Sennheiser HD600 vs. Oppo PM3

[PHC1]

My Valhalla 2 has arrived! Tubes installed, plugged in and warming up for a few hours to stabilize after which I will give it a listen. All headphones lined up and ready.

[Puma Cat]

Originally Posted by PHC1

My Valhalla 2 has arrived! Tubes installed, plugged in and warming up for a few hours to stabilize after which I will give it a listen. All headphones lined up and ready.

Terrific! Looks like Huginn and Munnin were right on schedule!

Really interested in your impressions later on. Oh goody, I will save that for readng after work today! Something to look forward to. It will take a little bit of time to fully burn in, but you'll get a good sense right off the bat. IIRC, there are no coupling caps in the signal path, so it should not take long to burn in. Just pure Class A triode power.

Today I have to start writing Design for Six Sigma statistics training modules on hypothesis testing (1-sample T, 2-sample T and ANOVA....exciting! )

It's all about the p-value...

[Puma Cat]

Just a teaser trailer about the Valhalla 2 from Schiit:

Go ahead. Do things with Valhalla 2 that you’d never attempt with other OTL tube amps. Run low-impedance headphones. Use IEMs. Valhalla 2 is a complete re-imagining of Valhalla, with improved performance, higher output capability, lower distortion and output impedance.

Tubes Made Flexible
While most tube OTL amps are really only designed for 300 ohm Senns and 600 ohm Beyers, Valhalla 2 stretches to include headphones that you’d never expect to use with a tube amp. Go ahead. Use it with Grados. Run it with AKGs. Rely on it for many IEMs. You may even like it with high-efficiency planars like LCD-X, LCD-XC, Oppo PM-1 and HE-400.

A Complete Desktop Preamp
Valhalla 2 also adds two important features: preamp outs and a gain switch. Preamp outs let you connect your powered monitors directly to Valhalla 2, to give them some of what some people call “tube magic.” The gain switch gives you better control of both output level and impedance, for better matching to your headphones. It's easy to build a complete desktop system around the Valhalla.

Not Your Father’s Tube Amp
If you’re expecting syrupy, tubby, euphonically colored tube sound, you’re in for a shock. Valhalla 2 is exceptionally accurate, neutral, and resolving, without being strident or etched.

Frequency Response: 20Hz-20Khz, -0.1db, 7Hz-200KHz, -3dB
Maximum Power, 50 ohms: 180mW
Maximum Power, 300 ohms: 800mW
Maximum Power, 600 ohms: 450mW
THD: < 0.04%, 20Hz-20KHz, at 1V RMS, high gain (worst case)
IMD: < 0.05%, CCIR at 1V RMS, high gain (worst case)
SNR: > 97db, unweighted, referenced to 1V RMS, low gain
Crosstalk: < -71dB, 20 Hz-20KHz
Output Impedance: 14 ohms (hi gain), 3.5 ohms (lo gain)
Gain: 7 (16.9db) or 1.5 (3.5 db), via rear switch
Topology: All-triode, noninverting, single voltage gain stage, current source biased front end and optimized WCF output stage, DC-coupled input
Tube Complement: 6N1P dual triode input, 6N6P dual triode output, 1 each per channel. 6N1Ps rollable to 6DJ8, E88CC, 6922, 6BZ7, and similar types.
Power Supply: Two internal power transformers with over 2,000uF of filter capacitance
Power Consumption: 40W
Size: 9 x 6 x 3.25”
Weight: 7 lbs

and I love this from the Valhalla 2 FAQ:

I was told that tube amps are all about euphonic distortion and that you’re a bunch of crazy money-grubbing arseholes because you make tube amps.
Have you ever heard a tube amp?

No, seriously.
We are serious. Have you ever heard a tube amp?

Those guys...I tell ya.

[PHC1]

Originally Posted by Puma Cat

Terrific! Looks like Huginn and Munnin were right on schedule!

Really interested in your impressions later on. Oh goody, I will save that for readng after work today! Something to look forward to. It will take a little bit of time to fully burn in, but you'll get a good sense right off the bat.

Today I have to start writing Design for Six Sigma statistics training modules on hypothesis testing (1-sample T, 2-sample T and ANOVA....exciting! )

It's all about the p-value...

Sounds like fun Stephen, I have my own Analysis of Variance ahead of me this evening as I now have 3 headphone amps and 4 pairs of headphones to compare. I'll be sure to post my initial findings. This should be fun!

[Puma Cat]

Originally Posted by PHC1

Sounds like fun Stephen, I have my own Analysis of Variance ahead of me this evening as I now have 3 headphone amps and 4 pairs of headphones to compare. I'll be sure to post my initial findings. This should be fun!

Oh goody! I can't wait. Love your reviews (and Dan's! ). Please let me know what playlist you used in your initial listening impressions.

[Puma Cat]

Originally Posted by PHC1

Sounds like fun Stephen, I have my own Analysis of Variance ahead of me this evening as I now have 3 headphone amps and 4 pairs of headphones to compare. I'll be sure to post my initial findings. This should be fun!

Serge, what the Focals? Are they dynamic drivers, orthos, or planars?

The HD6XXs are going to ROCK on Valhalla 2, is my prediction.

I'd start searching for a pair of nice NOS 6922s, maybe Amperexes, Telefunken or Ediswans...

[PHC1]

Originally Posted by Puma Cat

Serge, what the Focals? Are they dynamic drivers, orthos, or planars?

The HD6XXs are going to ROCK on Valhalla 2, is my prediction.

I'd start searching for a pair of nice NOS 6922s, maybe Amperexes, Telefunken or Ediswans...

Stephen, yes 2 Senns and 2 Focals. The Focal pairs are also both dynamic. I am hesitant to even write a review of Focal Utopia. If I tell the truth, some may not believe me, if I water it down to make it more believable, well what's the point in that??? I'll let someone else set the stage. Guys who do this for a living. https://www.headphone.com/blogs/news...adphone-review

[Puma Cat]

Originally Posted by PHC1

Stephen, yes 2 Senns and 2 Focals. The Focal pairs are also both dynamic. I am hesitant to even write a review of Focal Utopia. If I tell the truth, some may not believe me, if I water it down to make it more believable, well what's the point in that??? I'll let someone else set the stage. Guys who do this for a living. https://www.headphone.com/blogs/news...adphone-review

I would go for it; I think the community would benefit from your experiences. And Robert Anderson would likely support your findings. We're all adults here. My guess is the Utopias provide a true SOTA transducer performance that competes fully with the most expensive loudspeakers one can by, and with none of the room acoustic problems.

Some folks can't believe that a $1249 DAC like Gumby can complete fully with $10K DACs, but...we know that it can.

[PHC1]

Originally Posted by Puma Cat

I would go for it; I think the community would benefit from your experiences. And Robert Anderson would likely support your findings. We're all adults here. My guess is the Utopias provide a true SOTA transducer performance that competes fully with the most expensive loudspeakers one can by, and with none of the room acoustic problems.

Some folks can't believe that a $1249 DAC like Gumby can complete fully with $10K DACs, but...we know that it can.

Oh it would be easy for those who already own them to agree. It's convincing those that have not experienced the Utopia just how far out of this world they are is the difficult part. It's one of those audio products that until you have experienced it yourself, it is difficult to grasp. I've had a few of those epiphany moments in my audio hobby years and Utopia is surely at the top of that totem pole of incredible experiences.

[Puma Cat]

Originally Posted by PHC1

Oh it would be easy for those who already own them to agree. It's convincing those that have not experienced the Utopia just how far out of this world they are is the difficult part. It's one of those audio products that until you have experienced it yourself, it is difficult to grasp. I've had a few of those epiphany moments in my audio hobby years and Utopia is surely at the top of that totem pole of incredible experiences.

Oh, I totally get that. It's like folks that have never heard the benefits of really good aftermarket power cords or distributors. Some will get it and use them, some are quite skeptical but open-minded enough to give them a try, and then some folks are hell bent on their conviction that it can't matter and will never consider them. It's like when I teach DFSS; there are folks that "get it" right away and become advocates, there are folks that are open-minded and willing to try to learn and use it, but need help and guidance, and then there folks (most notably scientists and engineers) who feel they know everything there is to know and you can't teach them anything (of course, they are wrong...but good luck with that).

I can think of an analogy from digital photography; there are (many) folks that think that "full frame" is the be-all and end-all of digital photography. That really good APS-C cameras can't match them for image quality (which is total BS) and that there is no difference between FF and Medium Format if the pixel count is approximately the same, which is also total BS. Of course they are wrong on both counts, but interestingly, just like the "objectivists" in audio (who ironically enough, never provide any statistically valid data when asked), are only focused on spec sheets and "metrics" and are not willing to consider the "intangibles" when it comes to how a photograph "reads" or how an audio component may sound. The bottom line is that FF can't match MF for image quality on a number of levels, but there is a set of folks you'll never be able to convince of that.

And the end of the day it's their loss and our gain...c'est la vie.