[Triggaaar]

  - I will use the single ended cable for now (maybe in the future I will buy a balance cord - not sure).
-  I want the Jot or the NFB-11 for the combination of AMP+DAC

Well firstly, I've heard neither - but I have read a lot
 
If you want balanced, the Jot is your only choice.
The DAC is the weak part of the Jot - if you want Amp and DAC, every comparison I've seen suggests the NFB-11 is the better choice.

 

[jmc15john]

Got my Jotunheim on Friday afternoon.  Had it shipped to the office though so I didn't get to plug it in until this morning.  Sounds great so far, but I haven't really had much time to listen.  Just ordered a male XLR jack I'm going to solder onto my stock LCD-2 cables to make then balanced.  I really like the black, it matches everything else on my desk.  
 

 

 

[Ancipital]

 I really like the black, it matches everything else on my desk.  
 

 

 
I love the black, it makes the knob look huge! *swoon*

 

[Triggaaar]

   
I love the black, it makes the knob look huge! *swoon*

The wide angle might have something to do with it

 

[Razor1991]

 
Well firstly, I've heard neither - but I have read a lot
 
If you want balanced, the Jot is your only choice.
The DAC is the weak part of the Jot - if you want Amp and DAC, every comparison I've seen suggests the NFB-11 is the better choice.

I don't care about the balance input for now

 

[mattlach]

For DT770 80ohm and HD650, should I go with the Jot or NFB-11?

The truth is, no one can tell you what will sound best to you.

That being said, I have the DT770 Pro's and a set of HD6xx's (the Massdrop hd650 version) and I recently went with a Jotunheim and am very happy with it.

The Jotunheim is a bloody amazing amp for it price. I don't have the DAC in mine though as I already had a Modi Multibit.

I don't understand why everyone seems so obsessed about having everything in the same box, when mixing and matching and getting the best of both worlds is so much better.

The Modi Multibit ---single ended---> Jotunheim sounds great on my DT770's and on my HD650's connected both via single ended TRS and balanced XLR.

I think it is a fantastic combo, but I have never heard an NFB product, so I can't make a direct comparison.

What I can say though, is the Modi Multibit at $249 costs only $150 more than the built in DAC and absolutely blows away any other DAC at its price, or even double it's price. Yes. It's that good.

 

[Voxata]

I've used 650 and 770 balanced on Jot, very nice sounding.

 

[franzdom]

  Got my Jotunheim on Friday afternoon.  Had it shipped to the office though so I didn't get to plug it in until this morning.  Sounds great so far, but I haven't really had much time to listen.  Just ordered a male XLR jack I'm going to solder onto my stock LCD-2 cables to make then balanced.  I really like the black, it matches everything else on my desk.  
 

 

 
 
That looks really really good!

 

[watchnerd]

 
Well firstly, I've heard neither - but I have read a lot
 
If you want balanced, the Jot is your only choice.
The DAC is the weak part of the Jot - if you want Amp and DAC, every comparison I've seen suggests the NFB-11 is the better choice.

 
I would highly question the assertion that the DAC is the weak part of the Jot.
 
It's the same chipset as in the Bifrost, but running in balanced configuration.  And the analog section of the Jotunheim is superior to the analog section of any of the standalone Schiit DACs below the Gungnir.
 
The only thing it's lacking is a multitude of input choices.

 

[MWSVette]

   
I would highly question the assertion that the DAC is the weak part of the Jot.
 
It's the same chipset as in the Bifrost, but running in balanced configuration.  And the analog section of the Jotunheim is superior to the analog section of any of the standalone Schiit DACs below the Gungnir.
 
The only thing it's lacking is a multitude of input choices.

 
I agree 100% with this.
 
Where else can you get a fully balanced DAC using 2 AK4490 chips for $100.00???? 

 

 

[Triggaaar]

The truth is, no one can tell you what will sound best to you.

...

The Jotunheim is a bloody amazing amp for it price. I don't have the DAC in mine though as I already had a Modi Multibit.

I don't understand why everyone seems so obsessed about having everything in the same box, when mixing and matching and getting the best of both worlds is so much better.


What I can say though, is the Modi Multibit at $249 costs only $150 more than the built in DAC and absolutely blows away any other DAC at its price, or even double it's price. Yes. It's that good.
 

The truth is that most of us can't audition all the products we're considering, so people have to others an idea opinion of what best. The Audio-GD NFB11 is $325, that's a huge amount less than the Jot & Multibit.
 
The Multibit is something I'd consider getting. Are there any DACs at a similar price that you've been able to compare it to?

 

[watchnerd]

  The truth is that most of us can't audition all the products we're considering, so people have to others an idea opinion of what best. The Audio-GD NFB11 is $325, that's a huge amount less than the Jot & Multibit.
 
The Multibit is something I'd consider getting. Are there any DACs at a similar price that you've been able to compare it to?

 
You're comparing Apples vs Oranges by comparing an ESS-based DS DAC vs multibit.
 
The more apt comparison is NFB11 vs Jotunheim + built in DAC.  In that scenario, for $175 more you get a true balanced DS DAC with a more sophisticated analog stage than the NFB11.

 

[Triggaaar]

   
You're comparing Apples vs Oranges by comparing an ESS-based DS DAC vs multibit.
 
The more apt comparison is NFB11 vs Jotunheim + built in DAC.  In that scenario, for $175 more you get a true balanced DS DAC with a more sophisticated analog stage than the NFB11.

I wasn't comparing the quality of the NFB11 to the Jot and Multibit. Razor said he wanted either the Jot inc DAC, or the NFB-11, as he wanted the combination of AMP&DAC. Mattlach mentioned the Jot with Multibit being good, and I simply said that's a lot more expensive than the NFB11 - ie, it wasn't what Razor was looking for, it's not the same budget.
 
NFB-11 vs Jot and built in DAC is what I was comparing. And I've seen people suggest the NFB-11 is better (single ended) and cheaper, but I've not seen anyone say the Jot is better.

 

[Razor1991]

The truth is, no one can tell you what will sound best to you.

That being said, I have the DT770 Pro's and a set of HD6xx's (the Massdrop hd650 version) and I recently went with a Jotunheim and am very happy with it.

The Jotunheim is a bloody amazing amp for it price. I don't have the DAC in mine though as I already had a Modi Multibit.

I don't understand why everyone seems so obsessed about having everything in the same box, when mixing and matching and getting the best of both worlds is so much better.

The Modi Multibit ---single ended---> Jotunheim sounds great on my DT770's and on my HD650's connected both via single ended TRS and balanced XLR.

I think it is a fantastic combo, but I have never heard an NFB product, so I can't make a direct comparison.

What I can say though, is the Modi Multibit at $249 costs only $150 more than the built in DAC and absolutely blows away any other DAC at its price, or even double it's price. Yes. It's that good.

 

Thank you for the opinion! that's really important to me.
You created custom cable for the DT770 Pro (250ohm ? btw) to get a balance connection?

 

[mattlach]

  Thank you for the opinion! that's really important to me.
You created custom cable for the DT770 Pro (250ohm ? btw) to get a balance connection?

 
No, sorry if I was unclear.   I have soldered a cable for the HD6xx's but not yet for the DT770's.  I'm planning on doing it, and I already have the parts, but it's a much more involved operation because unlike the Sennheiser cable which has 4 wires all the way up to the headphones and into speaker elements, and just combines the the left and right minus into a combined ground in the stock connector to make it single ended, the DT770 Pro's are three wires all the way from the plug up to the headphones, and only inside the headphones does the combined ground split up and go to each speaker element.
 
So, in order to convert the DT770's you have to open them up, desolder and remove the original cable, and replace it with a 4 wire cable with an XLR xonnector and then rewire the inside of the headphones.
 
It's certainly doable, but takes more time and fine motor skills with the soldering iron.
 
I decided to postpone doing this, because I recently had surgery and am on crutches.  I thought I could do it, but judging by how unsteady my hands were when I did the easy HD650 conversion, I have decided to wait to mod the DT770's until after I recover.
 
And yes, the DT770 Pro's come in many different impedances.  32ohm, 80ohm, 250ohm and I think they even had a 600ohm version at one point.  Not sure if it is still sold.