[hikaru12]

Rutter, you bought an expensive car and expect to win your first race - that's not how enthusiast hobbies work: It takes time, experience, research, intellectual curiousity and - yup - more money. (<- btw, that's called "negative compounding")

You don't get magic just cause you have the equipment - ask any lady. Not that I'd know. A friend told me that. From Canada. You wouldn't know her.

My first ever Schiit purchase was a Modi 2 and with a random USB cable - worked straight out of the box no problems or sound issues. Even used it with some speakers with the same result. No laptops though. For the most part, at this purchase price I would say it should be plug and play. That doesn't mean it will take all environmental variables out - I had a loud RF problem for the longest time running a long 15' USB cable with extenders picking up inteference like a radio and Rectifier hums in tube amps. Sometimes it's a hit or miss. Rutters should really stop trying to blame Schiit but it could certainly be a bad power supply on the unit not filtering properly. The quickest and cheapest way is to get a GFCI outlet tester for $10 and test for ground - then limiting distances of power cables and separating source cables from power. All the fixes suggested here can be done cheap before investing more money.

I vaguely recall of a noise issue with Jot but I can't recall what it was. It's not a very common occurence and only occured on certain sources I believe.

 

[the finisher]

Nice write up, a couple of thoughts from my listening impressions as a basshead with a Jot, atticus and Eikon using an Eitr/Mimby DAC:

(a.) I'm not a big believer in "silver=bright, copper isn't" - in my experience it comes down to cable geometry / construction that determines the brightness and cables with sliver in them are typically better construction so there's correlation, but it's not causation. I was happy to see that currawong seems to agree with this observation as he's heard a lot more equipment than I have

(b.) I've consistently found toslink to be inferior to good USB (e.g,. the Shiit gen 5 or eitr) and I don't even bother with it anymore

(c.) If you're looking for great coax cable, AQ carbon was a giant improvement over the bluejeans that I was using - i.e, "giant" within the scope of what a digital cable can do

(d.) I haven't found much difference in SE or Bal from the dac so I've held off going Gumby, but I did find difference in a Jot that was on for 24-36 hours (I just leave it on always now), and in a high quality power cable. Shiit claims there's no benefit in the power cable, but boy is my experience different. Upgrading to a simple shielded 14awg pangea eliminated noise. At some point in the future I may try a wireworld aurora or electra ...

So, for me, I'm debating which I should upgrade first: upgrade from the eitr/mimby to an yggy and then later an amp or upgrade from the jot to a decware or ampsandsound and then later an yggy ... hmmm .... trying to decide how much I like the Jot with ZMF dynamics ...

Just get the YGGY! NOW

I agree on the cable thing, really happy with what I have now. And not cheap for sure, but reasonable to me.

Rutter, you bought an expensive car and expect to win your first race - that's not how enthusiast hobbies work: It takes time, experience, research, intellectual curiousity and - yup - more money. (<- btw, that's called "negative compounding")

You don't get magic just cause you have the equipment - ask any lady. Not that I'd know. A friend told me that. From Canada. You wouldn't know her.

I built my system from the main panel to my speakers/headphones. I have spent thousands, and much time doing research, and demoing products. Wiring everything myself, careful placement, careful routing of select cables.

It took awhile to be as happy as I am. I hated my LCD Xs and the LS-50s at first. Turns out I just hate crappy dac's.
After spending a lot more money and time I love them both.
The final addition of the Norne Solvine balanced cable put these X's over the top for me, and this cable costs as much as a Jot. I'd never thought I like headphones this much, never did before.

And Paul McGowan is a real nice guy, his company is top notch, I'd love to try the full on DSD but not in my price range!
I did buy a Stellar GCD from them, I was going to return in the 30 days cause I didn't really love it.
His Son told me to keep it for another 30 days to compare it with Jot/Yggy.
I would definitely do business with PS Audio again, even if Schiit won out on this round.


@rutter Maybe you do have a issue with the Jot, and Schiit will honer their warranty, but have you tried the many suggestions you have been given here?

Your 1 pic has your gear sitting on books, and stacked, I don't do that I keep distance from one piece of gear to the next, Get a small audio rack off Amazon or something. I make sure my PC's are not in a place that they are spraying RF/EMI all over my audio gear.
And good shielded cables or balanced is mandatory when you have a lot of gear in 1 room, just look at any recording studio.

In this hobby the small things add up, do it right and you will be rewarded.

 

[GrussGott]

Just get the YGGY! NOW

 

[the finisher]

I want a pro iCan, but must resist for a good deal/used.

Ohh that Zen Taboo looks very nice. http://www.decware.com/newsite/TABOO.htm

 

[rutter]

Ok - I got a bit of testing in:

TLDR: No change on the USB side. Filtering on the GFCI breaker helped a little with the analog hum but not white noise. Running on the regular breaker sounded better but still had some noise regardless of filtered or non-filtered.

First off - I can say that as Alcophone said, the humming on the RCA input is present pretty much regardless of where I touch the case. Making a second contact point quiets the hum quite a bit. It more or less goes away if the 2nd point of contact is one of the RCA jacks. I also noticed that the hum on the RCA input is there faintly with the volume up high even without touching anything, it just gets much louder as soon as I make contact with the Jotunheim. I also want to reiterate that I do not have a source plugged into the RCA jacks. Anything I could scrounge up over here to plug in would undoubtedly be noisier anyway (NES, C64, Sega Master System, old VCR).

I tried the following configurations with the volume maxed out:

• Outlet on GFCI breaker -> power cable from Schiit = white noise on usb & white noise + hum on RCA
• Outlet on GFCI breaker -> ebtech hum x -> power cable from Schiit = white noise on usb & white noise + reduced but present hum on RCA
  
• Outlet on GFCI breaker -> thicker power cable = white noise on usb & white noise + hum on RCA
• Outlet on GFCI breaker -> ebtech hum x -> thicker power cable -> = white noise on usb & white noise + reduced but present hum on RCA
  
• Outlet on GFCI breaker -> Monster Pro 100 power conditioner on the analog filter side -> thicker power cable = white noise on usb & white noise + greatly reduced but present hum on RCA
• Outlet on GFCI breaker -> Monster Pro 100 power conditioner on the digital filter side -> thicker power cable = white noise on usb & white noise + greatly reduced but present hum on RCA
  
• Outlet on regular breaker -> ebtech hum x -> thicker power cable = white noise on usb & white noise + greatly reduced but present hum on RCA
• Outlet on regular breaker -> Monster Pro 100 power conditioner on the analog filter side -> thicker power cable = white noise on usb & white noise + greatly reduced but present hum on RCA
• Outlet on regular breaker -> Monster Pro 100 power conditioner on the digital filter side -> thicker power cable = white noise on usb & white noise + greatly reduced but present hum on RCA

So my takeaway is that I might want to swap out the breaker my home office is on or use a filter. Either way, there will be a little bit of noise at volumes I won't be using anyway.

Doesn't this cover much of what others are suggesting? Yet some noise is still present whereas they are reporting no noise.

 

[rutter]

I've been googling and reading a little bit about the Bifrost Multibit recently, and I found this comment on Reddit quite notable (it's from four months ago):

"The difference is that they don't recognize how bad the results are and heap praise on them."

Sorta. Lately (as in, sometime last year to the present,) more people on SBAF know and recognize that the Schiit dacs have very high noise floors compared to what they should have. Schiit cuts corners on the analog section (until recently,) and their filter apparently has that effect. However, because of how it sounds on the low end and the resolve people get from it, it ended up being a minor issue to people over there. Personally, that noise floor is why I couldn't bring myself to even get the Gugnir multibit, and, while I think the Mimby is a decent starting option for the kind of sound it does, I think the Mimby/Bimby are not great at all (as they have the worst background of any dac I've heard in that price range.)

While I don't like the CMA400i at all its background noise is at the very end I think and not remotely close to listening level, as well as much quieter. This is with Sonarworks' reduce volume to avoid clipping. If this was solely an environmental issue, anything but the DACs or amps themselves, you'd figure the background noise would be more consistent.

 

[GrussGott]

not remotely close to listening level, as well as much quieter.

I like a little floor noise and my set up is 100% silent without input so it'll probably be years and $5000 before I give a shiit about a "black background". If I cared I might go for soekris or metrum but I love that yggy sound so I probably have to go there next... Or PS Audio DSjr as both are upgradable and DSjr is just a firmware download away from being a new DAC... But I'll likely try the yggy first

 

[AxelCloris]

We've removed some off-topic and personal posts from the thread. Please keep the discussion within the Posting Guidelines. Thanks everyone.

 

[Alcophone]

Looks like the Ebtech Hum X is being sold on Amazon.com for $69.50 right now (usually: $79.00)

 

[the finisher]

I found this quote about this guys experience interesting, and I know this from first hand experience.

First review on the page: https://www.amazon.com/Ebtech-Hum-Ground-Voltage-Filter/dp/B0002E4YI8

" The only solution (before this hum eliminator) I ever found was editing in a purpose-built / purpose-wired studio with expensive electrical precautions taken to ensure a clean electrical grid throughout the studio. "

Lots a gear around has always caused some issues for me, but I have none now.
My Jot performs as cleanly as the many reviews/measurements around the net indicate.

It has a low noise floor, and very low distortion. I love the little Jot.

 

[Th3Drizzl3]

the black jot I have coming as a late fathers day gift (long story the other amp I ordered for him came on time but showed up broken and I couldn't get a replacement in time) will be here today and he said I can hang onto it till this weekend to do some listening and compare it to my older silver one im very curious to see if I hear any difference. im going to listen to both cold when first turned on and then after 24 hours of being left on.

 

[FLTWS]

the black jot I have coming as a late fathers day gift (long story the other amp I ordered for him came on time but showed up broken and I couldn't get a replacement in time) will be here today and he said I can hang onto it till this weekend to do some listening and compare it to my older silver one im very curious to see if I hear any difference. im going to listen to both cold when first turned on and then after 24 hours of being left on.

Interesting. I'd expect no difference in sound, but...

I do like the white lettering on the black finish (for all Schiit products), always felt it looked stylish as opposed to industrial / utilitarian, and easier to read.
But I don't have that many years left to wait for all my Schiit to show up in a black finish (and I like uniformity, when possible, appearance wise).
I'd still be waiting to acquire my first piece of Schiit, LOL!

 

[Th3Drizzl3]

i agree i would like to get all my stuff in black from them, i like the black finish way better personally but id want it all to match so ive been stuck with silver.

 

[GrussGott]

My Jot performs as cleanly as the many reviews/measurements around the net indicate.

It has a low noise floor, and very low distortion. I love the little Jot.

When I first investigated my EMI noise, I played with the line-in of a Bluetooth speaker (ue boom)... If you hold the line in TRS you get the exact loud hum I was getting when I touched the volume knob of the jot. I probably should know why, but i'm guessing some type of antenna effect from closing a circuit, i. E., I'm wearing the headphones, through the jot, through the volume pot, back through me.

So I figured (wrongly?) some type of grounding issue with EMI not being shunted to ground - it would be great to know why, but now after efforts from previous posts it's totally gone.

BTW, where the heck is Nearfield?

 

[the finisher]

It's where I'm sitting right now, I do about 75% of my listening on speakers

the black jot I have coming as a late fathers day gift (long story the other amp I ordered for him came on time but showed up broken and I couldn't get a replacement in time) will be here today and he said I can hang onto it till this weekend to do some listening and compare it to my older silver one im very curious to see if I hear any difference. im going to listen to both cold when first turned on and then after 24 hours of being left on.

I have one of the newer black Jot's, interested in your findings.

My only bitch about the Jot is a bit of channel imbalance just off the bottom it's below a level that I would ever listen, I only notice on HP's.
In Jude's initial review he specifically said there was none of that, even with sensitive IEM's.
Mine is not like that, but perfect otherwise.