[Eggtuary]

I got my HD700. I think it's a return. It came with a ¼ inch to 3.5 mm adaptor, and a 3.5 mm to Lightning male. Those don't come with the HD700's normally, right?

So now I'm wondering if I should be concerned, and send these back for a new pair? Or should I just count myself lucky that I got some freebies?

 

[Eggtuary]

I'm not sure when you were using Tidal or what problems you had (you're not specific) but starting last summer, I had a number of problems with Tidal's Windows app (and their customer support was particularly unhelpful). Primary problems were the app would often not advance at the completion of a track in HiFi mode, but would buffer endlessly. Master recording had their own peculiar problem: often they would skip a track when advancing or a track would play as electronic sludge unless manually restarted. After a couple of months, updates to the app fixed all these problems.

My problems were constant buffering. I once had to wait 5 minutes for a song to start. I usually didn't wait that long, and would just try a different tune. And songs would suddenly buffer right in the middle. I don't remember if it was more of a problem with Master's.

At the time, I had a 100 Mbps connection. But that ISP was kind of inconsistent, so maybe it was a combination of Tidal and that ISP.

I decided to try Tidal again and see if it's worth it. I'm just out $20 to try it side-by-side with Apple Music for a month. So far, with my Gigabit connection, I've had no significant buffering.

 

[vaibhavp]

I've got HD598 straight out of my MacBook Pro today, so this will be a big jump up for me!

I have seen articles saying Apple Music streaming is 256. It's definitely pretty good.

What kinds of benefits do you get from adding an amp to the mix? Is the Mojo's amp not adequate? Or does it get you, say, 90% of what you get by adding an amp in the chain?

Thanks for the feedback!

Amp that you use should be good one, capable of transmitting completely what mojo is capable of.

It gives me a bigger soundstage, bass hits with impact as if you are right next to drums and cymbals. Minor variations and dynamics are easily heard. No two cymbal crashes decay in same fashion. Timber is richer with more harmonic content.

So basically its an upgrade in every way. That said mojo + hd700 directly is also very good. You can hear cleanliness and pristine sound, since it uses so few components. These qualities will be lost slightly with an amp in between. Thats why I said consider an amp much later, once you have properly used mojo standalone and have gotten bored with it.

 

[Eggtuary]

I won't get the Mojo for a couple more days. So I'm listening to the HD700's right out of an iMac. Doesn't sound great. And I'm not hearing an impressive soundstage. But from all the descriptions here, I take it that the Mojo will change everything.

Any recommendations for what to play through it for burn-in, while I wait for the Mojo to get here?

 

[vaibhavp]

I won't get the Mojo for a couple more days. So I'm listening to the HD700's right out of an iMac. Doesn't sound great. And I'm not hearing an impressive soundstage. But from all the descriptions here, I take it that the Mojo will change everything.

Any recommendations for what to play through it for burn-in, while I wait for the Mojo to get here?

Mojo +hd700 soundstage a little on intimate side. That little fella is a little intimate with whatever you pair it with. That and bass layering will not be as good cause its mids focussed.

Apart from these 2, everything else is positive in that pairing. You can expect big, cavernous soundstage only with big desktop amps.

 

[DavidA]

Good point on the HD 700 to HD 800 re: $$ and whether the jump in price is justified by the jump in sound quality. I don't doubt that the HD 800 are better -- or even that I'd like them better -- than the HD 700 if I had the right amp synergy for the HD 800, but besides the substantial price difference between the HD 700 and HD 800 alone, while I joked that Malfunkt's exhortation that people jump to the HD 800 could hurt my wallet, in all seriousness, I am very unlikely to make that jump any time soon since I would also need a better amp than the very budget amps I have presently (Magni 3, Vali 1st gen, Samson QH-4, iFi iCAN 1st gen).

I've sold my HD800 since the HD700 does about 90% of the HD800 for me but like most say the HD800 is more picky with amps and while it was pretty good with my BH Crack after hearing the HD800 on the Elise, ZDS and Dark Star I figured that if I ever get another HD800 it would be in conjunction with a good OTL amp since its when the HD800 would really show its greatness over the HD700. One thing that bothered me with the HD800 was with some tracks the overly large sound stage of the HD800 would at times make vocals sound strange while the HD700 never does this.

@Eggtuary, while I don't currently have a Mojo to confirm the few times that I did have a Mojo borrowed from a friend the amp section of the Mojo holds it back a bit IMO. My old GF used to use a old Fiio X3 with her HD700 and it was a great pairing, almost as good as my Bimby + BH Crack. Most of the music loaded on the X3 was FLAC or 320 MP3 since that's how I've been storing my music. FWIW unless you need the portability of the Mojo I think its a bit over priced since you can get a Modi MB plus a decent hybrid or OTL (ie; LD 1+, LD 2, Solstice, Ember, Sunrise) amp for the same price.

 

[peter123]

Fwiw I don't find the HD700 hard to drive at all and I'm surprised that the Mojo doesn't have enough power for it.

It's also far from my impression that it takes a big desktop amp to bring out the large soundstage. I use my HD700 mostly when walking so I've tried it with several portable sources with great results. My favorite portable sources for it are the Opus #1S and LG G5 (with the Hifi Plus module). Another source with small form factor that performs extremely well with the HD700 is the Geek Out V2+ (the V2+ is actually great with the HD800S as well imo).

That being said I'm with David about maybe adding some tubes for a home set up. I really like them both from the LD I+ and the Project Ember II. It's also great from the Burson Conductor V2+ using my tube DAC (an old modded AA MDA-503).

 

[DavidA]

Its not that the Mojo doesn't have enough power, its that the amp section is average at best and its really noticeable when compared to a Hugo which is a little strange since on paper they look almost the same but its one case where the Hugo at 3x the price is worth it to me. My old GF tried the Mojo one day with her HD700 and said that the Fiio X3 was better without it and I had to agree with her after a few minutes of listening which cost me dinner since I was sure the X3 + Mojo would sound better .

 

[vaibhavp]

Fwiw I don't find the HD700 hard to drive at all and I'm surprised that the Mojo doesn't have enough power for it.

It's also far from my impression that it takes a big desktop amp to bring out the large soundstage. I use my HD700 mostly when walking so I've tried it with several portable sources with great results. My favorite portable sources for it are the Opus #1S and LG G5 (with the Hifi Plus module). Another source with small form factor that performs extremely well with the HD700 is the Geek Out V2+ (the V2+ is actually great with the HD800S as well imo).

That being said I'm with David about maybe adding some tubes for a home set up. I really like them both from the LD I+ and the Project Ember II. It's also great from the Burson Conductor V2+ using my tube DAC (an old modded AA MDA-503).

Its not that the Mojo doesn't have enough power, its that the amp section is average at best and its really noticeable when compared to a Hugo which is a little strange since on paper they look almost the same but its one case where the Hugo at 3x the price is worth it to me. My old GF tried the Mojo one day with her HD700 and said that the Fiio X3 was better without it and I had to agree with her after a few minutes of listening which cost me dinner since I was sure the X3 + Mojo would sound better .

X3 better than mojo? I have x5 classic. It has good dac section. But its amp is not at all enjoyable. Sounds thin and boring. Mojo vs x5 standalone isn't much of a comparison, to me. X5 with e12 is quiet good and competitive with mojo to my ears.

As for power requirements for hd700, it doesn't require much. Even a smartphone can make it sound ok. But I think I can have truly cavernous soundstage only with my desktop setup. It give it space I can get lost into, mapping out precise location of instruments against black background. With mojo direct I dont get same feeling. Everything is upfront, close to me.

As for tube vs solid state, I have similar amp like you guys, project solstice. But I prefer my solid state rig. Tube amp has a slight lack of transparency, certain dullness in soundstage that gets distracting over time. Prefer dynamic, more precise nature of my solid state rig. But tube amp does have wonderful tonality. I would love to have a tube amp that fixed issues i have with my amp.

 

[DavidA]

X3 better than mojo? I have x5 classic. It has good dac section. But its amp is not at all enjoyable. Sounds thin and boring. Mojo vs x5 standalone isn't much of a comparison, to me. X5 with e12 is quiet good and competitive with mojo to my ears.

As for power requirements for hd700, it doesn't require much. Even a smartphone can make it sound ok. But I think I can have truly cavernous soundstage only with my desktop setup. It give it space I can get lost into, mapping out precise location of instruments against black background. With mojo direct I dont get same feeling. Everything is upfront, close to me.

As for tube vs solid state, I have similar amp like you guys, project solstice. But I prefer my solid state rig. Tube amp has a slight lack of transparency, certain dullness in soundstage that gets distracting over time. Prefer dynamic, more precise nature of my solid state rig. But tube amp does have wonderful tonality. I would love to have a tube amp that fixed issues i have with my amp.

One reason I think the X3 sounds better is the Wolfson DAC chip, to me its smoother and more dynamic than the PCM chip in the X5 and many of the newer DAPs.
While I don't have a Solstice to do any comparisons my Ember has never lacked transparency and is quite dynamic (depends on tubes used-Telefunken CCa, Siemens CCa and Amperex SQ/PQ) to me but it doesn't have as good soundstage and imaging as my BH Crack, headphone jack of UD-301 or old Sony ES HT receiver.

One of the best reasonable tube amps I've tried is the Elise but since its price ($1300, includes shipping) has gone up a lot over the past year I don't consider it as good a bargain as it price from when it was first introduced ($600 which included shipping IIRC) but they have made some improvements (I haven't heard the latest version) so maybe the price increase is justified. Others in this price range: WA2, Icon HP-8 mk2, MicroZOTL2 and Mainline.

 

[vaibhavp]

One reason I think the X3 sounds better is the Wolfson DAC chip, to me its smoother and more dynamic than the PCM chip in the X5 and many of the newer DAPs.
While I don't have a Solstice to do any comparisons my Ember has never lacked transparency and is quite dynamic (depends on tubes used-Telefunken CCa, Siemens CCa and Amperex SQ/PQ) to me but it doesn't have as good soundstage and imaging as my BH Crack, headphone jack of UD-301 or old Sony ES HT receiver.

One of the best reasonable tube amps I've tried is the Elise but since its price ($1300, includes shipping) has gone up a lot over the past year I don't consider it as good a bargain as it price from when it was first introduced ($600 which included shipping IIRC) but they have made some improvements (I haven't heard the latest version) so maybe the price increase is justified. Others in this price range: WA2, Icon HP-8 mk2, MicroZOTL2 and Mainline.

Yes I need to tube roll to 6sn7. Its on my to do list. Even a slight lift in performance would make the amp perfect.

The amps you mentioned all are above 1k mark. I would rather keep it under 800.

 

[DavidA]

Yes I need to tube roll to 6sn7. Its on my to do list. Even a slight lift in performance would make the amp perfect.

The amps you mentioned all are above 1k mark. I would rather keep it under 800.

One amp that you might want to look into is the new Lyr3 since it uses a 6SN7 versus the old Lyr2 using a pair of 6922/6JD8.

As for the amps being $1000+ I agree that its a bit much to pay but for those that are seeking closer to perfection it might be worth it but for me its to much into diminishing returns to be worth it for me to upgrade my current amps and the way I look at it I'm getting older and my hearing is only going to get worse so I'd rather get more music to enjoy versus chasing perfection or that last 3-5%. Perfection to me is a balanced MHDT Pagoda + Liquid Glass + $3000 worth of tubes which I had for a few months thanks to a good friend who let me use his.

 

[vaibhavp]

One amp that you might want to look into is the new Lyr3 since it uses a 6SN7 versus the old Lyr2 using a pair of 6922/6JD8

Cool. Will look into it.

Though I don't like to buy schiit/chord stuff cause of fanboys on their threads. Still bought mojo cause it was the only locally available option at that time without Importing.

 

[DavidA]

Cool. Will look into it.

Though I don't like to buy schiit/chord stuff cause of fanboys on their threads. Still bought mojo cause it was the only locally available option at that time without Importing.

I don't consider my self a fan of Schiit stuff but they are good values, I have a Lyr2, Asgard2, Bifrost MB and Uber, and Modi2uber (started with original M/M stack a few years back) and its easy to get them fixed when problems arise unlike some other brands. Another brand that you might want to look at is Teac, HA-501 is a pretty good amp and it has what they call a damping factor adjustment which is similar to the adjustable output impedance of your Solstice and can be found for under $600 for new and $400-500 for used in like-new condition. I'd also consider the UD-301, I actually like the DAC section better than my Bimby at times since its smoother and just a touch more dynamic to me and as a bonus the headphone amp is quite good with the HD700.

 

[vaibhavp]

I don't consider my self a fan of Schiit stuff but they are good values, I have a Lyr2, Asgard2, Bifrost MB and Uber, and Modi2uber (started with original M/M stack a few years back) and its easy to get them fixed when problems arise unlike some other brands. Another brand that you might want to look at is Teac, HA-501 is a pretty good amp and it has what they call a damping factor adjustment which is similar to the adjustable output impedance of your Solstice and can be found for under $600 for new and $400-500 for used in like-new condition. I'd also consider the UD-301, I actually like the DAC section better than my Bimby at times since its smoother and just a touch more dynamic to me and as a bonus the headphone amp is quite good with the HD700.

Thats a lot of schiit

Solid state stuff is aplenty. But I am having some trouble in finding good tube stuff. Likely will end up with one of classy woo amps under 1k.