Yggdrasil MiB is less tilted to the dark side, and provides better detail resolution. The synergy thing is so important. The LiM is also a great dac, but needs a substantially more neutral amp to pair with it. That is why the synergy with the GSX Mini was so good. The MiB with the MJ3 is better, but does show now that IMHO more energetic cans are going to have to happen. This is my opinion, YMMV as always.
Schiit Mjolnir 3 - Impressions Thread
- Thread starter XERO1
- Start date
I don’t think dark is quite the right term. Freq response wise, the GSX Mini, MJ3, and pretty much any SS amp or DAC is going to be dead flat in the audible range. What I think you’re describing as dark I’d describe as smoothed.
I’d also describe The LIM as smoothing the sound more than the MIB, As a result, MIB is a little better at keeping details, the LIM is a little clearer. A photography analogy is the way noise filters smooth photos. More noise reduction, less details. Which one works best is where personal taste and synergy comes in.
Personally, I’m ok with a little smoothness over detail. It’s a big part of the reason I like tubes. To my ears my Focal Clear is just plain unpleasant from something like a GSX Mini. For my taste the LIM doesn’t take enough edge off to tame the Clear, but the LIM (or BF2) plus a tube amp like the Folkvangr is a great match.
I should also say, at the level of multi thousand dollar headphone systems, it’s all about personal preference.
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I really liked my LiM, I like my MiB even more. Synergies are naturally interpretations of perceptions yes?
Yes. MiB to me is the best Schiit DAC for MJ3 according to my preferences
Dandrac
New Head-Fier
Hmmm. I am now thinking of getting the MIB upgrade card for my YggyGS MK1. but $850 and tax. Grumble Grumble.
It was a little over $1k to send mine in to Schiit for the changeover to MiB with shipping, insurance etc. Was it worth it? Absolutely. Should I have just bot MiB to start with? Of course. Just the boards to swap out on your own are still 850, but not sure if there might be some firmware or something that also needed to be done also so I just sent the LiM for its procedure. So anyone looking to buy an Yggdrasil, just go ahead and get the MiB it will be cheaper price to do that right off the bat.
Going to counter this by saying there is a rare opportunity right now to order the Yggy+ GS2 with Unison, and then add-on the MIB boards, for $50 less than the Yggy+ MIB by itself.
This gives you the option to swap between the OG A1 boards as well as the MIB boards with not too much effort.
Schiit has done a nice job at making the boards accessible on the Yggy+ chassis with only 4 screws to remove and you're in.
Very good point
centuriones
100+ Head-Fier
figured I’d experiment with the fan being that it’s a cheap option, also the summer is near and while I do let my MJ3 cook, i don’t know what internal temps the summer will bring. The fan is really quiet and doesn’t look so bad either. I’ll let you guys know if it keeps the bottom from getting so toasty. Measurement wise it literally sits perfectly above both heatsinks.
Guys, a question, I put the two fans on top of the Mjolnir 3 recommended by quawn0418, can you confirm that the air flow should be directed upwards?
I experimented with both directions, also, i ultimately decided not to use a fan as for whatever reason i just wasn’t crazy about the way it sounded when running cool. YMMV
Another thing, if your going to run the airflow inwards, I’d be prepared to open it and air dust occasionally because I’d imagine a bit of dust build up from time to time.
Slackaveli
Headphoneus Supremus
Yes, thats the way. gets the heat out of there and doesnt blast dust in your amp.
That's a good question. If mounted such that the air flow is drawn from the vent holes in the sides and out the top thru the fans, that will help facilitate heat convection and running cooler. With my fan setup, I am blowing cooler air conditioned air from outside directly onto the heat sinks and those pesky capacitors known to fail. So my amp runs barely more than room temperature. No snap crackle pop when I power down. Both methods help the amp run cooler and have no problems. Some choose to run theirs HOT. That's ok too. I actually need to buy one of those infrared thermometers so I can state actual temps other than "barely warm to the touch". Which it is BTW. I know when I ran it without fan on, I couldn't hold my hand on those heat sinks very long as it was really hot. With fan on, barely above room temperature which is usually at 73* F. Plus I have a huge ceiling fan running cranked up on highest speed at the same time which helps even more. The dac runs pretty cool too. Those components are likely going to last forever running nice and cool like that.
Sound quality is and remains outstanding. The amp is ready to rock in 5 minutes and doesn't change at all after the very brief warmup post startup. That's just my preferred run mode, doesn't mean anyone else must do this. But it works so there's that.
Sound quality is and remains outstanding. The amp is ready to rock in 5 minutes and doesn't change at all after the very brief warmup post startup. That's just my preferred run mode, doesn't mean anyone else must do this. But it works so there's that.
I shined a bright LED flashlight into the vent slats to see if there is any dust building up in there, not seeing anything yet. My amp is dead quiet and no choke vibes either, which is interesting. No cracking or popping noises on power down / cool down whatsoever. Case bottom very slightly warm to touch but I have good airflow between dac and amp with the stand.
Now if owner is more comfortable running the amp hot, by all means do so. Also running fans with air flow directed up is still going to draw dust into the case. Canned air is cheap LOL. I have six fans in my computer plus liquid cooling on the main processor. Big fan on the heat exchanger. Overclocking? Not a problem. Easy open the case and blow the dust out with canned air every 6 months. Not a big deal. Clean the filters, ready to go. The Asus motherboard is set up to drive all the fans one could want to run which is nice. Cool is good.
Now if owner is more comfortable running the amp hot, by all means do so. Also running fans with air flow directed up is still going to draw dust into the case. Canned air is cheap LOL. I have six fans in my computer plus liquid cooling on the main processor. Big fan on the heat exchanger. Overclocking? Not a problem. Easy open the case and blow the dust out with canned air every 6 months. Not a big deal. Clean the filters, ready to go. The Asus motherboard is set up to drive all the fans one could want to run which is nice. Cool is good.
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Hisma
100+ Head-Fier
I got an mj3 paired w/ a yggy lim. Does anyone notice improved dynamics w/ the mj3 in high gain? Conventional wisdom is to only increase gain if you're running out of juice in low gain, but my headphones are quite easy to drive, so I have the the dial between 9-11 o'clock in high gain and think it sounds objectively better than in low gain w/ the dial at 1-3 o'clock. more bass & treble extension in high gain.
Slackaveli
Headphoneus Supremus
There are definitely some amps where using high gain gets more volts to hungry planars and improves dynamics. Since you are on the Less is More it has some advantages over the OG cards but dynamics isnnt one of them so I'd do exactly what you were suggesting and try high gain on Mjonir.
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