Schiit Magni 3+ and Heresy Headphone Amp Reviews

[tdockweiler]

lol...man it's got to be frustrating for companies to see 1 and 2 star reviews on Amazon for their products from buyers who seem to have no idea what they are talking about. "Its OK...doesn't have much amplification power. I returned it." Er...OK then.

I can just imagine Jason sitting there in his office doing a face palm on a daily basis reading reviews of his products.

My favorites are those that give an amp a 1 star review because they don't include an adapter, remote or cables.

 

[tdockweiler]

Yeah, well, I can understand how some of the reviewers get the impression that these first rate amps don't deliver. I was myself in such situation twelve years or so ago. Bought new headphones: AKG K701 - presumably reference grade - and then a Violectric V100 amp. Boy, was I disappointed! Sound quality was so poor, I really was devastated! Then I discovered the brand beyerdynamic and had the opportunity to listen to some of their headphones. I finally bought a pair of DT990s and boy, the difference was night and day!

I've learned the following things:

- Headphones make the most impact concerning sound stage and sonic impression. Most people that complain about poor bass or sound stage or too little power should just switch to another headphone brand (and impedance, that is) because they probably have not the right headphone gear for their needs. Those AKG cans were not to my liking. The sound stage of the DT990s kicks ass and I still own and use them (after ten years of daily use). (But I know some people here have a more profound knowledge of headphone gear – I've never listened to planar magnetics and I have no idea if those really are audiophonic heaven or if they're just marketing hype... )

One thing i've learned is to not believe it when people say a headphone amp can't possibly be bad enough to make you go from hating a headphone to liking it. Generally this may be true if it's measurements are decent.

When I had the Asgard 1 I absolutely hated it with the HD-650 and AKG K702. On the K702 it was painfully harsh and basically not worth using. On the HD-650 the sound was very very dark, muffled and closed in sounding. Not a clear sound at all. I'm not a Schiit hater, but that was the worst experience with an amp I ever had.

When I got a different amp, the headphones were perfect. Well, they sounded like they were now supposed to sound like. Yes, the K702 still lacked some bass.

Of course I also learned to not be too quick to fall for the hype on a new Headphone amp or DAC.
I did this with the Asgard 1 and HRT Music Streamer II DAC (which sounds bad and probably measures bad).

If that wasn't bad enough I also did this with the O2. Despite the good measurements I never loved that amp for some reason.
I did however get a some crackling/clipping? when I used it with my Q701 and it's power adapter.
It wasn't bad at all and pretty good with most headphones though. I just didn't use it much.

The Magni 3+ actually deserves all the hype it can get. I love mine so far and have had it for about a month I think.
I'm really surprised there are not more reviews of it on Amazon yet. I guess people who have problems with a product are just more likely to leave a review.

I actually bought the Magni 3+ because I thought the Heresy would be too similar to what I already have!
Doesn't bother me if the 3+ has slightly more distortion.

I also love the review comment about how Schiit "sold out" just because they sell on Amazon. Seriously?

 

[Sgt. Ear Ache]

Any Canadians here have much experience ordering from Amazon US? Does it take a long time for international orders to ship? My Heresy has been sitting in limbo waiting to ship since last week...

 

[Sgt. Ear Ache]

well, I have something to do for the next few days while I avoid everyone!

https://imgur.com/cxTbNHg

 

[BDWoody]

well, I have something to do for the next few days while I avoid everyone!

https://imgur.com/cxTbNHg

Nice!

Always fun to have new Schiit to play with!

 

[Sgt. Ear Ache]

https://imgur.com/hLfiMQ6

This is good sound. Real good...I mean I probably couldn't tell the difference between the Heresy and the LS in a blind test, but I know the Heresy measures better! Definitely has a ton of nice clean power. Sounds fantastic...

 

[Mocs123]

I stumbled upon a good deal on a pair of older Audeze LCD-2's (non fazor) and though I don't have them yet, I realized my JDS Atom might not can provide the power they crave, so I'm starting to think about budget alternatives. I see a lot's of recommendations that are$1K but my wife's likely to kill me for buying another set of headphones much less a $1K amp!). The Heresy seems to have more power and otherwise measures well. What are your thoughts? Any other budget amps I should look at?

 

[Veri]

I stumbled upon a good deal on a pair of older Audeze LCD-2's (non fazor) and though I don't have them yet, I realized my JDS Atom might not can provide the power they crave, so I'm starting to think about budget alternatives. I see a lot's of recommendations that are$1K but my wife's likely to kill me for buying another set of headphones much less a $1K amp!)

Have you considered the THX 789 or the 887? Or yeah the SP200 is an option too, but the other two have 3 gain settings: low, medium, high.

 

[solderdude]

I stumbled upon a good deal on a pair of older Audeze LCD-2's (non fazor) and though I don't have them yet, I realized my JDS Atom might not can provide the power they crave, so I'm starting to think about budget alternatives. I see a lot's of recommendations that are$1K but my wife's likely to kill me for buying another set of headphones much less a $1K amp!). The Heresy seems to have more power and otherwise measures well. What are your thoughts? Any other budget amps I should look at?

The Atom can make the drivers reach 123dB SPL peak which is sufficient for playing loud and authorative in the bass as well.
No real need for more power.
The impedance is high enough to not be a problem for Atom.
Heresy can play the LCD2 about 0.5 dB louder (so 123.5dB SPL peak) so basically is not audbly louder.

Both can reach about 1W in 70 Ohm.
At peak powers of 15W the LCD2 can reach 135dB... you would be experiencing pain !!!

Forget about 'craving for power' nonsense.
105dB/V isn't quite craving for power, it is a decent sensitivity, not great but also not too bad.
Even on a phone it can reach 105dB peak.
The Atom & Heresy can provide the power for 70 Ohm headphones without breaking into sweat nor will current limit capabilities be reached.

 

[Reddy]

Which amp is recomendable für 600 Ohm headphones ?

 

[solderdude]

Depends on which headphone it is.
Balanced or single ended, efficiency, max. desirable SPL, with or without EQ, power rating, this all makes a difference.

In general the ones with the highest power rating at 300 Ohm is preferrred.

 

[Veri]

Which amp is recomendable für 600 Ohm headphones ?

Perhaps importantly, what's your budget? If there's no budget I, again, recommend the THX 789 or 887 amps which can drive just about anything.
There are devices like magni heresy and SP200 which can drive headphones hard at lower budget, though.

 

[Reddy]

Depends on which headphone it is.
Balanced or single ended, efficiency, max. desirable SPL, with or without EQ, power rating, this all makes a difference.

In general the ones with the highest power rating at 300 Ohm is preferrred.

Beyerdynamic DT 880 Edition 600

 

[solderdude]

Beyerdynamic DT 880 Edition 600

see: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...vice-dac-amp-for-€-500-600.12463/#post-368552

 

[Tks]

Stepped attenuators are not for amps but preamps. They are not meant to be turned often and won’t provide you a smooth change in volume.

if you are into fancy volume control, i think active control such as baxandall would be more interesting.

Hmm, why would a stepped attenuator not meant to be turned often? And why would that mean it's for pre-amps? You say the volume change isn't smooth, that's fine, but also, why not just get one with more steps? How smooth does volume need to change anyway >_>

 

[Tks]

On a Preamp volume can stay untouched.

If you get one if these built with rotary switches that has too many steps, clicking the thing to desired volume and return to zero before each shutdown becomes hard. And you would start to wonder when will it break. I Have a garyhill switch. It requires some force to turn. I definitely won’t want to turn it often.

if you want one for amplifiers, consider using a relay attenuator with digital control, like amb delta 1. It offers better feelings.

So for instance the Benchmark HPA4 is the sort of attenuation that should be used? I can't tell what to even call it, optical, digital, stepped, relay attenuator? What is this lol..

 

[solderdude]

I think one should only use a different volume control when one only or most often uses the bottom part of the volume range and audibly hear L and R channels draw annoyingly to the left or right.
Most people won't even hear +/- 0.2dB when listening to music perhaps not even +/-0,5dB.

Given that the Heresy (and Magni3+ as well as Atom) have a gain switch I would suggest to use low gain and get better travel on the volpot.

It will be very hard to fit anything but a small pot inside the Heresy enclosure anyway.
Those willing the Heresy performance and other pots may best use an external attenuator in front of the Heresy or software volume control.
Otherwise transplant the board to a bigger enclosure and use whatever volume control one desires in the new and much bigger enclosure.

 

[Tks]

if you are paranoid, look for active volume control such as baxandall and muses 72320. With these you can use laser-trimmed high precision opamps. And they only use pots to control gain of active circuits.

but again, it’s possible that they have a different sound signature. Nothing is perfect here.

BTW, when i build my own neurochrome hp-2, i bought 16 resistors only to pick two groups of 4 that has same value within each group (still different between groups) ... In the end if you are very demanding here, your only way out would be professionally built gear with exotic price tags.

I'm not paranoid at all, I was mostly curious. The reason I don't like these typical volume pots, isn't due to channel imbalance (I haven't been unlucky enough to suffer any of discernible degree), I just hate to death how they all turn scratchy in less than a month of desktop use. My 789 is building up more and more points of scratch, with one nearly at the position I usually slow my pot rotation, and the scratch that comes through the right channel wants to blow my ear to pieces if I turn it slowly enough.

Every single one of these develop this scratchy nonsense I hate more than anything. I don't even need precise volume control or anything of the sort (the RME DAC can handle that precision). But the problem with the RME even with digital control the encoders are going to shit. Skipping and just over shooting or undershooting (meaning if I turn volume up, it sometimes will go up and while turning go down at the same time.. throughout the rotary motion). This is especially troublesome with the secondary encoders used for settings (sometimes when changing gain, it will shoot up a level and shoot down one level at a single rotary step, and I get to hear two clicks competing over one another as the device probably cringes for having it's gain changed so rapidly). Also the main encoder for volume control is too loose (possibly how it is by design, but I feel its a pretty senseless one, I don't want the steps so loose where I'm overshooting or having to make sure the encoder is set within a step).

But the DAC isn't the issue so much (when I'm not lazy I'll get it sent in for repair with hopes they can tune this not to degrade like mine slowly is with it's digital processing, but it seems this is being compounded by the unit getting warm with no proper heatsinks aside from the case, and it's sporadic temperature fluctuations even if left in Mute, but mostly an issue I feel is compounded even more by off cycles when the device is ice cold, and when it's warm during the day as I use it... seems to be throwing off tolerances, or I'm just very unlucky with this defective unit). The 789 is the bigger problem. I just cannot stomach having this scratch shit.

 

[Tks]

massdrop is known to use some low quality pots. I have never got an alps/bourns that becomes scratchy. You can have it replace at an electronics repair shop. I use bourns PTD902 a lot these days.

encoders typically won’t behave like that. Perhaps It’s the knob that slipped while you turn rapidly. Slow down a bit will solve it.

With my luck taking this thing to a repair shop, they'll botch it it even worse. (A trend of dying NYC repair shops).

As for the encoder on the DAC, speed has no barring on the random mis-reads. It's in steps/clicks as you rotate, and I can go 1 by 1 and this happens regardless. It's just gone to shit, all three are exhibiting the behavior (started one by one).

 

[Raex]

Hi everyone, I'm new to this forum, at least my account, I have actually read a lot but never made a comment

I'm planning to buy a new headphone amp and a dac.

Until a week ago I had an Audio-GD R2R11 which I bought because many (in other forums and on youtube) have said that it's a brilliant amp/dac combo and probably the best under 500.

When I got the R2R I was extremely dissapointed with it, it sounded way worse than my ASUS D1 soundcard. The only thing it did better was volume, although the sound got worse the louder I played it. Even on low volume it sounded squashed, when played louder it had no punch/low end and sounded squashed on both ends...

Because of that I pretty much never used it.
Now i sold it and have to decide what to buy as a replacement.

For the DAC I'll most probably go woth the Topping E30.

I'm yet a bit unsure for the AMP.
I'll either go with the Heresy or the 3+.
Why not straight go for the better measuring Heresy you might ask?
Because the 3+ measures well to, subjectively kept up (Amirs words) and it is described as smoother and with more "body" and "weight" in the low end by some reviewers.

Problem is...I'm looking for a smoothe and clean amp that does not highlight nor underrepresent any part of the audible bandwith, but most importantly not underrepresent the low end..I hate that haha

Since the first time reviewers and other forums made me buy the worst audio gear I have ever owned, I don't want to make the mistake of trusting their (seemingly completely bad) hearing abilities and evaluations again.

I'd really appreciate it if someone could help me out and probably describe if there really are (even small) differences in sound between the Heresy and the 3+

I don't want to end up with a lifeless, robotic and flat (in a bad way) sounding amp (Heresy) nor with a muddy or worse one that is described as better (3+)...each as described by people who might not be able differentiate between good sound and something like the R2R 11

Could anyone point me in a direction here? I'm really torn haha