Schiit Magni Heretic Headphone Amp Review

[Bob from Florida]

Here is a link to a post by Jason - Mr Schiit if you will. Scroll down to his post from 2019 regarding hate for Schiit.

Why is Schiit hated by ASMR and Reddit?

Does anyone have any insight into why Schiit is so polarizing? On SBAF their products are fairly universally praised and widely recommended. On HF...

www.superbestaudiofriends.org

It certainly sounds like a mea culpa or good marketing by admitting fault with customer service and steps to correct things. I have personally purchased the following products from them.
Original Bifrost - upgraded at home twice with new DAC boards - no issues. Not currently used.
Mani - worked fine with MM, not so well MC - my brother uses it with a Shure V15 now.
Saga - no issues other that one of the LED's for input selected stopped working.
Modi 3 - works perfectly. Now on my son's system.
Modius - AKM version, currently in use.

These were all relatively inexpensive and I have not really had any complaints that needed customer service. Perhaps I was just lucky or Jimster480 was just unlucky. The new Magni with the ESS DAC module is very tempting for a new headphone station I am considering.

 

[Lupin]

I wasn't aware of the negative side to Schiit's reputation until now. I never saw much negativity on SBAF

SBAF is super pro Schiit.
Not praising Schiit at least every other post or ask critical questions related to anything Schiit will get you banned within a week.

 

[mc.god]

I had a single experience with shiit magni 3+ and it was really bad, luckyly solved with a refund of the item by shiit europe and refund of the returning costs by paypal, so with no loss, bat surely dsappointing.
I can say i'm happy that shiit items are hard to get in europe so I'll not be tempted of trying another one in the future.

 

[Blake]

I'm not a fanboy or anything, but just to offer some (mostly) positive experiences:

I started with the original Fulla about a decade ago and just kept going as better products from them came along, I think mostly out of habit. I was happy enough with prior products, so why not buy another? I imagine that first Fulla measures terribly by today's standards, but I didn't know the difference at the time and it served my purposes. This is my current inventory, which is honestly too much, but they were all relatively inexpensive!

Fulla
Fulla 3
Modi 3
Modi 3+
Magni 3+
Magni Heresy
Magni Heretic (black)
Magni Heretic (silver, just purchased on sale, so it hasn't actually arrived yet)

Okay, I didn't realize I had that much until I just typed it out!

The only serious trouble I had was with the second Modi, which actually started as another Modi 3. For some reason the USB input stopped working. The optical still worked, but not the USB. I think it took maybe two weeks round trip, but they sent it back to me with a Modi 3+ board. No issues with customer service.

My Magni 3+ and Heresy have developed the common problem of generating static when turning the volume knob, but I've never cared that much about that and haven't bothered to do anything about it. (I'm also not using them right now anyway. My two Heretics are replacements for the older two in order to have some voltage protection.)

YMMV, of course. I will say that, if I have a need for another amp, I'm interested in the JDS Labs Atom 2. Checking out their website and comments here, I like their design philosophy. I was thinking about buying one before the current Magni sale hit.

 

[TinEaredOne]

I just purchased a Schiit Heretic, which I couldn't pass up for $59. To my ears, it is a detailed, clear amp that adds layers to the music my Vali 2 tends to smooth out and blend. Very nice separation of instruments both through my Schiit Gjallarhorn and Energy RC-10 speakers, as well as through Hifiman HE-X4 headphones. The dac is a Schiit Modius AKM. Having purchased seven Schiit products, the only one to come close to disappointing me has been the Magni 3+: just not a big fan of the sound. How the Heretic sounds this good for this little money amazes me.

 

[JaguarIT]

Hey, like Times redone mentioned, Schitt is selling off the last of the Heretics for $59 each. I know they are not the hot newness or they wouldn't have them on clearance, but a deal is a deal. Anyone satisfied with Heretic's performance at original price should jump on this. Hard/impossible to beat performance at this price.

 

[JaguarIT]

I know some folks get upset about double-posting, hopeful not in this forum, lol.

Hey, so I bought a Heretic for $59 US recently on a complete lark, thinking I would probably never use it, but at such a low price for a top measured HP amp, I figured it wouldn't hurt to have and might find a use someday.

So ... before it even arrived I found out two of my iems will be much better run through the Heretic, than my LG V60. My RE800S, which are fine EQ'd and otherwise, meh, are detected as high impedance by the LG V60, and sound like shit as it bumps those into a higher gain setting automatically. On my DAPs, they sound radically different than on my V60, so very not good situation, which lots of distortion and garbage performance on the LG V60 for RE800S. In addition, KZ ZST, also meh without EQ, are only 10ohm and the LG V60 has output impedance of 1.5-1.7 ohms, so the LG V60 audibly alters the FR response of those as well, for the worse, compared to lower HP out impedance sources.

Glad I got the Heretic during this clearance sale!

Thanks ASR and Schitt!!

 

[JaguarIT]

Hey, final note on this device. Just received my Heretic and it's fantastic! It resolved all the issues with some of the mismatch between my iems and LG V60 I mentioned above and is subjectively transparent at volumes that I actually listen to, and obviously much more, given the good testing it received from amirm.

Honestly, I was surprised to have issues with the V60 and and some of my iems, but there's no manual gain control on the V60, and the output impedance is just too damn high for 10 ohm iems. V60 fine for 16+ with less than 2ohm output impedance, but 10 is more like 1/6 not 1/8 or better, and it produces noticeable FR changes that are not an improvement.

By contrast the Schitt Heretic has output impedance of 0.33 ohms, so they can work with HP as low as 2.64ohms without altering the FR (1/8th rule + electronic HP dampening, ALA NwAvGuy). In addition, the three user controllable gain settings on the Heretic are effectively indistinguishable except in loudness.

In both respects that's far superior performance to LG V60, which is fine for most of my headsets and still an overall great source with 1+ week between charges and 1TB+125GB local storage.

This thing is great and absolutely worth the $59 asking price. Such an incredible value!!

Thanks again to Schitt and Amir!

 

[Brianc]

Just got this at the clearance price (miracle of miracles considering the state of postal service here, it arrived the same week it shipped!). Haven't hooked it up yet, but I noted the user manual says it can be left on all the time, which is good considering the lack of front power switch or indicator. Any reason not to do so?

 

[Steel Squirrel]

This lil fella is only $59 right now on Schiit's website. I just snagged one while they still had them. Seems like they're on clearance to move them out.

 

[TrippRyder]

wow great measurements, now throw it in the trash and get a lesser measuring amp to enjoy music, preferably one with tubes. These amps where made as a joke by the company specifically to shut people like amir up. It's brilliant really, design a cheap, simple device that measures ace to sell to all the ASR cult. Keep selling musical "not perfect" amps to the rest of us. Capture both markets, boom. That's why these amps are named "heretic and Heresay" because they are so against the grain of the company. Ashame they felt like they had to do it because of place like ASR.

Are you just talking Schiit, or have you actually spent some time with this preamp?

 

[TrippRyder]

Can anyone clarify whether the gain switch affects the preamp out as well as the headphone out? Thanks. (I checked the manual but did not find this information.)

Also, it appears that the Magni+ (discrete version) has half the input impedance (25k ohms) of the Heretic version. Would this have any real-world effect on compatibility with other typical consumer gear? Thanks for your thoughts.

The gain switch does indeed affect the rca output.

 

[TrippRyder]

Can this be used as a Pre-Amp also?

I know they make similar ones that do, but their USER MANUAL is quite vague

Yes, but it only has a single stereo pair of rca inputs.

 

[TrippRyder]

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 your cpu soundcard is putting out dc?

 

[Steel Squirrel]

I’m having trouble deciding between the Heretic and the Magni+. Anyone have any feedback on sound differences? I definitely want one, I just don’t want the wrong one

 

[Jimster480]

I’m having trouble deciding between the Heretic and the Magni+. Anyone have any feedback on sound differences? I definitely want one, I just don’t want the wrong one

Best is to not support Schiit at all as they are a terrible company with a garbage track record and are generally horribly dishonest.

As far as the sound; they are both going to be fine but the Heretic definitely is cleaner objectively. When I had a Magni 3 years ago; I found the sound to be bright and the channel imbalance to be less than desirable.
This is part of how my opinion on Schiit products was formed, as I had the displeasure of dealing with this company and their underhanded tactics first hand.

Buy JDS Labs instead if you want a USA based manufacturer.

 

[Roland68]

I’m having trouble deciding between the Heretic and the Magni+. Anyone have any feedback on sound differences? I definitely want one, I just don’t want the wrong one

I would recommend the Sabaj A20h to you.
True balanced HPA, including relay-based volume control with absolute channel equality, remote control, display, balanced input and true balanced output with a maximum of 4.7 watts at 32 ohms. Plus a good and powerful switching power supply and not just a cheap transformer.
Amirm tested it and confirmed its good performance.
Sabaj A20h Balanced Headphone Amp Review
For around €/$120, or less, it is an absolute bargain in my opinion and has the best price-performance ratio on the market.

With Schiit, and otherwise, I would make sure that there is DC protection for the headphones, especially if the headphones cost more than 50 or 100 $/€.

 

[Steel Squirrel]

I would recommend the Sabaj A20h to you.
True balanced HPA, including relay-based volume control with absolute channel equality, remote control, display, balanced input and true balanced output with a maximum of 4.7 watts at 32 ohms. Plus a good and powerful switching power supply and not just a cheap transformer.
Amirm tested it and confirmed its good performance.
Sabaj A20h Balanced Headphone Amp Review
For around €/$120, or less, it is an absolute bargain in my opinion and has the best price-performance ratio on the market.

With Schiit, and otherwise, I would make sure that there is DC protection for the headphones, especially if the headphones cost more than 50 or 100 $/€.

Whoa! This thing looks awesome. I'm definitely going to snag one. I see one for $88 so I'll test it out via Amazon.

Thanks for the tip! Will have to report back.

 

[Deep]

The performance is affected by the time of day???

You missed your calling.

 

[Steel Squirrel]

I would recommend the Sabaj A20h to you.
True balanced HPA, including relay-based volume control with absolute channel equality, remote control, display, balanced input and true balanced output with a maximum of 4.7 watts at 32 ohms. Plus a good and powerful switching power supply and not just a cheap transformer.
Amirm tested it and confirmed its good performance.
Sabaj A20h Balanced Headphone Amp Review
For around €/$120, or less, it is an absolute bargain in my opinion and has the best price-performance ratio on the market.

With Schiit, and otherwise, I would make sure that there is DC protection for the headphones, especially if the headphones cost more than 50 or 100 $/€.

This thing sounds amazing! Thanks for the heads up. Paired it up with a Topping E30 II Lite and my HD 600. I think I’ll be pretty content with this for a good long while!

Thanks again!