Review and Measurements of Schiit Jotunheim and iFi iDSD Black Label DACs and Headphone Amps

[mastershake]

Can you do the noise test I outlined? Just curious.

I had two until recently (now one), though both shipped in November 2017. Still, I noticed that the time it takes for the muting relay to disengage after turning it on is very different between the two (also on shutdown, but that's less important). Time from turning on to end of relay clicks is 23s for one, 32s for the other. Time from turning off to first relay click is 15s for one, 28s for the other.

i will check tomm and see what happens. i also have a "new" silver one on loan for the weekend to see if it sounds different from the other two somehow the person who loaned it to me bought it just a few weeks back.

 

[Blumlein 88]

I forgot to mention. If you don't know where to buy the jumper cable, I have three versions I am offering for sale:

1. The yellow one you see in the picture. You can buy them for 10 cents on ebay but because I will be selling them, the price is $10.

2. A 99% oxygen-free cable with hand forged alligator clips. I will be offering these for $399.

3. The ultimate version made out of free-radical-free insulation, cryogenically treated, electron aligned conductors. It is built by nude virgins on a remote island so it does not come cheap. For ASR members, I am offering this at a special price of $9999.

All three will objectively improve the fidelity of Schiit Jotunheim. Unlike any other cable you have bought before.

Product will be shipped on first come, first serve basis. It is not available in Hawaii or Alaska or anywhere not allowed by law.

I planned on ordering the $9999 version. But you are just using measurements. Measurements can't explain good sound. If you had told us how it sounds in some reasonable detail with and without the jumper installed it might have been a useful review to me. Otherwise I've no idea if the change in sound quality is worth $9999 or merely 10 cents.

 

[garbulky]

Amir thanks for the review and good catch on the ground. There;s no two outs about that, the design there should have been better! This is quite unusual that the Jotunheim doesn't appear to have as much power as the USB powered headphone amp.
Are you using "balanced" drive on the headphones? That's pretty important because that's what the Jotunheim is supposed to be used for. I figured you'd make sure because of the Yggy measurements where you measured it in single ended. But I was checking.
They included the single ended because they had trouble selling the original Mjonir which was balanced only outputs. But it is meant to be a balanced headphone amp. For instance at 300 ohms it puts out nearly 3 times the power in balanced drive.
This is what you should be getting. I am surprised you are getting much lower values. What do you consider clipping?

Balanced Headphone Output:
Maximum Power, 16 ohms: 7500mW RMS per channel
Maximum Power, 32 ohms: 5000mW RMS per channel
Maximum Power, 50 ohms: 3000mW RMS per channel
Maximum Power, 300 ohms: 900mW RMS per channel
Maximum Power, 600 ohms: 500mW RMS per channel
Single-Ended Headphone Output:
Maximum Power, 16 ohms: 2500mW RMS per channel
Maximum Power, 32 ohms: 1500mW RMS per channel
Maximum Power, 50 ohms: 800mW RMS per channel
Maximum Power, 300 ohms: 350mW RMS per channel
Maximum Power, 600 ohms: 175mW RMS per channel

 

[amirm]

Are you using "balanced" drive on the headphones?

No, all my testing was "unbalanced."

That's pretty important because that's what the Jotunheim is supposed to be used for. They included the single ended because they had trouble selling the original Mjonir which was balanced only outputs. But it is meant to be a balanced headphone amp. For instance at 300 ohms it puts out nearly 3 times the power in balanced drive.

The only thing you get out of "balanced" output on a headphone amp is more power. And here, the standard output is plenty powerful. The problem is distortion, not available power.

This is what you should be getting. I am surprised you are getting much lower values. What do you consider clipping?

I just measure the onset of clipping as the cursors show in the graphs:

At 1.4 watts, that is just slightly below your 1.5 watt number. You can climb up the curve and get 1.5 watt. I just stop at the start of the "hockey stick."

 

[Blumlein 88]

Schiit just never equals the competition.

They just don't care. I think they have to know better. They concentrated on a story, on selling the made in the USA thing, and having quirky designs implying something special (though careful to never claim anything). Mike Moffat's rep is sold for some income I suppose. Style and story over substance.

Schiit is like Roseanne Roseannadanna cliche..................it's always something.

In this instance a metal case not grounded.

 

[Veri]

Pleasantly surprised to see that the iFi is quite capably made

 

[derp1n]

It's not just the case they cheaped out on. Some pretty amusing design analysis on head-case.org from the crew there.

 

[Grave]

This shit is amusing. Keep it up.

 

[Alcophone]

One relay clicks at 9 seconds, the second at 19. What does that mean?

Is that startup and shutdown times, or both during startup? During startup, I only get one relay click.
Either way, it means the one you have is usable more quickly than mine after turning it on I was just surprised how variable that time is.

A possible clue from Jason:

the 200K resistor I’d spec’d as part of the relay timer should have been a 2M part (I read the 2004 marking and took it to be 200K, duh). With 200K, the MOSFET driving the relay would never get enough voltage to turn on. With 2M, it had about a 12 second delay. I eventually changed the part to 1M, which gives about a 25 second delay, better for a small tube amp.

That was in reference to the DIY coaster tube amp, though, not to the Jotunheim.

 

[amirm]

Sorry for the spam, but can you find out when the amp was bought?

The unit was bought in March of this year with the multibit DAC in it from the factory.

 

[amirm]

Is that startup and shutdown times, or both during startup? During startup, I only get one relay click.

Only the start-up.

 

[Alcophone]

Only the start-up.

Wow, that's new, I think. Both of mine only clicked once. Not exactly a bombshell, but interesting.

 

[restorer-john]

In this instance a metal case not grounded.

It's dangerous, plain and simple and Schiit need to recall the units and repair the lack of effective casework earthing.

Please post a few pics of the internals- I think we need to see how well insulated the primaries are, both under the transformers and above.

 

[FunctionalDoc]

Amir would you plot the Black label against the DX7S please.

Thanks for reviewing the IFi Black label and I own one along with the DX7s ,

I was initially going to purchase the Jotunheim when I bought the Ifi Black label and I am glad I passed on the Schitt. When I finally hear the Jotunheim at RMAF last year I was un impressed by all of the Schitt line.

I still like DX7s for everyday USb computer DAC but the Black Label is great with my MacBook Pro or using it with my Google Pixel XL phone.

Great reviews and love that all products are are fair game for Amir with his ninja test rig.

 

[Ron Texas]

Great report. Both of these are available, relatively affordable and can be serviced without mailing back to China if something goes wrong.

 

[tinger]

Hey Amir,
As you know, I'm very new to this audio stuff..
Would the measurements for the IFI be different running on its internal battery?

 

[rebbiputzmaker]

It's dangerous, plain and simple and Schiit need to recall the units and repair the lack of effective casework earthing.

Please post a few pics of the internals- I think we need to see how well insulated the primaries are, both under the transformers and above.

I find all this danger talk amazing. LoL

 

[Purité Audio]

Completely agree, Schitt should just include a wooden stick with each amp.
Keith

 

[Candlesticks]

The unit was bought in March of this year with the multibit DAC in it from the factory.

@amirm can you upload your project files.

 

[bunkbail]

I've never thought I would see the day Amir waxing lyrical about an audio gear subjectively, even more so about a multibit product at that! Exciting stuff. I'm disappointed that we don't get to see our favorite linearity test here. It would be great to see how would both multibit products perform on that one particular test.