In Aliexpress youâre supposed to specify 120AC, 12V, American Standard power cable etc. When viewing checkout page thereâs a button on the right of each item in cart where you can add in a 150 character message. Donât forget to tell them options so they donât default to 230AC etc.
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Did you wind up deciding? JDS OL DAC user here considering J2 AKM vs. R2R as well, leaning heavily to J2
I am just wondering if spending $100 or $140 Canucks Bucks is worth spending on a power supply. How much could it improve the J2 or spend the money elsewhere on a new IEM.
Itâs a fair point - not real sure though Iâve heard great things.
But⌠I just ordered my AKM J2! So Iâll be able to tell you for certain if I can hear any difference in about two months!
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I spent my DAC money on headphones, so itâll have to wait. Sticking with the Mimby in my 2.0 setup for now. The Bifrost has a remote so that might be what makes me decide though.
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Got the AKM J2 order in as well as Elac Debut Reference 62 arriving soon, I guess I went full retard for cheapaudioman opinions. Weâll see how it works out. Now that I got my office walls acoustically treated to me nearfield / small room 2.1 setup is killing anything Iâve experienced on headphones, no contest. So now all the audio budget is going towards making the speaker setup as good as possible, and IEMs for workouts. I guess weâll see if I ever make my way back to fullsize headphones but man, speaker setups can sound crazy good for around the same money if you have a dedicated listening space.
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If anyoneâs interested in the strange experiences I had with the J2 and comparing it to the Schiit gear, I did a full write-up over on Headphones.com: Geshelli J2 vs Modi+ vs. Modi Multibit 1 vs. Bifrost OR how DACs made me rethink sound perception - General DAC/Amp/DAP Discussion - The HEADPHONE Community
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Wow, gee whiz I found someone I completely follow and relate to their audio journey on the internet. Who would have thought it could be possible 
Found this write up extremely helpful. I too have just begun to graduate the âhigh performing well measured bang-for-buck gear must be betterâ mentality so many seem to ascribe to such as ASR, and am discovering small differences in a gearâs FR can possibly make very big differences to the enjoyment of the listener.
I think your point about psychoacoustics (the whole reverb part) is a great point to bring out, I think people donât understand how many factors could play into their enjoying sound. Itâs not just the tech ability of the HP or speaker, itâs also odd preferences you never knew you had such as whether you want your room heavily acoustically treated or whether that acoustically dead atmosphere is too quiet for you. Youâll hear more detail yes, but if you want to sound like youâre at a party maybe you want brick walls for the reverb effect instead. And your brain will never switch gears to test which is most pleasant to you and why until you try different types. I discovered like you recently that non-fatiguing and non-abrasive gear is darn near the top of my list above even tight bass or exciting sound. Didnât realize till I upgraded cheap speakers to Elac DBR62s how much I enjoy the lack of fatigue.
One note of mine on the Elex - have you tried a parametric EQ preset for these? I had no love for the Elegia and none of my personal EQs made it any better. I tried them recently on a Qudelix 5k with oratory1990âs preset PEQ and theyâve become my favorite HP I have tried, closed back notwithstanding. Definitely worth a try before you sell them to see if a base known âgood EQâ starts making them more enjoyable - then you tweak that base further to your liking.
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Very interesting write-up, Eric. Thanks. Individual perceptions vary so much, even in the same listener with a small tweak in gear or eq, mood, time of day etc. not to mention ones audiogram, lol. For me thatâs a part of my fascination with this âhobby.â AndâŚis why a consensus is so difficult to attain.
@WaveTheory speaks of the psychoacoustic factor as well. Fwiw I used (and still have) the Atom, though with the Topping e30 dac, and used with the SundaraâŚand found it to be a bit sharp often, even though I have some HF hearing loss. A move to the Asgard 3 shifted my thinking quickly! When I really became aware of all this was when I finally bought the
Bifrost OG. Big change that didnât sound ârightâ at first because the sharp edges were missing. Another change that I was slow to appreciate was with
my Nordost usb cableâŚnow if I switch I just go âWow.â
And the Loki mini+ and headphones and synergy of chainsâŚDT880/600 and Senn 6xx and Ksc 75âs. WellâŚsimply fascinating!
Apologies for THAT rambleâŚguess I needed to get that out, as you did, lol.
PS sorry if I messed up the thread.
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Very interesting read. Thanks for sharing! I think a lot of people will find things they relate to in your lessons learned.
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I kinda had the make experience this week with the J2 my A90D and the Sennheiser IE200.
I normally listen to " My Best" set up last.
This time because of the shit senny SE cable wasl limited in my pairings.
At the end I found the J2 AKM made the IE200 too warm and mushy.
Changing to a ESS DAC from the Shanling or CS from the iBasso made all the difference to bring out the details for this IEM to sound good.
I love my J2 on everything but the IE200.
This might change on balanced output and a better cable once I have that I will update.
Cheers TDM
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Thanks for the feedback!
One note of mine on the Elex - have you tried a parametric EQ preset for these? I had no love for the Elegia and none of my personal EQs made it any better. I tried them recently on a Qudelix 5k with oratory1990âs preset PEQ and theyâve become my favorite HP I have tried, closed back notwithstanding.
I did try them with the Oratory EQ on my Mac using SoundSource, and that made them less fatiguing than stock but more boring at the same time. (And I like Oratoryâs presets often, like I think they improve the 560S which I also love stock.) Itâs unfortunate because I really wanted to like the Elex.
I will say that I twice now demoed the Focal Celestee and liked the tuning of that a lot, but I donât think I want to spend $1k on something that heavy (and honestly I think the Mini C is better and much lighter to boot). I liked the sound of the Celestee better than that of the Clear MG I tried at the same listening session. I plan to try some more Focal and some ZMF headphones at CanJam NYC this year, but honestly given how heavy and expensive those are and how much I already like my 6XX and ETA Minis, I think I might just be done for headphones too.
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Iâm a huge fan of finding a cheaper âpersonal endgameâ and just enjoying your music. For many of us I suspect that mid-fi / low end budget hi-fi PLUS dialing in the psychoacoustic preferences you were detailing is âmore than enoughâ and we donât feel the need for the ultimate audio experience. Itâs similar to me to enjoying a well cooked serving of your favorite cut of steak at an all around solid family fun restaurant vs. the ultimate 3 figure plate of perfect steak at Ruthâs Chris. I personally enjoy the former just fine and donât âneedâ the 3 figure dinner to feel like Iâm having a great time. If I can just get a good serving of what I do like and not get much of anything of what I donât like - Iâm great with that.
Thereâs a whole bunch of other things we can spend our hard earned money on other than audio gear people! Finding a âmore than good enough personal endgameâ is a valid strategy with limited income
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I noticed Geshelli have a new version in the store, the J2S. If you opt for the Sparkos chips, it nearly doubles the DACâs price. What do you guys think of this new direction theyâre taking?
âThe J2 Socketed version will have 3x 8pin DIP sockets available on the board. This will allow you to swap out the opamps with the Sparkos 3602, or any of your favorite chips.â
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The new case is awesome! Full review to come.
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Op amp rolling has almost become a hobby within a hobby. Maybe not on the level of tube rolling, but itâs getting there. I have rolled op amps in amps and DACs of many shapes, sizes and styles. Sometimes it makes really noticeable differences and you can basically tailor the sound and performance to your liking while other times it seems to make next to no difference to my ears. If they designed the circuit on the J2S in a way that allows it to accept a wide variety of op amps easily making a considerable difference in the sound, then I think itâs all good. Theyâre still offering the traditional, non-swappable version so theyâve basically just decided to expand the DAC line to include an option that targets what seems to be a growing market/trend. By offering Sparkos op amps they are further targeting the boutique side of that market by partnering with one of the more popular boutique/discrete op amp manufacturers. All of that just seems like smart marketing. No downside for their happy, established customers while offering something new to bring in a segment they havenât had an offering for before. Thatâs a win-win for them. Unless Iâm missing something?
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Good stuff! I donât watch many YouTube reviews, but I have been interested in the J2S in particular and how the Sparkos op amps perform in it. Iâm definitely looking forward to the full review. 
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Well, I am pretty jazzed about this new DAC. I want to start eventually ridding my system of Chinese gear (at least as much as I can) and was looking at getting another Biforst 2, but I am not waiting 12 weeks for one. That is absurd. I just hope I am not getting into a long ass wait for this one as well. I was gonna wait for the full review from @WaveTheory, anyway, so I guess we will see where things stand after that if I am still interested. Nice work on this intro, Wave!
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Iâve heard Geshelli is working on a new AK4499 DAC, might be worth waiting for more info on that.
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I first started this as a reply to a post and my love for Geshelli and my excitement with what they are doing with socketing their opamps, and my extreme geekness carried me through the last hour and now I had a damn essay and nobody wants a dissertation as a reply to a question so I thought Iâd just post it here.
The J2 AKM has been in my system longer than any other dac. I love it so much. Bang for the buck it is unmatched to my ears and for me itâs all I need, do I want more, of course I do, but for my needs itâs perfect. I do have a much more expensive Audio-GD - R7 MK2 dac in my analytical headphone set up that is around 10x the cost of the J2. As to be expected there is a sizable difference in what I hear but it is not 10x better, not even close. Most of this also depends on the headphones I am using and amp I am using. Amp wise I have the AUDIO-GD HE-9 LE amp paired to that R7 MK2 and doing a comparison with the J2AKM set up to that amp there is for sure a difference but to me I feel like itâs closer to 4x difference at most. Maybe. Again, what headphones am I listening on, thatâs the big tell. To be clear, I absolutely do feel like the Audio GD set up I have is completely worth the price. It is incredible. Transcendent at times. I do not think it is over priced, I DO think the J2 is vastly under priced.
I find that I need to remind myself to not forget that the point is to have fun. I have not heard the J2 ESS but Iâm curious if I can really tell the difference. I can tell a difference in dacs but it also requires massive price jumps into HIGHLY resolving equipment so in the end we end up paying higher prices for not only the DAC. So to my ears in my desktop and TV system, the J2 really is all I need and I love love love it. We of course want more a lot of the time, thatâs the game, but needâŚJ2 is awesome.
I have had the J2 set up in my desk top system connected to a LTA MZ2 speaker/headphone amp and as I type this I am watching Netflix Dark on my TV connected to it and it is connected to the Akatika PR102 and GT104 amp. I recently had the Denafrips Pontus II set up for a couple months in my desktop set up and then in my TV set up as well and yes there is a difference, the parts used in the topography of the $1800 Pontus 2 12th edition is for sure going to be different enough to make an audible change from the J2 that I can hear but the question is, is the difference 6x better than the J2 AKM to support the price difference? F&%K no, not even close. Please donât misunderstand me, I AM saying there is a difference but we also need to consider all the parts of our systems and if all the parts a set up to be transparent or revealing enough to show all the differences. Essentially, are we trying to put a Porche engine in a Honda Civic. Stranger things have been done butâŚwhy? Why waste money on that when we can save up and eventually, years down the road, buy the entire Porche in which all the components are literally created to work in harmony with that engine. Or just chill with the Civit and save a ton of money on gas and maintenance. That is how I look at my stereo systems. The speakers I am using in my desktop are Omega Compact Alnico and the speakers for my TV set up are GR Research XLS Encore with all the bells and whistles. Both very good revealing speakers and still the difference is not worth the 6x price tag. Iâm not even sure that I heard a 2x difference. Maybe on IEMs and sensitive headphones on that LTA MZ2. The J2 AKM is so so so good for the fun factor in my systems and for me really great even for like 80%ish of the analytical listening, so if I want to get away from the work I am doing at my desk and donât want to go into my listening room for the Audio GD gear, Iâm still golden.
Over the last few months I have fully committed to keeping the J2AKM in my TV set up I am looking to find a dac to pull into my desktop set up that does what it does at the same price point. I have been contemplating just buying a second one. I had also been thinking about the Schiit Modi Multibit 2 after hearing stories of people with extremely expensive systems using it in their systems and loving it and Schiit basically builds for the fun factor. Then this J2AKM Socketed comes out. Going back to the TV system I mentioned before, the Akitika PR 102 preamp is opamp based and set up so that when I soldered all the parts in the opamps, just like the new J2, are in sockets so I can roll opamps. The changes that I heard when rolling opamps in my two channel system were incredible. The opamps are not cheap but, bang for the buck, the best and most drastic change I have heard in my system. THIS is what attracts me to the J2 socketed. I have had many amps and dacs over the years. Both solid state and tube. The opamp changes I heard are just as big as, if not bigger, than the changes I have heard from tube rolling or any other tweaks we love to pour money into. I do fully understand that my profound opamp rolling experiences have been only in the amplifier, not the dac world, world but the dac signal is still amplified with the opamps and to consider that at about $300 I can purchase the foundation of a dac I already LOVE and know for sure is the best bang for the buck I have personally experienced, and that I can then potentially tailor the sound to my liking even more is just amazing to me. It could be the rare marriage of what I need and all I want in the audio world. And this to me is why the hew Geshelli amplifier is 2x the cost of the previous one. The tone controls are awesome but that ability to tailor the actual amplification of the signalâŚat that price pointâŚGeshelli knows how to party. Thatâs for sure.
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