The astonishingly good Schiit Jotunheim stereo preamp/headphone amplifier won’t break the bank.
The Schiit Jotunheim stereo preamp/headphone amplifier.
Build quality of this made in the US component is very decent, and Jotunheim is sold with a five-year warranty. There’s one hitch: It doesn’t come with a remote control, and that might be a deal breaker for some potential buyers.
The front panel has a three position input selector switch, and a low/high gain switch so you can use the Jotunheim with in-ear or full-size headphones, plus two headphone jacks, a 6.3mm and a balanced four-pin XLR one. That’s where the Jotunheim gets really interesting, it’s a fully-balanced stereo preamp-headphone amplifier, with a description from Schiit that says, « Jotunheim’s gain stage is a unique, inherently balanced, fully discrete current feedback topology that provides both balanced and single-ended output without the need for splitters or summers. It provides extremely wide bandwidth and excellent measured performance — together with the advantages of constant, low feedback across the entire audio band. » Translation: The balanced output might sound better with headphones that can be fitted with balanced cables.
One thing is certain, the balanced XLR headphone jack delivers gobs of power to hard-to-drive headphones, up to 7.5 watts for 16 ohm headphones! I used a Hifiman Edition X headphone so I could easily swap between cables fitted with XLR and 6.3mm plugs to evaluate the sound differences. Here’s what I heard on Alt J’s « Relaxer » album: The XLR jack sounded slightly more dynamically alive than the 6.3mm jack. I’m not claiming it’s a big difference, but one you would want to take advantage of if you have a headphone that can be used with balanced cables.
I also listened with my high-impedance (300 ohm) Sennheiser HD 580 headphones, which can sound a little dull and lifeless plugged into a stereo or AV receiver, but here with the Jotunheim the HD 580 were transformed. They rocked and rolled with gusto with the National’s new « Sleep Well Beast » album. That said, the compressed sound is grating and harsh, and the Jotunheim-Sennheiser HD 580 pairing did nothing to disguise the album’s nasty sound mix. With a better recording such as Wilco’s « A Ghost is Born » the harshness was replaced with a smooth clarity. The Jotunheim tells it like it is.
The Schiit Jotunheim stereo preamp/headphone amplifier’s rear panel.
Schiit Jotunheim prices start at $399, £420 and AU$649 for the basic version without the optional digital converter or phono preamp, which each add a moderate upcharge to the price. So if you already have a decent phono preamp or converter, all you need is the basic Jotunheim.
