[WaveTheory]

Hi, all. I really want to thank everyone for watching and commenting. I value community feedback. After all, I do this review work to (hopefully) benefit potential buyers of all of this stuff...and NOT just because playing with all this audio gear is buckets of fun (as I'm sure I don't have to explain to any of you haha).

That's a pretty negative review, particularly so if you have followed this reviewer for a while, as I have.

Thanks for watching! I see your point. I didn't set out to be negative here at all. The Mjolnir 3 is legitimately a good, even excellent, headphone amp. But you're right that the language I used to describe differences between the M3 and the $2500+ amps in this video was a bit stronger than I have used in the past. Some of that is simply growing as a listener. Doing this review work, like doing any work, is something that you improve on over time. The differences get easier to spot and start to sound bigger. This is useful feedback though to put more care into verbiage used. Thanks.

If I may, I'd like to address the "contrarian" claims here. First, I totally get it. More than once I have attempted to put the brakes on what I perceive to be a runaway hypetrain. It's likely accurate that I put hyped units under an even more intense microscope than I do other gear. That could very well be a bias I need to explore to see if it's real or something that I need to work on. Part of it also comes from having been a buyer myself who has been burned by falling prey to hype trains. Remember THX amps being "funking endgame" and the Monolith M1060 being the HiFi gods' planar-magnetic gift to the everyman? Yeah, I got suckered in and burned, and during a time in my life where dropping $300-500 for audio gear was something I had to be very cautious and intentional about. If I can help others avoid such trouble, I'm going to. But then there's the reality that sometimes these are things that we have to learn for ourselves to truly understand.

The deeper I go into this hobby (and wow, am I deep lol), the more I realize that by-in-large you get what you pay for. Much more often than not, gear costs what it costs because that's where it's cost of parts, design, and performance, plus the realities of the market context, land it. Exceptions exists, of course. However, there are more cases of the cost being higher than the performance offered than there are cases of the performance offered being higher than the cost. Connecting this back to me being a contrarian, I think we should all be skeptical of claims that any given piece performs at levels double its market value or higher. That's an extraordinary claim. And to quote my grad school advisor: "extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence." Moreover, I find that when a piece does perform at a higher level, it's often in one particular area of performance and not the whole package.

Last quick comment...there is a slight upper-mid/lower-treble forwardness to the Mjolnir 3 at any volume level to my ears [the grains of salt needed here are that I have a (hopefully well known at this point) sensitivity and/or low tolerance for unevenness in that range]. It is common in this hobby for those of us with more experience to tell those of us with less that a treble-boosted piece sounding more detailed than other gear is because of that treble boost being perceived as added detail. I invite all of us to think about how a boosted FR range in any part of the audible spectrum does the same through those areas of boost. It's not limited to the treble range. I submit it might be possible that some of the claims of Mjolnir 3's over-its-head-detail-retrieval may be, in part, connected to 'emphasized clarity' I noted in the review. Food for thought.

Thanks again, all. I again express my appreciation to all of you.

 

[Fegefeuer]

It's all good. People just love their "giant killers" and get caught in the hype train, circlejerk to no end, just to look back much later and realize it wasn't one. Simply a great amp in its price bracket. We've all fallen for it. Also people calling you contrarian or even edgy is to be expected for every kind of review that doesn't toot the same horn. In another forum some people were mildly confused when someone stated the MJ3 not driving the HE-500 "fully". I get it, they simply haven't heard it run from one of those dedicated amps that people have been building for these planars over 10 years ago already, and there is an inherent bias - the HE500 isn't a HE-6, how could this even be? Heresy!!!

You know, there's always specialists and allrounders amongst amps, both of them are a mix of tradeoffs, simply by design and purpose. If the music is engaging and your amp digs deep into it, all is good. Don't be overly sensitive if it's not the other guy's best ever.

 

[Thetaburn]

Helpful review.
Thank you WaveTheory for letting me know the Violectric V281 is what I need to pair with my He1000se.

 

[thegratefuldad]

Hi, all. I really want to thank everyone for watching and commenting. I value community feedback. After all, I do this review work to (hopefully) benefit potential buyers of all of this stuff...and NOT just because playing with all this audio gear is buckets of fun (as I'm sure I don't have to explain to any of you haha).



Thanks for watching! I see your point. I didn't set out to be negative here at all. The Mjolnir 3 is legitimately a good, even excellent, headphone amp. But you're right that the language I used to describe differences between the M3 and the $2500+ amps in this video was a bit stronger than I have used in the past. Some of that is simply growing as a listener. Doing this review work, like doing any work, is something that you improve on over time. The differences get easier to spot and start to sound bigger. This is useful feedback though to put more care into verbiage used. Thanks.

If I may, I'd like to address the "contrarian" claims here. First, I totally get it. More than once I have attempted to put the brakes on what I perceive to be a runaway hypetrain. It's likely accurate that I put hyped units under an even more intense microscope than I do other gear. That could very well be a bias I need to explore to see if it's real or something that I need to work on. Part of it also comes from having been a buyer myself who has been burned by falling prey to hype trains. Remember THX amps being "funking endgame" and the Monolith M1060 being the HiFi gods' planar-magnetic gift to the everyman? Yeah, I got suckered in and burned, and during a time in my life where dropping $300-500 for audio gear was something I had to be very cautious and intentional about. If I can help others avoid such trouble, I'm going to. But then there's the reality that sometimes these are things that we have to learn for ourselves to truly understand.

The deeper I go into this hobby (and wow, am I deep lol), the more I realize that by-in-large you get what you pay for. Much more often than not, gear costs what it costs because that's where it's cost of parts, design, and performance, plus the realities of the market context, land it. Exceptions exists, of course. However, there are more cases of the cost being higher than the performance offered than there are cases of the performance offered being higher than the cost. Connecting this back to me being a contrarian, I think we should all be skeptical of claims that any given piece performs at levels double its market value or higher. That's an extraordinary claim. And to quote my grad school advisor: "extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence." Moreover, I find that when a piece does perform at a higher level, it's often in one particular area of performance and not the whole package.

Last quick comment...there is a slight upper-mid/lower-treble forwardness to the Mjolnir 3 at any volume level to my ears [the grains of salt needed here are that I have a (hopefully well known at this point) sensitivity and/or low tolerance for unevenness in that range]. It is common in this hobby for those of us with more experience to tell those of us with less that a treble-boosted piece sounding more detailed than other gear is because of that treble boost being perceived as added detail. I invite all of us to think about how a boosted FR range in any part of the audible spectrum does the same through those areas of boost. It's not limited to the treble range. I submit it might be possible that some of the claims of Mjolnir 3's over-its-head-detail-retrieval may be, in part, connected to 'emphasized clarity' I noted in the review. Food for thought.

Thanks again, all. I again express my appreciation to all of you.

 

[thegratefuldad]

Hi Wave Theory,
I just finished watching the MJ3 review. Im looking for a good match for my Focal Utopia og.
I'm looking for a HP amp (no Dac) for $$ in the range of the MJ3.
I was considering the MJ3 but your mention of the match left a little to be desired and came out of review wondering if not this what...
I know you spoke of V222 but
What else would be a 'better' match for FUog? for both low, mid and high impedance HPs?
I only want to buy 1 HP amp

 

[quawn0418]

There are too many things to factor into todays market, i remember when Schiit introduced the Jot 2 they stated that it sounded as good as a $2000 amp simply because these days capacitors (i believe, it could of been a different component) can be ordered in pairs where as they couldn’t be produced in matched pairs in the past and were ALOT more costly for matched sets. The V281 was introduced so long ago and yet the price remains about the same today. What if Schiit is just being honest here and other company’s are still getting over on us?? I’m not saying that this has to be the case, but it makes you wonder what’s actually going on. This is why i go with what I’m hearing with my ears, i don’t base my feedback on anything else, only the way something sounds. With that being said, the MJ3 to me sounds exceptional at its price point. However, to each his own.

 

[quawn0418]

removed*

 

[WaveTheory]

Hi Wave Theory,
I just finished watching the MJ3 review. Im looking for a good match for my Focal Utopia og.
I'm looking for a HP amp (no Dac) for $$ in the range of the MJ3.
I was considering the MJ3 but your mention of the match left a little to be desired and came out of review wondering if not this what...
I know you spoke of V222 but
What else would be a 'better' match for FUog? for both low, mid and high impedance HPs?
I only want to buy 1 HP amp

I'm not going to make a habit of answering these questions here but I'll drop a free sample...

Erzetich Perfidus. No joke. It's single ended only though so you'll have to put more thought into dac matching than something that has balanced in. I'd look at Chord Hugo 2 or Qutest.

 

[Rhodey]

It's all good. People just love their "giant killers" and get caught in the hype train, circlejerk to no end, just to look back much later and realize it wasn't one. Simply a great amp in its price bracket. We've all fallen for it. Also people calling you contrarian or even edgy is to be expected for every kind of review that doesn't toot the same horn. In another forum some people were mildly confused when someone stated the MJ3 not driving the HE-500 "fully". I get it, they simply haven't heard it run from one of those dedicated amps that people have been building for these planars over 10 years ago already, and there is an inherent bias - the HE500 isn't a HE-6, how could this even be? Heresy!!!

You know, there's always specialists and allrounders amongst amps, both of them are a mix of tradeoffs, simply by design and purpose. If the music is engaging and your amp digs deep into it, all is good. Don't be overly sensitive if it's not the other guy's best ever.

I had the Bliss and Bryston at the same time I had the MJ3. If I were judging them off sound alone, I’d pick the MJ3. Sure Bryston and Holo have better builds and if I could have the MJ3 signature in a better build I would, but I wouldn’t pick them over it if we’re talking about sound.
And price had nothing to do with it. So I wasn’t worried about killing a giant or anything like that. If the Bliss or Bryston worked better for what I was looking for I would have kept one of those over the MJ3.

But people can feel free to blindly follow reviewers without ever hearing something. Hope that works out for you.

And the edgy comment is accurate. It’s about staying relevant these days and many will do whatever it takes. Starts with going along with the grain and parroting to gain traction, and then flip it for additional buzz when needed. Guess it works.

And when you start receiving items from particular companies you’ll gain biases. You want those items to continue to come in for material? You’ll say what you think is needed to keep them coming.
On the other side, if you purchase your gear you’ll have a different stance. It’s legitimately your money and opinion.

 

[quawn0418]

I had the Bliss and Bryston at the same time I had the MJ3. If I were judging them off sound alone, I’d pick the MJ3. Sure Bryston and Holo have better builds and if I could have the MJ3 signature in a better build I would, but I wouldn’t pick them over it if we’re talking about sound.
And price had nothing to do with it. So I wasn’t worried about killing a giant or anything like that. If the Bliss or Bryston worked better for what I was looking for I would have kept one of those over the MJ3.

But people can feel free to blindly follow reviewers without ever hearing something. Hope that works out for you.

And the edgy comment is accurate. It’s about staying relevant these days and many will do whatever it takes. Starts with going along with the grain and parroting to gain traction, and then flip it for additional buzz when needed. Guess it works.

And when you start receiving items from particular companies you’ll gain biases. You want those items to continue to come in for material? You’ll say what you think is needed to keep them coming.
On the other side, if you purchase your gear you’ll have a different stance. It’s legitimately your money and opinion.

Very well said. Again, we don’t know what’s truly going on, not with these companies, and not with these reviewers. They are appreciated, but my ears have the final say.

Lastly, i find it odd when reviewers start off by making us aware that they payed for a product out of pocket. It doesn’t always get weird but i always brace myself. Currawong mentioned buying his unit towards the end of his review in a rather unintentional fashion which felt a bit more organic to me. I don’t see the point in making us aware of this, especially at the very beginning of a review.

 

[psy472]

A Review

I have the Jot 2 and Susvara. How come everything he said about the MJ3 comparing to Jot 2 is opposite of what I hear? Jot 2 is analytical but dry with Susvara and Susvara has strong bass punch and very sweet mids on MJ3. There was no mid bump I hear. Resolution was amazing. I worry that his upstream chain doesn’t synergize with the MJ3 or he got himself a defective amp.

Oh, I just looked at his DACs, no wonder. You can’t be using mid-fi DACs for a summit-fi level amp. Anyways, to each his own opinion I guess.

 

[BenJoe]

Here is my (brief) impression after spending a few days with MJ3. I am writing my impression in comparison to the Soloist 3XP to give a better context of where the MJ3 stands.

Chain: Gustard R26 -> MJ3 (SE mode without - feedback) / Burson Soloist 3XP (V6 Vivid Opamp) / Burson Soloist 3X GT / Luxaman P750-u -> HE1000se

I am mainly comparing the MJ3 with the Soloist 3XP because they are roughly in the same price range. To offer a bit more context of my listening. I mostly listen to classical and jazz. I personally tend to focus on soundstage, imaging, instrument separation, tone and resolution more (quite in that order too).

Soundstage, Imaging & Instruments Separation:

• MJ3: It is wider than most headphone amps I have ever heard. It also has good depth and height. It is quite holographic sounding too a point without being unreal. It gives every instrument the right amount of breathing room. Imaging is precise in both distance and placement. One of the amps with better instruments separation I have heard in general. Based on personal experience, most amps at around $1k, esp. >$1k, are usually not good at or capable of providing good instruments separation. When I say good instruments separation, I mean 3D like separation.
• Soloist 3XP: It is noticeably narrower. It is not the bad kind of narrow. In comparison, it feels narrower going from MJ3 to 3XP because MJ3 sounds wider than most amps. It is a matter of preference. However, the Soloist 3XP has more depth than the MJ3. It is almost like sitting in a listening room with speakers in front. As for imaging, I would say it is accurate enough for the most part. But because of a narrower soundstage, instruments could sound a little bit clutter when listening to music like orchestra music or anything that has a lot of instruments. Because of that, I would say instruments separation suffers a little as well. But it is not below standard.

Tone, Resolution & FQ response:

• MJ3: It is a quite transparent and accurate sounding amp but not to a point of being sterile. Some amps do everything right but it would become boring sounding. This is not the case. It reflects your chain (what you feed into it) very well. Resolution is excellent. This is probably one of the very few amps at this price range that can achieve the level of resolution you would find in a higher tier amp. It might even be just as good or better than some of the more expensive amps out there. But good luck finding another amp with this level of resolution at the same price or cheaper.
  I am not good at describing FQ response. So, I will keep it brief. Overall, it is a neutral and balanced sounding amp (not flat!). There is a good level of refinement across the highs, mids and lows. My fear with a lot of the neutral transparent sounding amp is that they sometimes could be shouty and bright at the upper FQ response region. Personally, I do not find that in MJ3. It is quite smooth up top and not being recessed. The mids are neutral with good presence. There is great extension in the low end. Very good speed and clean sounding. Some of you MAY find the low region not as dynamic and beefy. If you switch to push-pull mode from SE mode, you would find the dynamic of music noticeably increased overall. There is a little more 'bite' to the music.
• Soloist 3XP: It is a tonally softer and warmer sounding amp in comparison. It is a bit more dynamic than the MJ3. I think things could change when you equip the 3XP with different opamps. This is what I have heard with the V6 vivid installed. Although, it is a warmer and softer sounding amp, it still has very good resolution. It is the level you should expect for amps at this price range. No more; no less. In comparison to MJ3, the Soloist 3XP is not AS transparent and reflective of your chain. It still retains that warmer and energetic character regardless of what DAC I pair it with. At the end of day, it comes down to your preference. I do not think Soloist 3XP is not good because of that. After all, tonally speaking, these two amps are going for two different directions.

Other things to consider:

• They both run HOT! Good ventilation is highly recommended.
• Soloist 3XP has mic in/out. It could be important if you need an amp with this feature.
• 3XP has three levels of gain which MJ3 only has two. You can use IEMs with 3XP but most likely not with MJ3.
• 3XP has power amp mode which can constantly be at its max output.
• MJ3 has push-pull, single-ended, negative feedback and no -feedback to play with, if you care.
• 3XP gives you the option of opamp rolling, if you care.
• As of now, MJ3 has much longer wait time if you wanna buy one. And I believe it is a one off deal. They won't be available when they stop making it.
• Planar headphones seem to sound more engaging in push-pull mode than SE mode.
• If I'm missing anything important, let me know.

In comparison to higher tier / more expensive amp:

I will keep this comparison short and brief. Since I do not think it is realistic and fair to have detailed comparison with amps from vastly different tier/price range. Also, I impressions are only based on brief comparison of the two amps. It is just to give a general sense of where the MJ3 stands in contrast to higher tier/more (some) expensive amps

• vs. Soloist 3X GT (V6 vivid; super charger PU; fully upgraded with silent power module 2):
  The 3X GT has better micro detail retrieval. Soundstage presentation is about the same but with a better sense of air. These give the 3X GT an edge over the MJ3 when it comes to realism in instrument sound reproduction and the refinement in imaging/separation.
  The new V7 opamp just came out. I do not know if that would even further improve the listening experience with the 3X GT.
• vs. Luxman P-750u
  Speaking of refinement, when you thought you know what refinement is, once you have heard the Luxman, you will find a new definition of refinement. If you think you found the last few ounces of detail, the Luxman will further refine it for you. Sometimes, i wonder if 'elegant' is the right way to describe what I hear. Or is that liquid gold coming out of my ears? Everything is so well presented, detailed, smooth, and musical. It is neutral and balanced sounding but not the same kind of transparency of the MJ3. The soundstage is about a step or two closer than the MJ3. The one 'drawback' I personally feel about the Luxman is that all headphones will sound good with it, BUT not all headphones will sound great with it.

Conclusion:
Who am I kidding?! The Luxman is 3-4x the price of MJ3, and the 3X GT costs at least 2X as much. Theoretically speaking, there should be at least one aspect that is better than the MJ3. However, please remember it all comes down to personal preferences. Just because I or you prefer a cheaper amp over a more expensive amp does not always make the more expensive amp bad. We all have different pocket depth and judge the worth of an amp differently. I am willing to pay (so much) more for an amp for something / improvement that may seem trivial to you does not mean it is trivial to me. For many, even the MJ3 is far out of their budget.
Back to the MJ3, for an amp at this price range to do many things so well, it is not common. Not to mention, at a level that is very close or even as good as amps that are more expensive. I think that is why a lot of us like this amp and gain so much attention. Usually, amps at this price range would only to one or a couple things at a level that is above its price range. If you are in search of a great amp that will last you a long time, and it checks all/most of your boxes, and also at an achievable budget, I cannot recommend it enough. Get it while you can! Now, looks like I need to find 3XP a new owner.

 

[BenJoe]

Very well said. Again, we don’t know what’s truly going on, not with these companies, and not with these reviewers. They are appreciated, but my ears have the final say.

Lastly, i find it odd when reviewers start off by making us aware that they payed for a product out of pocket. It doesn’t always get weird but i always brace myself. Currawong mentioned buying his unit towards the end of his review in a rather unintentional fashion which felt a bit more organic to me. I don’t see the point in making us aware of this, especially at the very beginning of a review.

I think since he held a very positive opinion on the MJ3 and wanted to recommended so much. Maybe letting his audience know that he paid for it so it would not look like he got it free from Schiit and to hard sell it.

 

[quawn0418]

I think since he held a very positive opinion on the MJ3 and wanted to recommended so much. Maybe letting his audience know that he paid for it so it would not look like he got it free from Schiit and to hard sell it.

The thing is, he deemed the MJ3 solid at its price point which is fine sure, and maybe that’s truly what he’s hearing. It’s just that when you factor in what the majority of reviewers are saying along with the fact that he felt the need to mention purchasing the MJ out of his pocket, it all becomes a bit too much.

 

[psy472]

My concern comes from the reasoning for his review as more about “busting a hype” than to truly critically hear and review an Amp. He kept repeating that during his review and that tells me there is an agenda. Either consciously or subconsciously, once you deemed a product “the enemy” to defeat all your experience from it will be negative.