[Th3Drizzl3]

my silver one has the tiniest bit of imbalance but only at the very lowest of volume on the dial once I up even a bit it evens out. ill test the black one soon. my wife told me fedex literally opened our front lanai screen door and tossed the box at the front door which is like 15 ft away i'm very pissed i'm on the way home to check the contents now.

 

[the finisher]

I think this is normal, Jude just got a golden volume pot.

I have no real issue with this.

Wow, those idiots I just had to reship a portable AC cause UPS dropped it out the back of the truck!

 

[Dnguyen926]

A quick question for all the Jot owners out there. Has anyone tried preamping the Jot with a tube amp or the Saga? I love my Jot but sometimes it can be a little too much and I heard that the Jot paired with the Saga is a pretty good combo. While I also heard that the Saga was pretty neutral because it's just a preamp therefore it shouldn't change the signature of the Jot. So, would it be a good ideal to actually preamp the Jot with a tube hybrid or tube amp to tone it down and give its signature a bit of that tubey goodness?

 

[Tuneslover]

A quick question for all the Jot owners out there. Has anyone tried preamping the Jot with a tube amp or the Saga? I love my Jot but sometimes it can be a little too much and I heard that the Jot paired with the Saga is a pretty good combo. While I also heard that the Saga was pretty neutral because it's just a preamp therefore it shouldn't change the signature of the Jot. So, would it be a good ideal to actually preamp the Jot with a tube hybrid or tube amp to tone it down and give its signature a bit of that tubey goodness?

I used my Vali 2 as a preamp for my Jot a while back but I didn't care for it because it changed the sound of the Jot too much. Perhaps I would have preferred the Saga but the bottom line is that I like my Jot just the way it is. Experimenting is fun though.

 

[GrussGott]

A quick question for all the Jot owners out there. Has anyone tried preamping the Jot with a tube amp or the Saga? I love my Jot but sometimes it can be a little too much and I heard that the Jot paired with the Saga is a pretty good combo. While I also heard that the Saga was pretty neutral because it's just a preamp therefore it shouldn't change the signature of the Jot. So, would it be a good ideal to actually preamp the Jot with a tube hybrid or tube amp to tone it down and give its signature a bit of that tubey goodness?

I've considered going the "sagenheim" route as well, but after release of the Lyr 3, I think I'd just go that route, or maybe a Project Ember or Horizon as it's the same price (a bit more for the lyr) and you get more options.

 

[Th3Drizzl3]

so the black jot is here and he is picking it up from me on Monday so I have two days of back and forth to compare old to new. just from my first 30 mins I am almost positive this much newer one is almost a bit more "polite" then my old one. I'm going to take lots of notes tomm and get a good solid few hours in but unless I'm crazy it does actually sound a bit smoother up top I have a good few pairs to test with that are brighter headphones. ill also note the black one has a small amount of imbalance also actually a hair more then the silver one which was Interesting to me.

 

[the finisher]

Well your observations about the volume pot don't surprise me. I still don't care as I will never use IEM with this amp.

If your observations are true I feel a bit vindicated on my opinion of the smoothness I hear in my Jot.
I'll mention again, I never turn it off. And the Focals are a unforgiving tool of a speaker.

 

[Th3Drizzl3]

so i spent just about 3 hours tonight going back and forth to finish my thoughts up there were 6 different headphones used for the listening. i did both a "cold" test yesterday from a turned off state both amps freshly turned on and then i left them both on overnight and listened again tonight. with the two amps i have here there IS a difference both cold and warmed up. the silver one just seemed more "solid state". its a bit colder up top more sterile in a way, brighter (not by a ton) and a bit more in your face. the black one was just a bit less "solid state" it was a bit more polite, highs were just a bit more mellow. one weird thing is it seemed more spacious. hard to put into words exactly. like there was a bit more depth. now when both warmed up for the night and most of day two the differences were less BUT still there. note my silver one is from just a couple months after they introduced the amp. i was correct the imbalance is a bit more on the black one. i went ahead and thought maybe there was a difference inside. so i opened both. i dont see any difference. layout is the same board rev and model is the same. so why the difference?? im wondering if possibly the parts sourced possibly have changed slightly. now what i mean is not that they are using different parts but possibly a variance right from those manufactures. like when they say +- 5% etc maybe tighter or looser tolerance? or even in the actual boards who knows. but i can say for sure at least with the two i have here there is a sound difference. now had i not heard both i would have liked either, but im going to actually now find a new silver one and compare to the old silver one being curious.

 

[the finisher]

 

[ToTo Man]

I don't know if this is the right thread to post this on, but if there are any Jot owners who have blown the amp's output stage could you please contact me by PM. My unit is currently at ElectromodUK awaiting repair, so I'm now down to just the one headphone amp, and as I'm unsure if the fault was user-inflicted I'd welcome other owners advice/experiences so that I can hopefully avoid the same problem in the future. Thanks in advance.

 

[ToTo Man]

On second thoughts maybe I should post it here as it might help others avoid the same problem:

My Jotunheim headphone amp is with the repairer just now and the diagnosis isn't good. Resistors in the output stage, along with the output stage itself are all toasted, so a complete new board will need to be ordered in and installed.

I'm not quite sure how it happened TBH, but the repairer suspects dodgy wiring either in the headphones or headphone extension cable I was using at the time the fault occurred.

Let me run through the chain of events:

- I bought the used Jot in April and worked fine until the day I toasted it.

- In May I had a 6.3mm male to 6.3mm female single-ended extension cable and a 4XLR male to 4XLR female balanced extension cable made to order, to allow me to more easily connect/disconnect my headphones.

- I mainly use the amp's 4XLR output, so the 4XLR extension cable gets the most use. However I do use the 6.3mm extension cable with my Focal Utopia, and I also tried the Audio Technica ATH-ADX5000 on it, and there were no problems with either.

- Last week I got a pair of Sennheiser HD660S on home demo. Played them for a few hours on the Jotunheim via the 6.3mm single ended extension cable, no obvious problems. Did the same the next day, again no obvious problems. Played them for longer on day 3 but didn't actually listen to them as they played, just left them to 'burn in' whilst I went about my other business. Came back later that evening and found that my metaphorical 'burning in' the headphones was literally burning out my headphone amp! I'm embarrassed to admit it took me a further hour to realise this, as I initially thought the antiseptic/chemical odour was wafting in from outdoors (I had the windows open at the time). Once I realised it was the amp I powered it off straight away, but the damage had obviously long been done by then. The entire chassis of the amp was too hot to keep your hand on for more than a couple of seconds.

As I said above, the amp is currently with its repairer. However I am still in possession of the headphones and my extension cable, which I am understandably hesitant to connect to my other headphone amp in case I end up toasting that too!

I'd be grateful for advice on how to troubleshoot the source of problem. e.g. is there a way to test the wiring of my extension cable with a basic multimeter to see if there's a short somewhere? I've unscrewed the female REAN 6.3mm socket covering to visually inspect the wiring but it's smothered in so much hot melt glue it's difficult to the connections properly.

 

[sup27606]

On second thoughts maybe I should post it here as it might help others avoid the same problem:

My Jotunheim headphone amp is with the repairer just now and the diagnosis isn't good. Resistors in the output stage, along with the output stage itself are all toasted, so a complete new board will need to be ordered in and installed.

I'm not quite sure how it happened TBH, but the repairer suspects dodgy wiring either in the headphones or headphone extension cable I was using at the time the fault occurred.

Let me run through the chain of events:

- I bought the used Jot in April and worked fine until the day I toasted it.

- In May I had a 6.3mm male to 6.3mm female single-ended extension cable and a 4XLR male to 4XLR female balanced extension cable made to order, to allow me to more easily connect/disconnect my headphones.

- I mainly use the amp's 4XLR output, so the 4XLR extension cable gets the most use. However I do use the 6.3mm extension cable with my Focal Utopia, and I also tried the Audio Technica ATH-ADX5000 on it, and there were no problems with either.

- Last week I got a pair of Sennheiser HD660S on home demo. Played them for a few hours on the Jotunheim via the 6.3mm single ended extension cable, no obvious problems. Did the same the next day, again no obvious problems. Played them for longer on day 3 but didn't actually listen to them as they played, just left them to 'burn in' whilst I went about my other business. Came back later that evening and found that my metaphorical 'burning in' the headphones was literally burning out my headphone amp! I'm embarrassed to admit it took me a further hour to realise this, as I initially thought the antiseptic/chemical odour was wafting in from outdoors (I had the windows open at the time). Once I realised it was the amp I powered it off straight away, but the damage had obviously long been done by then. The entire chassis of the amp was too hot to keep your hand on for more than a couple of seconds.

As I said above, the amp is currently with its repairer. However I am still in possession of the headphones and my extension cable, which I am understandably hesitant to connect to my other headphone amp in case I end up toasting that too!

I'd be grateful for advice on how to troubleshoot the source of problem. e.g. is there a way to test the wiring of my extension cable with a basic multimeter to see if there's a short somewhere? I've unscrewed the female REAN 6.3mm socket covering to visually inspect the wiring but it's smothered in so much hot melt glue it's difficult to the connections properly.

Sorry for what happened. Looks like, your 6.3 mm extension cable female end had a loose connection from bad soldering. It worked for a while and then dislodged and shorted the other wire while you were away. I suspect its the female end, because if it was the male end, you will see melting there instead. You were lucky there wasn't a fire in your room. Unfortunately, there is no protection in the amp (don't know of any amp that does) for drawing excessive current. However, I am not an expert.

Jot's output impedance is pretty low (<0.1 ohms), which would have helped with the overheating.

 

[ToTo Man]

Sorry for what happened. Looks like, your 6.3 mm extension cable female end had a loose connection from bad soldering. It worked for a while and then dislodged and shorted the other wire while you were away. I suspect its the female end, because if it was the male end, you will see melting there instead. You were lucky there wasn't a fire in your room. Unfortunately, there is no protection in the amp (don't know of any amp that does) for drawing excessive current. However, I am not an expert.

Jot's output impedance is pretty low (<0.1 ohms), which would have helped with the overheating.

I suppose a loose connection in my 6.3mm extension cable is possible, but I think it's unlikely, because having unscrewed the metal REAN jacket on the female end and inspected the wiring, the solder connections are all solid and are held firmly in place with hot melt glue.

 

[the finisher]

This is curious, will you ever find the cause?

 

[sup27606]

I suppose a loose connection in my 6.3mm extension cable is possible, but I think it's unlikely, because having unscrewed the metal REAN jacket on the female end and inspected the wiring, the solder connections are all solid and are held firmly in place with hot melt glue.

Hmmm... that’s interesting. If you see the melting occurred only at the female end and not at the male end, or in the headphone cable itself (I assume your headphones are working fine), it suggests that this was the point of shorting which could have caused an arc leading to the melting. Besides a loose connection, another possibility is, the soldering was so thick in the three wires, that one of them ended up touching the other causing the shorting, or a piece of solder broke loose creating a connection. Just a guess.

Perhaps you can post a picture of the melted connector so that people who have experience can come up with something? There’s also a dedicated DIY forum where you can ask to get more help.