Diverse / Andere Mjölnir Audio Pure Bipolar

For sale, my little used Mjolnir PureBipolar. It's a great amp but I have little need for it and it has been used less than 5 times since I bought it.

The new price is US$2200, but you have to add USt and other Zollgebühren to that. So I conservatively calculate US$2200 = €1.882,68 * 1,19 = €2.240,39 as the real new price.

From the Mjolnir website:

Here is something I’ve been working on for a while, the Pure BiPolar or Dynalo Mk2. The Dynalo circuit has been used in a lot of amps over the years but as parts have been obsolete it was time to finally update it. The biggest difference is the input stage which is now “super symmetry” as Nelson Pass called it but it means it can take a single ended signal (RCA) and converts it to balanced without any extra circuitry. That’s why the amp has only one balanced output socket, it is always balanced. Other changes are higher rail voltages and higher Class A bias for more power. To power the amplifier modules it has my own version of the ultra stable GRLV (Gold Reference Low Voltage) power supply which is just about the best power supply we can design fed by an oversized transformer. The end result of this is one of the best dynamic amps we’ve ever designed. It’s highly transparent and able to cope with even the most demanding loads.

Bob Katz (Stereophile) reviewed it thus:

"For dynamic cans, Mjölnir has produced the new Pure Bipolar amplifier, which began life dubbed the "Dynalo Mk2." To my ears, this amp just doesn't give up, no matter how far you push it. My measurements confirmed that unlike my older, custom AMB amplifier, the Pure Bipolar saturates much like tubes, it gently goes into clipping. In fact, it has such a high output capability that I would have to add an additional attenuator in my measurement setup in order to measure its limits. So I don't know yet when this amp would reach the 1% distortion point. Maybe next episode, in my copious (!) free time. Spritzer's philosophy: "it's better to have a bit of benign distortion over the sharp cutoff you get in so many circuits. Tubes bend...they don't break so to speak..."

So there is a family resemblance between the Pure Bipolar and the Carbon HV. Then again, at these kinds of levels you would go deaf before you notice any obvious saturation! I think that gentle saturation is the partner of warm sound quality. Warmth probably is due to some euphonic distortion, since saturation is compression and compression is distortion. But count me in on a little of that! The Pure Bipolar has tube-like purity, but is solid, robust, transparent and extended. Dynamics are not compromised in any way. [] It is instantly the best-sounding dynamic headphone amp in my collection."