For now, I’m not interested in upgrading all of my cables to balanced as well. I’d already be stretching my budget a bit with the Asgard and the Bifrost… I suppose I could do Jot, or Lyr 2 and Modius but I’d rather have an endgame multibit DAC and then, if I have a need or want for a better amp later, be able to upgrade. Definitely don’t want my chain sounding too dense though either.
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I haven’t auditioned the HE1000, but I do have an Arya. The story of how the Arya came to be is a bit nebulous, but if what I’ve heard is correct, Arya was originally a Drop collaboration to improve upon the original HE1000 and bring it to the masses at a lower price (hence the plastic construction, basic packaging, etc). The collaboration fell through for some reason, and Hifiman decided to keep the design and call it Arya. So you could think of Arya as sitting above the original HE1000v2, but below the newer more advanced HE1000se. Not so much between Ananda & HE1000, but between HE1000v2 and HE1000SE.
In any case, I would call Arya a no-brainer at its price. Any way you slice it it’s a $3k+ driver for half that price. It punches well above its price tag IMHO.
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In that case, I would say get a Jot 2 with multibit DAC add-in card and use that for now while you save towards adding a Bifrost. The multibit card will at least give you a little taste of the multibit goodness, then you can bypass it by plugging in big brother bifrost to the Jot later.
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What do you think of jot+modius for now. I could run balanced and then when I want to upgrade just add Bifrost to the stack. Thanks for your help on this!
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Yes, I have a pair that I really enjoy listening to. They certainly are heavy, no way around that, but the sound is very rewarding - for me at least. I find that if I move the headband a bit forward or backwards every now and then it alleviates the hotspot.
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That makes sense. I think Jotenheim is just a better amp all around than Asgard, so it’s a good idea to start there. Modius will hold you over while you save for a Bifrost. Schiit resale value is pretty good, so you’ll probably be able to recoup most of the cost of Modius when you’re ready to upgrade
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Great synergy between Jot and Modius. I believe that if you feed the Modius with a good digital signal you don’t even need to upgrade for long time.
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Guess the only question is if that would compare to the Burson playmate.
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Not a fan of OP systems so I can’t help with that. To me OP look like a shortcut took instead of build a quality circuit on your own. Just my feeling about it, obviously.
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I wish I could offer some wisdom, but I’m new enough to the LCD-2 and the Lyr that I have no real frame of reference. I can say that it certainly sounds better than the FocusRite Solo that I use for my podcasting interface, but with the stock tube, I don’t think I’ve heard its full potential yet.
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FYI, there was some discussion of the Taboo here.
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Good stuff, thanks! 
Schiit also just announced that they are bringing a “10 tube headphone amp” to market this year. While I don’t know that I’m interested in managing 10 tubes, I’m intrigued enough to wait and see what they come up with before I make up my mind. Also, my wallet says I need to chill the F out until 2022. 
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You bet. I’m not sure how I feel about 10 tubes to run dynamic driver headphones, especially outside of winter and the holidays! Chilling the F out until 2022 may be prudent, assuming your ears remain satisfied. Cheers.
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Do we know which tubes? Even cheap new production gonna run you into the hundreds. Forget vintage tubes, even if one could afford it, finding enough of anything NOS is the problem.
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No, no word on tube types, but it’s called “Folkvangr”. We got a glimpse of it in one of Jason’s youtube chats a couple of months ago, but he just announced last week that it would be coming to market soon. Tube rolling NOS would be a nightmare, but maybe it sounds great with basic modern tubes? 
My curiosity is piqued.
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Given the popularity of the tube threads on this forum, I fear that tubes are going to be in short supply before long - and that the Schiit Folkvangr (the 10-tuber) will make a massive dent in global stockpiles. Maybe now’s the right time to establish a new tube manufacturing company?
Joking aside, are there many manufacturers of tubes still making them?
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What is this “satisfied” that you speak of? I’m not familiar with that word. 
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Yes, actually - and more going into it every day now that there’s a solid profit to be made.
Question is whether any of the new production tubes sound anywhere near as good as NOS.
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Good to hear! And, yeah, it makes you wonder how much product development and testing, not to mention incremental improvements in manufacturing over many years, contributed to the quality of the NOS greats. It must be hard to replicate that manufacturing experience and knowledge.
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Ha, ever elusive…and temporary.
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