[AverageGuyNC]

 Hello...I'm a very happy owner of a Jot for the last 2 months or so. Have returned a Bimby after seeing little difference to the balanced internal DAC. I especially like the sound as a preamp to my Audioengine N22 amp and P4 passive bamboo speakers and  S8 subwoofer. Thought it was a bit chirpy at first, coming from a Audioengine  D1 dac ( which I liked for years, but wanted to try the jot) . I was hoping for more separation of instruments in the mostly jazz that I listen to. After a 3 day and night burn in to my Sen HD650's > balanced cable, suddenly I could hear things like the snare drums on Bill Evens & Philly Joe Jones "Green Dolphin Street" like I've never heard before. The chirpiness I first heard, especially female vocals was gone. Just fantastic.
 I have 2 questions that maybe someone out there with more expertise can answer for me. Firstly does using the high gain switch most of the time, affect the longevity of the Jot? It doesn't seem to get any warmer in high gain. Secondly, I'm thinking of ordering a Massdrop x AKG K7XX, now on sale. Is it a good match for the Jot?
                                                                                                                                Thanks so much EtRec

The built in dac pretty good then? I'm glad, wasn't sure if I wanted to put out more money

 

[MWSVette]

The built in dac pretty good then? I'm glad, wasn't sure if I wanted to put out more money

Yes, the built in DAC is very good and hard to beat, especially for $100.00...
 

 

 

[alota]

I think that some people don't see the principal objective.
The jot is an amplifier, nothing more. If yoy want a dac, you have the possibilitie for 100 dollars to have a dual akm dac.
A dual akm that is one of the best d/s dac in the market
Of course, you have a lot better dacs in the market. From my experience, miracles only an exclusive of jesus christ
Personally, first i try the internal dac. Eventually i will buy a separate dac

 

[thyname]

Yes, the built in DAC is very good and hard to beat, especially for $100.00...

 

Better than Bifrost DAC?

 

[EtRec]

Better than Bifrost DAC?

I've tried the 16bit Bitfrost mutibit and sent it back. Yes it was a bit more assertive and louder then the internal 24bit balanced dac, but a little increase in the Jot's volume knob and I could hear little difference ( yes I ran the Bitfrost for 3 days straight before listening). Especially $600 worth. The only other DAC I can compare it with is the Audioengine D1, which I've used happily for years, but I like the Jot's separation more. I listen to mostly Jazz and classical, but the rock I like also sounded great to me. Just my amateurish opinion. Anyone have experience with the "Massdrop x AKG K7XX" with the Jot. Thinking of ordering one. I've heard some AKG headphones are a bit forward on the high end which would not go well with the Jot.

 

[thefitz]

I've tried the 16bit Bitfrost mutibit and sent it back. Yes it was a bit more assertive and louder then the internal 24bit balanced dac, but a little increase in the Jot's volume knob and I could hear little difference ( yes I ran the Bitfrost for 3 days straight before listening). Especially $600 worth. The only other DAC I can compare it with is the Audioengine D1, which I've used happily for years, but I like the Jot's separation more. I listen to mostly Jazz and classical, but the rock I like also sounded great to me. Just my amateurish opinion. Anyone have experience with the "Massdrop x AKG K7XX" with the Jot. Thinking of ordering one. I've heard some AKG headphones are a bit forward on the high end which would not go well with the Jot.

Why'd you point out how many bits the DACs are? Doesn't Schiit often say that delta-sigma DACs only have a few bits of actual resolution?

 

[EtRec]

That's true....about the bits. What it comes down to is liking the sound and the 16 to 24bits thing has been gone over in this forum before. Sorry...but it still goes round and round in my head that the higher end Schitt multibit dacs above the bitfrost are 21bit. Does that affect the sound? I don't know. All I know is that I'm happy with the Jot internal DAC .

 

[thefitz]

That's true....about the bits. What it comes down to is liking the sound and the 16 to 24bits thing has been gone over in this forum before. Sorry...but it still goes round and round in my head that the higher end Schitt multibit dacs above the bitfrost are 21bit. Does that affect the sound? I don't know. All I know is that I'm happy with the Jot internal DAC .

Fair enough, but how much of your decision was based upon paying more for something with "less bits"?

I have a bimby, but I use Digital Coax so I don't have a whole lot of choice with the onboard DAC.

 

[Starburp701]

[COLOR=FF00AA][/COLOR]

Unfortunatly in italy there s no 14 days return policy... So i have to decide what is best for my lcd2..
Does lyr2have noise floor? When the music is low i hate to hear "ssssssh"...

It can be creepy quiet on the Lyr 1. Lyr 2 has 2 other advantages tho. Gain switch and 2 transformers that feed ac to dc for zero noise

 

[MWSVette]

The original Lyr has a noticeable noise floor when used with efficient headphones or IEM's.  For instance it is quite noticeable with my TH-X00.
 
The Lyr 2 on the other hand, same headphones and tubes dead silent...

 

[EtRec]

Like I said before...I tried the Bimby and sent it back. I heard little difference from the Jot internal DAC. My ears only. I have Jazz on 24-192 flac and it sounds great on either dac. If your asking me " would I have kept the Bimby at $600 if I enjoyed the sound more then the internal DAC?" the answer is yes. Others hear a big difference. I don't.

 

[MikeW]

The fact that you perceived Bimby to be "Louder" tells me that the volume was not probably 100% matched, and I'd wager if you had the equipment to properly get a perfect volume match between the two dac's and A/B them, the perceived differences would all but vanish. I'd wager the bimby would be more resilient to bad power sources, and give less problems when hooking up to a laptop, or bad power, just based on it's beefy power supply, your less likely to experience any issues there - however if you've got a nice computer system, or an enthusiast class motherboard, many of witch specifically state "Clean USB Power" as a selling feature,  your much less likely to notice a difference, also WYRD helps with the power issues if you've already got a JOT/DAC and are noticing strange things with a laptop. I wouldn't spend money on a decrapifier though, unless you've identified a specific need.
 
Your not the first one who's bought both units at the same time with no bias, and returned the separate dac. It's mostly people that already owned a Multi-Bit Dac that are saying OMG it's so much better, yadda yadda yadda, you will see in time many of these people will go back and forth between the dac's, and one day they will want new headphones, or speakers, or computer parts, or cash for another hobby, that dac will be the first thing to go
 
I do have a technical question, the Schiit boy's have stated that D/S dac's are 3-5 bits of resolution, does that mean balanced Jotunheim is 6-10 bits because of it's balanced design? I don't get to hung up on bits, as there's a point of diminishing returns/no returns, maybe around 14 bit, maybe less. That's why you can't tell a difference between 16/44 and 24/96, or 32/192
 
Edit** many 24/96 recordings are execeptionally good, because they were designed to be "hi fi" 24/96, close attention was paid to the recording/mixing. This has nothing to do with 24/96 or 16/44 and everything to do with the recording. Some recording's are just really well done, i've heard good recording's on 128 KB MP3's that sound better then FLAC's that are highly compressed and schiit recordings.
 
Furthermore, people need to learn how to EQ. If Jotunheim's not a good match to the HD800 or "Bright phones" just EQ that **** down a bit. We've got really really good parametric EQ's that are available for free, and very powerful/transparent. If your source is a PC, whats the big deal? I get it if your using something else as a source, but on PC there's no excuse.

 

[MWSVette]

Better than Bifrost DAC?

No, but it does not cost $400.00 (DS) or $600.00 (Multibit) either.
 
Biggest advantages for the Bifrost are power supply and potential to upgrade with the next new great piece of Schiit technology...

 

[MarkF786]

I have a Bifrost Multibit arriving on Tuesday, so I'll weigh in later with a comparison with the internal DAC.
 
As I mentioned earlier in the thread, I found the internal DAC generally indistinguishable from the Chord Mojo, which impressed me since I can hear the difference between the Mojo and some lesser DACs.  Granted, this was done in a fairly brief comparison, with the Mojo volume matched to the internal DAC, and A/B'ing them for around a half-hour.  Maybe over a more extended period of time I would perceive a difference.  But I found it inconvenient to use the Mojo with the Jot due to the differences in form factor and power.
 
If the Bifrost does provide a noticeable difference, the combination with the Jot will likely be my end-game DAC and amp.

 

[thyname]

I have a Bifrost Multibit arriving on Tuesday, so I'll weigh in later with a comparison with the internal DAC.

As I mentioned earlier in the thread, I found the internal DAC generally indistinguishable from the Chord Mojo, which impressed me since I can hear the difference between the Mojo and some lesser DACs.  Granted, this was done in a fairly brief comparison, with the Mojo volume matched to the internal DAC, and A/B'ing them for around a half-hour.  Maybe over a more extended period of time I would perceive a difference.  But I found it inconvenient to use the Mojo with the Jot due to the differences in form factor and power.

If the Bifrost does provide a noticeable difference, the combination with the Jot will likely be my end-game DAC and amp.

Please report back here once you get the Bifrost Multibit. Very interested in your experience