Schiit Magni 3+ and Heresy Headphone Amp Reviews

[BARDUKE]

nor will running the unit at volume 1 o'clock.

Oh, I meant to say to max out both the DAC and amp...I'm more concerned about maxing out the amp than having the dac at 0db.

 

[NgtFlyer]

Oh, I meant to say to max out both the DAC and amp...I'm more concerned about maxing out the amp than having the dac at 0db.

Just to note, the E30 has a pure DAC mode which of course has it at 0db at all times. Of course running it that way won't hurt it.

 

[BARDUKE]

Ordered the A50s and D50s. Might keep the other stack too and put it in the living room for laid back listening.

 

[NgtFlyer]

Ordered the A50s and D50s. Might keep the other stack too and put it in the living room for laid back listening.

Why not! Both sets are class-leading products and you will have years of happy listening! I'm really enjoying mine - I have the E30/L30 in my office (my "main" setup) and also the Schiit Magni 3+ and Modi 3. The latter of which are in my bedroom. I use MediaMonkey + the remote app to control a little Lenovo i3 tiny PC that is connected to the Schiit stack. Works great and it provides for a really great listening experience.

 

[all24bits]

Also, I haven't seen a single person not taken care of by Schiit. We can talk about measurements all day, but their customer service hasn't been called out by anyone as something dis-satisfactory.

I am a satisfied Schiit owner of at least 3 products (and have even brought them new business), and I have never had any bad issues with their Customer Service. However, if you look online, there are MANY complaints about their Customer Service team and even direct complaints about Jason himself telling the customer off.

To be fair, you can get bad reviews over any customer service, but to specifically call out Schiit as having no reported complaints is not accurate.

 

[NgtFlyer]

My first Magni 3+ turned out be a dud. After a few days of emails, they replaced the unit. No issues with the replacement.
Both my Modi 3 and Magni 3+ are in use. I use them in my bedroom. They sound great.

 

[Sombreuil]

Out of curiosity, how much power does the Heresy provide/have compared to an L30? I don't really understand all the graphics so I'd like to be sure.

 

[raif71]

My first Magni 3+ turned out be a dud. After a few days of emails, they replaced the unit. No issues with the replacement.
Both my Modi 3 and Magni 3+ are in use. I use them in my bedroom. They sound great.

I just bought a used Magni 3+ just out of curiosity to try a discrete amp. I tried it with a Zen DAC as the DAC. Yes I agree the Magni 3+ sounds great and quite powerful too.

 

[NgtFlyer]

Out of curiosity, how much power does the Heresy provide/have compared to an L30? I don't really understand all the graphics so I'd like to be sure.

As far as sound and power, they are very similar. I don't have a Heresy, I have a Magni 3+, but I also have an L30 and comparing them with the same headphones (ATH-M50x), I really can't tell much of a difference between the two. My E30/L30 is at my desk in my office and my Modi 3/Magni 3+ are in my bedroom. I use both sets often.

 

[Sombreuil]

I see, thanks for the answer!

 

[jazzaj]

Out of curiosity, how much power does the Heresy provide/have compared to an L30? I don't really understand all the graphics so I'd like to be sure.

I have an E30 and asking here few weeks ago about the best combo amp for my Sennheiser HD540 or AKG K240 Sextett that both have 600 ohms impedance. Solderdube answered me :

The L30 on hi gain (+9dB = 2.8x gain) will only produce 3V = 16mW = 100dB peak levels = about 80dB to 90dB average level (depending on the recording).
It will basically go twice as loud as without the amp.

The Heresy will get you 6dB louder than the L30 (6V = 64mW). You could wait till Topping releases the amp specifically designed for driving high imp. headphones. It will have more gain.

So I decided to buy Heresy. Of course I can't compare with the L30 I planned to buy first but I must admit that Heresy have plenty power BUT no so/too much to drive my two 600 Ohms headphones. For example I listen to them at 60% volume (mean 13 hours/1 pm).

 

[Weeb Labs]

The Magni 3+ is also very competent amplifier and subjectively kept up with Heresy. But my question is why would you buy it?

Because it's silver and silver is pretty?

 

[Aperiodic]

I apologize if it came up and I missed it but I am curious about the following statement from the review:

"I tested it [Magni 3+] in high gain mode with 2 volt output and that dropped the SINAD (noise and distortion) to 99 dB. Wanted to test the same with Heresy but there, the high gain is much worse."

Wondering how much worse and why this data was not included. Based on experience, I would expect to use the high gain setting at least some of the time with my 250Ω Beyer Amirons. I don't listen at high levels for the most part so I don't know if it's relevant, but I was hoping for some context for the above statement, especially in light of the strong recommendation for the Heresy and the non-recommendation for the 3+. TIA

 

[trl]

Amir measured on Magni 3+ a SINAD of about 103.5 dB @ low gain 1.85V RMS @ 300 Ohms (11 mW) and a SINAD of about 100 dB at 2V RMS @ 300 Ohms resistive load, based on the below graphs:

​

Your headphones will have a much higher THD that Magni 3+, so I don't consider any issues in pairing Amiron with Magni 3+.

BTW, who is not recommending Amiron/Magni 3+ pairing, please?

 

[Aperiodic]

Amir measured on Magni 3+ a SINAD of about 103.5 dB @ low gain 1.85V RMS @ 300 Ohms (11 mW) and a SINAD of about 100 dB at 2V RMS @ 300 Ohms resistive load, based on the below graphs:

​

Your headphones will have a much higher THD that Magni 3+, so I don't consider any issues in pairing Amiron with Magni 3+.​

BTW, who is not recommending Amiron/Magni 3+ pairing, please?

Nobody.

I was merely seeking clarity re Amir's statement, repeated again here:

"I tested it [Magni 3+] in high gain mode with 2 volt output and that dropped the SINAD (noise and distortion) to 99 dB. Wanted to test the same with Heresy but there, the high gain is much worse."

Amir seems to be saying- is saying- that the SINAD of the Heresy on the High Gain setting is "much worse" than the 3+. This seems to directly contradict the plots. In fact, he seems to be saying that he didn't do the measurement because of it but there's the graph right there... And the graph could be clearer that it is in fact THD+N, not simply distortion.

 

[trl]

Unless I understand something wrong here, what I see in the above graph is exactly what Amir says: Heresy has "much lower distortion than Magni 3+". We're comparing a THD+N of 0.000439% (a SINAD of 117.15 dB) with a THD+N of 0.003622% (a SINAD of -88.82 dB) at about 270 mW of power.

 

[Aperiodic]

At low gain.

The quote I was asking about concerned the SINAD behavior at high gain and was copied and pasted from Amir's dashbord summary. Here is screenshot of the statement in question since there seems to be some doubt about what he said:

 

[Aperiodic]

That's exactly what I am asking about; it contradicts the later plot! He said it- there it is! Maybe it was a misstatement, but he said it, and I'm trying to find out what he meant.

 

[Sgt. Ear Ache]

Pretty sure he's referring to the Magni in HG being "much worse" than the Heresy in LG. It's worded in a confusing manner. When he says he "wanted to test the same with the Heresy" he's referring to the 2V output I believe, not the gain setting. In other words, he wanted to test both units @ 2V output, but putting the Magni in HG in order to get 2V output caused it to drop to 99db SINAD, therefore he went with the LG comparison and less than 2V output on the Magni...

 

[Blank Verse]

I have an E30 and asking here few weeks ago about the best combo amp for my Sennheiser HD540 or AKG K240 Sextett that both have 600 ohms impedance. Solderdube answered me :
So I decided to buy Heresy. Of course I can't compare with the L30 I planned to buy first but I must admit that Heresy have plenty power BUT no so/too much to drive my two 600 Ohms headphones. For example I listen to them at 60% volume (mean 13 hours/1 pm).

The K240 (the Sextett and even the Monitor or DF models, the ones with 600 ohms) are really hard to drive, but my O2 has no problem driving my K240M beyond levels I can't tolerate on high gain. So I imagine the L30 would do the same. Or maybe I just have a low tolerance for loud volume.