Well fark. I couldnāt resist, so GL1200 inbound from Linsoul. Sigh.
I think I will configure them with the Denon AVR-2807 for burn-in, and then compare that vs. the 2807 with preamp out to Phase Linear 400 (although thatās somewhat of a noisy amp).
I did the review on head-fi for the GL1200 and the GL2000- the GL2000 for the price is a steal imho for SQ. I can add I am loving both for different reasons but the GL1200 is truly unlike any other hp I ever owned. I use the B&K 125.2 and the Adcom GFA5300 amps and well I am undecided this day which I like best- but using the interface box from GP is likely very important to the tuning they intended. I will say next thing to do is try or consider is a gold ribbon option as I look into that with the two distributors and maybe making some different custom pads - I am still enjoying these like a drug and enjoying music all over again through them- they do not do everything perfectly but do more things perfectly that make listening to music so enjoyable. 3d space like nothing else- including STAX
GL1200 on sale right now on Drop for $1199 if there was anyone waiting on them.
I have to be honest, im very tempted to get those headphones. I have always been very big into vintage hifi, so I have a couple of amps that would be worth trying with these headphones. i do wonder though how much appreciation I would get out of a set like this. Iāve been using HD600ās with a magni2U/modi2 for the better part of 5 years now, and I just dont think I have enough experience with high end headphones to critically examine them. Maybe ill hold off for a another month or two and see some of the additional reviews come in. Saving 200 bucks on massdrop isnāt worth rushing into this type of purchase.
I just noticed now that the Drop units wonāt ship until June 16. F*cking hellā¦ I AM IMPATIENT AND I WANT MY TOYS NOW, DAMBIT!
Sigh.
Soā¦ I was explaining what inverted phase was to a friend of mine. Said he swapped the DAC cables around because he was too lazy to pull his speaker amp out from the wall to switch cables around after mixing up L/R. Told him it was fine as long as the positive and negative leads were in the right spots.
Then I thought, wait a minute, I had to swap DAC channels with the JotR because the headphone pinout was flipped. I had better not have been listening to inverted phase for two weeks! Looked it up, and yessir, the phase is also backwards. So it looks like a custom adapter is a must for non RAAL headphones on the JotR.
Here is a link to a headphones.com forum post about the pinouts in case anyone is going down this route. I ordered a custom adapter from Hart Audio today. Gave them the pinout blurb and asked for some heat shrink around the amp side.
Is your setup essentially running the GL1200 to the front balanced headphone port on the Jot R using that XLR 4-pin female-female connector (ordered with that pinout blurb of course)?
Correct. Iām currently using a standard 4 pin female to female adapter from Nemal. I didnāt research the Jot R pinout too carefully when I bought it. Only looked into it when I noticed the headphone channels were backwards. I should be getting the custom one soon.
So if you wanna run this setup with the GL1200, you MUST get a custom made adapter. But other than that, the amp runs the headphones perfectly.
Awesome, just wanted to ensure I was understanding the setup correctly. Is the pinout in your previous post to the headphones.com forum the correct layout for a custom adapter or is a different layout required for the GL1200?
āRaal Pinoutā
Label Amp EndHeadphone end 4-pin F XLR ā Amp end 4-pin F XLR
Pin 3ā> pin 1
Pin 4ā>pin 2
Pin 1ā>pin 4
Pin 2ā>pin 3
That post has the correct pinout for an adapter. The GL1200 cable uses the standard XLR configuration that all headphones do. The custom cable converts the āRAAL pinoutā on the Jot R output to the standard.
Awesome, thanks a ton for the clarity! I do plan to try this setup. This should guarantee a great sound with the GL1200 in case my current receivers donāt pair well.
Just got a shipping notification from Drop, a bit over 2 weeks earlier than advertised.
Iāve got a listening station already set up next to my bed. Laptop with digital out to a Denon AVR-2807. Iāve been using it as my burn-in and listening rig for my new Harmonicdyne Zeus.
Iām not sure whether the power output will be sufficient. Itās rated at 110w @ 8 ohms, 140w @ 6 ohms; dynamic (peak?) power is shown as 120W x 2 @ 8 ohms and 170W x 2 @ 4 ohms.
If that doesnāt drive it well, Iāve got my old Phase Linear 400 ready to bolt on using the preamp outputs on the Denon. Thatās the nice thing about having full preamp outs on a receiver; can just swap out power amps.
Let us know your thoughts when you get them! I think your amp should have plenty of power as they recommend 100W @ 4ohms. I have a feeling, based on what Iāve read, the GL1200 are picky when it comes to amps. Makes me think the Gl1200 are the Magnepans of the headphone world haha. @Fiorenza It looks like youāve been running the Gl1200 for just over a month now, have your thoughts changed on them or any new opinions form?
I havenāt done a full write up on my impressions yet, because I was swapping pads constantly and the sound kept changing as I listened. Turns out the Jot R needs to be warmed up from a couple hours to a few days before it sounds consistent. From a cold start, the highs are very sharp and I canāt turn the volume up very loud. After about a day of being on, it is much more relaxed sounding. Never had an amp that needed warming up before, so it took me while to figure it out.
I will be getting the adapter next week and Iāll post all my thoughts soon after. Just to give you some quick points:
Very neutral sound signature, more so than anything Iāve tried to date. Bass is a little elevated, and the very high frequencies roll off much later than most other headphones. This will depend on amp selection.
Imaging is the best Iāve heard to date. There is verticality and sounds are pinpoint accurate.
Soundstage is very natural. If a song is recorded live, it sounds big. If it was recorded in a broom closet, it sounds stuffy.
Timbre is good. Nothing weird to report. I donāt think many recordings do live music justice anyway, so timbre is one of those things I gloss over unless I hear something egregiously wrong.
Dynamics are also excellent. This will definitely depend on the amp selection.
Got the adapter today from Hart Audio. Phase and channel swap has been fixed, and it also looks better than the javelin I had before!
Beautiful 
Note to anyone who gets these: when they arrive, take the time to remove the screw-on sleeves on the interconnect and tighten down the screws pinning the cable wire to the pins. All 8 of mine were loose and I didnāt notice it until I was trying them out and was only getting the left channel, only to go to the back of the receiver to discover that one of the wires had pulled out.
Iāve got it burning in now. From a few seconds of listening, the Denon AVR 2807 is about topped out; the volume has to be above 0 to get any sort of decent volumeā¦ and thatās with the volume setting on the PC at 100%. By way of comparison, normal fairly loud listening levels with this same setup are the source volume at about 60% and the receiver at -6 on the Harmonicdyne Helios and -12 on the Harmonicdyne Zeus, admittedly using the headphone jack, so I donāt know that itās a valid comparison.
I predict Iāll be bolting on an external ampā¦
Time for my full impressions of these headphones. Iāve been using them for little over a month at this point. Iāve got to say, this system is damn impressive. So much so, that I think these are my end game. Thatās kinda the reason Iāve been putting this off for so long. When I listen to these, I am wanting for nothing. These have deep bass, smooth mids, crisp highs, top tier imaging, amazing detail, great soundstage, no veil, great comfort, and a great cable.
For some context on my sound preferences, the HD800S and ZMF Eikons are my go to headphones. I really like to hear lots of detail and wide soundstage. I also listen to a wide variety of music from electronic, classical, rap, r&b, jazz, blues, metal, rock, folk, new age, and whatever the heck Yosi Horikawaās stuff is, just to name a few. So I prefer my headphones to be more tonally balanced to fit a wide range of music.
I will be comparing the GL1200 to the HD800S and Eikons for this writeup. Here is my signal chain:
PC ā Soekris dac1321 ā Violectric v281 ā (XLR line out) ā Schiit Jotunheim R. Iāve been using the perforated pads for all my listening.
When I first got the GL1200 and the Jot R, I plugged them up together and was very pleased that it worked right off the bat. There was very little information on whether or not the amp would run these headphones. The first thing I noticed was that the headphones were very detailed and there was quite a lot of energy in the treble. The bass was also laid back and kinda wonky sounding, especially with sine wave sweeps. But the imaging was astounding. I was so impressed, I ignored the sound signature weirdness and listened to a whole bunch of music. It was a weeknight, and I only listened for about an hour before going to bed.
Over the next few days, I started to notice the sound changing. The bass was getting less laid back and the highs were calming down. After about a week or so, I figured out that turning off the Jot R every night was a bad idea. If I start the amp cold and listen to it, the highs are very forward and harsh. Leaving it on mellows everything out, and the sound has been consistent ever since.
The headphones NEED break in. When I first got them, I did a sine wave sweep and noticed some weirdness. Around the 8 kHz range, there were channel imbalances at very specific spots. After about 4 weeks of using the headphones everyday, the channel imbalance has gone away.
Now on to the meat and potatoes:
BASS
The bass on these hits different. It feels deeper and richer than any other headphone Iāve ever used, even bass cannons. I suspect it has something to do with all the distortion in the bass. Check out Resolveās review for those measurements. As gross as that graph may look on paper, it actually sounds really good. Mid-bass and bass are nice and even and sound tonally accurate. Sub-bass is where things get interesting. The headphones make audible sound all the way down to 9 Hz! However, if you play a pure sine wave at anything below 27 Hz, it sounds wonky, like a subwoofer being fed signal through a tube amp. But when mixed in with the music, it sounds deep, rich, and very satisfying. The super large driver area also makes you āfeelā the lowest frequencies. Itās quite something!
Mid-bass and bass on the HD800S are pretty solid no matter what anyone says, especially on a Violectric amp. Sub-bass thoughā¦ is presentā¦ mostly. No rumble or richness, just kinda is there in the background, and Iāll only notice it if I listen for it specifically.
The Eikons have very good bass all the way down to 20 Hz. I donāt āfeelā the bass like I do on the GL1200 though. It is much cleaner and more accurate than the GL1200, but it gets lost in the music.
MIDS
The mids seem a little more forward on the GL1200 than the other two. I canāt put my finger on it, but these headphones seem to have more volume in a few specific places where the other two headphones donāt. The midrange sounds very even volume-wise with the perforated pads. The suede pads sounds really peaky in the mids, which I canāt stand. I donāt like shouty sound, so the suede pads are an absolute no go for me.
There is very good texture and nuance with acoustic instruments and vocals, with excellent separation from the bass and treble. No bleed to speak of.
The GL1200 has more texture in the mids than the HD800S. The mids on the Eikons sound a bit veiled in comparison to the other two. Bleed and separation are very good on both of these as well.
TREBLE
An absolute joy. Itās accurate, very detailed, and has bite without being overly sibilant or harsh. That is quite a feat! I am not super treble sensitive (I like the HD800S, so that should be pretty clear), but lots of music has sibilance issues. As someone who likes lots of detail, I tend to lean more towards the brighter headphones. I found that this makes quite a bit of music unplayable at louder volumes. Not with the GL1200. Songs that are much too sibilant with the HD800S or Eikons are significantly less painful. I can actually listen to pop music on these things with the volume up!
OVERALL SOUND SIGNATURE
I think these headphones have an amazing sound signature. It is very even throughout the entire spectrum. Nothing is louder than anything else, nothing covers up anything else. That means if I want more of anything just turn up the volume! I donāt sense treble murder, shoutiness, or bass bloat at loud volumes. I can literally destroy my hearing with these headphones and enjoy it.
To summarize, the bass hits super deep and is satisfying to listen to. Outright superior to the HD800S bass and much more fun and present than the Eikonās bass. There is more texture and evenness in the mids, and the highs are just as detailed but without being sibilant or harsh. Overall a huge win for the GL1200 in terms of sound signature.
SOUNDSTAGE
Soundstage is not as wide as the HD800S (very few things are), but I would say it is as wide as the Eikons. I would describe the soundstage as natural. When I listen to music through these, I feel like Iām in THE space. If a recording was done in a room, it sounds like Iām listening in a room. If it was done in a stuffy studio, well, the music sounds enclosed. Listening to the HD800S sounds like Iām in A space. Almost everything sounds a bit exaggerated in terms of width. Itās sometimes difficult to tell how large the recording space actually was since everything sounds super wide. The Eikons are closed backs, so they sound a little tunnel-like most of the time. Overall, I think the soundstage is very good. I can very clearly hear room information and feel immersed in the music.
IMAGING
Amazing. Imaging is pinpoint accurate. You will want to listen to all your music all over again to hear what youāve been missing. Since the drivers are so large on the GL1200, there is a verticality that is not present on the HD800S or Eikons. Sounds can come from above and below, not just left and right. They feel three dimensional, whereas everything else feels two dimensional.
DETAIL/SEPARATION
Iāve touched on this a little bit already, but these headphones are just as detailed as the HD800S and Eikons, but without needing to bump up the treble to do it. I can hear every minute detail of a track, every crackle and pop, different microphones fading in and out, etc. Instrument separation is also superb as well. Every instrument has itās own spot in the soundstage and nothing overlaps.
DYNAMICS/TIMBRE
Dynamics are better than the HD800S, I will give an edge to the Eikons. But the Eikons are closed back so thatās a bit unfair. A lot of the music I listen to has poor dynamic range though, so I canāt really offer much of a comparison here. I will say, loud sounds get very loud when playing video games, more so than the HD800S.
Iām not super experienced in general, so I donāt really have a grasp on what good timbre actually is. Nothing sounds weird or metallic on any of these headphones in my opinion.
GAMING
These are superior to the HD800S in competitive gaming. Yup, no question. The less exaggerated soundstage, amazing imaging, and sound separation lets you hear everything even in the heat of a firefight. In regular games with great worlds and soundscapes, I would still give the edge to the GL1200. The fact that these headphones have great bass make the sound effects and soundtracks much more satisfying to listen to. The super wide soundstage on the HD800S makes environments a bit more more immersive, up until you realize that while you can hear the crack of lightning, you wonāt feel the rumble of thunder.
FINAL THOUGHTS
These headphones are great man. As I said earlier, when I put these on my head, there is nothing missing from the experience for me. Music, games, and movies sound perfect in my books. I can wear these things all day long and not get fatigued sonically or physically. I think Iāve reached the end matesā¦ of anything that isnāt TOTL.
If you like the HD800S or Eikons, and youāve got $2200 burning a hole in your pocket, pick these up with a Jot R, you wonāt regret it (after burn in of course). If you like a more laid back sound with more bass, hey, pick these up anyway and hook up a speaker amp. YMMV though, these things are picky.
EDIT: Just in case someone finds this without reading through the previous thread posts, here is some relevant information:
Jotunheim R vs. my cheap speaker amps
Jotunheim R custom adapter cable
Great writeup! I realize that mine are fresh out of the box without any burn-in, but I thought I was losing my mind, being the only one preferring the sound with the perforated pads over the suede. Both Zeos and Resolve said the perforated pads were crap and the suede are so much better, yet I find them to be too rolled off. Maybe itās because Iām an old fart over 50 and my high frequency hearing is shot; I donāt need things more rolled off.
Glad folks are buying these. They are fantastic.
