đź”· Schiit Jotunheim 2

Focusing on “detail” was a poor word choice. I edited my post to say more specifically “technical performance”.

The RNHP has noticeably better layering and separation - the environment of the recording is better defined. A good test track for me was Paper Moon by Booka Shade. The opening 30 seconds sounds like you are in a cafe. The RNHP feels like I’m sitting in a booth in the cafe with the sound moving all around the space. The Jot2 feels like I’m standing at the front door hearing the cafe out in front of me.

A similar experience was noticeable with live recordings like Dave Brubeck’s Time Outtakes. The track “Take Five” feels better layered and separated - similar to the Paper Moon Track, the difference is that the sound feels like it’s in the space you are sitting in vs the sound feeling like it’s out in front of you.

In both cases, the sound is very good. But the environmental detail feels noticeably different.

YMMV depending on headphone. Using Sundara and HD660s the two amps sounded much more similar. The distinctions I made above are present on both of these headphones. But using Sony CD900ST (efficient, closed back studio monitor) the differences were much more obvious. I think I enjoy the Sundara more on the Jot2 - more power into a planar headphone giving it better slam - but the RNHP is a tricky amp, it can deliver when you least expect it. My guess is the more revealing the headphone the more noticeable the difference between the two amps will be.

Regarding detail, there are smaller details that came through more obviously on RNHP. Once I heard them on RNHP I could find them on the Jot2. So far I’ve not found any detail that was just non-exisitent on the Jot2. It was just harder to notice some of them first on the Jot2.

[edit] Some differences I’m noting here are due to Jot2 SE output being a slightly darker amp (similar to A3). But as I keep A/B’ing these two amps there is clearly better space, separation, and clarity of detail in the RNHP. Headphone choice does impact how noticeable it is. But even after trying to “handicap” the comparison by using HD6xx and Grado SR80e headphones, and setting up the signal chain through a Topping E30 DAC powered off an iPhone charger, signal from laptop USB, and RCA into both RNHP and Jot2 (via a SESCOM RCA switch) I’m still hearing the differences. Not as pronounced in some cases, but very noticeable. Only by going to the HD6xx did the differences start to fade. This is a good reminder of the relative weight of influence that each piece of the signal chain has on what you hear: headphone > amp > dac.

Long answer to a short question. @Coran, Does that help?

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