[StevePNW]

I started with analog Nikons, but switched to Canon in 2005, since then, my daily cameras are Canon, but i also use Fuji, the XT series have the "looks" , and sometimes rent Hasselblad or Phase one, when needed for campaigns/advertising.
if you want take a look at my websites, they are listed in my profile.

Cheers!

@Pedro Janeiro I also started out in photography with Nikon film (Nikkormat EL, Nikon F1/F2) as that is what my dad used, as well as medium format Mamiya RB67. I ended with a D300 and then switched over to Fujifilm X-Series (X-E1, X-T1, X-T2) and now use an X-T3 & X-H1. I have always loved being able to control aperture with a ring on the lens. Mostly landscape. Happy shooting!

 

[jaxtrauma]

Some questions for fans of tubed gear (*): The arrival of Freya+ gives us a high-quality tubed preamp at a compelling price.

Q1: Does this change the future landscape for headphone amps with tubes?

Q2: Is there a significant SQ difference when the tubes are in preamp vs in the headphone (power) amp?

Q3: I'm guessing (for Q2) that there's more synergy with tubes in a power amp, for better or worse. More upside/downside leverage for happy/unhappy sound changes, so to speak. If that's true, does having the tubes in the preamp reduce the risk of going down the tube-rolling rabbit hole, and finding madness, bankruptcy & divorce at the bottom of said hole?

Q4: In general, is a tube preamp paired with a tube headphone amp too much of a good thing?

My underlying thought in posing these questions is that, everything else being equal, having tubes in the preamp gives fabulous flexibility. With a flip of the switch on the preamp, you can have solid-state sound or tube sound. One preamp does this for every amp you own, each amp can get some degree of tubiness.

(I'm assuming that, given enough input and output connectors on the preamp, at their main listening station most people would have one preamp they'd use more or less permanently as the central control unit. But you might have 2 or 3 amps hooked up at any given time, from your museum collection of amplifiers that seemed like a good idea at the time.)

(* I have one cheap tubed amp, a Project Sunrise III. I hardly ever use it anymore, and even less often try to swap in other tubes for experimental purposes. I've found that to be more hassle than fun; a distraction from listening to the music. So I have very little real experience with tubes or gear with tubes. Hence the questions.)

Freya+ is next on my list, I'll have nearly a complete system

 

[jaxtrauma]

How its suppose to use Freya and Asgard? do i need turn the Asgard volume all the way up, and then control the volume in the pre amp?

Sounds about right

 

[jaxtrauma]

I’m not the biggest Peter Green fan but I always have Steady Rollin Man, Albatross and a few others on permanent rotation. A lot of the early Fleetwood Mac stuff has Peter playing the same 3 blues licks which is why I think he went a bit bonkers. Left to his own design I think he shines.

Thanks very much, I'll check them out again

 

[jaxtrauma]

You could start with a very early track -The Supernatural from the John Mayall album 'A Hard Road'
(Peter Green replaced Clapton in John Mayall's band)

A few more Fleetwood Mac songs:
Oh Well
Man of the World
The Greeen Manalishi
Jumping at Shadows.

One from from The Splinter Group album 'Destiny Road' 1999
Burglar

He also did two excellent albums of Robert Johnson songs:
Robert Johnson Songbook 1998
Hot Foot Powder 2000
( I prefer these to Clapton's versions on his 2004 album 'Me and Mr Johnson')

A good compilation album of early Fleetwood Mac is 'The Best of Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac'.

To hear what they were lke live, at their peak, 'Live in Boston' volumes 1-3 are very good. Recorded in 1970.

Thanks very much! re: Les and Strat, I loved Carlos when he played that L6-S, he called it his rainbow

 

[ScubaMan2017]

Guise, total non-sequitur—could anybody check out a couple tracks from Megadeth's album "Dystopia" on your gear and let me know if you hear any clipping distortion? I'm trying to ascertain whether I'm just hearing things, I did something wrong with my setup/plugins, or they really failed to give it a listen before releasing it to the public. I get the Loudness Wars, but avoiding clipping should be mastering 101 and solo sections appear to be ridden with it.

SCUBAMAN AVOIDING END-OF-YEAR HIGH SCHOOL BUSYWORK (ick)

I transferred all my Megadeath to a microSSD card on my Chromebook, deactivated any REPLAY-GAIN (normalisation?) & PEAK PROTECTION settings on my VLC player (Linux Version), and fed it into my DAC. Flow = Bifrost-Mutlibit >>> LOKI-MINI (off & bypassed) >>> SYS (glorified switch, volume @ 100%) >>> Valhalla 2 >>> headphones (DaveClark's EtherC Flow 1.1)

Metadata from ripped 2016-issue, DDD-disc; recorded @ Latitude South & Southern Ground, Nashville (TN); engineered by Chris Rakestraw, Jeff Balding, Cameron Webb; mixed by Josh Wilbur; mastered @ Stirling Sound (NY?) by Ted Jensen; Universal Music, T-Boy Records.

Codec: FLAC , sample rate, 44100 Hz, 32 bits per sample. Ripped disc using EAC with it's error-correction settings at default.

- The Threat Is Real. Next year, I might want to preface a grade 10 science test with this little ditty.
- Dystopia. Clear and clean on my rig.
- Fatal Illusion. A-okay on my end.

I'm a weekend audio warrior, @ev666il . I wonder if your player's misbehaving? My gurus on this thread might also suggest one look at the original rip-from-disc. Dunno...

This is the kind of puttering I enjoy doing at semester's end. And here I am... a grown-assed man... who avoided metal growing up (the devil's muzak). Re-discovering tunes of my youth. Nice.

IS MY VALHALLA 2 SIMILAR TO THIS KT88 - Single Ended Tube Amplifier?

I've always been curious about those glowing light emitting diodes in my Asgard 2 and Valhalla 2. I've been following this hobbyist and am going to watch him build an all-tube amplifier. If you're curious, it's an interesting safe-and-sane 2017 series...
...I'd like to give a nod to Schiit's COASTER product (link).

 

[jaxtrauma]

Ok guys, here it is, don't hesitate to critique , I didn't know whether to post it here or the Clear thread, maybe both?


FOCAL Clear (and Jotunheim) review - part 1

They named her well. I was going to put up a review sooner, as I'm done going over my notes. However, I wasn't able to take the hp off long enough to write one. Don't try writing while using the Clear, it will demand your complete attention. Where to begin? I suppose I should start with my experience. I don't think I'll be able to write this review strictly focused on the FOCAL Clear. I'd never experienced a balanced system before. I got the Clear about a month ago, and it was killing me wanting to know how it sounded balanced. FOCAL included a ten-foot balanced XLR Neutrik terminated cable. So I just had to get a balanced amp. I had a great experience with my little Schiit stack but it was time to get serious. Once I had the Jot and balanced Modius DAC in my hands I found out how serious.

I ordered the FOCAL Clear about 4 weeks ago from HeadAmp. Justin and co. did a great job for me. The very next day, I received a beautiful, brand-spanking new Clear headphone via insured Fedex (driver got my signature, precluding delivery going amiss). I'll just say that was a real treat. Did I mention the fact that overnight was included in this deal? And if there ever is a problem, I'm know HeadAmp has my back, with their return policy and personalized customer service.
I got the Jotunheim and Modius (from the mothership) last week so I could hear the Clear balanced, and reaped rewards with my loudspeakers, as well. These guys really know their Schiit. Amazing difference when you upgrade to a true audiophile quality balanced amp and dac.

For these tests I ended up wearing the Clear for about eleven hours in a caffeine-fueled rush of experiencing balanced audio. Proof enough of their comfort. I'd never worn hp that long before, but they just disappeared. I can't give a higher compliment than that. It was a joy to live through. I even took notes, I was so impressed. I didn't go through my entire music library, but its fair to say it was an extensive sampling. Some albums I had to hear in their entirety. I was so enchanted once again by music.
I started with the single ended 1/4" terminated cable, in order to properly compare to my other, single ended HPs, then I did an A/B test with the HD 6XX and the HE-4XX (I guess it was A/B/C). I was really surprised at how well the Sennheiser held up compared to the Clear. The HIFIMAN fell by the wayside early (a surprise for planars), sounded like maybe it was driver breakup. All I know is I started hearing distortion at even moderate SPL. The HD 6XX hung in until I tried them at a bit more power, then the Clear started to show why they sell so dearly. I got 'jumpscares' from music with which I was intimately familiar. If the separation wasn't startling me, the overall tonal quality literally gave me goosebumps, like when I played 'Abbey Road' balanced. The harmonies were simply beautiful. Its not like I didn't know that, but the Clear is so resolving that 50+ year-old recordings sound brand new. With the Magni and Modi 3 stack and single ended HPs I wasn't able to hear any of this at this level. I expect an improvement in sq when upgrading to a better amp, but the Jotunheim is fantastically rewarding.

Clear balanced, then it was game over for the Senns. High-end had crystal clarity. The Senn seemed 'veiled' a bit on the highs (I know ). Its really the mids where the Clear started showing it's stuff. Never heard vocals like this. The presence. The sq of the dynamics that must be heard to believe. The soundstage wasn't just wide, I think it was half in the neighbors yard. It wasn't merely three-dimensional, it was truly holograpic, all-encompassing. I can't believe what I've been missing, if you haven't gone balanced you need to try it, just to experience what its like to be in the studio when they're recording. Its Clear, alright.
Its the low end with the Clear that got my attention most, I put on the first track from 'Dark Side of the Moon' on TIDAL flac. 'Speak to me' started with the bass drum and low synth, I felt my entire head reverberating to the almost heart-beat like thrum. I could literally feel the bass down to my toes, with headphones!! I seriously had never heard low end, this...low. The other hp just played it as bass notes, without attack and prolonged decay. Not even out loud with tower speakers had I heard notes this deep. Not even with the new Jot and Modius sending to my Audioengine HD6 and the Klipsch R100-SW subwoofer. I had to keep telling myself to calm down. I also had to keep reminding me that this is headphones we're talking about. Headphones! Several times I reached for the speaker volume, forgetting that its not them!! Fast, fat, smooth and deep? Check. Sub-sonics? Check. Cliche I know, but there were things in there I'd never heard, and I've heard 'Dark Side' a hell of a lot! My God, when 'Money' started I heard each and every ha' penny as they fell into the till. The Clear has the low end to end all low ends. Or high end. Never was the high end fatiguing in the slightest. It was like little tweeter fairies were bonking me on my ears with their little fairy wands. Crystalline cymbals. Even the little tinkle of bells, harps and triangles were clearly heard. There's that word again: Clear. That's probably due to the upgraded voice coil in the Clear. The inverted dome driver with pure copper formerless vc in the Clear is an upgrade (among others) from the Elear, which I haven't heard.

Don't get me wrong: they're no bass cannons, but they damn sure reproduce whatever bass notes are there, just no BS extra fake oomph added in. I've read comparisons to the Utopia and the sound architecture of FOCAL is on display here, to reduce harmonic distortion in the fragile mid-range register, which is so very crucial for presenting the artist’s emotions, the Clear doesn't have the berylium dome like the Utopia, but it is hyper-fast and resolving of the most minute details.
To be fair, I need to get balanced cables for the 6XX and the 4XX (right, just an excuse to get more gear lol), for a proper comparison. When I auditioned using single ended, the two others tried to keep up, but the 4XX went down first and the 6XX lasted longer but failing, in the end to keep up. Nice to know the more expensive one sounds better. The Clear took everything I threw at it and said "Thank you sir, may I have another?". The Jotunheim balanced would not let me turn the Clear up past nine o'clock (on low gain!). It was overpowering any louder than that. Amazing separation, as expected with balanced, and there's so much more power that way you have to be careful not to hurt your ears. Its a good thing that good amps sound good even at low volume.

The Clear is one of the finest-looking headphones on the planet (not just my opinion, but I agree). Leather over the headband and solid aluminum yokes and driver screens. All with French styling. Sweet. The cables are even better than Utopia or Elear. Lighter, fabric covered with black and white stripes. You get three cables with the Clear: A 1.2 meter with 3.5mm termination for portables, a three meter cable with 1/4" termination and a three meter balanced cable with Neutrik XLR termination. Comes with the gorgeous FOCAL hard-shell form-fitting case, standard. Easier to drive than Utopia or Elear at 55 Ohms, but quite scalable and will definitely resolve even more with a good amplifier.

The comfort is almost unbelievable for a set of over-ears, due to their innovative cushioned and pivoting headband and gently springy ear capsule design which keeps equal force around the ear, no hot spots! The ear pads are microfibre and 20mm memory foam, the most plush I've ever felt. FOCAL designed these capsules deep, with angled-forward mounted drivers, they treat the space as their 'room', employing techniques pioneered in their (legendary) loudspeakers. The critics say the Clear gives you 95% of the Utopia sound quality, just as the Elear is said to bring 90-95% of the Clear's sq. FOCAL has said they want you to forget you're wearing hp and think you're listening to loudspeakers. To my ears, I can tell you they've succeeded admirably. Stated simply, they have the most balanced tonality of any hp I've ever heard.The sound is just...open, with nothing between you and your music. Reference, resolving, yet musical. When I say the sound is simply beautiful, its an understatement. If you'd hear them you'll know why they called it the Clear. That's my prejudiced and totally biased opinion anyway.

I'll try to write more about the comparisons and the music choices at a later time. Any mistakes are mine, any of the beauty described here belongs to FOCAL Clear and Schiit Audio.

I'm tired now, lol.

Edit: lots. I really am a jazz fanatic but I wanted to start with something, um relatable. Will look into some more powerful recordings in part 2...

 

[478773]

re: using a Freya or other preamp with a headphone amp. In general, this is not necessary since headphone amps (at least all of them from Schiit) are integrated amps with preamp functions built in. That being said, there is no reason why a user could not use a preamp with a headphone amp, and my advise is to set the headphone amp volume level to the max that does not induce clipping, and then control the volume using the preamp.

The original question is something I have constantly wondered ever since I found out that the both of the outputs of the Saga were volume controlled - to me it was logical to have one of those non-variable for yes, headphone amps or subwoofers. Right now, maxing out the Saga then controlling volume on the Asgard 3 but indeed what I was doing before, I was treating the Asgard 3 as a non-volume control amp (Vidar for example) and maxed it out minus 1 and controlled volume from the Saga.

Which one is better?

@Ableza - yes the Schiit headphone amps have a pre-amp function - only one input - BUT I have a Bifrost 2, Turntable, SACD and a Nakamichi, going into Asgard 3 and speaker amp. The one input on the Asgard 3, not enough, therefore picked up a Saga (applies to Freya for that matter) - other option was a rube goldberg contraption of multiple SYSs!

But of course, I am saying the obvious here, probably someone else already made the point... But would love if the experts could answer my question! <3


v

 

[judson_w]

If you need something with a Mic input it's a GREAT little product. I use mine daily and it drives my HE-4XX's and HD 6XX's easily on the low gain setting.

Need is a very strong word. I presently use a Fulla 2 for headphones with my laptop and the built in mic is not terrible. At least I have not heard complaints. The Hel intrigues me, especially if I need to do more phone conference calls. Even if I go back to the office, I would rather use the Hel with my work desktop. The headset they have is quite bad... on a whim once I decided to try using it to listen to some music and... just no. I stopped that so fast and switched the output device back to the Fulla with my Audio Technica ath-m70x headphones.

The other issues is that I could not be able to just get a Hel. I would need to get a mic as well. I will wait a little longer.

 

[Ableza]

The original question is something I have constantly wondered ever since I found out that the both of the outputs of the Saga were volume controlled - to me it was logical to have one of those non-variable for yes, headphone amps or subwoofers. Right now, maxing out the Saga then controlling volume on the Asgard 3 but indeed what I was doing before, I was treating the Asgard 3 as a non-volume control amp (Vidar for example) and maxed it out minus 1 and controlled volume from the Saga.

Which one is better?

@Ableza - yes the Schiit headphone amps have a pre-amp function - only one input - BUT I have a Bifrost 2, Turntable, SACD and a Nakamichi, going into Asgard 3 and speaker amp. The one input on the Asgard 3, not enough, therefore picked up a Saga (applies to Freya for that matter) - other option was a rube goldberg contraption of multiple SYSs!

But of course, I am saying the obvious here, probably someone else already made the point... But would love if the experts could answer my question! <3

You didn't like my answer? I stand by it. Set the headphone amp to a fixed volume and use the preamp for volume control.

 

[478773]

You didn't like my answer? I stand by it. Set the headphone amp to a fixed volume and use the preamp for volume control.

Err... never said that, nor did I object to it - in fact - as per my post, that's what I was doing... before switching... not sure why... kind of asking everyone see if there is consensus of what the right thing to do it is

That said - maybe the confusion is that I did object a little bit to the

re: using a Freya or other preamp with a headphone amp. In general, this is not necessary since headphone amps (at least all of them from Schiit) are integrated amps with preamp functions built in.

part - since obviously, I needed more inputs - but like I said, I was aware I was stating the obvious.

So, 1 vote for Asgard at max, control volume from Saga/Freya (thanks @Ableza )

curious what the rest of the peeps think

v

 

[jaxtrauma]

Err... never said that, nor did I object to it - in fact - as per my post, that's what I was doing... before switching... not sure why... kind of asking everyone see if there is consensus of what the right thing to do it is

That said - maybe the confusion is that I did object a little bit to the



part - since obviously, I needed more inputs - but like I said, I was aware I was stating the obvious.

So, 1 vote for Asgard at max, control volume from Saga/Freya (thanks @Ableza )

curious what the rest of the peeps think

v

When I get the Freya+, I'll set the Jot on max (Unity) and control with Freya+

 

[Pete Schiller]

The original question is something I have constantly wondered ever since I found out that the both of the outputs of the Saga were volume controlled - to me it was logical to have one of those non-variable for yes, headphone amps or subwoofers. Right now, maxing out the Saga then controlling volume on the Asgard 3 but indeed what I was doing before, I was treating the Asgard 3 as a non-volume control amp (Vidar for example) and maxed it out minus 1 and controlled volume from the Saga.

Which one is better?

@Ableza - yes the Schiit headphone amps have a pre-amp function - only one input - BUT I have a Bifrost 2, Turntable, SACD and a Nakamichi, going into Asgard 3 and speaker amp. The one input on the Asgard 3, not enough, therefore picked up a Saga (applies to Freya for that matter) - other option was a rube goldberg contraption of multiple SYSs!

But of course, I am saying the obvious here, probably someone else already made the point... But would love if the experts could answer my question! <3


v

That's an interesting question, how many people would prefer to have one of the Saga/Freya outputs not be attenuated by the volume control? I get that setting the Saga/Freya volume to the maximum does that for you if you're feeding it into a headamp that also has a volume control, but there's something about turning Saga/Freya volume to max, that would make me uneasy if that's also feeding a 2-channel system. I aways turn the Freya volume all the way down when I'm done listening, and it still would make me uneasy. I haven't listened via headphones in ages, so it doesn't impact me, but I certainly understand the issue for those of you who are using Saga/Freya to also feed into a headamp.

On my Freya, I use one balanced connection for Yggy, then want 2-3 inputs for phono stages. I don't see myself ever needing five inputs, although I'm sure some people will.

 

[myquealer]

The original question is something I have constantly wondered ever since I found out that the both of the outputs of the Saga were volume controlled - to me it was logical to have one of those non-variable for yes, headphone amps or subwoofers.

Why would you want non-variable volume output to a subwoofer? Then you'd need to adjust sub volume every time you adjust preamp volume. Non-variable output would make sense for a separate headphone amp, or recording device, but not a subwoofer, as far as I know.

 

[jaxtrauma]

That's an interesting question, how many people would prefer to have one of the Saga/Freya outputs not be attenuated by the volume control? I get that setting the Saga/Freya volume to the maximum does that for you if you're feeding it into a headamp that also has a volume control, but there's something about turning Saga/Freya volume to max, that would make me uneasy if that's also feeding a 2-channel system. I aways turn the Freya volume all the way down when I'm done listening, and it still would make me uneasy. I haven't listened via headphones in ages, so it doesn't impact me, but I certainly understand the issue for those of you who are using Saga/Freya to also feed into a headamp.

On my Freya, I use one balanced connection for Yggy, then want 2-3 inputs for phono stages. I don't see myself ever needing five inputs, although I'm sure some people will.

I'm jealous!