Schiit Magni Mesh DAC Review

[m8o]

High order harmonic distortion tho low I'd still call it 'meshy'.

 

[evanft]

Audio may be a hobby to some but it is a competitive business where money is to be made by manufacturers, sellers, shippers and advertising.
For a lot of audio enthusiasts it is much more than 'just a hobby' as well and more like an obsession.

The grounding issue, most likely, is a layout issue. The board connectors used seem to be fine but it may be used incorrectly.
This can occur when the ground connection between digital and audio ground has been 'separated' incorrectly (they have to be connected or when they are truly separated there must be an optical or inductive separation and most likely also a separated power supply.

Not overstating the idea of 'single chip' op-amps and 'discrete' op-amps. To buyers it might be a 'preference' thing but cost is never an issue. Discrete is simply much more expensive than using a 'more than good enough' chip op-amp and requires much less components.
It is the 'idea' that more expensive is 'better' and discrete is 'better' and psycho-acoustics play an extremely important role in maintaining the dogma.

To expand on this, Schiit should really know better at this point. The Midgard, Modius, etc. prove that they can make great products without weird caveats, but then they release something like this that seems to have such dumb design issue. Either they had to ship it this way to meet their cost target, or they didn't test this use case. Either way, they need to do better.

 

[solderdude]

It's caused by the add-on sound card construction. They simply did not think hard enough about the audio/digital/power supply common ground and during development phase did not test for common mode currents.
Most likely the test setup they use does not have any leakage current issues so did not notice it ?

One has to take in mind that this is the budget amp they sell.
When one wants to buy the Magni and a DAC simply buy the Modi-3 instead of the add-on card and you're fine.
If you need a 1-box solution and it must be Schiit and in this form and size than you can still use it but in some cases where a ground loop becomes audible you might have to invest a bit more and buy an USB isolator.

Every brand has or does make an 'oops' now and then, and not only in the budget range.

 

[bravomail]

It's caused by the add-on sound card construction. They simply did not think hard enough about the audio/digital/power supply common ground and during development phase did not test for common mode currents.
Most likely the test setup they use does not have any leakage current issues so did not notice it ?

One has to take in mind that this is the budget amp they sell.
When one wants to buy the Magni and a DAC simply buy the Modi-3 instead of the add-on card and you're fine.
If you need a 1-box solution and it must be Schiit and in this form and size than you can still use it but in some cases where a ground loop becomes audible you might have to invest a bit more and buy an USB isolator.

Every brand has or does make an 'oops' now and then, and not only in the budget range.

without listening to this combo - cannot tell if those deficiencies are audible. So, knowing the company, and owning several of their devices, judgement seems harsh.

 

[solderdude]

As has been stated a few times before ... in the vast majority of cases the 'design issue' is not an audible issue but can become an audible issue in some cases (weird sounds in silent passages).
It is a 'design error' non-the-less, audible or not.

 

[amirm]

without listening to this combo - cannot tell if those deficiencies are audible. So, knowing the company, and owning several of their devices, judgement seems harsh.

Chances of you getting sick is very small if a cook at a restaurant doesn't wash his hands after going to the bathroom. Eventually though, it may cause illness. For this reason, health authorities judge such conduct very harshly and give fines and even close the place. When the alternative, washing hands or in this case, a DAC without mains leakage, is readily available, what is your justification for giving it a pass?

 

[rebbiputzmaker]

Chances of you getting sick is very small if a cook at a restaurant doesn't wash his hands after going to the bathroom. Eventually though, it may cause illness. For this reason, health authorities judge such conduct very harshly and give fines and even close the place. When the alternative, washing hands or in this case, a DAC without mains leakage, is readily available, what is your justification for giving it a pass?

I think actually the odds are probably 100% that people will become ill. They just wouldn’t know why. Unless they went to Poppy‘s pizza.