Schiit Magni Heretic Headphone Amp Review

[lashto]

I prefer ampsandsound. My 300b fantasy end game amplifier is something I would love to buy someone else.

Since we are 'dreaming' here, I would prefer to listen to ampandsound & toolshed side by side

 

[Jimster480]

If produced audio is not good, blame the mastering engineer, not the gear.

Correct mastering and absolute transparency will always give the best result.

From source to ear, eliminate the gear .... I say .....

That said, there are plenty of really crappy master recordings that probably do sound better on perfectly matched inferior gear.

That is really true and my journey into HiFi definitely sent me down that path. Music I used to love I cannot even listen to anymore because it is mastered like crap.
On crap devices you can't hear the imperfections and on high end devices it sounds like crap.
This is maybe why some people fall in love with things that measure and overall "sound like crap" and this is subjective because if you grew up listening to music that was recorded like crap and listened to it on crap; you expect the same crap sound. So you want something that sounds just like how you remember when you went to some concert and there was 23 SINAD overall.... actual quality audio will put you off to your favorite music because it sounds like crap now.

However if you stick with it; you find plenty of new music that sounds great (not necessarily "new" as in recorded recently but just well recorded music that is "new" to you) and then you REALLY enjoy this hobby!

 

[Jim Shaw]

You just plug them in and that's it - no problem. It's a well defined standard and you can put a lot of power through it - that's what the PD standard is which the OP was talking about (although it won't work on this amp as it requires AC). You can connect a 4k monitor to a laptop and power the laptop from the monitor via USB-C. It's great. A lot of connectors support different standards - you can plug two devices into a monitor via HDMI, for example, and discover one of them only updates at 30hz in 4k mode - nice. Standardizing on USB-C at least allows for consolidation of all these other sockets into just USB-C allowing cable reuse and ideally one standard to bind them, although I'm sure cheapskate manufacturers will screw that up as usual by cutting corners to save costs, be first to market etc.

Yep. USB-C sure beats the crap outa all USBs that came before.
Bandwidth, power, reversibility, and firm stay-in-place locking.
Even Apple has been dragged, kicking and screaming, to USB-C... next year...

 

[cinemakinoeye]

But the brain does know if it likes something or not.
That may very well not be the system with the best technical performance.
You just cannot use it as a measurement device.

However, you can use narrative reports of subjective experience as data; the challenge is it’s very complicated to interpret. Measurements are artifacts of a paradigmatic realm of knowledge; while reports of subjective experience are artifacts of a narrative realm of knowledge; which according to the late cognitive psychologist Jerome Bruner, these two realms are incommensurable.

 

[Lupin]

But the brain does know if it likes something or not.

Except that what the brain likes changes by the hour depending on your mood, if your tired or not, surroundings.. and so on and so on.
The brain already got a hard enough time telling you what to like, let alone convey that message to someone else. The brain is not really a reliable in that department IMHO.

 

[AutobotVu]

I think this dc protection is the thing that is messing up with my gaming. I have had my modi and heretic replaced twice. When i play cs go or overwatch if the volume knob is over 12 o clock it will turn off sound to headphone for 4-7 seconds than come back it is really really annoying especially when i need sound to hear in cs go.

Listening to music on youtube is perfectly fine loud as i want but when gunshots or even in overwatch comes into play it doesnt like going past 12 o clock or poof. I bought jds atom coming in couple days to see if fixes it they also allowed me to return it and I am going to try switch to magni+ to see if that helps

 

[Roland68]

I think this dc protection is the thing that is messing up with my gaming. I have had my modi and heretic replaced twice. When i play cs go or overwatch if the volume knob is over 12 o clock it will turn off sound to headphone for 4-7 seconds than come back it is really really annoying especially when i need sound to hear in cs go.

Listening to music on youtube is perfectly fine loud as i want but when gunshots or even in overwatch comes into play it doesnt like going past 12 o clock or poof. I bought jds atom coming in couple days to see if fixes it they also allowed me to return it and I am going to try switch to magni+ to see if that helps

Maybe it would be better to take a headphone amplifier that has coupling capacitors installed at the input, in addition to DC protection. E.g. Topping L30 II

 

[solderdude]

The response to DC levels (reaction time and detection level) may be different.
10Hz hardly dropped indicating if there were input capacitors the -3dB point would be well below 1Hz.

I would recommend to simply use an equalizer and steeply filter below 20Hz. This should get rid of the issue unless it is caused by the waveform being very asymmetric.

 

[Coll]

I have a preamp that outputs 0.775mv could I plug this into the Magni+ and set gain to get a much higher output to my power amplifier that requires 2.5v to drive it to full output.
I have calculated that the output would be approx.3.5v but I could turn the volume back from full to reduce the output.
Am I correct with these assumptions.

 

[staticV3]

I have a preamp that outputs 0.775mv could I plug this into the Magni+ and set gain to get a much higher output to my power amplifier that requires 2.5v to drive it to full output.
I have calculated that the output would be approx.3.5v but I could turn the volume back from full to reduce the output.
Am I correct with these assumptions.

I don't think the Preamp applies gain to the signal. At least the website and APx555 report don't suggest it does.

 

[solderdude]

I have a preamp that outputs 0.775mv could I plug this into the Magni+ and set gain to get a much higher output to my power amplifier that requires 2.5v to drive it to full output.
I have calculated that the output would be approx.3.5v but I could turn the volume back from full to reduce the output.
Am I correct with these assumptions.

I think so.
The pre-amp out seems to be unattenuated headphone out.

 

[Roland301]

I bought one of these and I'm quite pleasantly surprised. With Edition XS it sounds extremely detailed and actually beats my ifi Micro BL amp in bass control and upper midrange clarity. I had the original Heresy a while back and I thought it was fine but not amazing. Got Heretic as a temporary solution while I wait for another amp build, but this thing actually has me looking forward to using it.

Looks like the switch to OPA1656 chips really helped. I remember liking those in the Geshelli Archel 2.5, but that amp just didn't have the power to really make more demanding headphones come alive. With 6 of em in parallel it takes that transparency and brings the power too

Gotta say tho, if you aren't a fan of a dry sounding amp, this isn't gonna be for you