[estreeter]

Whee - do I get a prize if I'm the first one to post a photo of the Gungnir / Mjolnir combo driving my LCD-3s ? 

 

[Maxvla]

Awaiting the 'Executive Review' and nice call on the Roy Mustang avatar.

 

[olor1n]

Jason has stated in email that the Mjolnir is the first SS amp that doesn't make him miss tubes. This was some weeks back. I wonder if the final version will retain this quality. The real test is with the HD800. Looking forward to those impressions.

 

[elwappo99]

I want to demo one! I'm right around the corner from Schiit too

 

[Rope]

Quote:

Any chance the Mjolnir will be available in black? It would help a lot with the wife acceptance factor...

No, but you could choose to pop the cover and have it anodized black.  I'm thinking about doing that very thing with the Bifrost and Lyr.  The only reservation is loosing the Schiit logos.

 

[Grev]

Quote:

I want to demo one! I'm right around the corner from Schiit too

Then why not try some schiit out?

 

[brunk]

No, but you could choose to pop the cover and have it anodized black.  I'm thinking about doing that very thing with the Bifrost and Lyr.  The only reservation is loosing the Schiit logos.

Well just cover the logo with tape when you spray the top lol

 

[elwappo99]

Quote:

Then why not try some schiit out?

 
I don't know the proper procedure to try said schiit out. 

 

[MattTCG]

Looks really nice!! I'd like to try out my HFM with this amp...

 

[purrin]

Quote:

 
I don't know the proper procedure to try said schiit out. 

 
The procedure is to get your ass down from LA and head to T.H.E SHOW in OC this weekend. They've got all their Schiit down here.

 

[elwappo99]

Quote:

 
The procedure is to get your ass down from LA and head to T.H.E SHOW in OC this weekend. They've got all their Schiit down here.

 
I certainly would, but no transportation for me for a few weeks .  If I had transportation I would have been down there for the event anyway. I had no idea Schiit was going to head down. 

 

[Steve Eddy]

Quote:

Much better diaphragm control and dampening. 

 
I'm afraid that's incorrect. Generally speaking, "balanced" amps ("bridged" is a better term) have higher output impedances than their single-ended counterpart as the output impedance is twice that of the non-bridged single-ended circuit. Higher output impedance means less diaphragm control.
 
Quote:

Singled-ended connections use only one wire for the signal for each channel while using a common ground, so any music produced is caused from the signal being offset from the ground so there's a chance of crosstalk between channels (collapsing the staging), whereas balanced has two signal wires for each channel with no interference from the other channel.

 
Both "balanced" and single-ended use two wires. And there's no less crosstalk between two balanced lines than between two single-ended lines.
 
Quote:

Signal degradation based on conductor quality is much less with balanced, so those expensive silver cables people swear by in single-ended systems will make much less of a difference in a balanced.

 
You'd need to go out of your way to find a conductor whose quality degraded the signal to any meaningful degree, and should there be any signal degradation due to conductor quality, the degradation would be no less in a balanced line than in a single-ended line.
 
se

 

[Rope]

Quote:

Well just cover the logo with tape when you spray the top lol

Spray?  Must be a new anodizing process?

 

[SeaHawk]

Nice to see an educated response...  Again, my comments were "off-the-cuff" and hearsay rather than cited, but just to start a conversation.  Actually I tend to notice I learn more when I start an argument
 
 
Quote:

 
I'm afraid that's incorrect. Generally speaking, "balanced" amps ("bridged" is a better term) have higher output impedances than their single-ended counterpart as the output impedance is twice that of the non-bridged single-ended circuit. Higher output impedance means less diaphragm control.

 
But this is a generalization, no?  And single-ended relying on a common return brings us to the next point
 
Quote:

Both "balanced" and single-ended use two wires. And there's no less crosstalk between two balanced lines than between two single-ended lines.

 
This is where the fun part starts. Assuming the common ground is on a perfect conductor we can virtualize the return back into the amplifier, but we're assuming this is a perfect electron sink and source of electrons simultaneously? I believe this would cause differential error/crosstalk between the channels and affect diaphragm control.
 
Quote:

You'd need to go out of your way to find a conductor whose quality degraded the signal to any meaningful degree, and should there be any signal degradation due to conductor quality, the degradation would be no less in a balanced line than in a single-ended line.  

 
I agree on the first point, however think there's a bit of fudge factor on the second, as I believe capacitance rather than resistance is the killer in headphone cords in single-ended systems and is a spec often overlooked in favor of low resistance claims (though, admittedly, very very small to the point it's at least inaudible if not unmeasurable unless you're trying hard to introduce the problem   The way I see it, if the diaphragms are being driven in opposite phases (yeah, not that common with lower frequencies that would exacerbate the effect and higher frequencies would be transient enough to minimize any effect), it would look like resistance was added or lowered to the other channel, not only affecting diaphragm control.  (Given that constructing said source material would be as useless as trying to reproduce perfect square waves, but dampening is the word for today.)
 
In fact, you're kinda taking the wind out of the sails of balanced amps.. If none of this holds true, what's the benefit/why should we pay for this along with the trouble of recabling our phones?
 
...and yes, I believe I hold the layman's take on this (having unfortunately abandoned electronics and logic gates in favor of programming in college, though now I wish I stuck with both), so yeah, I'll disagree vocally in the hopes of learning better rather than taking something at face-value (which left me with my current thoughts on the subject matter).  Please excuse my veracity
 
Cheers!

 

[Jodet]

Quote:

Jason has stated in email that the Mjolnir is the first SS amp that doesn't make him miss tubes. This was some weeks back. I wonder if the final version will retain this quality. The real test is with the HD800. Looking forward to those impressions.

 
Yeah, this is the big test.   If this makes the HD800 not need tubes.   I'm skeptical, but very interested.