case so i was extremely happy that the check in lady back in San Francisco had actually listened to me and helped me out even though she was under no obligation to do so.

My case had zero scratches on it and both my Gumby multi and MJ2 have never been in better condition. Still i learnt a lesson how dangerous transporting high end pieces of home equipment across the world can be and i won't be doing this again. So now i am looking to see if i can buy an amp/dac combo that is transportable but it needs to be comparable to my Gumby mulit + MJ2 combo, any suggestions would be appreciated.

For a great portable / transportable option I’d suggest the IFI iDSD micro black label. Apparently the top 6 bits are multibit, although it’s unclear if it’s a true R2R implementation.

Haven’t had the chance to listen to the Gungnir / MJ yet. I can say that the iDSD BL is close to my Jotunheim as far as the AMP section and the iDSD DAC sounds better to me than the DS balanced Jot DAC.

 

[Audiofiend1]

For a great portable / transportable option I’d suggest the IFI iDSD micro black label. Apparently the top 6 bits are multibit, although it’s unclear if it’s a true R2R implementation.

Haven’t had the chance to listen to the Gungnir / MJ yet. I can say that the iDSD BL is close to my Jotunheim as far as the AMP section and the iDSD DAC sounds better to me than the DS balanced Jot DAC.

I had a good look at the IFI IDSD but the Jot still looks to be a better choice and it's just big enough that i can transport it safely. I also have a JDS labs Objective dac/amp combo. Does anyone know if the Jot will be a significant upgrade over that? I also have been looking at the Questyle CMA600I which looks quite promising but maybe a bit more then i want to spend so i'm undecided. I also don't know if the difference is that much over the Jot so many things to think about...

 

[gordec]

I received my Gumby Gen 5 USB Friday and have been enjoying it. I have tried USB vs SPDIF from PC audio card. It sounds significantly cleaner from the SPDIF. The treble sounded clipped off with USB, but not with SPDIF. Also the Gumby clicks between sample rate change with USB but not with SPDIF. Is that everyone's experience? I use the Alienware R7 and have always had issues with USB audio clipping and stuttering with all kinds of DACs, and I checked all my options haven't been able to figure out why. Maybe it's something wrong with Windows 10 USB in Alienware. This only happens with lossless files. When I watch Youtube or play games etc, audio doesn't stutter. SPDIF has been much more stable. Really enjoy the sound. It's so natural and smooth. Coupled with Susvara, it feels like you are on aqua beach with a bottle of Corona. Gumby and Susvara both have super creamy midrange. The result is the best vocals I have ever heard on a headphone system rivals Sennheiser HE1.

Current system: Alienware Jriver Media Center -> Gumby -> McIntosh MHA100 -> Susvara.

 

[SilverEars]

I received my Gumby Gen 5 USB Friday and have been enjoying it. I have tried USB vs SPDIF from PC audio card. It sounds significantly cleaner from the SPDIF. Also the Gumby clicks between sample rate change with USB but not with SPDIF. Is that everyone's experience? I use the Alienware R7 and have always had issues with USB audio clipping and stuttering with all kinds of DACs, and I checked all my options haven't been able to figure out why. This only happens with lossless files. When I watch Youtube or play games etc, audio doesn't stutter. SPDIF has been much more stable. Really enjoy the sound. It's so natural and smooth. Coupled with Susvara, it feels like you are on aqua beach with a bottle of Corona. Gumby and Susvara both have super creamy midrange. The result is the best vocals I have ever heard on a headphone system rivals Sennheiser HE1.

Current system: Alienware Jriver Media Center -> Gumby -> McIntosh MHA100 -> Susvara.

Let me barrow the Susvara sometime to confirm.

 

[SilverEars]

I received my Gumby Gen 5 USB Friday and have been enjoying it. I have tried USB vs SPDIF from PC audio card. It sounds significantly cleaner from the SPDIF. The treble sounded clipped off with USB, but not with SPDIF. Also the Gumby clicks between sample rate change with USB but not with SPDIF. Is that everyone's experience? I use the Alienware R7 and have always had issues with USB audio clipping and stuttering with all kinds of DACs, and I checked all my options haven't been able to figure out why. Maybe it's something wrong with Windows 10 USB in Alienware. This only happens with lossless files. When I watch Youtube or play games etc, audio doesn't stutter. SPDIF has been much more stable. Really enjoy the sound. It's so natural and smooth. Coupled with Susvara, it feels like you are on aqua beach with a bottle of Corona. Gumby and Susvara both have super creamy midrange. The result is the best vocals I have ever heard on a headphone system rivals Sennheiser HE1.

Current system: Alienware Jriver Media Center -> Gumby -> McIntosh MHA100 -> Susvara.

Oh yes, and to the question. It doesn't click when I use optical, so my guess is the clicking is a usb thing when the player is changing sampling rates.

Looking forward to borrowing Susvara. Thank you.

 

[earChasm]

Oh yes, and to the question. It doesn't click when I use optical, so my guess is the clicking is a usb thing when the player is changing sampling rates.

Nope, it also clicks with coax when changing between RB and higher .

 

[gordec]

In Jriver, it says it's WASAPI. In this case, it doesn't matter what I set as the Windows system audio bitrate right (I set it to 24/192)? The problem with Gumby is that it doesn't tell you what bitrate the track is being played at.

You are right. There is a click with BR change. I just test it. It still sounds way better than USB.

 

[SilverEars]

In Jriver, it says it's WASAPI. In this case, it doesn't matter what I set as the Windows system audio bitrate right (I set it to 24/192)? The problem with Gumby is that it doesn't tell you what bitrate the track is being played at.

You set WASAPI in the player, and that's all it needs. The windows bitrate setting has no relation to your player bitrate setting, they are independent of each other. Once you set WASAPI on the source of your optical connection, the Gumby will set the bit-rate according to the stream.

You can set the player to use Gumby exclusively (this is why it's considered exclusive mode), but set windows to use another DAC (under windows sound settings), and whenever you use the player, it will come out of the Gumby, but for regular windows stuff, the other DAC.

Some players like Foobar2000 (if you have set it to WASPI), you have to stop (not pause) the music before windows can use the same DAC if you have it set in exclusive mode (since Foobar2000 was using the DAC exclusively). With Tidal, all I have to do is pause, and I can hear Youtube clips on the browser. When you set the DAC to the player software (WASAPI, etc..), you cannot play sound simultaneously on the player and in Windows. This is why it's exclusive to the player.

 

[gordec]

I’m so thoroughly impressed with the Gumby. I think I’m at end game with the current setup. Anything else I try is going to be GAS related issues.

People always talk about decay and speed, but with Gumby it’s just how natural everything sounds. The percussion of instruments just decay so naturally. The combination of the Gumby with Susvara creates vocals so sweet, it is truly life-like. There is just no other way to describe it. My cheap $3 Toslink is doing a fine job. It seems like most say RCA Coaxial may be slightly better than Toslink right? I think my Alienware R7 just has crappy USB ports no matter how I tweak system settings. I don’t get to utilize the upgraded Gen 5 USB which is kind of disappointing.

 

[hikaru12]

I’m so thoroughly impressed with the Gumby. I think I’m at end game with the current setup. Anything else I try is going to be GAS related issues.

People always talk about decay and speed, but with Gumby it’s just how natural everything sounds. The percussion of instruments just decay so naturally. The combination of the Gumby with Susvara creates vocals so sweet, it is truly life-like. There is just no other way to describe it. My cheap $3 Toslink is doing a fine job. It seems like most say RCA Coaxial may be slightly better than Toslink right? I think my Alienware R7 just has crappy USB ports no matter how I tweak system settings. I don’t get to utilize the upgraded Gen 5 USB which is kind of disappointing.

I've been wondering this myself. I got a nice glass optical cable from Wireworld but I've wondered how much I've been missing out by not going with Coaxial with this thing. Better cables do make a difference with the Gumby though! I've noticed by upgrading to better RCA cables - they just let more of the Gumby's smoothness and dynamics come out.