Schiit Midgard Balanced Headphone Amp Review

[David_M]

It wasn't too long ago that his company made products with subpar performance fort he price....and they were called out for it here on ASR, several times. I guess they listened and now produce SOTA devices at reasonable prices.

 

[uwotm8]

Everything by ifi is made in China btw

Same as Apple for sure. But that doesn't make iFi products Chinese

 

[coolajami]

thank you for the review.

I‘m slightly confused. This is a new product replacing or complimenting the Magnius amp? Anyone got a chance to find the differences between the two?

 

[the_brunx]

Everything by ifi is made in China btw

And they have plenty of shameless purely snake oil products.

 

[Noske]

And they have plenty of shameless purely snake oil products.

And some shameless cross promotion happening on this thread which has nothing to do with the either the reviewed product, or Schiit. I was briefly confused. Being human.

 

[uwotm8]

cross promotion

Lol, really? Time to ask them for my salary then.

Jokes off, those are only (?) two compamies (well, maybe DROP/THX counts, not sure) who are West-based and make some budget products (which are not OEM like some others do/did in past). iFi ZENs measure relatively bad but you can't scientifically hear these (as a graphic believer at least). Schiit devices were "bad" few years ago, now we have this and I think they'll keep it up.

What really matters - these are reliable products with proper support

 

[solderdude]

thank you for the review.

I‘m slightly confused. This is a new product replacing or complimenting the Magnius amp? Anyone got a chance to find the differences between the two?

It is the XLR-4 output that differs from all other amps. It is not used for balanced operation but for measuring current. What it exactly does is not disclosed nor was this measured by Amir (nor others) so we don't know until someone measures it.

Also it is replacing the Magnius not complementing it.
Magnius was opamp based (TPA6120A output) and this one is discrete.

In XLR4 output mode this is NOT a regular amp (the Magnius was). In TRS output it is a regular amp. So 2 different amps in one.

 

[Noske]

Jokes off, those are only (?) two compamies (well, maybe DROP/THX counts, not sure) who are West-based and make some budget products (which are not OEM like some others do/did in past). iFi ZENs measure relatively bad but you can't scientifically hear these (as a graphic believer at least).

Thankyou for that clarification. I am much less confused.

 

[museguy]

Do you have any thoughts about Midgard ($219) vs Asgard ($279)? It seems the balanced output of Midgard is more for convenience. Thank you!

 

[solderdude]

Do you have any thoughts about Midgard ($219) vs Asgard ($279)? It seems the balanced output of Midgard is more for convenience. Thank you!

Midgard is NOT balanced out and not for convenience either but purposely used in a different way than all other amps with XLR4 out do (balanced or not).
This is only possible with 'balanced' headphones (XLR4, 2.5mm TRRS and 4.4mm Pentaconn) because there is no common return wire so they can apply current feedback to both drivers completely separated.
This is what sets Midgard apart from all other headphone amps with an XLR-4 pin output.

Of course for the vast majority of planar headphones the XLR out and TRS out will be exactly the same, an exception being the Expanse.

 

[restorer-john]

One gripe: the wall warts they use are made in China and/or Taiwan. I inquired if it would be possible for them to locate a supplier in the U.S. for wall warts, or design one themselves and have it custom manufactured in the U.S., and their response was “why would we do that?” Pretty nonsensical considering they take pride in manufacturing the rest of their componentry in the U.S.

They utilise US made transformers in several of their direct mains powered products.

Has anyone ever seen a US made wall wart? (transformer based). I pulled out what I thought might be the oldest (43 years old) and likely the only US-made wall wart I might own, but found this:

 

[Joe Smith]

Ha, they were well made! I sold off my working HP-55 calculator a few years ago and the power supply was still working just fine. The LEDs all still worked in the calculator, only thing that was a bit futzy after 45 years was the on-off switch up at the top.

 

[coolajami]

It is the XLR-4 output that differs from all other amps. It is not used for balanced operation but for measuring current. What it exactly does is not disclosed nor was this measured by Amir (nor others) so we don't know until someone measures it.

Also it is replacing the Magnius not complementing it.
Magnius was opamp based (TPA6120A output) and this one is discrete.

In XLR4 output mode this is NOT a regular amp (the Magnius was). In TRS output it is a regular amp. So 2 different amps in one.

Thank you for this thorough response. It make things a bit more clear to somebody like me not that knowledgable on these things.

At the same time, that make things more confusing to me. I get that Schitt experiments with something new that output in the XLR, and they kept the TRS output as an single-ended headphone output, but that means they killed Magnius which was their “affordable” balanced amp. I missing the rationale behind this, but it may be just they didn’t want two products to compete.

 

[kemmler3D]

I'd be really interested to see what this feedback mechanism amounts to in terms of distortion measurements. I've bought my last 2 pairs of headphones mainly on their distortion measurements, with the rationale that low distortion (esp. in bass) allows more flexibility with EQ and so ultimately better FR. It would be really interesting if a $220 HP amp could deliver materially better distortion for a $500 headphone, though...

 

[Doodski]

I'd be really interested to see what this feedback mechanism amounts to in terms of distortion measurements. I've bought my last 2 pairs of headphones mainly on their distortion measurements, with the rationale that low distortion (esp. in bass) allows more flexibility with EQ and so ultimately better FR. It would be really interesting if a $220 HP amp could deliver materially better distortion for a $500 headphone, though...

I'm running a Schiit headphone amp with a JDS Labs DAC+ and it sounds fantastic. A hundred each is good economics.

 

[kemmler3D]

I'm running a Schiit headphone amp with a JDS Amp DAC+ and it sounds fantastic. A hundred each is good economics.

To be clear, I'm not really in the market for any new cans or amps. I've got Focal Elex and/or LCD-XC running on a JDS Amp and MOTU M2 as a DAC. Nothing to complain about and I think my can / amp cost ratio is good.

But I am really curious if this weird circuit of theirs actually works!!

 

[Doodski]

To be clear, I'm not really in the market for any new cans or amps. I've got Focal Elex and/or LCD-XC running on a JDS Amp and MOTU M2 as a DAC. Nothing to complain about and I think my can / amp cost ratio is good.

But I am really curious if this weird circuit of theirs actually works!!

For the expense and ratio of good to bad you are OKIES.

 

[restorer-john]

But I am really curious if this weird circuit of theirs actually works!!

Probably an adaption of the classic Kenwood Sigma-Drive or the Yamaha 'negative impedance drive' circuit used in their AST amplifiers.

Due to headphone drivers presenting a benign and relatively flat load, putting them in a feedback loop isn't too problematic IMO. The next logical step is fully automated headphone characteristic measurements and the driver amplifier adapting to that, essentially self correcting for each new pair of cans. Technics have a integrated amplifier that is already doing that I believe.

 

[phoenixdogfan]

Wow! Only $219 for that level of performance! Schiit is really rocking it. Amir, you should tell more of these headphone amp companies that their flagship product poses the risk of death by electrocution. Bet every one of them starts bringing their "A' game after that.

 

[Doodski]

Probably an adaption of the classic Kenwood Sigma-Drive or the Yamaha 'negative impedance drive' circuit used in their AST amplifiers.

Due to headphone drivers presenting a benign and relatively flat load, putting them in a feedback loop isn't too problematic IMO. The next logical step is fully automated headphone characteristic measurements and the driver amplifier adapting to that, essentially self correcting for each new pair of cans. Technics have a integrated amplifier that is already doing that I believe.

Sigma and Technics where far apart but great food aparts.