acguitar84
100+ Head-Fier
Early impressions of Jotunheim. It's a pretty neat looking gadget! It's sort of heavy, which makes sense for an amp of course! I got it delivered to my office first. I'm at work, so I'm trying it here first, then I'll take it home for the 3 day weekend and try it against my other stuff, such as the Wa7 Fireflies and it's DAC, the concero HD, and of course, my trusty Mimby Multibit.
I have it hooked into my speaker system right now, listening to .flac files. I was using a mackie 802VLZ4 mixer and the m audio 24/96 sound card feeding it with RCA cords, and using balanced XLR cords to the powered monitors. It sounds just barely ok in that format. When I brought the mimby out and used it, of course it smoked the m audio easily, no contest.
The Dac (I ordered the DAC with the Jotunheim), doesn't smoke the M audio near as much, but still does. It's still clearer and there's more tone. It makes me miss multibit though. Then again, I knew what I was getting into with this DAC, it's only 100 bucks, I didn't figure they'd stick the equivalent of the Yggy in there, lol, or even the mimby. It's definitely usable. Just like I figured, a "pinch hitter" in times of crisis, the bigger DAC goes out for service/update, ect.
Other than that, the amp seems to be doing it's "job". Then again, all it's doing right now is being a preamp to my speakers. And as such (so far), I'm finding I prefer the low power switch over the high power for this task.
I can't wait to see how this does as a headphone amp, but that will have to wait until I'm home. I saw some post on another site saying the Jotunheim was comparing favorably with his Eddie Current Zana Deux Super. Seems crazy? The Jotunheim seems punchy, even as a preamp. Gosh. I wish I had the mimby out here to see how it would sound with the mimby driving it. I bet pretty damn good.
I just have to figure out if it's worth replacing my mixers, and I'm not so sure about that. I thought about having at least two Jotunheims for my desktop rigs, since they're fully balanced. Buy a gumby or even a yggy to feed them a great DAC (and balanced, not SE RCA) signal, and also have a really nice headphone amp at each rig (desk) if needed. The mixers are nice, if I want to use them for transcribing, but I usually transcribe with the speakers, not with headphones. If it's tough to get, maybe, but I transcribe so much and have for so many years it's gotten easier. Still kicks my butt once in a while though.
Anyway, so far so good. Can't wait to see the comparisons at home, with all of the gear available. So far though, as my DAC's go, I think it's sort of like this: M Audio < Wa7 Fireflies DAC < Jotunheim DAC < Concero HD < Mimby (easily the champ).
Wa7 Fireflies vs Jotunheim awaits at home, not to mention hearing it with the different DAC's.
I'm so glad I own Mimby!
I have it hooked into my speaker system right now, listening to .flac files. I was using a mackie 802VLZ4 mixer and the m audio 24/96 sound card feeding it with RCA cords, and using balanced XLR cords to the powered monitors. It sounds just barely ok in that format. When I brought the mimby out and used it, of course it smoked the m audio easily, no contest.
The Dac (I ordered the DAC with the Jotunheim), doesn't smoke the M audio near as much, but still does. It's still clearer and there's more tone. It makes me miss multibit though. Then again, I knew what I was getting into with this DAC, it's only 100 bucks, I didn't figure they'd stick the equivalent of the Yggy in there, lol, or even the mimby. It's definitely usable. Just like I figured, a "pinch hitter" in times of crisis, the bigger DAC goes out for service/update, ect.
Other than that, the amp seems to be doing it's "job". Then again, all it's doing right now is being a preamp to my speakers. And as such (so far), I'm finding I prefer the low power switch over the high power for this task.
I can't wait to see how this does as a headphone amp, but that will have to wait until I'm home. I saw some post on another site saying the Jotunheim was comparing favorably with his Eddie Current Zana Deux Super. Seems crazy? The Jotunheim seems punchy, even as a preamp. Gosh. I wish I had the mimby out here to see how it would sound with the mimby driving it. I bet pretty damn good.
I just have to figure out if it's worth replacing my mixers, and I'm not so sure about that. I thought about having at least two Jotunheims for my desktop rigs, since they're fully balanced. Buy a gumby or even a yggy to feed them a great DAC (and balanced, not SE RCA) signal, and also have a really nice headphone amp at each rig (desk) if needed. The mixers are nice, if I want to use them for transcribing, but I usually transcribe with the speakers, not with headphones. If it's tough to get, maybe, but I transcribe so much and have for so many years it's gotten easier. Still kicks my butt once in a while though.
Anyway, so far so good. Can't wait to see the comparisons at home, with all of the gear available. So far though, as my DAC's go, I think it's sort of like this: M Audio < Wa7 Fireflies DAC < Jotunheim DAC < Concero HD < Mimby (easily the champ).
Wa7 Fireflies vs Jotunheim awaits at home, not to mention hearing it with the different DAC's.
I'm so glad I own Mimby!
