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What was that word?? “beguiling???”…
LOL
A.
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Indeed, which I usually associate with tube sonics and goodness! Such qualities out of the Jot 2 single ended is distinctive, to my ears, which others should not overlook.
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One of the interesting things with the Jot 2, is you have both SE and BAL inputs…and SE and BAL outs and two gain settings…what a plaything of an amp for sure…
Its easy to get lost…i wrote down my “initial” impressions and tried to correlate what i liked with what settings.
The end result there is a selection that works well with most any headphone IMO.
Indeed to me its a "super amp’…not just in power etc…although some will think this is a compromise of sorts. Its a really great one.
A.
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I agree. I didn’t start using the balanced inputs until yesterday afternoon/evening. With the multiple inputs, outputs, and gain settings, the Jot 2 is an explorer’s dream. I’m aware of some of the stated weaknesses of the Jot 1’s sonics. With the multiple configurations of the Jot 2, it’s likely that such weaknesses (assuming real) have been addressed and one can dial in a configuration that suits their particular cans/chain.
One “BIG” thing with the JOT2 that many will overlook is mentioned in this comment from Jason Stoddard:
“Here’s what’s the same as Jotunheim: the bottom chassis, the transformer, and the super-duper Alps RK27114 “Blue Velvet” potentiometer.”
Inside its a totally different beast.
So to compare it to the OG Jot 1 is fair, but its not an apples to apples comparison IMO.
A very neat techie thing is the availability for very good matched parts in an LSI or SMD form factor.
One of the engineering things Stoddard took advantage of to achieve his design goals.
A.
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Nonsense. Jason always comments on the sound of his amps using the same “people are saying” dodge a certain losing politician does to smear his opponents.
Bugs the heck out of me that both get away with it.
How would you want a manufacturer to answer that question? Should they:
- Say how they find it to sound?
- Refuse to answer the question?
- Or share what the trend in customer feedback suggests?
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I expect them to say whatever makes their target audience want to buy their product.
The one thing that I’ve been pondering: When does Continuity kick in? At what point does it stop operating in class A and B starts to supplement? With the power the jotunheim 2 has, I would imagine that very few loads will push it into that. But I just don’t know.
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Schiit doesnt have to tell you how their stuff sounds. 99% of the time the official line is “you tell” us.
After 10 yrs in business most folks get this and them still being around and successful tells me they are telling their customer base and future customers the right thing…whatever you think they are or are not doing.
And I would HOPE you would NOT bring politics into this forum.
Alex
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Good question and I wondered the same. You’ve likely seen this from head-fi, but I’ll post what seems to be the most he’s explained so far. For the Asgard 3, 500 mW of the 3500 mW into 32 ohms is Class A. It would be helpful if he expanded on the statement about supercharger in bold italics below (emphasis added by me).
This one did the power output, and it sounded pretty good, but it lost something. Yeah, I know, subjective BS and all, but whatever.
What I really needed was something like Continuity…but more efficient.
Aside: the problem with Continuity is the lower the standing bias, the larger the sense resistors have to be…which means the higher the voltage loss, and thus the lower efficiency. In some amps, like Lyr, Asgard, and Aegir, this works great. But if you’re going for an amp that isn’t a room heater and still has good power output, it’s not the first choice.
And that’s what started a more-than-year-long quest to try to get Continuity’s efficiency up. This comprised many new boards, including some truly wacky things with gain on the sense resistor and super-complex output arrangements. These all either:
- Didn’t work
- Didn’t improve efficiency
- Were unstable and unusable
- Sounded like butt
- All of the above
I was just about ready to give up and do a Jotunheim 2 with a conventional Class AB output stage (it did sound fine, after some tweaking, but you always wonder what you’re missing, right?) when an alternate idea came to me, one that didn’t use the sense resistor in a way that threw away voltage swing. It wouldn’t be exactly like Continuity, but it would counter the transconductance droop…by acting a bit more like a supercharger that came in only when current needs were highest.
Hence, the Continuity Supercharger, or Continuity S™.
The results? Jotunheim 2 now does 7.2W RMS into 32 ohms at 1% THD, up from 5W on the Jotunheim. (We rate it a bit less at 6W RMS, because that’s how we do things around here.)
Holy moly.
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And of course he used Supercharger not Turbo, per his Corvette selections 
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I prefer the sounds of a gear scrolling at high speeds, forcing air into an engine rather the puffs of blow-off valves. Both are effective and have their applications though.
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Indeed. What about nitro? I kid. Torque over horsepower.
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Yeah, the description of Continuity he gives us is interesting, and yet lacking any information at all. LOL. It’s just a super simple layman’s terms kind of thing, and totally appropriate for the chapters he writes.
Continuity = AB without the gm doubling issue, I got it. That is not an insignificant achievement by any stretch. But it’s still AB, so what’s the limits of A? I guess it would be too much to expect for Jason to divulge. I suppose that if there is no gm issue, it doesn’t matter either.
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At all. LOL. It’s not full Class A. It’s not full Class AB. It’s not Continuity. Where does that leave us and what innovation has he landed on, if any? The people / fans want to know. We don’t need the secret sauce trade secrets, but a better understanding. Perhaps it’s not a fixed transition point and it’s variable. Not sure.
During his live steam last week, he mentioned two new speaker amps in process, one above and one below the current range. I would think at least one would feature Continuity S.
Any apparent weaknesses with this god emperor of an amp? How’s the tonality, speed, punch, staging?
SE more toobish, wonder why?
You can probably guess an upper bound on how much is class A, based on the size of the box and the heat generated, unless it gets dramatically hotter than the Asgard it’s probably a similar 500mW. And given just the size of the box, I’d guess <1W.
To put it in perspective I have a class A/B amplifier, that’s 3W class A, 9W total in a 17x14x5 heavy metal box and that gets hot to the touch. That’s at least 4x the surface area to dissipate the heat.
Good point and props on the inductive reasoning. The Jot 2 doesn’t get as hot as the Asgard 3. But what about the air circulation in your room. I’m kidding.