[ScubaMan2017]

I ordered from DCA directly (I wasn’t impressed with my local Ontario distributors). And the shipping really was that insanely fast (their website claimed a 2-4 week order-to-assembly time). I paid about $43USD to get FedEx Priority (worth the extra $3-5 over international economy). It went across the border, duty-free (yay, NAFTA)... and then I got (fairly?) hosed for ~$310-320 CAD for HST + brokerage fee + tax on brokerage fees.
Re: Asgard 2 & Ether C open/closed pairing. It’s early daze for me. No comment yet, @tincanear ... I’m too busy caressing its carbon fibre cups, being impressed with zero clamping pressure, its fit on my melon-Bert-head, the lack of any (plastic) squeakiness from brackets, and... well... I have this impression planar magnetic drivers are inherently different from little cones. Oh and they DO isolate outside sound (and don’t bleed out to nearby spouses-who-value-peace-‘n-quiet).

 

[bcowen]

It's a sure sign you have the volume too high when you start replying to yourself.

 

[ScubaMan2017]

Minus 1. Finicky head-fi UI on a handheld phone running iOS.

 

[sam6550a]

I measured it at the RCA ends that plug into the Saga + from the amp.

What is the input impedance of the amp?

 

[Jason Stoddard]

If you're measuring INPUT offset FROM the amp (that is, DC NOT coming from Saga+), that's an amp problem. That's a reasonable amount of DC. With a gain of 26 or so, you're looking at 1-1.5V blips when the muting relay activates and shorts the DC to ground. If this is the case (DC coming OUT of the amp INPUT), the amp should be checked and serviced.

 

[tincanear]

I had presumed (wrongly) that the 65mV was measured at the speaker terminals of the amp (not a problem), not at the amp's input (should be looked into)

 

[ScubaMan2017]

It's a sure sign you have the volume too high when you start replying to yourself.

...or else I discover what happens when I mismatch the removable mini-XLR cables on the Ether Cs (cross the L/R connections with the R/L drivers). It sounded. Well. Lousy. I knit my eyebrows as I plugged in the Ethers to my Magni, Valhalla, Asgard, and Vali ... wondering what went wrong. I'm now playing with a high-performance bit of kit (tuned speakers, matched cables and all that jazz). I'll say this about my foray into Summit-Fi... no one headphone is perfect for all music types (Doug & The Slugs on Ethers = wow. ELO's Evil Woman on Ethers = meh). God, what a gloriously ridiculous hobby.

 

[tincanear]

...or else I discover what happens when I mismatch the removable mini-XLR cables on the Ether Cs (cross the L/R connections with the R/L drivers). It sounded. Well. Lousy. I knit my eyebrows as I plugged in the Ethers to my Magni, Valhalla, Asgard, and Vali ... wondering what went wrong. I'm now playing with a high-performance bit of kit (tuned speakers, matched cables and all that jazz). I'll say this about my foray into Summit-Fi... no one headphone is perfect for all music types (Doug & The Slugs on Ethers = wow. ELO's Evil Woman on Ethers = meh). God, what a gloriously ridiculous hobby.

The fact that some music sounds good on these headphones while other music does not is not the fault of your playback hardware. the problem lies with the recording / production side. ELO was probably EQ'd by the mix engineers to sound good over bandwidth and dynamic range limited AM radio (sounded good there -> higher record & cassette sales). Try out some minimally-processed classical or well-recorded jazz (Jazz at the Pawnshop on the proprius label ???). The goal of the high-end / simmit-fi hardware is to see into the recordings, warts and all.

bigger Loki is making more sense (likely it will have a bypass mode for when its not needed)


edited (added); its also possible that with your higher-resolution kit, you are able to hear more details than the recording engineers did (they were using transducers made with technology from 50 years ago).

 

[Rensek]

...or else I discover what happens when I mismatch the removable mini-XLR cables on the Ether Cs (cross the L/R connections with the R/L drivers). It sounded. Well. Lousy. I knit my eyebrows as I plugged in the Ethers to my Magni, Valhalla, Asgard, and Vali ... wondering what went wrong. I'm now playing with a high-performance bit of kit (tuned speakers, matched cables and all that jazz). I'll say this about my foray into Summit-Fi... no one headphone is perfect for all music types (Doug & The Slugs on Ethers = wow. ELO's Evil Woman on Ethers = meh). God, what a gloriously ridiculous hobby.

So I tuned into Doug and The Slugs last night while doing the family budget. Goooood Stuff.

Enjoy the new cans.

Asgard 2 is no slouch. I enjoy mine every day at work

 

[sam6550a]

If you're measuring INPUT offset FROM the amp (that is, DC NOT coming from Saga+), that's an amp problem. That's a reasonable amount of DC. With a gain of 26 or so, you're looking at 1-1.5V blips when the muting relay activates and shorts the DC to ground. If this is the case (DC coming OUT of the amp INPUT), the amp should be checked and serviced.

That was where I was going with this discussion, you just cut to the chase in rapid fashion. Thanks.

 

[tincanear]

@yonson can you post the schematic? (or pm me) if the front end of the amp is single-sided differential bipolar input pair, it may have a significant input offset current as a result of its inherent (and IMO incorrect) design.

If you have a Sys, you can try adding it between the Saga's output and the power amps input.

 

[ScubaMan2017]

The fact that some music sounds good on these headphones while other music does not is not the fault of your playback hardware. the problem lies with the recording / production side. ELO was probably EQ'd by the mix engineers to sound good over bandwidth and dynamic range limited AM radio (sounded good there -> higher record & cassette sales). Try out some minimally-processed classical or well-recorded jazz (Jazz at the Pawnshop on the proprius label ???). The goal of the high-end / simmit-fi hardware is to see into the recordings, warts and all.

bigger Loki is making more sense (likely it will have a bypass mode for when its not needed)


edited (added); its also possible that with your higher-resolution kit, you are able to hear more details than the recording engineers did (they were using transducers made with technology from 50 years ago).

Solid 10-4. I'm about to "spin up" some Chesky Records and try out the likes of Amber Rubarth (biaural recordings)... followed by some Lenny White (percussion). And to bring the conversation BACK to the thread's topic... dammit, all 4 of my Schiit headphone amplifiers sound mighty awesome with this model. Bravo, Mister Stoddard.

 

[Derrick Swart]

The fact that some music sounds good on these headphones while other music does not is not the fault of your playback hardware. the problem lies with the recording / production side. ELO was probably EQ'd by the mix engineers to sound good over bandwidth and dynamic range limited AM radio (sounded good there -> higher record & cassette sales). Try out some minimally-processed classical or well-recorded jazz (Jazz at the Pawnshop on the proprius label ???). The goal of the high-end / simmit-fi hardware is to see into the recordings, warts and all.

bigger Loki is making more sense (likely it will have a bypass mode for when its not needed)


edited (added); its also possible that with your higher-resolution kit, you are able to hear more details than the recording engineers did (they were using transducers made with technology from 50 years ago).

exactly
production are made for what it is used afterwards. Majority is spotify, youtube, apple music, soundcloud; they all have there format demands and act accordingly when putting on their servers so we can stream it. Not ideal but better than de fm radio i recorded on my metal tape cassettes. Important note: recording those tapes was more fun!

 

[yonson]

What is the input impedance of the amp?

3k ohms

If you're measuring INPUT offset FROM the amp (that is, DC NOT coming from Saga+), that's an amp problem. That's a reasonable amount of DC. With a gain of 26 or so, you're looking at 1-1.5V blips when the muting relay activates and shorts the DC to ground. If this is the case (DC coming OUT of the amp INPUT), the amp should be checked and serviced.

Thank you, I didn't know what I was supposed to measure, I only know enough about this stuff to be dangerous... I did measure the outputs of the Saga + and they were in the 0.2 mV range.

@yonson can you post the schematic? (or pm me) if the front end of the amp is single-sided differential bipolar input pair, it may have a significant input offset current as a result of its inherent (and IMO incorrect) design.

If you have a Sys, you can try adding it between the Saga's output and the power amps input.

I found a bunch of them, I will PM you a link to them. I do have a Sys that I'm currently not using, I might try that and see if it helps until I can have the amp looked at in a couple weeks.

 

[tincanear]

3k ohms



Thank you, I didn't know what I was supposed to measure, I only know enough about this stuff to be dangerous... I did measure the outputs of the Saga + and they were in the 0.2 mV range.



I found a bunch of them, I will PM you a link to them. I do have a Sys that I'm currently not using, I might try that and see if it helps until I can have the amp looked at in a couple weeks.

I took a look at them. sent you a PM with my comments. happy listening.