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In Reply to: RE: The headphones that you have chosen may not work well with that amp posted by EdAInWestOC on August 08, 2019 at 08:49:18
The JDS Labs Atom will drive both my new Sennheiser HD 650 and new Beyer DT 770 Pro's (250 ohm) to satisfactory levels, even on Low Gain setting.If I do get better amp, it will likely be a Massdrop THX AAA 789 which got an extremely positive review at Audio Science Review. OTOH the Schiit Valhalla got an extremely negative review from the same reviewer, (see link below). The Valhalla, according to ASR, puts out considerable less clean power in to 300 ohms than the JDS Atom.
I love the music of Dmitri Shostakovich ...
Edits: 08/08/19 08/08/19Follow Ups:
With quantitative evaluation of gear. Long ago I learned the bitter lesson that in spite of our advances in technology, we still don't know as much as we give ourselves credit for.I have no idea how old you are but years ago there was a magazine called Stereo Review and they stuck to the opinion that if there were not significant differences in how an amp measures it sounds the same.
I learned that this is far from the truth. It is not the truth because we still do not fully understand what makes our hearing pick up differences in the sound of different things. In short, we just don't know how to measure things that translate to how an amp sounds.
Of course there are those manufacturers who abuse this little factoid and insist crazy things make a difference. Maybe they are right but I tend to be a skeptic and lean on the side of dismissing crazy sounding claims.
There are things that do matter and whenever I see people who backup their opinions by showing a lot of graphs, I tend to walk away. I trust them as much as I trust the snake oil salesmen.
The sales people who I do trust are those who offer you a chance to sit down and listen. Or give you a warranty where you can return the product for any reason, as long as you are not satisfied.
I personally know people who use the Valhalla and that amp performs very well for them. I also know people who use the Bottlehead Crack and that little amp also performs very well.
If you hook up both to test gear they may not measure as well as a cheap sold state amp but how do the amps sound when compared to each other? We do not listen to graphs or tables of numbers, we listen to the amps themselves.
It is a throwback to quantitative vs qualitative measuring and we cannot get away from the fact that measuring things don't tell us everything. I suggest you sit down and listen to these amps before you accept any graph or table of numbers as some sort of absolute proof that the product is superior.
After all, like I said before, you don't listen to the graphs.
Ed
PS. BTW the original Valhalla was replaced by the Valhalla 2 quiet a while ago. The people who I know are using the Valhalla 2. The fact that the reviewer draws conclusions from a defunct product shows you how seriously you can take this person's point of view. He did mention it was an old product but then concludes by bad mouthing the product and calling it names. If the results were honestly represented he should have mentioned that the results were on a product that has been replaced and will not be the results you can expect. In short it is a misrepresentation.
We don't shush around here!
Life is analog...digital is just samples thereof
Edits: 08/21/19 08/21/19
That's right, my experience goes all the way back to the day. Lots of people agreed that " Julian Hirsch never heard a component he didn't like ", (well at least he didn't report any). In other words a positive review wasn't take seriously by audiophiles, including me.Basically all you could take from a Hirsch review was that the design and performance of a product wasn't totally crap, but beyond that, not much. ASR's reviews are more in depth and I'd argue, relevant than Hirsch's back in the day. ASR's reviews are objective however but Amir doesn't claim that all components sound the same and he does often comment on the sound.
As for the Schiit Valhalla, I haven't heard it. Frankly if people like the Valhalla, perhaps they are just agreeing with Julian Hirsch that much distortion is inaudible and irrelevant. I don't have the opportunities to hear a series of devices before I make a purchase. In general if a component measures very will it will sound good, at least it will be clean, detailed, and transparent.
I personally value "clean, detailed, and transparent" well ahead of "warm, musical, and liquid" -- that's just me.
I love the music of Dmitri Shostakovich ...
Edits: 08/22/19 08/22/19
But I immediately noticed he mentioned the fact that it is an old model. He then goes into detailed analysis on that old model and then draws conclusions on the product based on his tests. He also makes some comments that were not scientific at all.
The problem with all of this is that it is misleading. A reader could conclude that this review is some sort of conclusion that the Valhalla is some piece of crap and the cheap SS amp is some sort of great bargain.
The problem is he does not repeat that his conclusions are all on an old defunct product. If that were the case he would not draw the conclusions he drew and made the less than professional comments he made about the product.
It is not an honest review. I suspect its a personal opinion disguised as a scientific review. Maybe I missed it but I do not recall the part of the review where he listened to the amps in question and makes listening notes.
Without listening tests I find those sort of reviews as the kind of garbage that Stereo Review used to push out. It looks like science but how can it be science when it is a product that you listen to and no listening is done?
Odd science,
Ed
We don't shush around here!
Life is analog...digital is just samples thereof
See Amir's Valhalla 2 review at the link below; he admits that the revised model is better and may be recommended for high impedance 'phones if you like tube sound.
However he still doesn't feel that it is objectively the best choice, especially for low impedance 'phone, (like my Audio Technica's).
I'm very please at the moment with my JDS Atom amp. The sound is very cleaned, detailed, and dynamic. It is indeed a bargain IMHO.
I love the music of Dmitri Shostakovich ...
Hi Ed, I agree completely. It appears that "the more things change, the more they stay the same" or in this case go backwards in time to those Stereo Review days. My system and ears tell me all I need.
The cost of products certainly has not stayed the same. I can't find anything worth listening to that's better than anything I have kept from even 10 years ago - and paid a reasonable price for. 50k amp? Several of mine are at least as good. I don't go anymore to the few dealers that exist, it's a time waster.
My reference, as is yours, is still vinyl.
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