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.
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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.
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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.
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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:
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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.
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Imaging is the best Iāve heard to date. There is verticality and sounds are pinpoint accurate.
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Soundstage is very natural. If a song is recorded live, it sounds big. If it was recorded in a broom closet, it sounds stuffy.
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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.
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Dynamics are also excellent. This will definitely depend on the amp selection.
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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!
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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¦
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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
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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.
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Glad folks are buying these. They are fantastic.
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Iāve still got all my hearing and I still prefer the perforated pads. Must be something else. Everyoneās ears are different, and the technicalities donāt change swapping pads as far as I can tell.
Just a heads-up for anyone considering these and thought they had missed them at $1199 on Drop, theyāre either back at that price, or like some other products in the past, the drops are continuous and are just there for aggregating orders and/or hyping the expiration.
Ok, Iāve had these for about 5 days now. Iāve been letting them play nonstop as a burn-in during the day.
Because these are pulling so much power from the Denon AV-2807, I tried bolting on my Carver M-1.0T via preamp outs, andā¦ what a disappointment. Sound is worse and max volume is actually lower than just via the Denon, which I would never have expected.
Iāve done some more A-B testing with the velour pads vs. the stock perforated pleather pads, and Iām still trying to figure out why so many of the formal reviewers prefer the veleur. The sound with them is comparatively dead. Yuck.
These are fun! Largest holographic head space of any cans Iāve tried. About the only thing that has come close is the Audeze Mobius with 3D enabled, but the quality of the sound is nowhere near as good as with these.
The treble is crisp without being overcooked. The bass is solid and deep, although there are times with some music that I wish it had a bit more impact. I am not doing any EQ at all on these.
Iāll need to try doing some amp rolling, which sadly is more expensive than pad rolling.
I think Iām pretty much at my endgame now.
Dedicated bedroom listening rig: These
Other in-house listening: Harmonicdyne Zeus
Portable/wireless: Drop Panda THX
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Tonight I got bored and decided to use an old Phase Linear 400. Initially the treble was quite shrill (one of the complaints about PL400s that havenāt been recapped) and I was like āmehā, but after the amp warmed up for about 30 minutes, holy fuckballs!
The soundstage opened up both width-wise and height compared to the Denon alone, but the biggest impact is in the bass response. Serious impact in the midbass now, and there is a copious amount of sub-bass. These headphones dig DEEP.
No EQ. Everything flat.
To quote the great Jeremy Clarkson, these headphones are āstuperbā.
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So, i bit the bullet and joined in on the drop last week. Iām not too savvy yet with the whole math surrounding the electricity to feed headphones so be patient with me.
I just need to know what type of speaker amp i need to make sure iām feeding these babies just right.
I only have the Rupert Neve RNHP-1 Headphone Amp and i keep hearing these need a Speaker Amp.
Aside from needing the speaker amp, thereās the 0.1 ohm that it needs and i just get lost. If someone doesnāt mind giving me the laymenās terms and iāll try figuring it out from there.
Donāt try powering the GL1200 with typical headphone equipment. That wonāt work. Donāt worry about the math of the 0.1 ohm load; the included interface box takes care of that.
You want to use an amp/preamp or receiver that you would use to drive traditional speakers. Ideally the amp section would be rated at 100 watts or higher per channel at 4 ohms.
Any high-current home theater receiver would be a good starting point (Denon, Marantz, Yamaha, for example). You donāt have to rush out and buy Krell or Mark Levinson monoblocks right out of the gate.
As I mention above I had good luck with a Denon AVR-2807 home theater receiver ca. 2006 (110 watts per channel x 7). You can find one used for $100-150. The nice thing about it is that it has full 5.1 preamp outputs, meaning if you want to upgrade your power down the line, you can still use the receiver as your preamp to control the source, but then run the front L/R line outs to any 2-channel amp you want to attach, and that amp will provide the power.
But there are plenty of other options out there, including dedicated amp + preamp combinations, integrated amplifiers, etc.
IMO start simpleā¦ and cheap.
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