For anyone who has the Jotunheim and has not tried these balanced certainly should. I've been running them balanced since I got them and I just did a comparison with the stock single ended cable and there is definitely improved sound stage and some fullness with the balanced I noticed immediately was lost with the single ended. To be sure I tested it again on a few other songs and I am pretty comfortable saying a balanced cable upgrade is the way to go with the Jot, or at least to my ears. This is with the Jot's internal DAC btw.
Sick! I will probably upgrade to the Modi Multibit myself, heard it pairs better than the internal DAC. And nice The Hawk is Howling avatar, big Mogwai fan.
I love the flexibility the Modi Multibit provides. I just got mine a week ago and going to run it through its paces. I personally use a tube amp, but the Jot is a beast for what you pay. Not a fan of all in ones, because my setup is basically permanent. Upgrading becomes easier only replacing one thing, but I guess you could always use the Jot's amplifier by itself. For $100 more, you're getting a pretty good DAC/amp combo, but that $100 towards Mimby is 40% of the total.
I have a feeling the stock cable is a problem on my HD6XX. I read everywhere they are clear. That is not at all what I'm hearing. Listened to the HD650 with a balanced cable into a Cavalli Liquid Carbon, which couldn't power them to my liking (I listen REALLY loud at times). They seemed different, but this meet with low volume, I couldn't tell.
Went to a meet yesterday and didn't get a chance to hear the Jot. I did get to listen to a bunch of $1,000+ headphones like Audeze LCD2,LCD X; Sennheiser HD600, HD650, and HD800 (missed the HD800S), Hifiman Edition 6 (new product, $6,000!, On a $15,000 new amp product), HE1000, Edition X V2 (which I just bought used from a member, LOVED THEM!); TH-X00 Purpleheart (didn't like them); Focal Elear; and a few others I'm forgetting. My favorite amp was the Auralic Taurus mkII. That thing had so much power SE, I was truly blown away. Granted I didn't listen to some others in the same $1,300-$1,400 range. Listening to others though, the Auralic was something special for it's price.
I'm amazed at my listening impressions, and because of the Ebonies, I now need REALLY good bass. The headphones I thought I'd really like I didn't, and a Headphone that wasn't on my radar was so impressive I had to have one. Meets like this one you can literally test any combo you want. Highly recommend going to a few before dropping more than $500 on any equipment. Serious investment should be well researched, including listening in person. Just my thoughts. Also amazing was how different everyone's taste were.
I think I'm going to mod my Dekoni Lambskin pads. I really don't like them, and prefer the sound signature of the stock pads. One reason I bought the Ebonies was for the possibility of modding them like crazy. I'm extremely happy with them stock, and I want to see how much better I can make them through mods.