Schiit Magni Headphone Amplifier - Page 59

Thats because the Pro 900 has one of the strongest mid bass emphasis out for audiophile headphones.

Huge emphasis =/= good bass. The HE400 considerably more sub bass, and great bass overall. Once you acclimate yourself to the HE400 bass, the Pro900's sounds quite oversaturated and fake.

For starters, I was comparing the AD700's EQ'd bass to HE-400's bass un-eq'd when I made that statement.  When EQ'd, I can get the AD700's perceived bass volume at something nearer to HE-400's but it sounds like a bloated mess with no punch or texture in comparison to HE-400's.  It also still doesn't go as low even with +6db at 32hz.

 

 

We're comparing apples to oranges here.  HE-400 is open backed and has bass that's relatively neutral.  (Albeit very powerful for being close to neutral)  Pro900 is closed back and is one of the most colored bass-oriented headphones on the market.

 

 

 

 

As you can see here, the Pro 900-- by design-- has +15db of bass boost that's centered around 50hz. What the FR graph doesn't show you, is that it also has a rather high THD in its bass, possibly giving it the effect of another additional 3 or so db in the bass region.

 

So, to make it a more fair comparison, you should EQ the bass on the HE-400 up 15-18db to see if it's stronger than your Pro900 (you'd need an amp extremely powerful to allow for enough headroom if you were to do that)  Likewise, you could reduce the Pro900's bass frequencies by 15db with an EQ as well.  You'd also need an EQ that supports that kind of curve too.  For me, iTunes EQ sounds like **** if you reduce everything by more than around 7-8db to boost your bass by that same amount.  It gets dark out of nowhere.  That said, with only 6db of bass boost using iTune's EQ for me, HE-400's bass is way more than I'd ever need.

Edited by TMRaven - 1/15/13 at 10:17pm

Hi, been reading this forum for a while but first post :)

I was wondering how expensive was the he-400 with brokerage and other fees ? 

I live in Quebec and I'm looking for a good pair of headphones and everything is so pricy.

Thanks for your information, and congratz on your headphones, I hope they live up to your expectations once you get them amped !

 

Hi Lemos,

 

I got my headphones straight from Justin W @ headamp. The deal is fantastic as you get free shipping + free velours. He's a sponsor of the site so I'm sure it's okay if I plug his site here so : http://www.headamp.com/order/index.htm that is where I ordered from.

I did not pay any brokerage fees as the package was sent via USPS and it came via Canada Post. If you chose faster shipping it will go through UPS or Fedex and you will end up paying broker. The headphones were shipped Jan 8 and I missed the shipment Jan 14 (picked up 15). So it really only took 5 business days total. Not bad!

 

To comment regarding sound, I'm starting to love these more and more. They're still not amped however my ears have just started to like this sound. The mids and highs are truly incredible on these cans and the bass is excellent, just not as present as I wanted it to be. I'm sure with a bit more amping and EQ'ing I'll get them where I want them to be. Ever since I got them all I can think about is being home and shuffling through music. 

I found something really really bizarre going on with my Magni. Anyone want to be my test dummy?

Try this track:

(best with a closed bassy headphone that's easy to drive)

 

 

(I have the full album in FLAC and it's much better sounding than that video)

 

The sound at the start sounds like my driver is crackling/rattling and there's some static.

This is with my DJ100 (actually Tony Bennett version). It's not the headphone and I don't have this issue with any other source.

It doesn't occur with any of my headphone with lighter bass. It's not a crappy headphone.

 

Tried the following:

 

Different USB cables (one with ferrite bead)

Different USB ports

Powered USB Hub

Plugged straight to wall and with surge protector.

 

It occurs with maybe 30% of my cables.

Mostly with my Cardas HP1 cable ($35 cheapy that has good shielding too) and RCA/GE Wal-Mart cables. Both have the same capacitance I think and are dead quiet. I tried a headphone cable I got at Guitar Center and it's extremely noisy when plugged in.

 

I was able to create this problem the easiest with an RCA brand RCA to mini cable and a GE brand $5 cable on my DJ100/TB.

 

I switched to different cables and it goes away. WHAT THE HECK?! Why would this happen with so many of my cables? Is the Magni that picky?

Maybe the Magni is overkill for my DJ100. Not really...

 

BTW I noticed after that Guitar Center cable was ultra noisy, I tried my Monoprice cable..dead silent..and to think someone recently said they had no shielding...Ok whatever..

 

So I guess if you think cables don't matter, the Magni might make you think otherwise I still don't know what's going on, but problem fixed I guess. Maybe those crappy cables I was testing out were too thin or something. Normally it shouldn't matter. Right now i'm using a GE Ultra Pro (clear with very good metal shielding) and a Mogami W2528 RCA to Mini cable for the connection from DAC to Amp.

 

That Cardas cable is my favorite too..doesn't tangle, but unusable with the Magni. Bizarre...it's NOT defective.

 

NOTE: The same cables don't cause this issue on my E9 or Micro Amp.

 

BTW at first I was thinking that maybe all that garbage was IN the recording, but I don't think so. Can't hear it on my HD-650 or Q701.

I got some very faint crackling on my HD-650, but otherwise OK.

Edited by tdockweiler - 1/16/13 at 1:52pm

Hi. I don't have magni/modi yet, but I noticed when I adjust my volume while the song is playing, the crackling/popping occurs. Perhaps it is an issue with your volume pot?

Maybe it is because the interference on poorly shielded cables. Sometimes I get weird noise when I plug the usb cable to the ports close to where mouse or keyboard is plugged.

 

I just assumed that your cord would be rated far above the requirements of the two little components (M & M). By safe I simply meant: not frayed, spliced, laying in water, etc.  

 I got 'ya.  Appreciate the clarification.

 

Yeah, my cord is in good shape.  And if there's standing water on my living room carpet, I likely have bigger problems to deal with! 

Extremely noob amp/dac question! I just got my Magni, the first separate amp I've ever owned, connected to my Fiio E10. My question is if there's anything wrong going on behind the scenes if the bass-boost switch on the E10 still affects the sound despite my headphones being plugged into my Magni (which overrides the amp part of the E10)? I understand this may be completely normal, but I just wanted to make sure.

Are you using the Fiio L7 to actually bypass the amp?

No, I'm just using a stereo-RCA cable I got off amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000LMFS7M/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00

 

EDIT: DOH, I was using the Headphone out, LOL. Problem fixed.

Edited by vaed - 1/16/13 at 8:10pm

so, now my Magni has 289 Hrs of burn-in on it, and the akg k701 headset has 334 Hrs on it. Pink noise on computer and fm stereo 'hip hop' nonsense station divided evenly.

 

Yes, I keep detailed logs of all my equipment, especially gramophone styli and cartridge.

 

Anyway. I am running a V-DAC mkII by Musical Fidelity into the Magni and k701. It is playing back FLAC and AIFF files (with some 320cbr mp3 lossy files) off of USB on my Macbook Pro Mountain lion machine.

 

I have not noticed a sub-par synergy between the AKG and the Magni as some have noted. In fact, imaging is very strong, as are dynamics, and the tonal character seems very well balanced(transparent) on this rig.

 

The area where this setup really shines, however, is with my Lp and 45rpm collection. I am running a Systemdek transcriptor turntable with an Ortofon -40 Fritz-Geiger cartridge into a PS Audio passive class-A phono stage on this setup. It is used in conjunction with my speaker rig, consisting of a Rogue Audio Cronus integrated amp(ultralinear KT77s) and Vandersteen 2C speakers.

 

The only downside to this 'accurate head system' is that some vinyl which sounds EX- on my speaker system is riddled with the sounds of VG- on these cans. It is truly a GIGO (garbage in, garbage out) situation. Which is what I want.

 

My lowly Music-Hall MMF-2.2 turntable with Audiotechnica 440MLA has a much more pronounced rumble than with speakers, too. This is a flawed deck though, even with the outboard pro-ject speed controller, since the motor's mounting is pure 'cack' and is a piss-poor design.

 

My advice is that, if you are into vinyl and are using a similar headphone system, make sure your table, cart, and RIAA stage are up to this level, since there is no room for shortcomings. My best vinyl rig does +/-0.1dB riaa deviation upon de-emphasis, and I reckon this is essential in a good neutral headphone chain!

Just ordered my magni, my first ever desktop amp! Im going to be pairing it with my Beyerdynamic dt990 250 ohm running off my 2012 macbook pro. No DAC yet but do you guys think the modi will make a difference thats worth the 100$. My files are mainly Flac, Thanks. 

Hey guys,

I saw a pair of these attenuators for sale in the sales form and I thought I would post about it here. I've read that the Magni has a sharp volume rise and a fixed 5x gain which for some might be bad depending on the headphone. A product like this

http://www.rothwellaudioproducts.co.uk/html/attenuators.html

might be the answer somebuddy in this thread is looking for. Now I don't own these and I have not tried them, I didn't even know a product like this existed to be honest but I saw it and thought that it might help ppl get a more usable range on the volume pot of the Magni.... if that's something they wanted.

Cheers
Edited by merkil - 1/17/13 at 5:37am