[artur9]

I'd have to find a Mjolnir 3 on the used market. If it's as good as people say that may be difficult to do.

Why used? They are still being made. Just cut back on the Tim Horton's coffee for a little while

 

[mjstealey]

I'd have to find a Mjolnir 3 on the used market. If it's as good as people say that may be difficult to do.

...

Why used? They are still being made. Just cut back on the Tim Horton's coffee for a little while

Occasionally find them on the used market, but are selling at close to retail between $1000 - $1100
Given the relatively small price difference it's likely worth going new to have the 5 year warranty
And not that many are failing, but there seems to have been a silent revision to a few caps used on the board that could be an issue if picking up a used one

 

[MacMan31]

Why used? They are still being made. Just cut back on the Tim Horton's coffee for a little while

...

Occasionally find them on the used market, but are selling at close to retail between $1000 - $1100
Given the relatively small price difference it's likely worth going new to have the 5 year warranty
And not that many are failing, but there seems to have been a silent revision to a few caps used on the board that could be an issue if picking up a used one

I didn’t see the Mjolnir listed on the Schiit product page. I had to do a web search to find it.

 

[MacMan31]

If anyone is looking for a fairly inexpensive cooling solution, I found the AIRCOM S6 sits over the vent nicely and hides under the shelf. Exhausts to the rear and has an auto setting to turn on at 88F and shuts off at 84F. $50 and has two 120mm fans.

Have you compared the headphone output of the Yamaha with the Mjolnir? If so what is your take on it?

 

[betula]

Some first impressions after about 24 hours burn-in:

- Truly special and good sounding SS amp. There is some sweet liquidity in the sound which is rare in SS amps. This aspect reminded me to my first encounter witht he Meze Empyrean in 2018.
- Quite energetic and clear sound but with rounded edges, so it is not aggressive. Soundstage is good but not huge, but I do not actually mind it as the space has very good depth layering and imaging. It is easy to visualise instruments in their place.
- Bass is not overblown, but strong with good impact. Mids are clear and vocals surprisingly sweet and lifelike for a SS amp. Treble initially was a little dry, and slightly too forward, but this seems to be taming down with burn-in.
- Overall, a clean, clear, dynamic, impactful but at the same time smooth and fun sound. Acoustic instrument tone and timbre is good, but my NOS tubed HA-3A is more fluid, richer and more natural when it comes to string instruments. Tubes also give vocals more magic. MJ3 on the other hand offers better technicalities with more detail, better dynamics and a lot clearer, more defined and more impactful bass. As expected, I prefer MJ3 bass but HA-3A treble. These two amps are very different and offer different strengths, a different listening experience.

- Warm up time is real with the MJ3. It takes at least an hour but more like 2-3 hours to get the hottest, but sound is best when the amp is fully warmed up. For now, I keep it on a separate, 4-inch-tall (10cm) stand where breathability is good. This way even the hottest temperatures do not seem like anything to worry about, no fan needed for me.
- Dislike that is the switch on toggle is located on the back.
- With my ZMF Caldera I prefer low gain, no feedback. Also, usually SE versus push-pull. The differences are actually smaller than I expected, but they are there. My Cyan 2 DAC puts out 5V, which is a little higher than the 4V average for XLR out. Perhaps this is partly why I prefer low gain with the Caldera. High gain is just a little too harsh. Feedback takes away a little from dynamics in a subtle but non-favourable way at least to me. I initially liked the subtle liveliness push-pull brought to the picture, but after a while it gets a little too much in the treble. Treble is already quite lively, so I prefer to leave it in SE mode.

Overall, I am happy so far: great bass, dynamic but sweet and clear, detailed sound. A fun and engaging listen with good technicalities. The relatively smaller soundstage is nicely compensated with great spatial imaging, so I am happy on that front as well. If there is one thing, I would improve that would be a tiny bit more relaxed and more natural treble, but that will probably improve with further burn in and I am used to tube amps these days which have liquid treble.

So, I like the MJ3, but let's see where things lead and evolve.

Excuse me for replying to my own post, it is not a symptom of losing my mind, I just thought instead of editing it is better to update this way to keep the line of thoughts consistent and help folks who follow the conversation not to miss this correction.

I just thought I owe the HA-3A with this update. When I wrote the above post, my DAC was using coax input from my streamer and not the better USB input. Apparently, some system noise is creeping through coax connection which affects my tube amp more than the SS amps. USB is galvanically isolated, and it is dead silent, resulting in a much cleaner and clearer sound overall. With coax connection between my streamer and DAC the HA-3A sounded warmer and hazier than it should, but with USB input everything clears up tremendously. (Yes, easy to get a bit lost when you have been A/B comparing amps for hours. )
Anyway, by using USB on my Cyan 2 the technical differences basically disappear between the HA-3A and MJ3. By that I mostly mean detail retrieval and clarity. The difference in bass rendering also becomes smaller. I must say though, this is only true with the good NOS tubes I use and not with the stock tube set. (I use GE rectifier, Bendix 6V6 and Mullard 12AU7.) The MJ3 still has the edge in bass speed and impact, but the 3A does it in a satisfying enough way too. From upper-mids upwards the tubes just sound richer and fuller offering more natural tone and timbre. The Cayin is also a little more spacious.
The 'battle' is still ongoing, soon joined by the Mentor, I just thought I owe my trusty tubes with this little correction.

 

[commtrd]

Will the M3 run Atrium Open satisfactorily? Also the Caldera? I calculated following values for the Atrium Open at Schiit stated values for power at 300 ohms, 1W per channel, 17.32 volts, 57.7 mA current draw.

Caldera: 1.067W at 60 ohms, 8.012 volts, and 133.5 mA current draw. Assuming I calculated these values correctly LOL.

So synergy wise, would the Caldera be the better match for the Mjnolnir 3 amp? Does M3 handle planar drivers better with higher current draw vs. voltage supplied? Output impedance less than 0.25 ohms on M3 amp. V281 can supply 40 volts to Atrium Open. Dynamic drivers need higher voltage, planars need higher current, is this generally a correct assumption? This is not not even getting into tube amp specificity with OTL vs transformer coupled output.

What brought all this up was reading how kick-ass the V281 amp is with the Atrium Open, and I had originally wanted to get that headphone until researching the Caldera more in-depth. Thoughts on synergy between M3 and these two headphones? I have no intention of switching out amps after I just got M3. This just points out how important it really is to consider synergy between amp and headphones BEFORE LAYING OUT THE CASH.

 

[KipFox]

Have you compared the headphone output of the Yamaha with the Mjolnir? If so what is your take on it?

The headphone amp on the Yamaha isn't bad, I haven't played with it too much however. It has 50mw+50mw so not particularly powerful. For my easy to drive dynamic stuff it works fine and I like the tone controls and handful of gain options. The Mjolnir sounds more open/better staging to me and I like the sound of my Empyreans better on it than the Yamaha. As a speaker amp though I love the A-S2200, zero regrets, but the headphone amp on it is just satisfactory.

 

[artur9]

... I calculated following values for the Atrium Open at Schiit stated values for power at 300 ohms, 1W per channel, 17.32 volts, 57.7 mA current draw.

Caldera: 1.067W at 60 ohms, 8.012 volts, and 133.5 mA current draw. Assuming I calculated these values correctly LOL.
...

How did you calculate these? I want to do the same for my Sendy Aiva: 32 Ohms at 96 dB per 1 mW, which, amusingly to me, one reviewer said: By far, the best match was with a 16-Watt Flux Labs Acoustics Volot and FA-10.

As a planar, the Aiva needs current?

 

[commtrd]

Using ohms law and power equations with given values where available to solve for unknowns. Trying to triangulate info from different sources to better understand synergies between M3 and Atrium open vs Caldera.