Schiit Magnius Balanced Headphone Amp Review

[AndrewDavis]

what I really don't like is the post on Head-Fi bragging about how easy it was to develop the Magnius.

If so, maybe he should have put a little more time and effort into the SE output?

 

[T.M.Noble]

If so, maybe he should have put a little more time and effort into the SE output?

Not really a question of effort. The solution is clear. It just didn't fit with what we were trying to accomplish.

 

[Racheski]

Maybe he should have put a little more work into the SE output?

Right, this is my point because now people can say, "If this Schiit was so easy, why didn't (insert criticism here)"

But I don't want to pile on anymore because ultimately this product is good for consumers. Also thanks to @amirm and @T.M.Noble for coordinating and posting the review on launch day.

 

[Vasr]

Also, nit-picking in the audiophile community is essentially sport. It's the community pastime. Nit-pick away.

One person's nit-picking is another person's "setting a higher engineering bar" otherwise most reviews here could themselves be accused of just nit-picking. Just sayng...

 

[Jimbob54]

Bit of a theme with a lot of these bal /SE in bal/se out amps.

Thx 789 notwithstanding there seems to be some less than ideal aspect to either the inputs and/or outputs on a lot of them.

Going all the way back to the jotunheim (weak single ended and generally noisy)

Sp200 - weird gain, fake balanced out
A90- prone to ground loops on rca in
Dx7pro - output impedance
Etc etc

 

[Tks]

I think this is a legitimate criticism but there was a lot of thought that went into this. We only use one phase of the balanced output so there is no cancellation of distortion between phases. We could have made the SE measure the same but to be honest it adds parts which adds cost, we didn't like how it sounded when tested and frankly we have an awesome SE amp in Hersey. We made an extraordinary balanced amp at a very competitive price. If you want SE performance, save yourself a hundred bucks and buy Heresy.

Whole heartedly agree with this choice. You still provide a balanced amp that performs to well and in great enclosure. For $200 this thing is killer. Really nice to see how serious and how fast yoy guys took up the challenge and competition thats fostered lately and came out with your new line of products that perform so good.

This amp i think can serve two purposes. Be the technical beast that it is (for this price and this overall package, thats what makes it beast as a balanced amp). And also serve as reason for those people who like a dose of harmonic distortion, to also buy it. Come to think of it, shouldve made SE a distortion ridden nightmare just for those folks

In all seriousness. Great job guys.

Edit: you said something in other comments about how the designer took tbis design as sometbing easy or almost uninteresting from a design perspective. Tell him hes doing great if this is easy and I cant wait to see this continuation in other products now that its not too tough for him to create designs like this *cough* power amps and AMPDAC combos

 

[T.M.Noble]

One person's nit-picking is another person's "setting a higher engineering bar" otherwise most reviews here could themselves be accused of just nit-picking. Just sayng...

The view is much different from either side of the product. As a consumer, your view of a particular product is completely different as a producer. My comment was not meant to disparage. The difference between being critical and pedantic is vast. Judge the product for it's intention and execution and where those actions intersect with your own values and judgments. At least, that is how I try to approach critique.

 

[T.M.Noble]

Bit of a theme with a lot of these bal /SE in bal/se out amps.

Thx 789 notwithstanding there seems to be some less than ideal aspect to either the inputs and/or outputs on a lot of them.

Going all the way back to the jotunheim (weak single ended and generally noisy)

Sp200 - weird gain, fake balanced out
A90- prone to ground loops on rca in
Dx7pro - output impedance
Etc etc

I only know what we are doing from our side. We are trying to make the most competitive product at the most reasonable price. There will naturally be certain sacrifices made towards those goals. All about what rubric you are using to achieve certain goals.

 

[Jimbob54]

Bit of a theme with a lot of these bal /SE in bal/se out amps.

Thx 789 notwithstanding there seems to be some less than ideal aspect to either the inputs and/or outputs on a lot of them.

Going all the way back to the jotunheim (weak single ended and generally noisy)

Sp200 - weird gain, fake balanced out
A90- prone to ground loops on rca in
Dx7pro - output impedance
Etc etc

Edit I appreciate there are always compromises, especially at this price point and this isn't a criticism as such, just an observation. And also shows how much of a benchmark the 789 was and is. But it (was) twice the price of this.

 

[Rotary Transformer]

I pre-ordered THX 789, shall I cancel it?

 

[Jimbob54]

I only know what we are doing from our side. We are trying to make the most competitive product at the most reasonable price. There will naturally be certain sacrifices made towards those goals. All about what rubric you are using to achieve certain goals.

I've just added a rider to my comment noting exactly that

 

[Tks]

The view is much different from either side of the product. As a consumer, you view of a particular product is completely different as a producer. My comment was not meant to disparage. The difference between being critical and pedantic is vast. Judge the product for it's intention and execution and where those actions intersect with your own values and judgments. At least, that is how I try to approach critique.

Computer hardware cases suffer these sorts of people. Where they complain about cooling performance when the case never advertised prowess in such area and mainly focused on aesthetics and thr marketing also reflected such. Yet people will still complain about lack of front mesh panels or something. Intent is completely ignored and desire of the person observing is the only consideration by which success or failure is gauged.

A completely idiotic notion honestly.

 

[Veri]

I pre-ordered THX 789, shall I cancel it?

Are all your headphones balanced..?

 

[Vasr]

Come to think of it, shouldve made SE a distortion ridden nightmare just for those folks

PS Audio already has that covered but not in this price range.

 

[Hemi-Demon]

Great job Schiit. I don't need another amp, but I might jump on this and put it upstairs.

 

[Vasr]

The view is much different from either side of the product. As a consumer, your view of a particular product is completely different as a producer. My comment was not meant to disparage. The difference between being critical and pedantic is vast. Judge the product for it's intention and execution and where those actions intersect with your own values and judgments. At least, that is how I try to approach critique.

I completely agree with the above.

But I am not sure it is applied objectively and consistently here though. That is a problem.

Equipment is panned here at times not always because the design was broken but because it didn't perform to some high purity bar regardless of the design goals. The only difference is that the equipment manufacturer wasn't here and playing nice with ASR. Denon doing some of that changed the tenor of the reaction to their equipment. Is that really objectivity?

AVRs are even more full of compromises than a headphone amp and yet they are frequently faulted for not having a DAC SINAD comparable to a $10 dongle.

The above is not a comment on Schiit (who I am sure agrees with the need for consistency above) or on Amir's efforts but it explains why some people's criticism here may not give some leeway to other equipment regardless of whether the manufacturer is playing nice with ASR or it is manufactured in the USA instead of China. The latter factors have nothing to do with evaluation of the product.

 

[Tks]

PS Audio already has that covered but not in this price range.

They got products this clean at all? News to me.

 

[Vasr]

They got products this clean at all? News to me.

They got the added distortion part covered.

 

[dfuller]

Computer hardware cases suffer these sorts of people. Where they complain about cooling performance when the case never advertised prowess in such area and mainly focused on aesthetics and thr marketing also reflected such. Yet people will still complain about lack of front mesh panels or something. Intent is completely ignored and desire of the person observing is the only consideration by which success or failure is gauged.

A completely idiotic notion honestly.

Sounds like someone watches Gamers Nexus...

Anyway: -73dB CCIF IMD isn't great but it's still arguably not very audible.

 

[ta240]

Why can’t people just read one of these reviews and think to themselves, “ah, I see unbalanced doesn’t measure as well as balanced so this otherwise fine product is not the product for me” and move on? Challenging Amir’s conclusions has become a sport.

It is the modern thought process. If it isn't for me then it should be for nobody.