I am really interested in the BW as well. I love my schiit Vali and if the EC house sound is similar to it, I can see myself getting one. I currently own an LCD2.2 and was always tempted by its pairing with the Mjolnir, but reading the impressions here, it seems that the BW is more versatile... especially with the HD800 (or HD6xx), since I am strongly considering picking up a pair soon.

I'm curious about this too Marv. Forget the Rag's speaker amp capability. Would you miss the Rag's sq if you had to slum it with the MJ2, with the HD800 as your main headphone?

I'm with EC now, so not going to say anything in comparison to BW for obvious reasons. The Mojo2's improved treble refinement and tube goodness should lend itself well to the HD800. The Rag is still better than the Mojo2. More lively, clearer, better ability to distinguish small differences in volume, the audio equivalent of better shadow detail.  Tubes give the Mojo 2 a boost with these characteristics (as well as resulting in a warmer sound), but Rag is still the better amp.

I actually felt the Mojo 2 was very slightly limiting what the multi-bit Gungnir could do.

Really enjoyed the Ether C.  My wife and I still prefer the open version though.  As for the Mjolnir 2 I quite enjoyed it with the stock tubes along with an HE-6.  I felt it had enough to drive it.  Together with the gungnir multibit it's a more enjoyable refined sound compared to the last mjolinir and gungnir I listened to. 

I actually felt the Mojo 2 was very slightly limiting what the multi-bit Gungnir could do.

Interesting observation Marv.  I currently have an old Theta and EF-6 as my home unit and while I was quite impressed with Mojo 2 and Gungnir multibit, it still doesn't compare with Yggy-Rag and I'm not so sure I'd go gungnir multibit from what I have now even though it probably is technically better. 

ahhhhhh that got out of hand fast

ok I was going to post tomorrow but I should clarify the best out of the show was the MB GUNGNIR-->MOJO 2 SOLID--->HD650.  It was pretty great.  The bass was strong and aggressive, it was a fighter, I was impressed.  Didn't go down that low but what was there was impressive.  Now that some of the shock has worn off i think I want something with a little less bass. 

Marv is the hd600 as fast but with less bass.


Ok topic at hand
yep the Ether-C is the best ortho in my opinion (in that stack):

abyss- never listen to it 5 Gs not my thing

HE-1000- every listening session starts of with (plugs in) "oh yeah you have a good pair" ....so no recommendation from me

audeze- too heavy, bass accentuated,  and rolled off at the top
 
he-6 - not as clear as the ether but with a hardier bass (only heard one and with a hendrix tract so can't comment on dynamics)

he-580 - smaller sound stage (than ether), good speed though, bass is better integrated with headphone (cavilli crimson + dac 19 and yggy/rag stack)

fostex mods- not as resolving + smaller stage (depth wise: Zacks omni is more airier/LLFs paradox as good or better depth)

NOTE: so the ethers wouldn't be my go to for bass (either closed or open) it would be great to have some of the 560 bass but its is what it is.

So lets analyse the stack, before people blame me for their purchase:

the superburrito filter and r2r kind of force the bass.  This is what I heard at the SHOW when paired with the carbon, but when you add a little tube warmth its not so bad its actually pretty good.  Bonus the mids get a little more body. 

the sharp tremble. Gotta agree with anax there is a peak, I told Dan exactly that when I heard the yggy/rag stack.  This is out of a r2r dac imagine the peak out of a D/S dac. Yikes!!!  Once again adding tubes seemed to get it that last bit fixed.

Over all I stand by my recommendation, just know I like things pretty neutral so... yeah.


Oh I wouldn't ever try to build an end game set up around an ortho.  I can't get over that ortho wall. But if you like orthos and neutrality thats my suggestion.


edit:
shit this thread moves fast.

Hahaha. I was waiting for you to say that! Since I did hand you my HD650s after all. Yes, I agree with you that the Ether was the best ortho in that room that I heard. But then again, I didn't hear that many other orthos ;-)

Something could be wrong with Schiit's HEK. Three guys who spoke to Jason also mentioned this. That Schiit's HEK sounded really different from the units heard at the other meets. A few other Changstar members also noted this at the Brooks meet when we compared two other HEK sets. (Jeff, you might want to look into this or do something about it.)

The HD600 might, just might be slightly faster. OJ and I have this wild or maybe not so wild theory that the HD650 driver is more damped than the HD600 driver. Less damped drivers usually sound a bit snappier and faster. OJ is doing an HD650 driver transplant on his HD600. We'll see what happens.

I didn't mind the HEK at the schiit table but I only heard it for 30 secs it had warm bass and inoffensive highs, I wouldn't buy but I wouldn't burn it either.  I was actually talking about a different HEK, but I don't want to say more as those guys could get in trouble when they were kind enough to let me listen to the he560 +Liquid carbon and hear their conversation.

Still stand by my comment that I think the close back has better separation in the highs than the open, though.  And if I built a stack (and obviously was a person that would pay $1500 for headphones*) I'd used that ether-C not open back.

Cool now I just worry about taming that HD600 spike you keep talking about without slowing down the driver. 


*note I wouldn't spend $1500 on the hd800 either