I canāt quite tell if Iāve noticed that or not with the Jot2 or if my mind is just playing tricks with me. But Iām only able to use it in high gain on the SE out maybe 40% of the time and almost never when running balanced out. It seems like there is just a little more there at comparable volumes when I am able to switch to high gain, but it could just be that I have so little viable pot range on high gain that I wind up playing things a little louder unintentionally.
In an alternate universe the MG in Clear MG stands for magnetism.
No wonder theyāre so good.
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Poor Zeos, lol. Speaking of, did anyone ever figure out if the pair of OG Clear he got in to review were defective? I donāt see how he could love these and hate the OG if that werenāt the case.
I remember listening to his demo for the OG Clear and they did sound off. Like you can tell either sounds were either cleary coming from the right or left ear cups. But then again could of been the mics and the way they might of been setup? I know online demos arenāt the best to judge really how a headphone really might sound
Just for the record, I only run these balanced with my 789. And I have them hooked up to the Modius which I also have connected balanced. Iāve never heard the Jot 2, but according to its specs, itās pretty much identical in power output at 50 ohms, compared to the 789, so thatās interesting.
https://open.spotify.com/track/4KYaaJ0eDYt0Je0thIW8wv?si=23d46ddba5484681
I may have to revise my previous statement some. Iām currently doing some testing with the above album and while Iām not necessarily hearing more from the vocals or the instruments in high gain, where I am getting a difference is in the ambient, background sounds. Those are much fuller when on high gain, even when I have the pot turned to 2-3 oāclock on low gain and itās much louder.
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Schiit gear tends to sound better on high gain than in low gain, the only headphone I found sounded better in low gain on my a3 was the harmonicdyne Helios.
Also from what Iāve heard from people on here, the clears favour a better quality amp rather than something that has a high watt count.
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Yes thatās right. Thatās what I hear, too. Itās very noticeable on songs that start small and intimate and then swell and grow more complex. A good song to hear this āambianceā, is Allman Brownās, āSons and Daughtersā.
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He mainly ran them off amps what were fairly unsuitable for a clear for the most part, like a qes reference for example which is a current drive amp that given itās high output impedance and nature will make the clear sound extremely bloated in the bass and uncontrolled (has an output impedance of like 150 ohms or higher from memory, that will absolutely screw up the clear being only 55 ohms, so that amp really wants something more around 300 ohms to sound proper or some planar, along other quirks that come along with current drive)
And also I wouldnāt put too much faith into a higher end z review anyways, most just leave you questioning how he came to that conclusion once you hear the thing yourself
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That would be an issue, yes. Thank you for explaining that. Iād been wondering how he could have had such a positive impression of the other Focal products, but hated the Clear.
Iāll be honest, I didnāt hear it so much with that song, from either output of the Jot2. But it also wasnāt as quiet of a recording, so I didnāt have nearly as much of the pot to play with for testing.
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By any chance do you own the Pink Floyd album, āThe Final Cutā ? If so, any song on that album will do. Dire Straits, āBrothers in Armsā is a great track to test as well.
As a side note, I wonder how much can be detected via Spotify. Itās not the highest quality audio. Everything I listen to is lossless.
Iām afraid I donāt. Everything I listen to is via streaming, and Iām getting that through Spotify.
So, Iāve started listening to it on Spotify, and Iāve heard a little bit of difference three songs into the album. But it hasnāt been as obvious as it was on the album I linked a few posts back.
Itās definitely more obvious on some songs than others. But to my ears, the scale, separation, and especially bass impact, just sounds livelier and more grand on high gain. I also think that high gain accentuates what Focal is already known for, which is their amazing macrodynamics.
I wonder how much of that could be amp dependent? Iāve only ever had the Jot2, so I donāt have anything to compare against.
I would like to know that as well. Iāve never owned a Schiit amp, but I like their dacās. I hear good things about the Jot 2. Iāve even considered purchasing one. But apparently, Schiit is overwhelmed right now and are heavily backlogged with orders.
After trying a lot of the focalsā¦ Gotta say clear mg here and the Radiance so far have been my favoritesā¦ Elegia was nice but I felt both celestee and radiance were a cut above them. Really contemplating whether or not to sell off the beyers here since I got these, never thought I would catch myself thinking that one. Probably keep the T1 on the wall but the others can probably go at this pointā¦
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In my experience the higher tiered Focalās (Utopia/Clear OG/Clear MG) are very sensitive/transparent to source, and indeed scale with higher performing gear.
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ā90% sure FOCALās got the best headphonesā. āThe Clear MG are the best FOCAL headphones Iāve ever heardā. āThese are perfect audiophile headphonesā.
He also said that the MG stood for āMagnetismā in that videoā¦
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Yeah, I know. lol