🔷 Schiit Jotunheim 2

Equipment / Electronics / Gear / Accessories [Official] Headphone Amps
102

True.

Maybe over the entire time of its existence it has been at $799 for longer than it hasn’t. Over 2020 and coinciding with the time that Jot 2 has been extant, it has been $550 or less at least as much.

That’s an objectively false statement. @Delta9K just told you he bought his for 399. Several HFGF members even got one for $293 last fall. I bought mine for $485 late last summer after watching it hover from there to $515 for months prior to pulling the trigger.

The potentiometer is lackluster for the price. Agreed. The lack of gain control is also an issue at times.

From the SE headphone output, agreed. The SE input is fine.

The pot isn’t great and the power supply is on the chintzy side. Outside of that, it’s fine, IMO.

When the MLP is $500 or less, then yes it absolutely belongs in the discussion of which mid-fi headamp to buy in the price range. The ability to roll tubes gives the option of tweaking the sound, too, which is a nice option that other similarly priced amps (even up to $799 tbh), don’t have. I have yet to hear an amp under 799 that sounds better, too. I haven’t heard those Flux amps yet, though. And I have a Cayin iHA-6 to play with, but not sure it’s working right, yet. So we’ll see!

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103

I mean its just basic marketing. its the same thing klipsh does with the rp600. it drops 200$ every couple weeks . so what is the actual price? they just want to cash in every time they lower it on the people who see it as a great deal meanwhile they still make money. so yes in a way im sure its (insert randoms sale price or open box price) ive looked at it multiple times in the past 2 years and its only been under 400 1 time and everyone freaked out. so i wouldnt call that a fair price to compare it to other things.

I miss spoke i meant to say they would never set the VALUE in the market to 399, because not only would they hurt the image of the amp but damage future releases and people will just wait till it drops. again basic marketing. they sure like to ride the edge though for sure. but i guess its been out a decent amount of time.

not to mention its performance at least measurably is not even close. not only is the J2 much more usable with more features but its so much cleaner 30db of THD is huge yes i know 2nd harmonic is good for LP but the noise is almost all mains noise from the power supply and not tube distortion. i mean its worse than almost any amp in the last 5 years. SINAD as well. so i agree listening tests are first but its objectively a much worse engineered product or maybe for the time it was great for tubes depending on how you look at it. i just dont see them as competitors unless you are using 50% sale prices and even then the MEASURED performance isnt there. im sure it sounds great @M0N

104

I get what you’re saying and I acknowledge the miss-speak. I think Monoprice is playing a different game than the normal marketing, though. Their website says this:

“Founded in 2002, Monoprice is an industry innovator disrupting the consumer technology industry by offering high-quality electronics, cables and components that eliminate cost markups within the supply chain.”

Their behavior follows suit, too. Their planar headphones are aggressively priced. Granted, a couple of them flopped from a sound quality perspective, but shake up the market they did. Monoprice is doing the same with amps, subwoofers, even that $4000 16 channel home theater processor. They are trying to shake up the market, not just be a standard player in it. It might be a misapplication of standard marketing thinking in this case.

It depends on what ‘good engineering’ means. Engineering as a profession has always been about solving problems and/or finding creative means to reach certain goals. Thus, ‘good engineering’ or a thing being ‘well engineered’ should really be tied to how well the end product/solution solves the problem or attains the goal. If the goal is vanishing THD measurements and lofty SINAD measurements, then sure, the MLP and other tube amps are not well engineered. But, if the goal is to connect a listener to the music they listen to, then the MLP and many other products actually are well engineered. Granted, there’s not an objective standard by which to claim the MLP is well engineered in that regard, but it sells well, is spoken well of, and is recommended by mulitple different outlets for its sound quality. So in that sense, I would argue that it is in fact well engineered.

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105

Soooooo, it ends up being something that you can get in a lower price bracket. Every couple weeks is not a long time to wait, that’s pretty feasible to hold out for.

How many times have you looked at it? What were the other prices when it wasn’t 400? Did you look on Amazon or monoprices site? (It’s typically cheaper on the monoprice site)

So using camelcamelcamel for the liquid plat on amazon, you see this

Screenshot_2021-03-12-14-23-17-1
Screenshot_2021-03-12-14-23-17-11080×1485 152 KB

Yes on Amazon, it hasn’t hit under 600 often, but it has stuck at that price on amazon, which is fairly in the price bracket of the jot 2 imo. I don’t have a way to view the history of the price on monoprice, but it has been reliably lower than the pricing on amazon (to encourage people to buy direct I would presume), so it’s been more around 500 or sometimes lower when it was 600 on amazon.

I mean hifiman set the sundara out with a msrp of 500 bucks, but it’s almost exclusively available for 350 at this point. You sometimes see it pick back up to 500 when stock is low though

Does that actually translate to better sound quality? You can be the judge of that. If your looking for high numbers on paper, there are amps that do that better at a lower cost than both the jot 2 or the liquid plat

That’s subjective, those measurements are objective until you decide that higher = better, as that becomes subjective the moment you interprete that data yourself

The tubes in the plat are really not all that audible, yes you can swap them, but it’s not a massive change and the lp doesn’t really rely on having a tube for the type of sound it achieves, past cavalli designs are somewhat similar in being more solid state focused than tube

I’ve now taken this off topic, but point being I think it’s totally reasonable to assume someone in the market for a jot 2 would also be able to buy a plat at the prices they have been at, and it’s a pretty fair comparison to put it up against the plat

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106

What about comparing the LP against the Mjolnir? Have you had a chance to do that? The fairness of comparing a SS amp that is always $399 (in the US anyway) and a tube amp that could be had at that amount (or less, apparently) on some occasions, but is often at $799 (as it is now) is debateable. What is not debateable is your personal preference of the LP over the BF-2. But if you were to compare the sometimes $799 sometimes $293 amp against an amp that costs $849,that would be equally fair to the LP, right? So, have you done that? What would you expect to find?

107

Not directly, but I’m personally not a fan of the mjolnir at its price point. Generally my complaints with the mjolnir stem from treble that could get harsh and grainy, boxed in spatial recreation, and lackluster microdynamics. It did have pretty good timbre, great impact and slam factor, and an enjoyable signature. Compared to the liquid plat, I’d probably take the liquid plat from memory of the mjolnir as I think it’s more spatially and dynamically impressive, detail is somewhat similar, timbre might slightly go to the mjolnir but the plat isn’t far behind, both are pretty impactful overall so for me it’s a bit of a wash there but the mjolnir might have more grip in the bass. I think the mjolnir really needs a refresh to remain competitive with other amps I have heard in that range.

Imo a more fair comparison actually might be the lyr 3 which I personally like more than the mjolnir 2, which is more refined in signature, feels less boxed in stage wise, and also doesn’t feel as compressed, with similar detail and almost as much slam (but more control than the mjolnir). This being said it’s not as warmer thicker meatier sounding as the mjolnir, it’s a bit more neutral clean signature wise so it is a departure there

Also keep in mind that the liquid plat is a hybrid, not a tube amp. The lyr 3 and mjolnir as well, and all three are more solid state leaning than tube when it comes to their topology iirc

108

@Gruntslayer what’s the point of arguing though? Just get a Jot 2 and be happy.

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109

My chain is Bifrost 2 > Loki+ > Jotunheim 2 > Elex. I can take the Loki out with the a flick of a switch on the Jot 2 and listen to it fully balanced. I also like the difference in sound the se offers and listen that way also, Bifrost 2 > Loki+ > Jot 2 > HD660s. If I decided, I can also run speaker off this chain through the Jot 2. As @WaveTheory pointed out in his review. There is a lot of versatility built into this chain and I think that should be considered as well. I may be a bit of a fanboy, but I’m unlikely to ever price chase a LP. At this point in time, I consider this chain my “end game” and am quite happy with it.

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110

Glad you’re enjoying! Are you coming from a 789? I’m trying to remember, lol.

111

Yes sir. I’m forever grateful!

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112

i mean i would hardly call that an argument. i respect both of their opinions on gear more than most. i simply do not think the market sees those amps as the same price bracket at this point. now i believe that they say it drops down to 399 more than ive seen it which is a good argument that its competition is 399 and not 799. the LP isnt some ancient design so id like to think its designers vision for its price stands and doesnt fall every couple weeks to half of its designed value, seems like the sign of a bad product or at least a bad value apparently. either way they definitely play fast and loose with the pricing. the point is that is the jot 2 worth 399? ive only heard the LP one time and it was good not super tubey. and no i dont care about measurements other than i dont like to see 40db mains freq in my 700$ amp. i bought a jot 2 5 mins after i read waves review and many others.

i just need it to sound better than asgard and topping and im happy. ive got my SAGA + for my tube sound which either is actually doing some amazing beautiful emotional stuff to my asgard and my anandas or im having a psycho acoustic meltdown cant wait to try it as a pre amp for the Jot 2.

113

Not ancient, but older design that’s been trimmed down and made cheaper to hit a specific price point. I mean almost everything monoprice makes that’s over 100 bucks in the monolith line typically will fall in price overtime, I’m sure that’s planned in order to sell more units, and this is most likely factored into the design

Sure

As is typical of cavalli designs, the goal isn’t supposed to be “tubey”

Congrats, hopefully you enjoy it :+1:

Should do both

There you go, that’s def going to give you a more prominent tube sound depending on what’s in there

114

Thanks. I appreciate the comments. I have a Lyr 3 that has the internal MB DAC that was sent with the very first release. I recently tried using a fairly cheap external DAC, an ifi nano black label. It seems to me that the nano opens up the Lyr a bit, which led me to do some research and lo and behold, I ordered a Bifrost 2. I think that’s where I first encountered your comments. I had actually set the Lyr3 aside as it felt kind of muddy compared to the nano and Dragonfly Cobalt. But even with the nano (and some Roon EQ), it sounds better. I am excited to see what the Bifrost will do for it.

115

Sweet, that should be a fairly sizable upgrade for sure. The internal multibit can get overwhelmed quite quickly, and can sound muffled at times, but does have decent timbre, but you can get much more out of the lyr with a different dac imo

Ah with the multibit I can see that

Nice, will be curious on your thoughts on what the bf2 does for you :+1:

116

you or anyone know what the time frame from order to shipment is in jot 2? didnt see back order anywhere.

117

Welp, I ordered the Jot2 and Bifrost2 on Monday and still haven’t received any sort of shipping confirmation, but once I do I’ll let you know lol. Website says “ships 7-10 days.”

118

yes but i ordered a asgard 3 b stock and it shipped next day so i guess these have high demand.

119

They’re insanely busy. They have 10X the amount of orders they’ve ever had before (per Jason), plus opening a new plant in TX, plus all the covid related supply chain issues. TX plant should be up and running in a few weeks and production should speed up.

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120

im glad. as far as im concerned they lead american audio electronics and even the world outside of home theater or pro industries. would love a HT receiver from them but probably not realistic.

121

Yeah, an American audio company is pretty refreshing, but the bad part is they don’t ship to a lot of countries. Also America isn’t handling covid very well…so yeah.