Would love to hear about Mjol 2 vs Black Widow

Anyways, a few notes on the Lyr with LISST and Mojo 2 with LISST as I promised I would follow up. BTW, I believe Anaxilus and OJ may be doing a write-up on this event for Tyll, so be sure to check Inner Fidelity in the next few days.

In a nutshell, I prefer the Mjolnir 2 with tubes and the Lyr 2 with the SSTs. I'll keep this short as usual:

• Tubes (real) take the Mjolnir 2 to the next level. While the real tubes shift the tonal balance to "more fun" relative to the SSTs, i.e. more bass and more present mid-treble, tubes really do liven up and increase the "technicalities" of the Mjolnir: more resolving, increased macro dynamics, more gradations of small volume contrasts, and more open. In essence, more engaging, the sort of engaging that makes you NOT want to put the headphones down. In my opinion (and these words are borrowed from someone else), the Mjolnir was always meant to have tubes. I wouldn't worry about the "treble" comment. It's relative to the SSTs and it's not edgy (we are talking about tubes after all), and it doesn't preclude the use of HD800s. The tonal balance comments do need to be tempered by the fact that I don't know what tubes were used. There is a huge selection of tubes what will work, and I know you can get all sorts of different tunings with the 6922s. Finally, I'll say this again: Lyr or Vali fans would very well served by upgrading to the Mjolnir 2. [I'm actually very tempted to pick one up for myself]
• I know a lot of people like the Lyr 2 because of its bass, warmth, and slam and I totally respect this view. However, the SSTs actually make the Lyr 2 more neutral sounding. The SSTs tighten up the Lyr 2's sound, provide a better transient response, a faster sound with more delineated lines and articulation. This is my personal preference, and to me (again, borrowing words from someone else), the Lyr was always meant to have SSTs. My view is that the tubes for in Lyr 2 don't actually do anything other than offer more bass and more slam. The Lyr 2 isn't as technically capable of as the Mjolnir 2, so the good things that tubes normally bring to the table (non-mist clarity, resolution, microdynamics) isn't as evident. So in this case, I'll take more control and more precision rather than more warmth and slam.

Hope that makes sense and doesn't make anyone mad. In the end, we all have more choice.

...I'm interested in how the Mojo2 with tubes sounds compared to the Black Widow for those headphones.

me too!
buy me a Mjol 2 and I'll satisfy your curiosity.