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Schiit Magni 3+ and Heresy Headphone Amp Reviews

mi-fu

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It is a great review! Not just the performance, but it shows both the value of the ASR and the willingness of manufacturers to make changes. It will improve the audio industry in the long run.

This will be the first Schiit product I am going to buy - not that I needed it. But I like companies that take criticisms seriously. Congrats to both @amirm and @T.M.Noble :)
 
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T.M.Noble

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@amirm ,

I believe @T.M.Noble gave the OK to look inside. Let's do that so we can get the issue of past loose solder blobs and bits out of the way..

Also, with 2+ watts of undistorted output, there is a possibility of thermal/cooking problems with either Magni under a 2w continuous load.. Thermal profiling under 2w load would also be nice while the covers are off..

I'm sure more than me will be tempted to use this into a pair of efficient bookshelf speakers, 8ohms be d****d...

Feel free to look under the hood.
 

Veri

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No plans at the moment, but I could certainly be convinced if people here are interested. Either way, you will be seeing more Schiit products reviewed on ASR in the future.
Interested! Interested!!! :D
 

bunkbail

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@T.M.Noble Any future plans for Modi Heresy with matching casing color?
 

bunkbail

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A black modi 3 came out together with Heresy launch. As close a match as it'll get, I think :)
Oh I didn't realize there's a black Modi 3, no need for Modi Heresy then :).
 

Damian

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Would the Modi 3 plus Heresy combo perform
at the same level or better than a DX7 Pro then? For like 1/3 of the price?
 
OP
amirm

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Modi 3 is a great $99 DAC and matches in looks. You can get higher performance DACs to better match to Heresy. Audibly though they are probably the same.
 

Thomas savage

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I think I can make something happen. We are quite low ourselves so I might need to make a run to the store.
Well being fulla schiit I'd hope its possible less I don't fell special and we don't want that do we.
 

bidn

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Congratulations to Schiit and to Amir!

Congratulation to Schiit, for improving so much re.:
- product engineering,
- attitude, moving from the initial reactions at the time of the repeated tests of a product measuring poorly (incl. setting, -- "sponsoring"? -- a "*-Fi"forum with responses which seemed quite fallacious to me) to seriously taking ASR's measurements and then to continuously and greatly improving the performance of the products, and providing them here for testing in a positive manner.

Congratulations to Amir, for :
- not being afraid but honestly publishing in the past the poor measurements of some products (at least one by Schiit) , to the cost of receiving a lot of undeserved dirt on some "audiophile" forums
- previously publishing results of other Schiit products which were performing better
- succeeding in making Schiit change this much and even join here, proving that your endeavour and huge, free, voluntary work has a real effect on audio manufacturers.

Excuses to Schiit for making bad jokes and negative comments
-- but please understand that many of us have some grievance because we expended quite some money on audio equipment and afterwards realised we had been deluded by misleading marketing and sponsored reviewers, magazines and sites, having purchased expensive things which were not performing as they should have, and that we see a lot of this kind of business still going on.
 

Grattle

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I’d imagine that the volume knob is where it is because of the power regulation being on the left. You probably need the distance at this level of performance. A physical barrier would add cost and assembly costs.
 

T.M.Noble

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Congratulations to Schiit and to Amir!

Congratulation to Schiit, for improving so much re.:
- product engineering,
- attitude, moving from the initial reactions at the time of the repeated tests of a product measuring poorly (incl. setting, -- "sponsoring"? -- a "*-Fi"forum with responses which seemed quite fallacious to me) to seriously taking ASR's measurements and then to continuously and greatly improving the performance of the products, and providing them here for testing in a positive manner.

Congratulations to Amir, for :
- not being afraid but honestly publishing in the past the poor measurements of some products (at least one by Schiit) , to the cost of receiving a lot of undeserved dirt on some "audiophile" forums
- previously publishing results of other Schiit products which were performing better
- succeeding in making Schiit change this much and even join here, proving that your endeavour and huge, free, voluntary work has a real effect on audio manufacturers.

Excuses to Schiit for making bad jokes and negative comments
-- but please understand that many of us have some grievance because we expended quite some money on audio equipment and afterwards realised we had been deluded by misleading marketing and sponsored reviewers, magazines and sites, having purchased expensive things which were not performing as they should have, and that we see a lot of this kind of business still going on.

We appreciate the feedback.

To be clear, our products and marketing we never intended or produced to mislead our customers. Quite the opposite. We wanted to turn over what we saw as a hyper-inflated market full of astronomical prices. Schiit Audio has always been more interested in delivering the best experience for the money. I think through ten years we have done well in that arena. We will still continue to deliver products that we enjoy and that we would want to own. However, there was a population of the audiophile community that we were not serving. Heresy is our first delivery to those denizens. Enjoy. We are far from done here.

I hope to continue to foster more conversations and discussions about these different philosophies in the future. I have a lot to learn myself and I look forward to bringing something new to the conversation.
 

JohnBooty

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Schiit Audio has always been more interested in delivering the best experience for the money. I think through ten years we have done well in that arena. We will still continue to deliver products that we enjoy and that we would want to own. However, there was a population of the audiophile community that we were not serving. Heresy is our first delivery to those denizens. Enjoy. We are far from done here.

I hope to continue to foster more conversations and discussions about these different philosophies in the future. I have a lot to learn myself and I look forward to bringing something new to the conversation.

Overall, Schiit has been good for the hobby and the industry!

Early Schiit products had some issues, but compared to the rest of the market 10 years ago, they were generally a good value and sounded fine - a lot of the alleged issues were of questionable audibility. Schiit's competition was generally a bunch of overpriced stuff that cost several times as much, and usually had its own issues with regards to objective performance. I think a lot of the criticism of "early Schiit" tended to overlook these points.

Over time Schiit has evolved and right now it has some great performing products. Folks can argue about specific Schiit products, but many of Schiit's current products are very competitive. I don't think you can point to too many audiophile electronics companies with a stronger or more varied lineup of products under $1K.

Topping, SMSL, and JDS Labs come to mind, but only JDS Labs (I think) is USA-based, which is nice for folks who live here and want to support American companies when possible.

Heresy is our first delivery to those denizens. Enjoy. We are far from done here.

I hope to continue to foster more conversations and discussions about these different philosophies in the future. I have a lot to learn myself and I look forward to bringing something new to the conversation.

By "those denizens," do you mean folks who value equipment that measures well?

Well, hopefully a lesson is learned here. Heresy (and competitor's products like the JDS Labs Atom) show that there's no need to choose. There can be gear at reasonable prices that measures great and sounds great.

After all, the only reason folks like us care about the objective, measurable performance of our gear is because generally, "what sounds good" happens to be gear that reproduces audio with minimal distortion.

Can't wait to see what's next!
 
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T.M.Noble

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Overall, Schiit has been good for the hobby and the industry!

Early Schiit products had some issues, but compared to the rest of the market 10 years ago, they were generally a good value and sounded fine - a lot of the alleged issues were of questionable audibility. Schiit's competition was generally a bunch of overpriced stuff that cost several times as much, and usually had its own issues with regards to objective performance. I think a lot of the criticism of "early Schiit" tended to overlook these points.

Over time Schiit has evolved and right now it has some great performing products that are very competitive against other hifi gear in their price ranges.



By "those denizens," do you mean folks who value equipment that measures well?

Well, hopefully a lesson is learned here. Heresy (and competitor's products like the JDS Labs Atom) show that there's no need to choose. There can be gear at reasonable prices that measures great and sounds great.

After all, the only reason folks like us care about the objective, measurable performance of our gear is because generally, "what sounds good" happens to be gear that reproduces audio with minimal distortion.

Can't wait to see what's next!

I think it is safe to say we have improved since those original units made in the garage.

By "those denizens" I am referring to those in the audiophile community that we were not satiating.

There are those in audio that do not place measurements on an analyzer as primary on their rubric. There are those who find it paramount. Funny enough it seems to be a subjective preference as to who finds what standard correct. If we are to be a more successful company, we need to produce products that appeal to a broader audience and have something in our inventory that can appeal to any listener. We fully intend on accomplishing that goal moving forward.
 
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Tks

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Kinda went with the Heresy theme though don't ya think?

It goes perfect. Your marketing team would put Apple's to shame. All the while doing it without any of the classically expected gotcha's anywhere.

Also the colors conform toward a gamery aesthetic. I know you recently put out your first gaming-type of device with the Hell. Seems like a great problem to have trying to see if the gaming crowd could also be compelled between two choices.

There are those in audio that do not place measurements on an analyzer as primary on their rubric. There are those who find it paramount. Funny enough it seems to be a subjective preference as to who finds what standard correct. If we are to be a more successful company, we need to produce products that appeal to a broader audience and have something in our inventory that can appeal to any listener. We full intend on accomplishing that goal moving forward.

I like the way this was put as well.
 

ClosDeLaRoche

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"have something in our inventory that can appeal to any listener. We full intend on accomplishing that goal moving forward."

I have long been a fan of Schiit because of this. Tubes, solid state, balanced, single ended, R2R, Sigma-Delta, expensive and exotic topology or cheap and simple, there is something for everyone.
 

Thomas savage

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I think it is safe to say we have improved since those original units made in the garage.

By "those denizens" I am referring to those in the audiophile community that we were not satiating.

There are those in audio that do not place measurements on an analyzer as primary on their rubric. There are those who find it paramount. Funny enough it seems to be a subjective preference as to who finds what standard correct. If we are to be a more successful company, we need to produce products that appeal to a broader audience and have something in our inventory that can appeal to any listener. We fully intend on accomplishing that goal moving forward.
There's definitely a subscription, folks sign up to a higher power and it's ultimately without self critic . It's odd but both polar narratives meet in being ' subjective'.

Unless you really understand it's all belief. So much of what goes on online is two sets of folks beating each other round the face with cold haddock. .

Oh well , at least our arses are clean.
 
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