Schiit Magni Heretic Headphone Amp Review

[amirm]

Amir would love my setup an RME ADI-2 FS paired with a real hertic, a tube amplifer lol (monoprice liquid platinum). You know what, the ADI-2's headphone out actually sounds fine, especially with a little EQ. It's a great fallback device.

Indeed. That is how I use my RME. Only for the most power hungry headphones played at high volume requires an external amp for it.

 

[anotherhobby]

You don't think Schiit will actually pay a technician to sit there and repair a $109 item, do you? Mike in one of his interviews says there is no economic model to repair any item like this, even post manufacturing failures. You just throw it away.

I got back the same one I sent in, serial number and all, so it wasn't just a throw away. Maybe they just swapped the board, but that's not all in the trash and not what you are claiming. I'm not saying all this is great for the plant either, but my warranty experience with Schiit has not been the way you have characterized it in both your posts.

 

[elderblaze]

Indeed. That is how I use my RME. Only for the most power hungry headphones played at high volume requires an external amp for it.

For clarity, I meant the RME headphone out was a great fallback device. I prefer the Liquid Platinum(fed by the RME) for everyday headphone use. I know it does not measure as well, I like it, I don't care.

 

[elderblaze]

I got back the same one I sent in, serial number and all, so it wasn't just a throw away. Maybe they just swapped the board, but that's not all in the trash and not what you are claiming. I'm not saying all this is great for the plant either, but my warranty experience with Schiit has not been the way you have characterized it in both your posts.

You'd think the enclosure is the most expensive component. The kid in the back that sweeps the floor can open it with 4 screws and drop a new PCB in it before he go's on lunch break, 2 minute job.

 

[anotherhobby]

You'd think the enclosure is the most expensive component. The kid in the back that sweeps the floor can open it with 4 screws and drop a new PCB in it before he go's on lunch break, 2 minute job.

Right? Much better than if I just tossed it completely in the trash myself and bought a new one. Also better than if they did the same.

 

[Doodski]

You'd think the enclosure is the most expensive component. The kid in the back that sweeps the floor can open it with 4 screws and drop a new PCB in it before he go's on lunch break, 2 minute job.

Lol... True but if something goes awry then what? Unhappy customer... More telephone calls and faxing and time consuming whatever doing damage control when one could be making money. It's better to solve the issue the right way the first time.

 

[DonR]

Amir would love my setup an RME ADI-2 FS paired with a real hertic, a tube amplifer lol (monoprice liquid platinum). You know what, the ADI-2's headphone out actually sounds fine, especially with a little EQ. It's a great fallback device. I think people sometimes think something must measure well to sound good. I happen to enjoy tube distortion, and I won't pretend it measures well, im ok with that. It's particularly absurd once certain inaudible measurements have been reached. Im not going to put a 135 SINAD device on some pedal-stool when I can't hear any difference between it and a 100 sinad device, it gets pretty ridiculous. At a certain point, more is just more, not better.

Totally agree. I have a Little Dot MkIII that measures poorly but whose sound I enjoy (when it works ). If I need to go transparent, 85db SINAD is good enough for me. Still, the price/performance achievement by Shiit is worth the praise, even if not my cup of tea.

You don't think Schiit will actually pay a technician to sit there and repair a $109 item, do you? Mike in one of his interviews says there is no economic model to repair any item like this, even post manufacturing failures. You just throw it away.

or one can recycle it so that some poor 3rd world child can bathe in a toxic soup to recover the metals but it will make one feel better. For the planet, you know.

 

[PeteL]

You don't think Schiit will actually pay a technician to sit there and repair a $109 item, do you? Mike in one of his interviews says there is no economic model to repair any item like this, even post manufacturing failures. You just throw it away.

The PCB, maybe...Certainly not the whole thing!!!

 

[lashto]

... Im not going to put a 135 SINAD device on some pedal-stool when I can't hear any difference between it and a 100 sinad device, it gets pretty ridiculous. At a certain point, more is just more, not better.

That kind of "more" is everywhere nowadays and indeed it does not make much sense.

At least in the case of SINAD it correlates with engineering competence/quality. E.g. those power supply harmonics just 'hurt' my eyes and I don't care if they are audible or not, that crap should not be there.

OTOH, I seem to enjoy the music harmonics. At least the tubed ones. I also have a 120 SINAD amp and I cannot find a single fault in its sound. But it just gathers dust. The tube amp is a gorgeous device and the whole experience of listening to it is just beautiful..

 

[DonR]

I also have a 120 SINAD amp and I cannot find a single fault in its sound. But it just gathers dust.

That is why tube buffers were invented.

 

[elderblaze]

Right, duh. But it wasn't all just thrown out. Much better than if I just tossed it completely in the trash myself and bought a new one. Also better than if they did the same. What's your point?

Im just agreeing with you. Saying it makes sense to do a quick board swap then toss the whole thing as previously suggested.

 

[anotherhobby]

Im just agreeing with you. Saying it makes sense to do a quick board swap then toss the whole thing as previously suggested.

Ah... sorry, read that wrong. Updated my post to be agreeable.

 

[Alcophone]

Schiit's policy isn't bad, they pay for shipping the device back to you if there was indeed a defect and they also cover the shipping costs to them for units that have issues out of the gate. Some restrictions for international situations, of course.

And that's just the official policy. The Bifrost 2 initially had an issue that caused it to die within a few weeks. Mine got replaced twice because of that (the third one working flawlessly) at no cost to me.

My Ragnarok 2 arrived with one of the big capacitors having come loose, causing slight noise in the left channel at low gain and much more nasty noise at the other gain levels. Replaced at no cost to me.

My Jotunheim's ground issue was fixed at no cost to me probably years after I bought it, including repairing the power switch that got damaged because I didn't have the original packaging anymore and apparently didn't improvise well enough. To be fair, me being involved in the discussion was a factor there since Jason told me to send it in, I didn't ask for that. Schiit handles the occasional publicity issue pretty pragmatically.

Who pays shipping if I need warranty service?
You pay shipping to us, and we pay shipping back, unless no fault is found. In that case you pay shipping both ways.

Wait a sec, what if I get something that's bad out of the box? You mean I have to ship it back?
If you have a problem within 15 days of receiving the product, let us know and we'll do everything we can to swap it out for you quickly, at no cost to you. However, please note that for trans-shipped products, this will only cover shipping to the trans-shipper.

About | Schiit Audio

www.schiit.com

 

[DonR]

What is wrong with it? I had a MkIII at one time and thought it was a great amplifier with high imp phones. The stock volume pot leaves alot to be desired. The wiring quality was poor on mine and it eventually failed. I replaced it with a DACT type control and it worked great. I thought audio quality was better after the change. The step
resolution was not great but it didn't bother me.

DACT Type SMD Stepped Attenuator 21 step volume control 100k Potentiometer HIFI | eBay

This item is DACT Type SMD 21 Stepped Attenuator 100K ( Audio Log Type / stereo ). thread Dia 6.5 mm. thread length 7 mm approximate. short before break Type. whole shaft length 20 mm.

www.ebay.com

The input wires would desolder themselves due to the heat (almost no solder from the factory) and the volume pot wires kept breaking off at the pot. Also, the original Chinese tubes failed after 2 years but I consider those consumables. Now running Soviet tubes for the last 4 or 5 years. The stepped attenuator looks interesting thanks. I will look into that.

 

[lashto]

You'd think the enclosure is the most expensive component.

In this case, the chances are very good that it actually is.
And that could be the case a lot more often than most people imagine

 

[okok]

the enclosure is the most expensive component.

that's the truth for many gears, CNC costs a lot

 

[Billy Budapest]

that's the truth for many gears, CNC costs a lot

This isn’t something that would be CNC’ed. It’s stamped and bent sheet metal which is then anodized or powder coated. Nothing expensive about it.

 

[Laserjock]

So would be cheaper to send a new one and have the customer chunk the old?

 

[Dana reed]

But isn’t this just an IEMagni with slightly different gain values? They’ve got the same 50mV SNR and the dashboard plots look almost identical. That model was supposedly dropped because it wasn’t selling.

this is also $10 cheaper than IEMagni was. Seems they just incorporated the negative gain feature into the regular Magnis, when they were going to not be able to hit the magic $99 price point any more.

 

[lashto]

That is why tube buffers were invented.

I actually tried ~that.

Both the tubeamp and the 120 SINAD amp have pre functionality. So I tried both ways:

1. 120amp_as_pre -> tubeamp
2. tubeamp_as_pre -> 120amp.

Same DAC, same HPs, same everything else.

For some reason I preferred the sound of the first combo. It's also more comfortable and the volume-knob of the 120amp is probably better (more linear etc..). Did not do any measurements or serious tests, I just liked it so.