[earnmyturns]

  However, I can definitely see why some prefer HD650 since they soothe the highs a little bit, allowing perhaps for higher volumes for longer periods of time... And I really enjoy HIGH volume, and whilst I wouldn't describe HD600 being fatiguing, the clarity of these makes me want something just a little, little more darker/soothed treble on higher volume. 

Just a thought: when you find the high-frequencies fatiguing at high volume, it may be your inner ear and brain telling you that you are hurting your inner ear with overly loud sound. High-frequency hearing falls off with age anyway, you don't want to make it go away faster by damaging the very delicate inner ear with overly loud sound.

 

[Soundofmusic]

M1060 lcd2 killer at 1/3 the price!

I've read some reviews describing them as slightly bright? And they seem to have problems with the wooden cups cracking.

 

[RCBinTN]

  Thanks everyone for the replies! Very interesting headphones you gave advice on! The reason I am perhaps a tad hesitant on neutral-bright headphones is because listening to my friends HD600 with Mimby+JOT (XLR), the details and impact of instruments are incredible. However, I can definitely see why some prefer HD650 since they soothe the highs a little bit, allowing perhaps for higher volumes for longer periods of time... And I really enjoy HIGH volume, and whilst I wouldn't describe HD600 being fatiguing, the clarity of these makes me want something just a little, little more darker/soothed treble on higher volume. 
 
I can of course see many enjoying Jot with headphones that aren't "dark". Factors like how sensitive we are to certain frequencies and what kind of music we listen to are very important. In me and my friends case, distorted guitars and crashing cymbals are part of our daily musical food.

 
Just a thought, you may be able to acquire the LCD-X on the Head-Fi forum for around $700-1000.  The X, as well as the LCD-2, benefit from a brighter amplifier that's got power, like the Jot.
Good luck with the search!
 
Cheers,
RCB
 
ps. Matt has so much experience and good advice...a trusted source for me over the years!  

 

[pephurdur]

  Just a thought: when you find the high-frequencies fatiguing at high volume, it may be your inner ear and brain telling you that you are hurting your inner ear with overly loud sound. High-frequency hearing falls off with age anyway, you don't want to make it go away faster by damaging the very delicate inner ear with overly loud sound.

My apologies. "High volume" isn't exactly true and I shouldn't phrase it that way with afterthought. I think I can definitely tell when volume becomes too high. Louder volume levels is more correct (doesn't everyone like that to be honest...?), but then again, I think what I'm craving is something smoother/warmer/darker with Jotunheim than what the HD600 brings to the table at my volume level. A little hard to describe since I'm just an amateur and no "audiophile" by any means. Thanks for the input though! 
 
 
 

   
Just a thought, you may be able to acquire the LCD-X on the Head-Fi forum for around $700-1000.  The X, as well as the LCD-2, benefit from a brighter amplifier that's got power, like the Jot.
Good luck with the search!
 
Cheers,
RCB
 
ps. Matt has so much experience and good advice...a trusted source for me over the years!  

 
Thanks! I will keep my eyes open. 

 

[MikeW]

More time listening to the Jot's internal dac with the W4S Recovery in line, it makes me wonder if this implementation is particularly vulnerable to GND Noise and /or dirty usb power. There is such a large difference with this device, it seems like too much. Im really enjoying the JOT's Dac with Recovery. I like it better then my Teradack Chameleon even, witch also saw improvements with the Recovery, but much less so.
 
With regards to JOT synergy, im sure it will sound excellent with any headphone, once you EQ out the headphones specific problem area's, like the HD800's piercing high's. Little Parametric EQ go's a long way, and it's free!
 
This one's my favorite, and I especially enjoy the crossfeed.
 
http://mathaudio.com/
 
For reference, im using Power conditioner's (PS Audio Duet) , a high end PC, with quality parts(Seasonic X650 PSU), and balanced cables to my LSR305's, with balanced Headphone cable to my D2K, and Foobar, Belkin Gold USB cables, all my gear/settings/power are pretty "solid". Despite all that, the Recovery makes a big difference.
 
Schitt should make a Wyrd 2.0, with more emphasis on the reclocker, put a FemtoClock in it, and galvanic isolation too, and for good measure a built in LPS! , an Intona + Recovery +LPS in one box, they could call it.....
 
Dingleberry

 

[olor1n]

I owned the UpTone USB Regen when my Jot with DAC first arrived. The Regen worked wonders with my previous DAC but I couldn't confidently say it did the same for the Jot's DAC. I figured the Jot's DAC was the limiting factor.

I do however, notice a difference between feeding the Jot from my Macbook's USB or from my iPad mini 2 via CCK USB cable. iPad as source is noticeably smoother. My Macbook's USB is a tad gritty and slightly fatiguing in comparison.

I leave my Jot powered on too. It certainly sounds better than when listening to it after no warm up but it also seems more effortless even compared to when its clocked a few hours warm up.

 

[Traum]

Given the USB jitter complains, I wonder if Jason would be able to find room for a S/PDIF input in addition / in place of the USB plug in a future revision...

 

[MarkF786]

Given the USB jitter complains, I wonder if Jason would be able to find room for a S/PDIF input in addition / in place of the USB plug in a future revision...

In another thread, when recently asked about a S/PDIF card for the Jot, Jason's reply was:
 

It's something we've talked about, but avoided in order to keep the number of stocked variants down.

 

[MarkF786]

My problem with the Jot's USB input is I get intermittent pops that I haven't been able to eliminate despite various troubleshooting - and this is with an iMac, with which I don't have a problem with other DACs.  I thought the problem would go away when I upgraded to a Bimby, but it has the same problem (and they both share the same USB implementation).

 

[Traum]

Ahh... thank you for pointing that out, Mark.

For what it is worth, I would only treat Jason's words as the truth... for the time being. For a very long time, Jason has indicated that they are not a fan of a combined amp / DAC, and look what we have in the form of the Jot now? If they can find a good enough reason to do so -- be it an engineering solution or a business reason -- I'm sure they'll go ahead with it.

 

[earnmyturns]

  My problem with the Jot's USB input is I get intermittent pops that I haven't been able to eliminate despite various troubleshooting - and this is with an iMac, with which I don't have a problem with other DACs.  I thought the problem would go away when I upgraded to a Bimby, but it has the same problem (and they both share the same USB implementation).

The problem is in your source hardware, software, or cabling, I'm afraid. I've had a Bimby and a Jot (and before that an Asgard 2) fed variously by USB or coax, never any pops or other noises. But then my sources have always been small, dedicated ARM-based Linux streamers (sMS-100, Sonicorbiter SE, microRendu) running MPD or Roon software, with a variety of linear or ultracap power supplies, optionally with a USB>S/PDIF converter (Bel Canto mLink). I can't avoid the feeling that much of the angst about USB audio has to do with using general-purpose computers as sources. General-purpose is market-ese for not especially good for anything

 

[olor1n]

  My problem with the Jot's USB input is I get intermittent pops that I haven't been able to eliminate despite various troubleshooting - and this is with an iMac, with which I don't have a problem with other DACs.  I thought the problem would go away when I upgraded to a Bimby, but it has the same problem (and they both share the same USB implementation).

When I owned the original Bifrost and Gungnir audio would sometimes degrade to distorted, static screeching. No such issues with other DACs I've owned.

 

[earnmyturns]

  Schitt should make a Wyrd 2.0, with more emphasis on the reclocker, put a FemtoClock in it, and galvanic isolation too, and for good measure a built in LPS! , an Intona + Recovery +LPS in one box, they could call it.....

In another Schiit thread one of the principals has been suggesting that something interesting may be hatching in this space, although if you use "galvanic isolation" in relation to it you might get excommunicated 

 My guess, FWIW, is that Schiit multibit DACs are already pretty good to excellent on the signal regeneration front, what's needed is a better way of rejecting electrical noise traveling down the USB cable. What's difficult there is that it's not straightforward to distinguish signal (higher frequencies in the waveform encoding the music bitstream) from noise (high-frequency stray currents from source power and signal circuitry). But there are some hints...

 

[earnmyturns]

 
When I owned the original Bifrost and Gungnir audio would sometimes degrade to distorted, static screeching. No such issues with other DACs I've owned.

The Schiit DACs I own (Yggy and Bimby) are somewhat susceptible to getting confused by plugging and unplugging connectors while they are on, or by too-fast switches between sampling rates from the source. When confused, they treat the source bitstream incorrectly, hence distortion & screeching. Is easily cured by a simple power cycle, and good operating practice. Happened maybe a couple of times with each of my units in situations where I messed up switching connections around.

 

[MarkF786]

  The problem is in your source hardware, software, or cabling...

 
I noticed you have a career in comp sci, so I'm sure you're familiar with troubleshooting; it's a skill I've excelled at in my own long career in the field.
 
I've repeatedly been trying to troubleshoot this problem, adjusting many different variables to try eliminating the issue, and the one consistent factor is the Schiit's USB Gen 2 interface on both the Jot & Bimby.  Changing any other variable doesn't fix the problem, but if I switch to another USB DAC (four others that I have on hand, and others in the past) the problem doesn't occur.  So granted, the root cause may very well be a combination of factors, part of which could be something unique in my setup (which is pretty darn vanilla, being an iMac), but there's no denying that Schiit's USB implementation is a factor.