1 amp per month. Really good.
My personal goal (today) is one for every season.
Hail to self-indulgence.
1 amp per month. Really good.
My personal goal (today) is one for every season.
Hail to self-indulgence.
Absolutely agree.
I also like the rest of the remarks in your post. Kudos to Mr. Stoddard for his candid honesty.
Still listening with a Magni 3 and enjoying the heck out of it…only $79 B-stock!! OMG.
Candid honesty for sure from a guy who makes his living selling “stuff”!!
Hmmm…makes you think eh?
Alex
I agree, that when you just bounce back and forth between lower end products and higher end amps and dacs that the differences are small. However, it’s when you spend more time with the gear, that you come to appreciate the little differences or small increases in performance, and that is why I keep upgrading. Those little 10% increases in performance, seem to make more of an impact for me, the longer I use the gear. I have also noticed, that once I hear those small increases in performance, I can’t unhear them, and the lesser gear just does not get used as much or at all. So, the moral of my story is that Schiit’s gear is priced accordingly and you do get better results as you move up the chain. Of course the headphones used with said gear have to be good enough to hear the differences to begin with. There is nothing wrong with a Modi/Magni, but the Gungnir/Mjolnir are definitely better.
Understand what your saying Wes_S…but this will always be debateable until the end of time.
I would really like to believe if I spend more money I will get a better product, but this is not always the case.
I believe unless you actually go thru a similar blind listening experience you will never really know for sure if those incremental differences are really real or not.
My vanity for higher priced stuff are I want not only better specs and performance but I want a better built, better parts, beefy chassis, great looks and all the things that come with that. A long warranty and service thats timely if I have an issue. Now whether those specs make for a better listening experience is the part of this hobby that always will be very “debatable”…
But when a $99 amp sounds pretty much the same of an amp much higher in cost sonically many start thinking about is the cost worth the 1/4 billet aluminum chassis and are those VU meters really adding to the listening experience?
Some dont care and can afford the higher priced stuff, some of us cant, so its good IMO to have great stuff to have great musical experiences at a cost that we can afford…
Over and out!!
:>)
Alex
I’m reading this as I’m A/B testing the Loxjie P20 ($99 + $30 tubes) against the $400 THX AAA 789. They are very, very close in the main. The Loxjie is a tad warmer and smoother. The 789 is more detailed and ‘analytical’ on the high end.
Good stuff! I totally agree, that just because it cost more, does not mean it sounds better. However, with all the Schiit amps and dacs I have owned, that is the case, and the differences were easy for me to hear, and worth the extra cost. I have worked my way up the Schiit food chain, and each time I upgraded I had the old gear next to it for a while, just to see if I could tell a difference, and sure enough I could. I am happy as heck in the upper mid fi tier, and don’t plan to change anything for a while. The ZMF Pendant was and is on my radar, but I have talked myself back off the ledge for now. Actually, my bank account has been doing the talking, and I just can’t afford that beast for a good while
To your point, Jason did mention “Moffat’s Corollary”:
“Human hearing seems to be more integrative than differential, so those small differences between components may be magnified over time, and therefore seem larger and more important than during rapid switching.”
Even with all my diatribe, I really want a ECP T4 parafeed amp!!
Why…just because!
Alex
Yes, yes. When I’ve spent a long time (e.g., every day for a month or two) using one setup, my ears learn to hear the specifics of the components far better than when rapidly switching. I tend to suffer from rapid hobby switching, so I never get to the point of caring about truly high end audio equipment.
I have friends on Tinder who feel the same way about relationships
I mean… there are some good GE tubes, but only when used as rectifiers / in the power chain. Keep GE out of the signal path.
I’ll remember that. So far I’ve have only dealt with hybrids, so pre-amp section only but eventually I’ll dabble with OTL amps and go bonkers with all kind of tubes
I got home today and got very excited when I saw these two waiting for me:
and found out the Psvane won’t fit all the way in LYR 3 without a tube saver
I love tubes and harmless surprises
Did you ever try the Mjolnir 2 and Ab vs the LYR3?
I did. Mj2 is King of impact and had a large sense of dynamics. It’s intoxicating, but might be a bit much for some. I loved it.
Lyr was much more even handed and neutral.
I have been googling around about hybrid Tube amps from multiple manufacturers besides Schiit as I already have LYR 3 and love it but didn’t think to just go back and look at Schiit to see what else then and I saw that beast and was like woah how does that bad boy sound!? Did you run it on a desktop and ever have micro phonic issues with the tubes and keyboards or computers near by?
Yep.
Nope.
There are several recommended tubes for mj2. I used the Amperex 7308, and it was excellent. I hate to say it, but the cheap nos stuff Schiit rolls in there stock is boring.
I tried a Phillips miniwatt tube too, it was quite good as well, but I busted the little nub off the top of one tube… Poof. No more tube.
It didn’t even look like they were including any tubes for it on their website, I know you don’t necessarily love planars but we’re you able to try it with your ZMF Ori’s did that amp still play well with planars since it’s a hybrid?
I test drove the Susvara from it. Plays fine with planar HPs just fine. Has oodles of power and a low OI, if I recall correctly.
Hybrid tube amps should be fine for planars, it’s the high Z OTLs and weak current capacity amps that you need to worry about.
Speaking of hybrids, I also owned the cavalli MCTH from Drop and the Liquid Platinum. Lyr 3 was better than both for my preferences, but the LP did a better job in staging. The MCTH was just mushy. Very soft sounding. Mj2 is just completely different from all of the above. It’s like… The Phonitor X fell in love with with a Bottlehead Crack and had a baby. A loud, angry baby.