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Schiit Magni 3+ and Heresy Headphone Amp Reviews

ace52387

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I didn't see a referenced input sensitivity, but how might the performance change with only 1vrms input?
 

solderdude

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That would depend on the volume pot position.
One can expect about 6dB worse S/N ratio compared to the used ref level (it is 2V as per the dashboard) and slightly lower distortion, as indicated by distortion/level plots.

Perhaps the realization is needed that in most cases 0dB is only seldom shortly reached at very loud listening levels, when listening to music at average levels performance is better (often wider bandwidth and lower distortion) of course not for S/N ration which is best case at max output level.
The 50mV measured performance may well be more important to real world usage than distortion at or near maximum output power.
 
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unfit327

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Check your headphone to see if it is still O.K. When it too is faulty notify Schiit. They stated publicly that they would pay for damages. A clicking relay may be indicative that the headphone may have received DC pulses.
This is why I think amps like this should have DC protection despite the manufacturer claiming it never happens.

The Heresy is MUCH, MUCH, MUCH less likely to let go of the magic smoke. Yet another reason to go for the better Heresy. There is no audible difference anyway.

Ok now you have me scared. I have one day left to return my magni 3+. I have had it since mid April with no issues and it sounds amazing, but I too read the reviews and forums about them smoking. Should I return it and get a heresy? I would also have to return the modi since it's silver and they have to match or my ocd will struggle
 

solderdude

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When you are happy with it just use it. The amount of smoking magni's is probably extremely small compared to the vast amounts that are sold.
Besides, Schiit did openly mention headphones blown up by a faulty amp will be reimbursed.

Then again its our OCD ... I myself wouldn't worry about it too much.
 

unfit327

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When you are happy with it just use it. The amount of smoking magni's is probably extremely small compared to the vast amounts that are sold.
Besides, Schiit did openly mention headphones blown up by a faulty amp will be reimbursed.

Then again its our OCD ... I myself wouldn't worry about it too much.
My bigger worry is more the thing catching my house on fire. I don't know if that's possible with this specific issue of smoking buy it sits in the back of my mind
 

unfit327

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Silver case from Schiit has better grounding connections between the two halves. Their blackened case and screws have non conductive surfaces that won’t link the case electronically.

As for the smoke, it is likely from the 2 big SMD surface mount resistors near HP jack. It seems the part chosen is running close to power limit. If you are unsettled, return. But there is no guarantee that you will like heresy as much.
Liking the heresy as much is the only thing I am afraid of and yes I know some say there is no difference but I truly love the sound of the magni 3+ and if it's any different at all I'm not sure I will like it.
 

solderdude

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My bigger worry is more the thing catching my house on fire. I don't know if that's possible with this specific issue of smoking buy it sits in the back of my mind

Don't think flames will be coming out of it. PCB's usually do not catch fire, they do char, smoke and smell but fire is not very likely. I won't say impossible with a 100% certainty.. just highly unlikely. This can happen with any electronic device. I would be more worried about phone chargers and Lithium batteries burning than a Magni 3.

Please note chris0202 opinion is just that, unsubstantiated and sighted observations that are not admissible in ASR-court. Feel free to ignore.
EDIT: chris0202 removed his post, a small remnant of it is saved for eternity in Veri's post below.
 
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Veri

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I heard Magni3+. It is a very engaging amp! The only other amp/dac combo I heard of that has a similar sound is from CEntrance.
That's a pretty odd statement to make here ;)
 

JeffGB

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I just received two Heresy's last week. I have one for headphones for my wife and one for a preamp for my amplifier. They both seem to work fine. The one hooked up to the amplifier has a low level squeel, if I put my ear to the tweeters. That noise doesn't change if I unhook the cables from the dac, but does stop if I turn the volume to zero. If I turn the volume up a bit the squeel appears but does not get worse as I turn it up higher. If I unhook the Heresy from the amplifier, there is no noise. When the Heresy is hooked up and the volume up a bit, the squeel is there but if I move my hand near the Heresy the squeel lessens. Ok, so it appears to be some kind of radiated noise being picked up by the Heresy. Does anyone have any suggestions like connecting a grounding wire to the chassis of the Heresy? Thanks in advance!
 

solderdude

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Groundloop issues... they can be nasty to track down and solve.
You could try to ground the enclosure, could also be (I assume active) speakers make the groundloop.
There may be several things to try and may solve the issue.
When you can rotate the mains plug 180 degrees in the socket (possible in some countries) you could try that first. Helps in some cases.
 

JeffGB

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Thanks for the suggestions. I'll give them a try. It's not a loud noise. It's barely audible unless I put my ear to the tweeter, but its not -120db either :).
 

Funktipus

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I'm brand new to the forum, and I'm certainly not an audiophile. I wanted to show my gratitude to the amazing information and dedicated folks who share their incredible knowledge. I'm a part time musician of about 25 years (bass guitar) and amateur audio/video engineer for recording and capturing local bands for about 1 year.

I usually mix/master through my budget Behringer reference monitors and subwoofer in a mildly acoustic treated home bedroom studio. I practice bass 95% of the time through headphones. I use a Behringer UMC404HD as my home audio interface, and a Behringer X Air X18 digital mixer as my 16 channel interface for mobile recording of bands.

After reading these forums, it was good to know the UMC404HD is a capable DAC. But I never realized just how bad the internal headphone amp was until I realized how noisy and distorted it gets past noon on the volume. I figured it was my assortment of budget cans and IEM's. I have a few other budget portable headphone amps I use for IEM feeds when performing or capturing. The budget amps are slightly better than the UMC, but volumes are maxed out when powering my new Audio Technica ATH-M50x's. So when I browsed for budget headphone amps, I came across Schiit, and eventually this forum.

All I can say is WOW. After having the Heresy for less than a day, I had no idea what I'd been missing. The lack of hiss and distortion makes practicing bass SO much more enjoyable. Listening to some of my favorite songs has brought out detail and articulation I had never noticed. I was kind of disappointed with the ATH-M50x's at first. Even though they're only 38 ohms, I knew something had to be off as I see a lot of professional bass players and engineers use these for captures and swear by them. The Schiit Heresy has really brought them to life. I look forward to getting a proper set of open back headphones for mixing now that I have the power to push them. The inexpensive Samson SR-850's have served me well, but I think I've outgrown them. Time for some more forum rabbit hole diving to pick the brilliant minds of this forum.

One thing I have to agree with is that the outputs of the UMC in general seem a bit weak and under powered, regardless of USB power or an external PSU. The Heresy really helps negate this with it's power and low noise. I'm a believer. Again, thank you to the work and advice of the members of this forum.
 

JeffGB

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Finally I have silent bliss :). I have a Schiit Heresy fed by a Creative Soundblasterx G6 which in turn acts as a preamp for a Crown XLS 1500 and had a VERY annoying squeel and other random high frequency noises (no hum). I tried many cables, which changed the severity a bit, but never fixed the problem. Routing of the cables also changed the noise but did not fix it. The final solution was a combination of things. I changed to the optical input of the G6 to eliminate any galvanic connection to the computer, but since the G6 is USB powered that didn't fix it until I connected the G6 USB power cable to an Apple phone charger plugged into the same AC circuit as everything else. I also had to take the 3.5mm to rca cable between the G6 and the Heresy and cut it down from 6ft to 6 inches, solder it together, wrap it in foil and then tape.

I had convinced myself that the problem was EMI picked up in the RCA cables to the power amp, but that was not the case.

Thank you for your suggestions! Now if I can just find a decent 3.5mm to rca cable no more than 12 inches long to replace the monstrosity on my desk, I'll be set :). The Heresy and G6 sound great as a front end BTW.
Jeff
 
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Sgt. Ear Ache

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If you look at the graph, you will see that the imbalance is variable based on position of the volume control. Is it not constant. You could set the volume to max and then change the input level.

This is actually what I've been doing lately. I run the Heresy in low gain with the volume maxed. Then I use the volume control in Foobar to set listening level. Sounds fooking great driving my HE400i's...
 

NgtFlyer

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Having already been through a Magni 3+ (right channel developed odd noise and weirdly the unit ran cooler).. now I had odd buzz in the left channel. Power cycling the unit made it go back to normal. Doesn't instill a lot of confidence.. I've only had them for about a month. This has me considering another option. Perhaps a DAC+headphone amp in one unit.
 

T.M.Noble

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Having already been through a Magni 3+ (right channel developed odd noise and weirdly the unit ran cooler).. now I had odd buzz in the left channel. Power cycling the unit made it go back to normal. Doesn't instill a lot of confidence.. I've only had them for about a month. This has me considering another option. Perhaps a DAC+headphone amp in one unit.
If you are having issues, let us know! It's under warranty and we will repair or send you another asap.
 

NgtFlyer

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If you are having issues, let us know! It's under warranty and we will repair or send you another asap.
Thanks. This is my replacement Magni 3+ and it has been working fine, just did the weird buzzing thing once and power cycling the unit cured it. Hasn't done it again.
 

ari

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Does anyone else notice distortion with the RCA outputs on the Heresy when set on high gain? I was noticing lots of distortion (speakers crackling), especially with higher female vocals in choral music, and at first assumed it was my speakers since I didn't get the same distortion through the headphones. But when I switched the gain from high to low the problem went away.
 

Veri

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Does anyone else notice distortion with the RCA outputs on the Heresy when set on high gain? I was noticing lots of distortion (speakers crackling), especially with higher female vocals in choral music, and at first assumed it was my speakers since I didn't get the same distortion through the headphones. But when I switched the gain from high to low the problem went away.
How hot is your input in the Heresy? As in volts. You might be driving it into clipping.
 
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