[Ojisan]

  Hi Gino,
I just took a look at your profile and noticed that you have a few higher impedance headphones, I would suggest a hybrid tube amp for those over the Jot only because you can tune the sound to your liking.  The thing with neutural/realism/natural is its hard to say since what is neutral/natural to you may not be to me and I find that its something not worth bothering with as long as it sounds good to me, or as you say "the right recordings".  I don't strive for the best or consider things like "HD800 is upgrade to HD600 "since to me there is no best sound signature, just different flavors, as in wine, woman and song.
My idea of what is sounds comes from being a musician from middle school until I graduated from college, I used to play a trumpet, guitar (acoustic/electric) and ukulele (Hawaiian instrument-like a small 4 string guitar) and along with playing in the school bands played in a group with some friends during my high school and college years, gave it all up to become an engineer

.  My ex-wife was a soprano and her mom was a piano teacher so been around music for a while.

 
Interesting conversation here. There's something about music and engineering 

 I also come from electric guitar in high school/college, gave up to become an engineer, but still play fingerstyle acoustic and classical long after that. My wife is trained as a pro flutist doing something else now. 

 
Back on topic though, one data point that I would like to add from my experience so far with Jot (w/DAC) is that it seems to have mellowed down quite a bit (either burn-in or my brain-burn-in) after one month (about 15 hours on-time everyday). I sometimes find myself looking for that edgy-ness that I heard at the beginning. But when I switch back and forth between my Crack and Jot, it does have more top end. 
 
Another thing I found is that I have to really crank up Jot to drive my K240 600ohm. For this, Jot pre-out to Crack does a wonderful job. 
 
Cheers.

 

[ginetto61]

first the hp, after the amp

Thank you very much indeed for the valuable advice. 
Actually I have already some HPs that i like. 
Not easy to try an amp without buying it unfortunately.  

 

[alota]

 
Thank you very much indeed for the valuable advice. 
Actually I have already some HPs that i like. 
Not easy to try an amp without buying it unfortunately.  

really sorry, i know my answer is succinct. when you have one headphone of course the best solution is an adequate amplifier.
with some headphones, it´s more complicated.
like you i live in portugal and i have only tried buiyng the stuffs

 

[Vigrith]

It's not the Jot that's too bright, it's the headphone. The Jot isn't rolled off at either end of the spectrum, nor does it colour the mids with "warmth" not present in the recording.

And I call BS on your assertion that the HD650 is the only headphone the Jot sounds good with. Don't think you've spent enough time with the Jot to be swaying other people's decision on it. Either that or your preference is skewed towards a coloured presentation, and the Jot's honesty is too much for you to bear.

 
Whilst I'm not sure "BS" is the way I'd describe it personally, I do definitely agree that saying the Jotunheim only sounds good with the HD650 is a little extreme - I'd say that for most people that is absolutely not accurate, I don't have nearly the amount of headphones David does but I'm coming up on like 10 pairs now and the only ones that sound bright with it are T90s (go figure LOL); the HE-560s sound a little dry and boring but again, that's what they sound like to begin with imo, the Jotun's not at fault for that.
 
As I have said and will reiterate, the Jotunheim is characterless. Bright in, bright out. Boring in, boring out.

 

[MWSVette]

   
Thanks again for the advice.  To be honest i am still stuck on the question 1st the HP or the amp ?  so i am still confused. 
But i do not want to derail the thread.  I will keep on reading about this very interesting amp.
It could be the end of the game for me.
Regards, gino 

Headphones first, then amps, then DAC's, then everything else....
 

 

[bosiemoncrieff]

idk, I'd rather have Yggy to MJ2 than Gumby to Rag.

 

[MWSVette]

I would love a Gumby, yet I would rather have an Yggy and  I would rather have A MJ2, because I love tubes, than a Rag...
 

 

 

[MarkF786]

I just received my HD800S and a very early report is I don't find them bright with the Jotunheim.  In terms of tonal balance, they sound well balanced to me.  The other phones I commonly use with my Jot are the Elear, Amiron, HD600, HD650, SE846, and ER4XR.  The HD800S are definitely brighter than the HD600/650, but similar to the Elear or Amiron in brightness.  I love the sound of the HD600/650 but more often reach for the Amiron or Elear for more detail in the treble region.  The HD800S offer a similar level of detail in the treble as the Amiron, but with greater control in the bass.  Comparing the HD800S to the Elear, they each seem to have their strengths but are equally classed based on a quick listen.
 
Anyway, I just wanted to give an early impression since some have reported the HD800S to be too bright with the Jotunheim, which I do not believe to be true.
 
On a side note, the HD800S I received had a couple dings on the left yoke and seemed they might have been an open-boxed customer return, based on some differences in packing compared to unboxing videos I've watched.  I've emailed the vendor, who has given me good customer service in the past, so hopefully the issue is remedied.

 

[oldschool]

Comparing the HD800S to the Elear, they each seem to have their strengths but are equally classed based on a quick listen.  

 
What do you like about each and what music is best suited for each?

 

[FiGuY1017]

Final Sonorous vi has great synergy very euphoric with the jot&mimby better than my 560-jot.

 

[MarkF786]

   
What do you like about each and what music is best suited for each?

 
Again, this is a very early impression but here's what stands out to me, comparing the HD800S to the Elear.
 
The Elear has a odd dip in the midrange; it's easy to see in it's frequency response graph, and it drives many people crazy.  It's hard for me to always hear it directly, but I feel it does cause me to raise the volume, which then causes fatigue over time (and it's bad for the ears).  Also the Elear are almost too dynamic, again causing fatigue.  The HD800S clearly doesn't have this dip and thus has more presence in the midrange, thus I haven't needed to listen to them as loudly.  They are pretty dynamic though, but maybe a touch less than the Elear.  Using the balanced cable, with the Jot's gain switch on high, the dynamic range was similar to the Elear - but with the gain switch on low, they seemed to be a little less dynamic and thus less fatiguing.  The Elear have a low impedance, so they are extremely dynamic with most amps.  Some people love extreme dynamics, but think of someone playing a snare drum next to your ear; the dynamics can become unpleasant, and thus a touch of compression that most phones and speakers offer can be good thing.
 
One obvious area where the Elear are slightly better though is in the bass.  There is a track "Slow Down the Bass" that someone else recommended on Head-Fi for testing headphones, and many headphones just sound flubby with this track to varying degrees.  The Elear handles this track amazingly well, with extended bass that's very visceral, tight, and detailed.  The HD800S also does a good job with the track, but the bass sounds less extended and and little lower in volume.  Granted, few tracks exercise a headphone in the bass region like this, so it's probably not a huge difference on the average track.
 
I couldn't comment regarding which is better for different genres.  I listen to a wide variety of genres and haven't personally found a preference for headphones by genre.

 

[Traum]

Any impressions of the good ol' DT800 600Ω when paired with the Jot + built-in DAC module? A quick search through the thread doesn't seem to return anything particularly meaningful, so some 1st hand insights would be appreciated.

 

[AverageGuyNC]

I just got a new Modi multibit to go with jotunheim. First impression is good! I can hear a difference, tho not huge, in the clarity and quality of the music. The vocals and midrange seem better but also louder for some reason. And it's like the bass was turned down some.

I went back to equalizer and made sure it was up there but it was pretty much set the same even though I don't hear quit as much? Maybe just me.

Also it now has a small hiss that I can hear if there is nothing playing. It used to be totally silent with built in dac. I'm using some 20 year old Monster Cable rca cable that are maybe 10 ft long that I had laying around. I ordered a new 3ft acoustic research cable off ebay. And I also bought a Schiit wyrd. Both will be here next week. Is it normal to hear a hiss and could it be from just an old rca?

 

[earnmyturns]

Is it normal to hear a hiss and could it be from just an old rca?

Have a Bimby, not Mimby, connected by very short RCAs (Schiit's own PYST cables) to my Jot. No hiss whatsoever. I suspect the long, poorly shielded cables you are using are picking electrical noise from the environment. IMHO, for cables the shorter the better, so I'd go as short as possible for the Mimby>Jot connection, which could be shorter than the 3ft you are planning. 

 

[MikeW]

I recently added a Wyred 4 Sound Recovery to the JOT's internal dac chain, for me, in my setup, witch consist of a high end gaming PC, (6700k, asus hero alpha, seasonic x650 psu), with various USB accessories (wireless mouse) (gaming key board) etc. The difference was not subtle at all. Quite abit better. Bass, and resolution is beter, Mid's are better, and the sound is less fatiguing, less etched. Im really enjoying it. I no longer feel like i have to crank up the volume either, to get that satisfied feeling. The best part is the less fatiguing part, can just enjoy the music.
 
YMMV, everyone's setup is different and these devices effect people's gear more or less, depending on computer, mains power, gadgets hooked up to your pc, overclocking, motherboard, so on and so on. I don't know if my PC is particularly noisy or has bad USB, or if my situation is typical. It's high end hardware though, no cheap oem crap. The PSU is very good, as far as SMPS PC switchers go. Im using belkin Gold USB cables, and PS AUDIO DUET for mains conditioning.