[psy472]

Hopefully you get it back fixed soon.

They are sending a new one to me. Apparently they have a satellite repair shop inside the US that I sent my damaged unit to.

 

[psy472]

what exactly are you looking for? i know you mentioned the width not being what you expected. Personally, i believe in DAC's going straight into amps. Preamps are played out and excessive to me...i go for the sound i want within the dac and amp, thats all. I may fool around with EQ here and there but i right now to my BF2/64 going straight into my MJ3 sounds about 90% for me. Which is why I plan on stepping up my dac.

It depends. You are correct though that DAC matters. Bifrost is hamstringing your MJ3. At least get the Yggy GS2. Preamping is to fill in weaker sounds. EQ won’t give you stronger bodied sounds. The MJ3 doesn’t like preamping much though. You lose the Mj3 resolution.

 

[nighthink]

what exactly are you looking for? i know you mentioned the width not being what you expected. Personally, i believe in DAC's going straight into amps. Preamps are played out and excessive to me...i go for the sound i want within the dac and amp, thats all. I may fool around with EQ here and there but i right now to my BF2/64 going straight into my MJ3 sounds about 90% for me. Which is why I plan on stepping up my dac.

Not looking for now.. that was only a question of whether it would not be a bigger change to upgrade DAC vs. preamping the Mentor. I'm good for now, slowly adapting to the width as well. Anyway, still burning in .

 

[quawn0418]

It depends. You are correct though that DAC matters. Bifrost is hamstringing your MJ3. At least get the Yggy GS2. Preamping is to fill in weaker sounds. EQ won’t give you stronger bodied sounds.

Definitely agree about the BF2, i can literally hear that its maxed out in capability compared to the MJ3. I can hear that the MJ3 is capable of more. Its starting to drive me crazy actually lol

 

[psy472]

Definitely agree about the BF2, i can literally hear that it’s maxed out in capability compared to the MJ3. I can hear that the MJ3 is capable of more. Its starting to drive me crazy actually lol

I may not have gotten the MJ3 if I got the Yggy first. The change was that drastic. The improvement from JoT2 to MJ3 was like 10% only.

For those wanting tube preamp, you can probably do it with the new Vali Schiit just released. It’s also a single tube preamp like the Lyr. I don’t have experience with it so YMMV.

 

[Erick Muller]

Technically possible, but is such preamping considered business as usual, especially for such good amps like mentor is? I'd rather upgrade the DAC if anything. Seems to me that should bring a bigger difference... which I actually might do at some point.
The great thing about Denafrips DACs is that they all look the same. So if one day there will be Terminator instead of Pontus, my wife will walk around without ever noticing any change. On the other hand, another box like Lyr+ would be a conversation starter .

You can tell your wife, is either this new music box or prostitutes and drugs, you decide.

 

[Smoothstereo]

For folks who want some tube magic with their Mentor or MJ3, I suggest getting a dedicated tube preamp. Skip using another amp to preamp to another amp. That's not ideal, as the signal has to go thru more parts and more chances of muddying the path.

Advantages of using a dedicated tube preamp (instead of another amp) is one less amp in the signal, and you have more XLR and RCA inputs on preamp (ie like Freya N) so you can connect multiple dacs or other sources on the preamp to switch sources as you please, and keeping one XLR connection out to the Mentor or MJ3, very convenient You also have more preamp outputs too.

Then there's the benefit of tube rolling to fine tune that sound of your choice. Just don't skimp by using dirt cheap cables, if adding a preamp in the chain.

Or just keep it simple with dac and amp and forget about the fuss and enjoy.

 

[Slackaveli]

I may not have gotten the MJ3 if I got the Yggy first. The change was that drastic. The improvement from JoT2 to MJ3 was like 10% only.

For those wanting tube preamp, you can probably do it with the new Vali Schiit just released. It’s also a single tube preamp like the Lyr. I don’t have experience with it so YMMV.

by all accounts its a beast at it's price point.

 

[Slackaveli]

For folks who want some tube magic with their Mentor or MJ3, I suggest getting a dedicated tube preamp. Skip using another amp to preamp to another amp. That's not ideal, as the signal has to go thru more parts and more chances of muddying the path.

Advantages of using a dedicated tube preamp (instead of another amp) is one less amp in the signal, and you have more XLR and RCA inputs on preamp (ie like Freya N) so you can connect multiple dacs or other sources on the preamp to switch sources as you please, and keeping one XLR connection out to the Mentor or MJ3, very convenient You also have more preamp outputs too.

Then there's the benefit of tube rolling to fine tune that sound of your choice. Just don't skimp on using dirt cheap cables, if adding a preamp in the chain.

Or just keep it simple with dac and amp and forget about the fuss and enjoy.

I bet Freya into Mentor would sound fabulous.

 

[psy472]

You can tell your wife, is either this new music box or prostitutes and drugs, you decide.

Yea but what if she wants a share of the prostitutes and drugs?

 

[Slackaveli]

Yea but what if she wants a share of the prostitutes and drugs?

then she's a keeper for the short term but a red flag long term

 

[Erick Muller]

Yea but what if she wants a share of the prostitutes and drugs?

Triple the fun.

 

[quawn0418]

I need to hear a freaking mentor!!

 

[Smoothstereo]

I am actually curious to hear the twin Mentor stack or maybe a Volot..... maybe next year's upgrade.

 

[nighthink]

You can tell your wife, is either this new music box or prostitutes and drugs, you decide.

heh, and I assumed music equals sex, drugs (and rock 'n roll). nevermind, maybe next time.
...guess that difference lies somewhere between "listening" and "playing".