[Les Strat]

FedEx just delivered my Folkvangr! Fun for the evening! More later.

We're on tenterhooks here @AudioGal -well I certainly am...

Please tell us that you love your new Folkvangr

 

[tafens]

Folkvangr, Lokius, and one other thing.

Just to set the tone, Armchair philospher has it right when he says the Folkvanr is all about synergy. Listening to it I had to toss a couple of my usual procedures.

Second this is about only two headphones with Folkvangr:
Senn650 with Dikoni ear pads...those pads really help the Senns (300 ohms
Aeon 2 closed (I think those are 32 ohms

Third: I don’t hear above 11kHz any more. For how sweet the highs are we will have to hear from someone younger than I. And I should add, for me the primary element is the tonal depth/ timbral accuracy. How much does it sound like what I hear setting in the second row of the balcony (by choice) at the symphony. Sharp attacks and soundstage rank lower in my preferences. (Soundstage is excellent, attacks are rounded a bit)


OK, Folkvangr arrives along with new Gungnir (multibit) DAC. Lokius I already have on hand. Lokius is important here, and gets far less attention in this forum than I think it deserves. Let the Gungnir burn-in for a couple of days, and Folkvanr too for that matter. Then I am set to listen to music via
Linux, Audacious player usb> Gungnir bal> Lokius se > Folkvangr > headphones
(Folkvangr > Aegir> speakers also worked well, but I won’t elaborate on that here.)

So I start out with high gain, no EQ for Aeon 2, impedance boost. Meh.
OK detail yes, sound stage yes. Timbre, meh.

High gain, a bit of bass boost for Senn, no impedance boost. Meh. Less detail than Aeon 2 is a given, but that is not the problem. Sound stage is not the problem. The timbre is just not what it should be. Well, I always use Schiit hp-amps with high gain, but...

Shift to low gain.

Senn650 with the Dakoni pads, a tad of bass EQ: now we have music! Music with an uncanny naturalness. I don’t have any experience with a different $2k preamp to compare it with. What I do hear is: I am not listening to tube-lush, I am not listening to a solid state presentation. This is just a very natural musical presentation, as in live music without microphone. Dame Janet Baker singing Elgar Sea Pictures. I’ve never heard her live, but it sounds like I am. Well, not quite, but it is an excellent presentation of the female voice. Zuill Bailey playing Bach the Bach Cello sonatas I have heard live on two occasions. This is a wonderful reproduction of his playing, it is a ‘your are there’ feeling. Sound stage is not particularly important on either of those tracks, but it does come through on a jazz track of Brother James Aire in my ‘test tracks’. It’s as good as it gets.

OK a rave review of the Senn650, well suited to this hp amp.

Back to the Aeon 2, now on low gain. It brings more detail of course, but it lacks some sparkle, some fullness of tone. Hmm, lets give it just a bit of EQ boost...400Hz and 200kHz with the Lokius. And now we have it, the Aeon 2 also sings with this preamp. I do prefer the Senn650 for a bit more timbral richness, but both are excellent.

So I had to break a couple of patterns. Lo gain, not high gain. I have the Aeon 2 in part because they don’t need EQ...but here they do. In any case, this is the best pre-amp I have ever had, perhaps the best I will ever have. More than usual YMMV.

Still, to keep perspective: when I go back to my office, plug the Senn650s into Bifrost og>Asgard 3 there is a very satisfying musical experience. That combination has incredible synergy. Yes Folkvangr with Lokius and Gungnir takes me deeper, but the wonderful thing about Schiit is that you don’t have to spend $$$ to hear and feel the music.

Hope this helps. Noah

An excellent and very interesting writeup, thank you @NoahFence ! It helps quite a lot actually!

 

[Ripper2860]

Not sure I'm deserving of this...

Trust me. You're not the only one perplexed by Tom's misdirected generosity.

 

[RCBinTN]

Another aside:
All members of the Ukraine Mobile Trauma Team 0 (UMTT-0) want to express their enormous thanks to all people from this forum that contributed in any way to their difficult task and off course anyone who will do so in the future.
(From E.L., chief team 0)
As their coach and home base I would like to state the same.
You people are golden.
Care to know what goes on? PM @RCBinTN.
You'll get an instant answer why I'm not here that often these days.

Well done, Coach Dr. Tinin. Thank you for organizing such an important and satisfying project.
Now, back to the french horn discussions ...

 

[Paladin79]

Very gracious of both of you. Not sure I'm deserving of this, but I'm sure delighted with it!



And now I know what that extra hole was for. A cigar ashtray, right?

And you are using the pair of tubes I really like lol. Current value of those tubes I would estimate at $550 up. The copper itself is a great conductor of heat so quite a bit will dissipate through that top plate. Good luck with the ash tray, stick with your usual tiparillos and you will be fine. Oh yeah you might want to touch up the paint on your transformer cover, it got marred a bit in the process.

 

[Ableza]

https://barbecuebible.com/2018/06/09/french-grill-book/

 

[RCBinTN]

 

[Pietro Cozzi Tinin]

Did you steal one of our projects?

 

[Pietro Cozzi Tinin]

Also a huge growth opportunity for a still brain-dead and overly entitled teenage brat such as myself; to be the first responder to a scene where some a$$hat street racer just wrapped his dad's 3 series BMW around a tree, driver's side first at 100 miles an hour, that sure puts a few things into perspective for ya.)

Reminds me of my first month on a trauma chopper. Two beheaded motorcycle riders with only a few days in between and on the same stretch of freeway.
One learns fast to put ones own trauma's aside.

 

[chronoso]

OK a rave review of the Senn650, well suited to this hp amp.

Oh phew. My long held and personally venerated HD580s should work well next week, then.

Still, to keep perspective: when I go back to my office, plug the Senn650s into Bifrost og>Asgard 3 there is a very satisfying musical experience. That combination has incredible synergy. Yes Folkvangr with Lokius and Gungnir takes me deeper, but the wonderful thing about Schiit is that you don’t have to spend $$$ to hear and feel the music.

Hope this helps. Noah

And this is part of why I'm planning to keep my Magni Heresy hooked up, to keep perspective. And for flavor changes. Well, until I somehow justify a Loki Max. I'll need those EQ presets for each headphone's tuning, obviously. It's a categorical imperative.

HD800s and LCD2 Classic have arrived, time to demo on solid state equipment, for science.

 

[chronoso]

Also a huge growth opportunity for a still brain-dead and overly entitled teenage brat such as myself; to be the first responder to a scene where some a$$hat street racer just wrapped his dad's 3 series BMW around a tree, driver's side first at 100 miles an hour, that sure puts a few things into perspective for ya.

Reminds me of my first month on a trauma chopper. Two beheaded motorcycle riders with only a few days in between and on the same stretch of freeway.
One learns fast to put ones own trauma's aside.

Having spent my high school years on our town's rescue squad doing far too many vehicle extrications, fully agreed. It's tough for any person, especially a teenager, to learn from someone else's mistakes or pure unfortunate luck rather than their own, but that'll do it.

Another aside:
All members of the Ukraine Mobile Trauma Team 0 (UMTT-0) want to express their enormous thanks to all people from this forum that contributed in any way to their difficult task and off course anyone who will do so in the future.
(From E.L., chief team 0)
As their coach and home base I would like to state the same.
You people are golden.
Care to know what goes on? PM RCBinTN.
You'll get an instant answer why I'm not here that often these days.

Hear, hear. You're all doing incredible work.

 

[Pietro Cozzi Tinin]

Hear, hear. You're all doing incredible work.

Nah, that was a long time ago. Now I just coach, train, therapy, teach, help etc. the ones that do the incredible work.
I'm too old and handicapped to go there myself. Besides that, they don't want a risk attracting loudmouth as I.
I would have a day job only to show those Russians my little weeny and then it would be shot off by a sharpshooter with a microscope.
Better for me to stay home and do some work here.
The work I do now can only be done with the help of a mass of people who put in a small geste so we can continue.
It's not the first time the people on this thread come together to help someone in need.
This time it's a lot of someone's in very acute needs.
So keep MP-ing @RCBinTN

 

[RCBinTN]

Did you steal one of our projects?

Just an example of what the project is capable of providing ... and actually saving lives

 

[Pietro Cozzi Tinin]

Nah, that was a long time ago. Now I just coach, train, therapy, teach, help etc. the ones that do the incredible work.
I'm too old and handicapped to go there myself. Besides that, they don't want a risk attracting loudmouth as I.
I would have a day job only to show those Russians my little weeny and then it would be shot off by a sharpshooter with a microscope.
Better for me to stay home and do some work here.
The work I do now can only be done with the help of a mass of people who put in a small geste so we can continue.
It's not the first time the people on this thread come together to help someone in need.
This time it's a lot of someone's in very acute needs.
So keep MP-ing @RCBinTN

I also have to thank @RCBinTN and @Pandahead for the solid financial- and procurement logistics behind the project.
Without those two that piece of the project that makes stuff for doctors to save lives would not excist.

"Go Richard. Go Mark.
Old geezers can still make a spark".

 

[RCBinTN]

Yep, I twisted my ankle and am feeling very much like a geezer today.

My thanks to the folks who have already contributed. We, and the injured people of Ukraine, appreciate your support.

And c'mon y'all others - PM me and I will tell you the whole story. The beauty of this work is that the devices go directly to the doctors on the front lines. They have specifically requested this gear. There are no middle men, like with charities ... 100% of contributions go direct to the need.
So let's go ... whatcha waiting on?