[Triggaaar]

After only 4 hours of use, I'm probably sending my Jot with DAC module back. It's a quality product, but just not what I'm looking for. If anyone wants mine let me know soon.

I can see your location is the same as mine, so I'm up for trying it out

 

[Shembot]

I am thinking about the Jotunheim or the Mjolnir 2. Not sure of the sound differences between the two. Has anyone heard both or own both?

I own both and did an extensive test tonight with my LCD-4 of Mjolnir 2 with nice vintage tubes vs. Jotunheim vs. Mjolnir 2 with LiSST. The test was with a variety of music genres (classical, dance, blues rock, metal) using my Gungnir Multibit as DAC. Source was Tidal, 16 bit/44.1 kHz FLAC, played through Audirvana Plus on my iMac (Late 2014 Retina 5K 27") with Cabledyne Silver Reference cables, Wyrd, and an AudioQuest JitterBug.
 
Before I give you the results, please note that this is only my opinion; I'm biased, like everyone else, and I haven't heard everything in the world.
 
Mjolnir 2 with tubes > Jotunheim > Mjolnir 2 with LiSST.
 
To my ear, Mjolnir 2 with tubes was the most exciting, had the best separation and imaging, presented the largest soundstage, and was slightly more resolving in all but the top end (where Jotunheim shines, in my opinion). 
 
Jotunheim sounded very neutral to me and had a pleasantly detailed and shimmering high end that I enjoyed. I found it to be more resolving and to have a blacker background than Mjolnir 2 with LiSST while presenting similar imaging and soundstage. Compared to Mjolnir 2 with tubes, though, the soundstage was noticeably smaller and the imaging less precise, and the overall experience was less engaging.
 
Mjolnir 2 with LiSST was very similar to Jotunheim but with slightly less resolution, slightly less black background, and slightly less high-end presence, which probably contributed to what seemed like slightly less overall detail and separation. This is consistent with my prior opinion of Mjolnir 2 with LiSST compared to tubes; even with the Schiit-supplied stock tubes, Mjolnir 2 just sounds significantly better to me with tubes than it does with LiSST (and I have no particular preference toward either solid state or tubes in general).
 
BONUS: I also compared Gungnir Multibit to Jotunheim's DAC card, on a lark. I actually laughed out loud at how much better Gungnir Multibit sounded to me. It wasn't even remotely close. Of course, one might expect this to be the case. This is not a criticism of Jotunheim's DAC necessarily, though, as it's not a fair contest and I haven't compared it to anything else.
 
Again, this is only my opinion; I'm biased, like everyone else, and I haven't heard everything in the world.

 

[Voxata]

Define nice vintage tubes

 

[mwhals]

Shembot

Thanks. What tubes did you have in the Mjolnir 2? Stock or other?

 

[Shembot]

Voxata mwhals '74 Reflektor SWGP Silver Shields

 

[MWSVette]

@Voxata @mwhals '74 Reflektor SWGP Silver Shields

Agreed those are nice tubes...

 

[frankietown]

Really random question guys
 
For the Jotunheim, even if it is off it says "Schiit USB Gen 2" in the play devices on Windows 10. I guess is that normal behavior? When I had the Modi2, when I turned it off, it went away.
 
Thank you

 

[mwhals]

Really random question guys

For the Jotunheim, even if it is off it says "Schiit USB Gen 2" in the play devices on Windows 10. I guess is that normal behavior? When I had the Modi2, when I turned it off, it went away.

Thank you

I assume you are using the Jotunheim built in DAC. The USB input is powered by the computer's USB port, so there is power to it even if the Jotunheim is off.

 

[Kcharng]

Jot dac is usb powered. Only the amp section is powered through electrical socket

Sent from my SM-N920C using Tapatalk

 

[mattlach]

Really random question guys

For the Jotunheim, even if it is off it says "Schiit USB Gen 2" in the play devices on Windows 10. I guess is that normal behavior? When I had the Modi2, when I turned it off, it went away.

Thank you

As has been mentioned above, the DAC is powered over the USB, in order to keep the power separated from the analogue amp, this reducing noise.

Schiit had always been opposed to combining DAC's and amps because of this noise problem, and this is how they went about solving it.

So, regardless of which position the power switch is in, the DAC board is always powered on if plugged in to a PC with power.

 

[olor1n]

Wrong. The Jotunheim's DAC board is not USB powered. It is only the USB input that's USB powered.

 

[mwhals]

Wrong. The Jotunheim's DAC board is not USB powered. It is only the USB input that's USB powered.

This is true and what I posted above.

 

[Baldr]

   
And yet if you go into professional recording studios, you see balanced + DS/SD everywhere.
 
Which group would you rate more highly in terms of their expertise?

Brought to you by folks too often in support of visually attractive singers whose ability to show their stuff dramatically is only exceeded by their need for autotune to mask their hopeless lack of musical/singing talent.  The worse the average musical caliber of performer, the less the requirement for brilliance in recording ability.

 

[parttimelovah]

the internal struggle on if going jot specifically for the balanced dac is worth it

 

[watchnerd]

 
Brought to you by folks too often in support of visually attractive singers whose ability to show their stuff dramatically is only exceeded by their need for autotune to mask their hopeless lack of musical/singing talent.  The worse the average musical caliber of performer, the less the requirement for brilliance in recording ability.

 
If convincing studios to switch to R2R ADCs will kill autotune and stop Justin Bieber, sign me up.