A guy orders himself a HD600 and nekminnit he can't stay away from the Valhalla 3 thread. 24hrs ago I didn't need a VH3 and now I do?
What kind of is that?
As long as VH3 is tubey but not tooo tubey.
But having used HD650 with a DarkVoice OTL ten years ago, I get how so many enjoy the Senn - OTL combo. The DV wasn't such a great amp though, a mix of muddy and tubey.
I can't place an order until early July so I've got plenty of time to play with HD600/Vali/Lyr+ until then.
Still, what's the diameter of the tube apertures on VH3? Just in case a man needs to order a couple of adapters at some point.
I have to say that I'm rather surprised at the number of people on the thread who are using a harder-to-drive planar headphone with their Valhalla 3. Even with the impedance multiplier, I've avoided this combo with my Folkvangr. (I wonder if somehow the V3 does a better job with them than FV? I can't say not having the proper cans nor a V3 yet.)
Anyway, it's gratifying to see that this version of Valhalla can be used with a much broader range of cans than its predecessor. Happy listening all. (Hoping Santa will put one under my stocking later this year.)
Like some of you that haven't ordered yet, I'm thinking about getting one later this year. Kind of living vicariously through the rest of you at this point.
This will take a WE396A?
I have to say that I'm rather surprised at the number of people on the thread who are using a harder-to-drive planar headphone with their Valhalla 3. Even with the impedance multiplier, I've avoided this combo with my Folkvangr. (I wonder if somehow the V3 does a better job with them than FV? I can't say not having the proper cans nor a V3 yet.)
I've been using both, my Folkvangr and Valhalla 3, with DCA Noire and DCA Noire X.
With impedance multiplier enabled, obviously.
No issues whatsoever, sounds perfect to my ears.
Valhalla 3 sounds very natural and does little wrong. My priority is timbre, and Valhalla delivers. Things sound as they should.
The first note I took was, “cymbals!” Wow. Splash and sparkle. Not unnatural, but they hit me first.
Backup vocals are another highlight. Very well articulated; you can hear voices distinctly. On “You’re so Vain,” you might ask, “wait, is that Mick Jagger?” On the Valhalla, you just declare, “oh, that’s Mick Jagger.”
Hard to find flaws. Best I can do is a hint of vagueness in deeper bass—but that’s what deep bass sounds like. Upper bass is very articulate.
There’s no expansion of the soundstage, but imaging is enhanced. I can envision players in a room. On the self-titled “Black Sabbath,” they sound like they’re in an old church (even though it’s a studio).
I like to test the intro crowd noise on “Running on Empty.” Very convincing through the Valhalla, with a sense of space. The performance sounds live.
This carried through to the obligatory Allman Brothers, At Fillmore East. Delivered a strong sense of presence.
Noting the imaging and backup vocals, you have excellent separation. Plenty of distinction between all the instruments and voices, but without sanitizing them into different channels.
There’s favorable brightness when warranted, like on “Head over Heels.” This is hard to pull off—”bright” is usually a pejorative. Works well with the cymbals sparkle.
Conveyed a sense of “blackground” on a sparse track like (the original) "Early Morning Rain."
Passed a hiss test. On “Roadhouse Blues,” Morrison repeats the line, “Save our city,” prone to all manner of sibilance on the “s” sounds. Sounds appropriately hissy on the Valhalla.
Also on this track, I noted, “organic.” The keyboards and the entire production sound very “alive.”
Listened to classical briefly. Detected a bit more stage depth than width in the orchestra, otherwise rendered appropriately. Similarly, jazz was as natural as expected. And compelling—I was keen to extend my brief check in.
Fed by original Bifrost 2, output to HD 8XX, via some tuning with Lokius. I didn’t do any head-to-head comparisons (other than briefly checking the classical against the studio monitors).
Where about do you live? FedEx stations within Walgreens are worse than stand-alone FedEx Office centres. The Walgreen employees 'staffing' the FedEx stations should be wearing [Certified by Squidward.]
But there are two FedEx stores and Ship center that are all just 1 mile away, but FedEx will not let me choose them as an option to hold packages. I really hate FedEx. UPS is generally much better in my area.
I had my Eversolo A8 sent to a Walgreens because of they needed a signature and it disappeared for about a week. Walgreens kept saying FedEx never came, FedEx kept calling me telling me they just delivered it, and this just repeated for days...
Thanks for sharing your initial impressions! So far this impression thread has been somewhat short on actual impressions.
Quick question: By 'splash and sparkle' you mean that cymbals basically sound like cymbals, and not overly or artificially sharp? I'm very treble-sensitive and I'm curious if Valhalla 3 has any excessive treble sharpness.
Quick question: By 'splash and sparkle' you mean that cymbals basically sound like cymbals, and not overly or artificially sharp? I'm very treble-sensitive and I'm curious if Valhalla 3 has any excessive treble sharpness.
Thanks for sharing your initial impressions! So far this impression thread has been somewhat short on actual impressions.
Quick question: By 'splash and sparkle' you mean that cymbals basically sound like cymbals, and not overly or artificially sharp? I'm very treble-sensitive and I'm curious if Valhalla 3 has any excessive treble sharpness.
My first drop out was with high gain, no feedback, and multiplier turned on while listening to some harder to drive Planar headphones for just under 2 hours.
Used two of those headphones with the amp on for 8 hours yesterday without issue. Definitely worth getting the replacement, for piece of mind.
I had been using low gain for most of the time since I had received it. Only issue I had was the preamp channel fade out. I recently switched to high gain, no feedback, and listened to it for a few hours over a couple days with no problems. Then heard a click and the sound cutout completely. Came back on after 20-30 seconds. Wasn’t doing anything else other than listening through my speakers via preamp output on high gain.
Either way, I just dropped off my unit for return/exchange. Looking forward to receiving the replacement. I have my Mjolnir 3 to keep me more than happy in the interim. However, I really enjoyed the different experience that the Valhalla 3 offered. It might not have been as authoritative and clean as the MJ3 in its presentation, but maybe it’s that tube sound that added a touch more spatial-ness with my setup.
.... I really enjoyed the different experience that the Valhalla 3 offered. It might not have been as authoritative and clean as the MJ3 in its presentation, but maybe it’s that tube sound that added a touch more spatial-ness with my setup.
It's funny you say this, as I got my Valhalla 2 back from my friend last night and tried it with a few different tube combinations (aside from what I was using prior to receiving my first Valhalla 3). And I noticed that it didn't even seem close to as clear as the V3 did.
So, whilst I love the V2's ability to drive my ADX5000's drivers more properly, I definitely did start to prefer the added clarity provided by the V3 (which, of course, is still not as clear as the sound purity provided by the MJ3). But man, that tube sound certainly is addictive!
I can't wait to receive my replacement V3 tomorrow morning!
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is that?
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