[r2muchstuff]

Shiit N Music
Saturday Evening

Enjoying larger Schiits.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mjolnir 3 -> HiFiMan Arya Stealth
Mac Mini 2014 -> USB -> Gungnir ("C" serial #) MB & Unison -> Balanced Y cable ->
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mjolnir 2 [396A Raytheon JAN JRP]---------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------- -> Beyerdynamic T1 600 Ohm

Various R&R, R&B, Carolina Beach, Blues, Jazz, Folk and such

Both parings are pushing my ("old and busted") sensory system
Damn
Again, if a tract/recording/style/genre sounds off, switch to the other headphone & amp
Between these two parings a whole bunch of music sounds great
Lokius?
And kit plays very nice with many headphones
And avoids tube withdrawal

Seriously good Schiit & headphones

Fun evening,
Enjoy the Schiit N Music

 

[earnmyturns]

Listening to the just-released album announced below.

Qobuz > Roon > HQPlayer DSD256 > Holo May > Mjolnir 3 (SE, no feedback, high gain) > ZMF Caldera. I'm repeatedly delighted by how well Mjolnir 3 renders guitar: well defined attack and decay, rich tonality, fine detail, as if Lage was playing right here (I know how that sounds, having sat front row at several of his performances). Mjolnir 3 was an impulse buy to try to get out more of the Caldera, it delivers superbly.

 

[jonathan c]

I have several. Dave Grusin's 'Discovered Again' Direct to Disc is LP is my favorite.

Good choice!

 

[r2muchstuff]

After a hard working evening for both amps the Mjolnir 2 appears/feels warmer than the Mjolinar 3.

 

[Timster]

I am caught up!

(again, but probably not for long... <sigh>)

Never have I returned to this Halo'ed place to find no messages awaiting me.
To catch up is nothing more than a fleeting moment.

 

[tafens]

Life hack: buy a backup remote if you buy anything with a remote that you will use. I bought a new window air condition with a remote. It is mounted up high so the remote is needed. Remotes often die before the device does, or get lost. Finding a fully compatible remote for an older product is a bitch; buy a backup when you buy a new product when they are available

Tell me about it. In less than 6 months we’ve lost both the Siri Remote to our AppleTV and similarly advanced remote to our Samsung TV.
Both clocking in at a similar price point for an original replacement

Fortunately, there are less expensive alternative replacements available from other vendors for the Samsung, and there’s a remote-app for the AppleTV built-in to the iPhone, so at least there’s that..

 

[566854]

Enter Halo

Except at the time I was also working on Magnius 2, aka Midgard, and trying to find a way to justify the existence of a 4-pin XLR on the front panel…which is the exploration that resulted in Halo, which we recently introduced to the headphone world, with the controversial decision not to jump in with full research data.

Aside: which again, wouldn’t have mattered. There’s always a problem with methodology or conflict of interest or whatever.​

Aside to the aside: except in the case of the Harman curve, which I’m surprised nobody has bitched about as being (a) done by a company wanting to sell you things using the curve, and (b) not verified by independent researchers, especially those from the academic community. Weird. But who are we to talk.​

And that’s when I got a brilliant/crazy idea: throw Halo on Aegir 2.

Yeah.

So I did. This is the prototype I brought to the “Class A versus the rest” meet at the Schiitr. This is a meet that came with some mixed results: some preferred Class A, some preferred Continuity, some preferred Class AB on the modified Aegirs. We didn’t put the prototype Aegir 2 in the official blind test, but we played it for some friends afterwards. The results:

It slaughtered all versions of Aegir. Zero contest. 100% the winner.

Now, putting Halo on a speaker amp isn’t a slam dunk. Not by a long shot. For one, it kills what is known as traditional “damping factor,” as in, the impedance of the load divided by the output impedance of the amp. For Aegir, this was a respectable-but-not-thrilling 100. For Aegir 2, we’re at 10. Maybe. Ish.

But Halo isn’t a normal thing. So maybe damping factor is less meaningful.

But let’s talk Halo some more. In case you missed it, Halo is our mixed-mode motion feedback that puts the driver into the feedback network. Some people have found this to reduce distortion at the driver. Some challenge that assertion. Our own results are mixed. And so we resort to weasel-words like “may increase acoustic performance.” Sorry. But we think you prefer that to many years of research that would result in a much more expensive amp, plus research results that many would argue invalid.

Halo is named because it may be a thing, or it may not.

If it improves performance at the driver, then we have a holy grail moment, one that upends the entire measurement community. Because a -120dB amp and a -80dB amp have the same results on a -40dB driver…but if Halo ups -40dB to, say -45dB, that’s a HUGE DEAL.

If it doesn’t improve performance at the driver, then we still have the inconvenient fact that most people who have heard it hear a difference, including on blind tests. And that suggests we may not be measuring the right things. And that’s still a pretty big deal.

So, in Aegir 2, you get Halo.

I expect that, if there is a difference to be measured, it’ll be found in the world of the loudspeaker, rather than the headphone. Loudspeakers are big devices with a ton of inertia, unlike headphones. So, yeah: ported speaker, look around the resonance point. See what you find.

Maybe gold. Maybe an illusion. Hence, Halo.

​

Jason is the Halo similar in effect to the Sigma Drive of the old Kenwood M2 with the exception that it is internal to the amp?
The Sigma Drive had you running two sets of wires to each individual speaker terminal one being for the feedback of the driver back into the amp. The modern claim is that it was only good for long speaker cable runs, i found it to improve SQ with 4' cable runs. The huge problem with that Sigma Drive external wiring set up was/is, if you do not execute the wiring perfectly (or a cable came loose) it would/will fry the outputs. Neither the improved SQ or the risk were illusive from my perspective, having the same or similar effect in a modern amp is intriguing to me. Congrats on the Aegir 2!

 

[Bowmoreman]

Most of you will have to just bear with me on this one as I imagine there are few on here who are into black metal of any kind. But for those who are, and who are not yet aware of Mare Cognitum, well, lemme tell ya... Hailing from Portland, Oregon, Mare Cognitum is the one-man-band project of Jacob Buczarski. Not only is the music outstanding - full of speedy, densely-layered textures, scream-o vocals appropriate to the music (ie. not there to serve themselves but the music) singing poignant lyrics, and soaring melodic guitar lines (and some rad solos) - but the production is second to none. Presumably self-produced [Edit: Composed, recorded, and produced entirely by Jacob.], the album sounds fantastic in my simple chain of Apple Music -> iPhone 14 Pro -> Topping D50S -> Schiit Magni+ -> Final Audio E5000 (which incidentally LOVE high gain mode on the Magni).

I can say also that Jacob's vinyl releases are equally great sounding, something not very common in the world of black metal vinyl releases.

Mare Cognitum Bandcamp

I’m not overall into all death/black metal… but, true story… at our global sales kickoff in Barcelona 3 weeks ago… my Product Management Director and I did a Karaoke of Rammstein’s “Du Hast Mich…”

<grin>

Crowd LOVED it.

I weirdly like much of their stuff (at least so far). The vids of their concerts are quite amazing as well.

 

[golfbravobravo]

True that! I used to buy FOUR harmony remotes with only THREE TVs in the house. Should have bought every single one off the bestbuy shelf when they closed out. So miss my Harmony's....

Seque to Roon: any new news since the buy out? Mergers take quite awhile for the ultimate outcome to become known...but just curious with the long term users in these parts....

For you Harmony users.......

I have a redundant Harmony remote and receiver here, available for someone here rather than the charity store.......

PM me.

 

[Iowan]

ATS Acoustics.

Thanks!

 

[Iowan]

I like the table.

Thanks! furniture store in Iowa has connections with some Amish furniture makers.
Spalted Maple. It wasn't selling, clearance priced at 40% off.

Music related coincidence. The salesman that sold me the table was a fellow music lover...
magnepans , marantz with a DJ side job.
He has since retired, moved to Two Harbors Mn. , and is one of the local radio stations DJs , on tues 7 to 9AM

 

[Paladin79]

This is @bcowen’s flight board. Note the plastic cups and the bubbles atop the fresh whiskey, aging is overrated to Sir Cowen. The board is nearly identical to my own if you ignore quality of presentation.

 

[artur9]

This is @bcowen’s flight board. Note the plastic cups and the bubbles atop the fresh whiskey, aging is overrated to Sir Cowen. The board is nearly identical to my own if you ignore quality of presentation.

I'm surprised @bcowen's drink doesn't eat right through the plastic.

Your presentation makes me think you need to add a slot to hold a little "menu board' describing the evening's tipple...

 

[Ableza]

I hadn't fired up the big subwoofer system lately (I have 4x Acoustic elegance IB15's in an infinite baffle alignment in the ceiling of our home theater area) and decided to knock the dust off the cones. I put on some old school rap and turned the big thumpers on. Roland 808 in full effect. Through an Elac streamer and Schiit Bifrost 2/64.

 

[R3DFIV3]

I hadn't fired up the big subwoofer system lately (I have 4x Acoustic elegance IB15's in an infinite baffle alignment in the ceiling of our home theater area) and decided to knock the dust off the cones. I put on some old school rap and turned the big thumpers on. Roland 808 in full effect. Through an Elac streamer and Schiit Bifrost 2/64.

… Woke up quick at about noon
Just thought that I had to be in Compton soon
I gotta get drunk before the day begin
Before my mother starts bitchin bout my friends