[alota]

the first thing i would say about the jotunheim with mojo like dac is UNBELIEVABLE but i want to delve a little

 

[bosiemoncrieff]

  If you have >300 ohm headphones, the balanced Jot is more powerful than the Mjolnir 2!
And almost gives the Ragnarok a run for it's money!
 
I made this amplifier comparison while I was saving $$ dreaming about what my life would be like with more Schiit:
 

 
 
 
 
 
I haven't updated it since I got my Modi MB + Jotunheim + HD600 with Balanced cables... my audio has never been this good!

its money* 
 
But with Sennheiser's offerings, the issue of power isn't really central. I never listen to HD800 or HD600 on high gain out of MJ2. Vali 1 drives HD800 plenty loud (and extremely well, I might add). The question is much more about pairing. (Insert Sonarworks asterisk.)

 

[AverageGuyNC]

  the first thing i would say about the jotunheim with mojo like dac is UNBELIEVABLE but i want to delve a little

​You like the mojo/jotunheim pairing? I've been using the modi mb at first but wanted to try the mojo with it and picked one up. I have a 3.5 to rca on the way to hook it up tomorrow. Cant wait!

 

[alota]

​You like the mojo/jotunheim pairing? I've been using the modi mb at first but wanted to try the mojo with it and picked one up. I have a 3.5 to rca on the way to hook it up tomorrow. Cant wait!

From the first impression say yes.
Seems to me that the internal dac is the bottleneck and seems to me that jot is quite neutral because the sound is like the mojo alone

 

[FLTWS]

On the power and loudness subject, a side anecdote; 
 
I was running some A, B, C, D, listening tests with my 4 HP amps (see my sig) and my new Utopia with DanaCable LR aftermarket cable. I bought a 3 meter length with a 4 Pin balanced connector as well as a 1 meter length with a 4 Pin female on one end and a standard ¼ inch plug on the other so I can use it with my home theater as well as audition any amp whether it’s a balanced design or not.
 
After carefully matching the volume on all 4 to within plus or minus 1.5db of 60db with my sound level meter I started listening with my usual evaluation CD’s playing a track at a time in succession on each amp with balanced output. One of the discs was recorded at a significantly higher level  than  the preceding discs used and instead of resetting and re-matching the volume levels again I figured I’d just use the SE adapter knowing the volume would automatically drop along with the voltage on SE outputs. I note that I always run all my amps at their respective low gain settings and rarely push the volume knobs to more than 11 o'clock, even at that point it's too loud for me in most cases depending on the level of the recording.
 
It turned out that my Jots’ SE was significantly louder than the SE out on the other 3 (compared to the Balanced Out) even though I carefully volume matched all 4 amps before the session began using the balanced outputs on each amp. The Jot’s SE was almost as loud as its balanced output and sounded very good and better than the other SE outs on the other amps, but they were at a lower volume level which does change one’s perception. I went back, rechecked everything, and ran a test with a Pink Noise test signal on all 4 and recorded the results. I did this 3 times in succession just to be certain.
 
Decibels recorded with Utopia and sound level meter:
                  SE            BAL
RAG            52             59
JOT            57             59
MJ2            52             59
HA1            52             59
 
If I remember  correctly I read something (Jason most likely posted***) about Schiit doing some refining of the SE output circuit (or maybe the input side) in the Jot to make it closer in performance to the balanced output. And 5db is certainly a hearable difference in sound level and in fact made it hard for me to hear much, if any, difference between the SE and balanced outs on the Jot, but I haven’t spent much time as yet comparing the Jots two HP outputs to each other. But the Jots SE out definitely sounded better than the SE outs on the other three. Just a matter of volume level, perhaps?
 
My results do tie in nicely with what Jude posted;
 
"You can connect to either input on the Jotunheim to use its balanced headphone output, but gain varies depending on the input/output combo. Here is the gain for each possible input/output/gain combo on the Jotunheim:
 

1. SE in, SE out, low gain 2
2. SE in, SE out, high gain  4.7
3. SE in, balanced out, low gain 2.1
4. SE in, balanced out, high gain 7.4
5. balanced in, SE out, low gain  1.1
6. balanced in, SE out, high gain  3.75
7. balanced in, balanced out, low gain 2.2
8. balanced in, balanced out, high gain 7.5

 
(Thanks to Jason Stoddard for the above gain information.)"
 
FWIW I thought I’d pass this on.
 
*** Found it on Schiit's website product info; "Jotunheim's gain stage is a unique, inherently balanced, fully discrete current feedback topology that provides both balanced and single-ended output without the need for splitters or summers."

 

[andrejc]

So is it safe to say that any/all HPs should sound slightly better trough a balanced cable?
I have a Denon D7200 HPs which came with a 7N Copper single ended cable and am considering a 7N balanced one made by Beyerdynamic for $150.
Should I go for it?

Sent from my SM-G920P using Tapatalk

 

[FLTWS]

So is it safe to say that any/all HPs should sound slightly better trough a balanced cable?
I have a Denon D7200 HPs which came with a 7N Copper single ended cable and am considering a 7N balanced one made by Beyerdynamic for $150.
Should I go for it?

Sent from my SM-G920P using Tapatalk

 
For every listener who says yes you'll find one that says no. There are no absolutes in this hobby. But, if $150.00 does not overly bother your wallet, go ahead and find out for yourself. That's what I've been doing for the past year since I got into higher end headphones and it's a part of the fun(?) of being an audiophile. Nothing is more satisfying than coming to your own conclusion because it will be the absolutely correct conclusion for you. Just be prepared to give the comparison process the time it requires. Then you can join either the "yes" or "no" contingent with confidence.
 
PS; I prefer balanced.

 

[alota]

So is it safe to say that any/all HPs should sound slightly better trough a balanced cable?
I have a Denon D7200 HPs which came with a 7N Copper single ended cable and am considering a 7N balanced one made by Beyerdynamic for $150.
Should I go for it?

Sent from my SM-G920P using Tapatalk

no. depends case for case. in the past i was balanced maniac(hp, sources, amplifiers)but in certain cases does not compensate. with my  stuffs, i had a truly miracle, in balanced mode, with the grado hf-2(with moon audio black dragon)but especially with the jvc dx-1000(stock cable). this headphone was totally uncoordinated. in balanced mode, i have listened the best mid presentation with fast and tight bass

 

[Vigrith]

So is it safe to say that any/all HPs should sound slightly better trough a balanced cable?
I have a Denon D7200 HPs which came with a 7N Copper single ended cable and am considering a 7N balanced one made by Beyerdynamic for $150.
Should I go for it?

 
I have personally not experienced nor have I ever spoken with anyone who felt like balanced made their headphones sound worse - take that as you will, I'm sure there have been instances where that's been the case but from my personal experience (reading, talking, as well as personal), I find those should be infinitesimal compared to the cases where there's been improvements (if nowhere else then just in the volume gain department).

 

[andrejc]

]I thought that it depends on the amp and  not as much on the HPs.
If the amp has a better balanced out compare to its single out, any HPs in balanced mode would sound a bit better.
It should apply the other way as well, if the amp is optimized for the sine out it should sound better that way. Or am I mistaken here?

I assumed that was the case with the balanced out as opposed to the single with the Jot as well.

Sent from my SM-G920P using Tapatalk

 

[Vigrith]

]I thought that it depends on the amp and  not as much on the HPs.
If the amp has a better balanced out compare to its single out, any HPs in balanced mode would sound a bit better.
It should apply the other way as well, if the amp is optimized for the sine out it should sound better that way. Or am I mistaken here?

I assumed that was the case with the balanced out as opposed to the single with the Jot as well.

 
I mean... Yea, if one output is better implemented or of better quality than the other is somehow then I assume the one that's done well will perform the best - however, why on earth would someone deliberately make their balanced output worse than their SE? That defeats the whole point. The reverse sort of happened with both the Mjolnir 2 and the Cavalli Liquid Carbon; their SE outs were not super great in their first iterations (Cavalli tried to fix that for their second run of the LC) as they were both optimised and geared toward being balanced amplifiers with the 1/4" only being there for convenience's sake.
 
So to answer your question far as the Jotunheim goes specifically, far as I've experienced and as far as I know both outputs should be of equivalent quality, the only benefits being provided by the balanced connection rather than one being inherently "better" (read: better implemented, etc) than the other. That's the way it should be.

 

[hutt132]

I find the volume knob on my Jot to be a little disappointing. It's hard to do fine volume adjustments as the knob isn't really smooth. If I want to move it a smidge, it takes a bit to overcome the initial friction, which causes it to jump up or down instead of a nice smooth adjustment.

 

[Vigrith]

  I find the volume knob on my Jot to be a little disappointing. It's hard to do fine volume adjustments as the knob isn't really smooth. If I want to move it a smidge, it takes a bit to overcome the initial friction, which causes it to jump up or down instead of a nice smooth adjustment.

 
I actually felt the exact same way at first - is your unit very new by any chance? After about a week of steady use my knob became almost completely smooth, I don't know if that's everyone's experience but it definitely was mine; it's still a little bit hard to overcome the initial friction but it's gotten way better to the point where it no longer bothers me.

 

[hutt132]

   
I actually felt the exact same way at first - is your unit very new by any chance? After about a week of steady use my knob became almost completely smooth, I don't know if that's everyone's experience but it definitely was mine; it's still a little bit hard to overcome the initial friction but it's gotten way better to the point where it no longer bothers me.

I bought it used the other day, and the previous owner had it for a month. Not sure how much he used the knob. Hopefully it gets better over time.

 

[Soundofmusic]

Knob burn-in, the newest hype