Most of us headphone addicts, dwell on all the little nuances, specs, looks, useability, charts and graphs and our opinions!!
Sometimes toooo much! LOL!
The Vahalla 2 has 4 tubes so for sure its going to put out some heat, but its not that bad compared to other tube amps I have.
But if the temps in you location get up there in the summer I can understand that!! Thats why we have air conditioning here …in Raleigh NC it can get up to the low 100’s deg F for days on end in the summer and high humidity…so its stay inside and keep cool.
Listening with the V2 this am…DT 1350’s 85 ohm cans…really acceptable on low gain!
Let us know what you decide and tell us how its going!!!
Its kind of like photography which I did for years, all the high dollar cameras and lens, darkroom, printing, framing selling etc…
One day sitting on top of a mountain waiting on the sun to come up, to catch that great sunrise shot, I thought, gee just put down the camera and enjoy the sunrise!!
For example, the glasses holders in your car above the rear view mirror on a lot of cars. Put your glasses in there and park outside. Bam. Glasses are wrecked. Delaminated / melted coatings. Can hit like 60+ (140+) degrees inside the car left in the sun…
Lyr 3 gets my vote, sonically, but the tube rolling rabbit hole is a real thing. You get to customize sound to your preference (assuming you can find a tube you like), which is gonna cost more money. Potentially a lot more money if you get pulled in to the $250+ BadBoy trap. Honestly, I’d get an early 60s 6H8C for about $25 and call it a day, instead of fooling around with the crazy 6sn7 market. Or, just wait for a good Westinghouse Reliatron D getter to show up on ebay.
The Jotunheim is a safer bet. It just is what it is. It also makes a fantastic balanced preamp, if you need such a thing for active monitors or whatever. So, bonus points for versatility. It also has enough power to launch a voice coil across your room, so… There is that.
Yep. I edited my post above with 2 good suggestions.
As for warm up, it warmed up fast when i owned it. I would get into work, turn it on, grab a coffee, then start listening.
If you want to be super analytical about it, yes, it might take 15 - 20 min for the tube to reach ultimate equilibrium, but it gets 95% of the way there in 5 min.
Yeah the specs are very similar, the big deal here to me is the balanced capibility…if thats your thing and uses a DAC with balanced outs you get that with the Jotenheim and no tube rolling will give this feature for you
But many people state except for power out, sonically there is no real difference…and this has and is very subjective and debateable for sure.
Both are good amps…to me its the balanced that would make me choose the Jot.
One other thing @BuffaloWing I would add that I have read, and or watched on YouTube is that if you plan to use the Jot. Single ended only for your headphone connector it’s not a great option as it may have significantly less power from the standard plug. I haven’t used it and can’t confirm that’s just what I read! LyR3 is amazing this far for me!
I have not heard the Lyr3 (I have a Vali2, but I have an aversion, psychological as well as financial, to tube-rolling) so cannot offer a comparison, but I believe the Jot, especially at the current used prices, is a screaming deal in terms of sq/$. I have never owned a headphone amp that was so versatile. It sounds good with everything from iems to low impedance planars (Sundaras) to medium impedance dynamics (Elex) to high impedance dynamics (hd6xx). It doesn’t offer all the openness and dimensionality of a good tube amp, but I really like the tonality and impact that it gives, with all of those 'phones, and it is also very quiet. I have also used it with the OG Saga as a pre, but it added enough noise to offset the marginal gains in dimensionality, although I do enjoy an intimate presentation with headphones. In short, I doubt that one can go far wrong with either, but aside from price, if you prefer a more open, airy kind of presentation, you will probably prefer the Lyr 3, but if you like a denser, impactful, but intimate presentation you should definitely give the Jot a listen if you can.
“In short, I doubt that one can go far wrong with either, but aside from price, if you prefer a more open, airy kind of presentation, you will probably prefer the Lyr 3, but if you like a denser, impactful, but intimate presentation you should definitely give the Jot a listen if you can.”
Could you stretch $$ to a Mjolnir2? Tubes for those are plentiful and inexpensive 6BZ7 and 6922 family. Gives you a balanced option too. Those come used more than the Lyr3 from what I’ve seen.
