[J Ottawa]

Thanks!

Agreed with these. He should've done his research on the product thoroughly especially about the Halo having the same power and volume output as the SE.

Skipping to my personal experience with SE against Halo, I agree with him about 50%, but that's because I have tried the Midgard with a lot of headphones that he has used (and from Schiitr) and there are some headphones out there such as the HD650/6XX that has a very noticeable difference in the two outputs while others have negligible difference such as the DCA Aeon 2 Noires. In my experience, the Halo has never been worse sounding than the SE out, but I suspect that the Halo secret sauce is the real-time impedance matching of some headphones with wild impedance swings at certain frequencies and phase error feedback correction as well during the Halo mixed mode feedback circuit which translates to the differences in what we hear. This is pure speculation about the Halo topology and nothing I mention are facts.

Interesting discussion. I have Neumann NDH-30 and I will be getting a balanced cable in the new year to try out Halo.
PS: that's quite the Schiit collection you have there! Wow!

 

[Saaki]

Haha I thought the exact same thing! That is quite the collection. Do you actively use all of them?

 

[theveterans]

I rotate around them and revisit them when I want to perform comparisons. The Schiitr is already my second home at this rate haha

 

[Saaki]

Awesome. It's great having so much amazing gear to play with! Do you think you'll be picking up a Pietus Maximus? I'd love to hear a comparison to the Midgard.

 

[J Ottawa]

Awesome. It's great having so much amazing gear to play with! Do you think you'll be picking up a Pietus Maximus? I'd love to hear a comparison to the Midgard.

I'm on the fence with buying a Kara. I'm not getting an overall positive vibe with Kara from reading stuff online, even with the Steve G's review on YouTube. Midgard is generally well reviewed and recommended. The Modius (E) and Midgard are still leaving an awesome impression on me 10 days later.

 

[Saaki]

Would you get the Kara in addition to the Midgard or as a replacement? I don't know anything about the Kara. But I'm mostly in for the mid size Schiit gear, the bigs ones are just to big for my taste! I'm Feeling a little FOMO with the Pietus Maximus release watching all the review videos. I'm sure it's wonderful, annnnd that new product release hype is so real! I'm also seriously enjoying the Midgard + Modius E.

 

[jeromeoflaherty]

Skipping to my personal experience with SE against Halo, I agree with him about 50%, but that's because I have tried the Midgard with a lot of headphones that he has used (and from Schiitr) and there are some headphones out there such as the HD650/6XX that has a very noticeable difference in the two outputs while others have negligible difference such as the DCA Aeon 2 Noires. In my experience, the Halo has never been worse sounding than the SE out, but I suspect that the Halo secret sauce is the real-time impedance matching of some headphones with wild impedance swings at certain frequencies and phase error feedback correction as well during the Halo mixed mode feedback circuit which translates to the differences in what we hear. This is pure speculation about the Halo topology and nothing I mention are facts.

Yes I agree this is exactly my subjective findings, some very specific headphones sound better with Halo while most headphones in my collection (mainly planar) sound equally good from both the SE and the Halo 4-pin output. But I like the idea of this from an headphone 'assurance' perspective, i.e. I can be assured that the Midgard 'Halo Topology' can provide superb response no matter what headphones I purchase in the future.

 

[Sanlitun]

I've had my Midgard for almost a week now.

I find my volume knob keeps coming loose, and I would like to replace it with a wooden one. Is the shaft size 1/8"? And who sells the knob I need?

Thanks.

 

[Saaki]

I've had my Midgard for almost a week now.

I find my volume knob keeps coming loose, and I would like to replace it with a wooden one. Is the shaft size 1/8"? And who sells the knob I need?

Thanks.

The Alps RK27 potentiometer on the Midgard has a 6mm shaft. So you should be looking for a knob that is either for a 6mm shaft or 1/4" shaft. 6mm = 0.24in for reference. You should be able to find a ton of options with a 1/4" hole.

Have you tried tightening down the set screw on the existing knob?

 

[Quadrangulator]

The Alps RK27 potentiometer on the Midgard has a 6mm shaft. So you should be looking for a knob that is either for a 6mm shaft or 1/4" shaft. 6mm = 0.24in for reference. You should be able to find a ton of options with a 1/4" hole.

Have you tried tightening down the set screw on the existing knob?

I had this same issue on a JDS Labs piece a couple years ago and didn't realize the set screw needed tightening. Hasn't come loose since.

 

[ThEvil0nE]

I can warm up the sound with the RME with some PEQ tricks, but one test and subsequent result is telling: the song "Letter" from Yosi Horikawa, at the 4 minute 10 second mark, you can clearly hear the pen scribbling across the paper, panning. * This important detail is missing with the RME (it may be a setting thing, I don't know).
This is not the first time I notice more detailed presentations of the soundstage, both deep and wide with the Modius + Midgard combo.

What's your Width/Crossfade value/s on the RME?

 

[jeromeoflaherty]

I just added my review of Midgard for those interested:

https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/sc...headphone-ampliier.26831/reviews#review-32405

 

[Saaki]

Great review! Thank you for taking the time to put together something so thoroughly considered.

 

[MisterMudd]

I just added my review of Midgard for those interested:

https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/sc...headphone-ampliier.26831/reviews#review-32405

Fantastic review. C'mon Xmas money!!

 

[J Ottawa]

Would you get the Kara in addition to the Midgard or as a replacement? I don't know anything about the Kara. But I'm mostly in for the mid size Schiit gear, the bigs ones are just to big for my taste! I'm Feeling a little FOMO with the Pietus Maximus release watching all the review videos. I'm sure it's wonderful, annnnd that new product release hype is so real! I'm also seriously enjoying the Midgard + Modius E.

What's your Width/Crossfade value/s on the RME?

Looking at the settings tonight. I'm also comparing my ADI-2 Pro FS (AKM 4493) to my ADI-2 DAC FS (ESS) version to see what I can come up with. And for fun, I'm even trying in DSD mode. For my testing, Crossfade was set to 0 (and then I tried setting to 3 tonight); Width is set to 1 all the time. Both RME units seem to present the soundstage very similarly. And Thanks for taking the time to look into this with me.