Schiit Magnius Balanced Headphone Amp Review

[gvl]

Yes, I was right! The popular head-fi dogma of AES input superiority lives.

 

[Jimbob54]

Yes, I was right! The popular head-fi dogma of AES input superiority lives.

Alive and well it seems.

 

[makatech]

Why can’t people just read one of these reviews and think to themselves, “ah, I see unbalanced doesn’t measure as well as balanced so this otherwise fine product is not the product for me” and move on? Challenging Amir’s conclusions has become a sport.

I think this is a great review and buyers/owners not reading this review may have split feelings when they realize? The Shiit Magnius having very impressive value but it's good to know to the difference in performance between balanced and unbalanced on this unit (even though it may not be audible by ear) $199? It's more than half the price of the Topping A90, very impressive. Perhaps not fair comparing these two though, THX 789 is competitor for sure. Hmmm, I am not sure which balanced amp being better than Shiit Magnius in value?

 

[LaL]

I debated that but how do you give a lessor rating to an amp that beats the THX AAA 789 in balanced output???

I noted that I don't recommend it for unbalanced out.

J.Stoddard from Schiit explains why performance is worse single-ended than balanced on the Magnius.
@10:45►

 

[Helicopter]

Seems like a good way to have done it if the complex circuit didn't actually perform well. Simple is not just cheaper; it should be more reliable too.

 

[NDRQ]

Would be good if u can actually buy it in the Eu.
I often checking the eu site in the last 1-2 year, and usually always everything out of stock, so the only option is the Topping stuff.
Surprising that it seems like this company dont really care about the huge eu market, while even in my country probably hundreds of guys would instantly buy their stuff. Ordering from eu is not an option, because of the big extra cost (duty, shipping).

At least we have Topping stuff, they like to sell their stuff...




https://www.schiit-europe.com/index.php/producten.html?cat=17

One could say, this is happening because of COVID or stg, but no, it was the same half year ago, or 1 year ago, or 2 year ago...etc..
No product available, what a good shop...

 

[JohnYang1997]

J.Stoddard from Schiit explains why performance is worse single-ended than balanced on the Magnius.
@10:45►

Completely bogus.

 

[JohnYang1997]

Would be good if u can actually buy it in the Eu.
I often checking the eu site in the last 1-2 year, and usually always everything out of stock, so the only option is the Topping stuff.
Surprising that it seems like this company dont really care about the huge eu market, while even in my country probably hundreds of guys would instantly buy their stuff. Ordering from eu is not an option, because of the big extra cost (duty, shipping).

At least we have Topping stuff, they like to sell their stuff...too bad that Schiit dont like to make money...

https://www.schiit-europe.com/index.php/producten.html?cat=17

What about think a bit differently and a bit realistically??
Like distribution cost, shipping cost, labor oversea, and stocking. Schiit is doing its job managing to get great price in the US. But if you look at AU for example it's almost double the price for lower tier models where topping's pricing is pretty consistent across the globe even in China.

 

[LaL]

At least tell us why ??

Completely bogus.

 

[JohnYang1997]

At least tell us why ??

Hmm. Because it's simply not true??
Magnius uses fully differential amplifier to do the balance amplification. But that's not the only way. Using one brand off a fully differential amp obviously will cause the issue but if he uses LM4562 it would be much better. Or better yet opa1612. It's not a necessary trade off.
Also the reason to avoiding differential amplifier to sum to single ended is also wrong and he have said that people think it's going through more components, sound soft etc but it's not true. Distortion will be horrible if connected non-summed DAC. There will be lots of harmonic distortion and intermodulation distortion. Noise too. This is not the right way to do it(as he knows).

 

[NDRQ]

What about think a bit differently and a bit realistically??
Like distribution cost, shipping cost, labor oversea, and stocking. Schiit is doing its job managing to get great price in the US. But if you look at AU for example it's almost double the price for lower tier models where topping's pricing is pretty consistent across the globe even in China.

Meanwhile you can buy almost all chinese stuff i the EU and almost never out of stock.
So this isnt really a good excuse.

I assume that in the USA u can easily buy stuffs from eu or chinese manufacturers.
Just checked, the RME ADi2 in stock, Cambridge audio stuff in stock, Topping stuff in stock, Sennheiser stuff also in stock...

But i can say even better example, you can easily buy JDS Labs stuff, that is also an american company like Schiit...



You know, its understandable, if sometimes a few product out of stock, but in the case of Schiit, basically everything out of stock every time.

 

[Veri]

Would be good if u can actually buy it in the Eu.
I often checking the eu site in the last 1-2 year, and usually always everything out of stock, so the only option is the Topping stuff.
Surprising that it seems like this company dont really care about the huge eu market, while even in my country probably hundreds of guys would instantly buy their stuff. Ordering from eu is not an option, because of the big extra cost (duty, shipping).

At least we have Topping stuff, they like to sell their stuff...




https://www.schiit-europe.com/index.php/producten.html?cat=17

One could say, this is happening because of COVID or stg, but no, it was the same half year ago, or 1 year ago, or 2 year ago...etc..
No product available, what a good shop...

A thing to note that Schiit europe is just a tiny Dutch retailer selling the stuff for EU exclusively, other than that it is not related to Schiit themselves. Therefore it's kind of up to the retailer to keep healthy stock and healthy communication/relationship to Schiit US...

 

[flyzipper]

Just dropping a section of the Magnius FAQ here to preface input to a future rev2 of this product...

How do the preamp outputs work? Do they mute when you plug headphones in?​

Nope. They're on all the time. ​

... please include a switch (on the front) to flip operational mode/outputs.

The current always-on behaviour is a usability issue for those of us with powered studio monitors.

Thanks for your work here @T.M.Noble

 

[T.M.Noble]

Just dropping a section of the Magnius FAQ here to preface input to a future rev2 of this product...

How do the preamp outputs work? Do they mute when you plug headphones in?​

Nope. They're on all the time. ​

... please include a switch (on the front) to flip operational mode/outputs.

The current always-on behaviour is a usability issue for those of us with powered studio monitors.

Thanks for your work here @T.M.Noble

I will forward the recommendation to the big guy.

 

[beanxinh]

Hi,
I just got the Schiit Maginus today and I have an issue. Sometime I lost volume in the left channel after spent sometime messing with it I found out that when i push down the volume pot it gone away. Are there anyway I can fix that? I live in Vietnam so send it back will be too much of an hassle.
Thank.

 

[beanxinh]

Hi,
I've just got the Maginus today and already had a big issue. Sometime the sound on left channel went away, after spent sometime with it I found out that the volume pot is the cause of the problem and when I push down the volume the issue gone away. Are there anyway I can fix it? I live in Vietnam so send it back will be a hassle.
Thank.

 

[muslhead]

I got my unit back from repair (after a couple of months of ownership) and all is well.
In spite of the headphone output not functioning when it left my possession (and why i returned it for repair after a few months of ownership), Schitt's reported there was nothing wrong with input or output on the device. But, to be safe and thorough (since Mr Noble had apparently greased the skids with the repair group - thank you), they replaced the HP board even though it was not bad. When returned it back to me. it worked.
I am still struggling how a non-functional unit in my house, when returned for repair was found to have nothing wrong. But, replacing the hp amp board and returning to me, it now functions as it did when i purchased it.
I am not very bright and i could not get an explanation that made sense to my pea brain from anyone at Schiit so i am really baffled. Anyone want to attempt a shot at explaining this phenomenon?

 

[EchoChamber]

I got my unit back from repair (after a couple of months of ownership) and all is well.
In spite of the headphone output not functioning when it left my possession (and why i returned it for repair after a few months of ownership), Schitt's reported there was nothing wrong with input or output on the device. But, to be safe and thorough (since Mr Noble had apparently greased the skids with the repair group - thank you), they replaced the HP board even though it was not bad. When returned it back to me. it worked.
I am still struggling how a non-functional unit in my house, when returned for repair was found to have nothing wrong. But, replacing the hp amp board and returning to me, it now functions as it did when i purchased it.
I am not very bright and i could not get an explanation that made sense to my pea brain from anyone at Schiit so i am really baffled. Anyone want to attempt a shot at explaining this phenomenon?

This is just speculation, but my guess is that maybey the circuit in the board was working fine but perhaps there was a faulty solder joint at the headphone output connector. And maybe that was an intermittent problem, i.e., only when the board was placed in the chassis and maybe pressure on the XLR would tilt it enough to break the connection. And the service team might have tested only on the board (not connecting anything) or they used a headphone cable with a slightly different plug that didn’t trigger the faulty contact.

Again, I’m just speculating, but I could see that being a possibility to miss a bad solder joint when testing a component.

 

[muslhead]

This is just speculation, but my guess is that maybey the circuit in the board was working fine but perhaps there was a faulty solder joint at the headphone output connector. And maybe that was an intermittent problem, i.e., only when the board was placed in the chassis and maybe pressure on the XLR would tilt it enough to break the connection. And the service team might have tested only on the board (not connecting anything) or they used a headphone cable with a slightly different plug that didn’t trigger the faulty contact.

Again, I’m just speculating, but I could see that being a possibility to miss a bad solder joint when testing a component.

Yah, that's a possibility.
The skeptic in me says no problem found = lower the defect rate. Return was stupidshit customer
Right out of college supervising the backend QA for outgoing IC's ... we found many creative ways to keep the defect rate low LOL (we were incentivized to improve outgoing quality so improve it we did) and why i am a perennial doubter. Usually when something doesn't make sense, there is a reason.

 

[armigo]

I am sorry if this question was answered before, but what the experiance people have with the Magnius channel balance and the general experiance when used as a preamp. Some people seemed to have issues. I am planning to get some iLoud MTM and was wondering if I should factor in a pre-amp in the cost or if the magnius will do just fine.