[RickB]

Hey all,

I'm back in California for a while, so I figured I'd give you an update.

First, we are producing speaker amps like crazy--you'll be seeing the backorders shrink for Aegir, Vidar, and Ragnarok 2 over the next week or so as we get caught up, and the intent is to eventually get to 1-3 day shipping for all speaker power amps. This would be a first for us--these products have almost always been 7-10 days.

Second, we're building black Freya+es and seeing if anyone wants one to help clear those backorders (lots of silver orders, silver tops we are still waiting for.)

Third, we're increasing capacity again, adding additional runs at new Utah PCB assembly houses to help meet demand.

All of this stuff should help get us out of the deep backorders, get us shipping more consistently, and allow us to fully open some channels (distributors, Amazon). But again, this takes time, and it also requires no surprises in planning. There have been a lot of surprises lately, though things seem to be getting better as far as the supply chain goes.

Finally, I must announce the imminent demise of Mjolnir 2. As in, it will be dropped from the product line with no planned successor.

"Why? Why are you doing such a terrible thing?" you might ask. "I always liked Mjolnir 2!"

So did I. I still have one at home.

But there's several problems with Mjolnir 2, not least of which is that the performance of Jotunheim 2 is now so good--in a smaller, more convenient amp. Also, Mjolnir 2 uses complex transformers that are hard to get right, have long lead times, and can be variable. So it's going away.

"Will you ever do something like Mjolnir 2 again?" you ask.

As of now, we don't have a Mjolnir 3 on the books. I've played with ideas, including ones you expect (tube hybrid with Nexus and Continuity, which did not work because the tubes can't match precisely enough, and a differential operational point servo "fought" the other operational point servos, resulting in unreliable start-up) and some you probably didn't (back to solid state with relay volume and two card slots, or a differential version of Coherence, both of which weren't all that exciting).

And, here's the thing: Mjolnir 2 is huge. Any Mjolnir 3 would either be (a) the same size, not desktop friendly, or (b) a weird size that doesn't match everything we make. I'd love to go back in time and make all the "large midsize" gear not as wide, but I don't have a direct line to any rogue Time Lords. So that means we're stuck with a size that may make sense in a rack, but not so much on a desk. That's probably one reason why Mjolnir 2 was, ahem, less popular than it might have been.

So, say farewell to Mjolnir 2. If you already have one, don't worry--we'll still service and repair them for the foreseeable future (hell, we're still repairing 10+ year old Asgards to this day). And if you want one, you have a small window to pick one up before they go away. Though honestly, after living with Jotunheim 2, it's really hard to justify. But then again, I'm cheap...and I like my desk space.

The one thing you don't pointedly mention is the future of Gungnir.

 

[NewSchiithead]

Eh, Qobuz's interface is still not wonderful- I rather liked Tidal's interface and the ease of "favoriting" albums and having them all displayed. And the Qobuz catalog is still somewhat limited. But Qobuz is playing right now with a nice 24/96 version of Steve Wilson's remaster of Aqualung and it does indeed sound great. Really great, in fact. Something I can't say any more about Tidal. I notice a LOT of new releases here on Qobuz are now 24/96. I think between Qobuz and the Amazon HD "Stations" (found a lot of new music that way) I'm not going to miss Tidal that much.

 

[Randolf711]

Take a look at the Amazon HD interface and you'll more fully appreciate the Qobuz and Tidal interface.

Maybe I’m becoming an old man, but the ONLY interface I like is Qobuz now. I hate the Spotify and Apple Music layouts. I like new music to be on the main page and I like it to have a large cross-section of styles and genres. Qobuz gives me that!

 

[oryan_dunn]

Perhaps in the discussion of interfaces, a distinction needs to be made between web/desktop/mobile. I only used Apple Music and Spotify recently, been years since I used Amazon or Deezer, but I remember not liking Amazon (both web and mobile) too much even back then.

 

[Rensek]

I really enjoyed all of Tidals apps and algorithms. Their SQ and the MQA bit? noso much. Also, I swear Tidal has a passive/silent/hidden EQ on their stuff... Bass just hits harder on Tidal.

I was going to buy a year of Qobuz, but went month to month. The potential for Spotify Hifi has me holding off.

 

[renault4]

I get the reasons why there won't be a Mjolnir 2 but that also does make me think we won't see an updated Gungnir if the company is moving away from that size. I was hoping for a Gungnir 3... but I guess we're more likely to see a new MB DAC sized like the Freya+.

wow, I just took delivery of an MJ2 at the end of last month; I really do appreciate the aesthetic fit to my Yggy GS/freya+ stack, and I love the sound, now I'm trying to process the news of its demise. I'm not too surprised and I believe the signals were out there, so I *think* I'm happy that I bought in when I did and hey, at least its not being replaced by an MJ3

 

[artur9]

My preference? TB2 connected OWC 4Bay enclosure to a Mac Mini Server, running ROON Core. I'm not bothering with RAID at all, .... The 4th drive hosts daily incremental backups using Rsync.

What kind of speed do you get from that? I'm needing something like 120Mb/s (bit!) to serve 4K video rips. My current, dying Mac cheese grater is only getting 4MB/s from an internal drive (aka 32Mb).

 

[artur9]

I listen to Speakers 90% of the time and have limited experience. When my Father in Law passed, he left me his Dahlquist DQ10s with sub (mirrored from the early 80s). They were way too sentimental and there was no way I was going to not use them.

Those were the speakers my housemates in college lusted after.

 

[ImagesbyMurray]

What kind of speed do you get from that? I'm needing something like 120Mb/s (bit!) to serve 4K video rips. My current, dying Mac cheese grater is only getting 4MB/s from an internal drive (aka 32Mb).

A bit of a loaded question

No way the 2012 Mac Mini Server will handle editing/rendering 4K: https://support.apple.com/kb/SP660?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US .
However It CAN serve it. 1Gb ethernet will do 118Mb/s with an ideal 94% overhead. What 4K video are you serving? Compressed .MV4 content (no sweat), or Native ProRes, if so what bit depth (10 or 12 prolly not, 8 maybe). Black Magic Design has a great tool to evaluate: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/blackmagic-disk-speed-test/id425264550?mt=12

Please understand my setup is basically hosting files at rest, neither I nor Cynthia are actively writing to this, most of that activity is via Office 365/ G-Suite, the Mac Mini being an offline repository to this

 

[porchwizard]

....
The 4th drive hosts daily incremental backups using Rsync.

rsnapshot?

 

[dieslemat]

Second, we're building black Freya+es and seeing if anyone wants one to help clear those backorders (lots of silver orders, silver tops we are still waiting for.)

Great!!! Cant wait to pair the black Freya with my black Yggdrasil and black Jotunheim R!

Black Schiit Matters.

 

[ImagesbyMurray]

rsnapshot?

nope Rsync, but rsnapshot looks nice

 

[JamminVMI]

Awesome and thank you. I’ve only had new haven style clam pizza but those are out of the shell, Very good. I’m not a big fan of other seafood on pizza. I make traditional Neapolitan pizza at with my Ooni oven no whole clams though , I love it.

I have the Bertello oven and love it, am also a traditional neopolitan pie guy. Burrata is our absolute favourite, with basil for the perfect margherita. I don’t eat seafood, but our daughter is in New Haven in school and is loving the pizza there!

 

[JamminVMI]

I always had my eyes on a Mjolnir+Gungnir stack but with the Mjolnir being dropped, is the equivalent stack now a Jotunheim+Bifrost Multibit?

Nope, Bifrost 2 & Lyr 3!

 

[433521]

Amazon HD and Tidal interface seem very similar to me.

I left Amazon to return to Tidal because the interface and the music Tidal feeds is better for me.