Schiit IEMagni Review (Headphone Amplifier)

[ta240]

All of those knobs are different anyway. Could you sleep at night knowing that

well, now I can't!

 

[sarumbear]

Why do headphone amp manufacturers keep doing this when it's obviously annoying?

Maybe they like design as well as specs?

 

[AdamG]

Great amp. Is the volume knob new? What's the material and is it removable? Thanks.

Welcome Aboard @vaidd.

 

[mSpot]

Hmm, so same price as the Heresy

$20 more than the Heresy. Jason Stoddard discussed it in his post.

 

[Nango]

Hmm, so same price as the Heresy but add another gain setting (50mW SINAD is much better) and is a bit more powerful. Cons though are the volume channel matching and that while SINAD is similar, this has much lower 2nd harmonics but much higher 3rd harmonics, thankfully both levels are super low.

I own the Heresy and enjoy it, and I actually do like the splash of red (even bought a red 3.5mm adaptor to match).

Cool!!!

 

[Nango]

I wonder how much of Schiit's recent improvements have come about due to Amir and ASR

If they build a separate amp for each category of headphones instead of building one-fits-all (IEm & headphones) this is not the path I expected them to answer ASR activism. Just one chance more for companies like @tomchr to sell more of their amps.

 

[Robbo99999]

I like the aesthetic of this too, nice product. Just the channel imbalance of nearly 1dB around the 12 o'clock (middle) position on the volume knob, did I read the graph right, never really understood it, but think I do now?

(and also of course lots of imbalance right near the zero position on the volume knob)

 

[Ismapics]

Hello @amirm can't it be used as a pre-amp for desktop use? Any good for that purpose?

 

[Matias]

I like the aesthetic of this too, nice product. Just the channel imbalance of nearly 1dB around the 12 o'clock (middle) position on the volume knob, did I read the graph right, never really understood it, but think I do now?
View attachment 129416
(and also of course lots of imbalance right near the zero position on the volume knob)

The blue curve has its vertical scale to the right. 0 dB is both channels equal level, and deviating up and down is channel mismatch.

The red curve has its vertical scale to the left. It starts max volume (0dB attenuation) and decreases levels until the end at the right side.

The cursor shows 0.75 dB channel mismatch (blue curve), which is quite bad, already at -15 dB (red curve), which is fairly high in level (bad). Usually channel mismatch happens more often below 30 or 40 dB attenuation, but in this case it happens quite early.

So yes, they should pick their pots better ("binning" is the name for testing and picking the good ones from the bad ones).

 

[Zensō]

A Heresy with a low gain setting for IEMs; pretty cool.

With the pretty bad channel imbalance this doesn't appear to be a cherry-picked sample. I suspect it's a sample-specific issue and not necessarily a problem for this model in general.

 

[T.M.Noble]

Great amp. Is the volume knob new? What's the material and is it removable? Thanks.

Good eye. The knob is new and replaced the shell knob for a black anodized machined aluminum upgrade. Larger price tag, more refinement.

 

[MadMan]

I've owned Schiit products in the past, but really just can't consider them any more with controls in the back.

 

[Billy Budapest]

I too have owned a ton of Schiit, although all my pieces have traveled down the pipe to other Schiitheads.

 

[m8o]

Looks like Schiit subscribed to the same circular the Chinese had been getting for a year or two.

 

[sejarzo]

My beef with the original Magni3 (sold after a few months) and my Heresy is the noisy volume pot. Both were fine when new and then unaccepably noisy within 8 weeks of use. I used the Heresy with the volume pot maxed out and digital volume control on my DAC, but that got tiresome. Now using an Atom and perfectly happy with its performance on HD6xx's and IEMs, too. The Heresy is now my backup.

I don't get why it's so hard to implement a decent pot in these amps. I would pay an extra $30 for a Heresy with an ALPS Blue Velvet rather than whatever it is they use now...but I suppose the price point rules rather than quality.

 

[Helicopter]

Congratulations on an excellent showing Schiit! Amir, thanks for the review. Schiit is one brand that really captures my interest. I would run out and buy this immediately if it weren't for my deep deep hatred of IEMs.

 

[Veri]

I would run out and buy this immediately if it weren't for my deep deep hatred of IEMs.

You can totally use it for things other than IEMs, though

 

[Helicopter]

You can totally use it for things other than IEMs, though

Indeed. I could have mentioned I already have a Heresy and Magnius.

... and a Hel

 

[the_brunx]

My beef with the original Magni3 (sold after a few months) and my Heresy is the noisy volume pot. Both were fine when new and then unaccepably noisy within 8 weeks of use. I used the Heresy with the volume pot maxed out and digital volume control on my DAC, but that got tiresome. Now using an Atom and perfectly happy with its performance on HD6xx's and IEMs, too. The Heresy is now my backup.

I don't get why it's so hard to implement a decent pot in these amps. I would pay an extra $30 for a Heresy with an ALPS Blue Velvet rather than whatever it is they use now...but I suppose the price point rules rather than quality.

a blue velvet would not fit in such a small, confined case. Plus it’s also not immune to such problems. I always have a bottle of contact cleaner spray, it works like a miracle on dusty rusty pots. Cleans and adds a protective layer to keep them going for ages. Don’t know if the pot they are using has a spray opening though.

 

[sejarzo]

a blue velvet would not fit in such a small, confined case. I always have a bottle of contact cleaner spray, it works like a miracle on dusty rusty pots. Cleans and adds a protective layer to keep them going for ages.

I meant that I would pay more for that amp topology with a Blue Velvet, size of the case be damned.

The ONLY gear I have had that developed that level of noise in a matter of weeks are the Schiit amps. I owned several small iBasso DAC/amps when I traveled frequently on business some years ago, no issue, ever. Do you really think it's acceptable that one should have to take the cover off a desktop amp to clean a brand new pot in a matter of a couple of months? I don't think you really do.