NITSCH x Schiit Magni Piety

*note: the volume knob has been replaced with a larger gold-colored knob as shown in this photo


The Piety is a custom run of a previously prototype design of a Magni by Schiit that was taken by longtime audio community member CeeTee and produced by hand on a small-scale with his own branding, Nitsch. This Piety borrows some of its Continuity circuit amplifier topology from Schiit's Jotunheim 2, but in a much smaller form factor.

One of the reasons Schiit never took this specific design to market was due to a shortage on some of the parts, as they were no longer being produced. That allowed CeeTee to do a limited run with the scarce parts available and make this somewhat of a rare collector's item headphone amplifier.

The Piety shares the same chassis and exterior looks of the Magni series that Schiit is probably most famous for. It blends the black and silver options of the sibling product into a Gunmetal gray finish that makes the Piety stand out a little bit more unique than the Schiit line. There is also a square Nitsch logo on the top corner of the amp.

The Piety does not offer quite as much power as the other Magni amplifiers, but it does supply adequate power for the majority of headphones on the market, with only some challenges with the most difficult to drive planar headphones in my experience. I had no issues with headphones like the Sennheiser HD600 series, or any IEM I threw at it, and it worked well with the ZMF Caldera. It struggled a little bit more with my Hifiman HE400SE and Susvara.

With IEMs, there was surprisingly no noise floor issues at all. I've had hit or miss experiences with Schiit products on this front, and the Jotunheim 2, for example, had some audible noise with some of my IEMs. The Asgard 3 did not however, and neither does the Piety.

Speaking of the Asgard 3, I would think that this was the most similar characteristics of the Schiit amps I've tried/owned and remember hearing. I did not have any Schiit amps to compare to directly, but I had owned the Asgard 3 for quite a while and really enjoyed it for its warm and pleasant sound, and the fact it had a very, very low noise floor. The Jotunheim 2 was a bit brighter but very punchy, and despite sharing the same topography, I did not find these two similar at all, from reviewing my notes.

Sound Impressions​

The Piety is marketed as a Triode-like sound. For those unfamiliar with what this may mean, its representative of a tube-amp sound, while still being a solid-state. For the most part, I can see why the marketing print states this, and early listening impressions provided such statements.

With every IEM and headphone I threw at it, and with my primary listening coming off of the Empire Ears Odin and Hidition Viento IEMs, I found the Piety to be quite a bit darker, warmer, "slower", and rounder than my other gear. This type of description can be what you may hear on what a typical tube amp could sound like, however not all tube amps I've heard are necessarily dark. Some can be bright too, however, but that's for another day.

The Piety, when compared to a typical op-amp based solid-state, sounds quite unique. I spent some time comparing it to the SMSL C200 DAC/Amp, as well as my iBasso P5 Falcon portable amplifier, which I've modified with a custom configuration of op-amps (TI OPA1622, MUSES 02, and a pair of Burson V5i discrete op-amps).

The C200 gave the most precise and probably most in your face sound of the three. The customized P5 had a nice gentle and smooth treble with a wide soundstage, but felt open and grand, while still having quick transients and precision sound. The Piety was quite noticeably darker with slower progressions. It had a soundstage in-between the two, and a much thicker sound.

The Piety works as advertised I'd say. It gives users a different sound that is unlike others that I have found in this price range, with a darker, thicker, and more lush sound. It lacks on power, but should work well with most headphones. I found the crazy warm-warm pairing of an R-2R DAC and the Piety to work quite well surprisingly, but its definitely something I think users would enjoy with neutral and brighter headphones, and it may be just too warm-bodied for already darker headphones.

Welcome to my first every review on Head-Fi, an unusual review in that it is so un-current that I might as well be writing about a NAD 3020. Well, not quite - given that many potential readers are either wondering what they missed out on, or wanting to confirm their expectation bias isn’t in hyperdrive, or wondering whether to buy one of these hen’s teeth on eBay.

If you are in the second category, I can happily confirm that you are not deluding yourself. If you are in the third category – good luck. If you are in the first category you might not want to read this review, or see someone about that FOMO problem.

I did consider taking the Piety out of my system to make some pretty photos – but sorry, I am listening to it is as I write – and there are plenty of other photos on this thread and elsewhere. Just typing this article is proving to be a challenge as my concentration is divided between drafting this review and being really engrossed by what I am hearing.

To give you some system context, gain was kept to low, and the Piety is partnering:

• a heavily customised PiCorePlayer with HiFiBerry Digi+ Coax/SPDIF board (Transformer Version) and Gallium Nitride power supply.
• Schiit Modi Multibit (current version)
• Mogami 2549 cables.
• Audeze LCD-X 2021, Hifiman HE-5XX, Hifiman Ananda 2021.

Also with my Audio Note DAC 2.1 Signature, I have not felt any urge to connect it into the chain – mainly because of how well the Modi Multibit and Nitsch Piety synergise. Yes, what others have said is absolutely true, more on that later.

After switch-on it will take about 30 minutes for the sound to settle, After 12 hours the Piety sounds even more natural and effortless, so I recommend keeping it switched-on if you can.

So let’s hit the play button.

‘The Primrose Path’ from Jonathan Bree brings out the tone and space around Jonathan’s voice - great sound stage depth too. Width is pretty good, but the depth is a particular strong point. What I really want to underline here, probably the most important point of this review, is how well this amplifier is at portraying tunes and timing. The inflection is Jonathan Bree’s voice is outstanding and the build-up at the end of the song is rousing.

With ‘People in the City’ from Air’s 10,000 Hz Legend, the Piety does everything to preserve the momentum of the song. Even down to the piano tinkling in the background in unison with the other performers. ‘Don’t Be Light’ from the same album has you in no-doubt about the dramatic arrangement of this song - with its insistent drums bringing underlying tension to the proceedings, while the Piety’s tunefulness allows the song to swoop through its many transitions with ease.

The synths on Hotel Pools’ ‘Eclipse’ sound even juicier and bouncy, and even more makes me want to escape the December freeze of the UK.

Musically it will hold the attention and do so with class and refinement. Yes it sounds unlike most sand-amps out there, having a fullness, smoothness and harmonic presence akin to an excellent valve amplifier. Its spaciousness is great, although the Ly3 will just have a bit more atmosphere and spatial reverb. This is an amplifier with no nasties. Treble is sweet, but without muting the plucked strings on Teho Teardo’s ‘London Offered Us Possible Mothers’ – which has great attack and weight. The Lyr 3 will have a tad more leading-edge definition though.

No weakling bass either – in fact it betters the Lyr 3 in terms of bass weight.

With the listed headphones, the Piety drove them with plenty of headroom and no apparent distortion or strain. But keep in mind that this refined amplifier is not specifically designed to power a Susvara, HE-6, or an arc welder.

When it comes to using the Piety with a Modi Multibit, it is a heavenly match. I can’t praise the Modi Multibit high enough, except for a very mild graininess to the treble harmonics that was apparent on the Asgard 3 and (to a lesser extent) the Lyr 3. With the Piety that graininess is gone and the Piety has that tonal warmth and articulate bass of the Modi Multibit.

At its initial price, this amplifier is real one-off, okay a 1000-or-so-off, and I am truly glad I took the chance to buy this. Well done @Jason Stoddard in putting together an outstanding design and @CEE TEE in offering us this little box of juicy wonder.

Amp colorings;
A lil subtly hazy (in a positive holographic manner), gives some slammy midbass copium, is forgiving to the shrill of crisp transient DACs (like the DC2).

Gain Switch:
High GAIN,
Sounds less forgiving by a step. I mostly hear it in vocals. Not sure how to describe it.
High gain has more of a etch, that can compensate for details missing in your DACs presentation.

Low Gain,
Is more forgiving and further reduces the shrill/crisp nature of a DAC. Low gain does not have less slam than high gain. The low gain can slam just as hard on my dx300 or DC2 chains. It's just a matter of how forgiving you want the presentation to be.

Only time I found high gain was needed for slam was for an outlier headphone I have on hand my lcd-xc. But that is a quirky headphone.

With Dangerous convert 2 Dac & my DX300 Amp12 dap (Cirrus Logic DAC) , Piety's low gain works out better in synergy.

With my AKM & ESS stuff & other dongle's aroind, the high gain gives better synergy. They need more help in getting an extra crispness to the dynamics.

iFi Gryphon dac/Amp had a weird behavior that didn't work well for the Piety. As if the signal is being impeded somehow. Not as slammy, and just more hazy as a combo. Though, it oddly worked out great for my Focal Utopia headphone.

Oh on that note of impeding the signal....
I tried using my -10db Rothwell RCA attenuators to let my Dangerous Convert 2 9.75vrms hot signal pair with the Piety, and it worked fine.
BUT, when I used my Jbl MPatch2 passive preamp to bring down the hot signal of the Dangerous Convert 2 Amp, there was a crazy amount of more bass slam to the combo.

The Rothwell attenuators resulted in less of a contrast to the bass (slam).... Instead you got a more.....continuous rounded warmth to the bass/mids presentation.

As for the Treble, the Rothwell Attenuators gave rounded down feeling to the treble. Like less of an etch....but this might be less "fun" for many people. Though it did also feel cleaner.

Overall, I stopped using the RCA attenuators for the chaining.





My silliness with a compatible AC power bank, the Piety slams more on the bass, but the LO Gain becomes as unforgiving as the High gain.

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________


Okay A/Bing the Magni Piety versus the Bryston BHA-1 amps:
Okay time to actually A/B.

DC2-to-MPatch2

MPatch2 outputs #1 Bryston BHA-1 & #2 Magni Piety
Headphone Focal Utopia

Out of the bat, BHA-1 feels more presenting with music from further a holographic plane. And the bass is less upfront. I need to go louder on the BHA-1 to reach the same slam on the Utopia.

The ending resolving movement of the bass excursion on the Utopia feels more controlled w/ a smoother movement in resolving back to position on the BHA-1.

Piety comes out more slammy. But that is in an expected compressed way. Bass resolves & ends notes much quicker. But not less fun to listen too. Just less sweet in the mids in comparison.

Piety does not make Bryston BHA-1 Amp obsolete for a solid state Amp that tries to emulate analog aspects. But Piety does an amazing job at emulating it as well...... and with more slam if that is your priority!


The song "Just the Two of Us" by Grover Washington really highlights the holographic difference between the BHA-1 & Piety.

If I am to set the BHA-1 as the baseline of being really analog and holographic presentation that encompasses feeling "ethereal". Then

Off the Piety, this song simply doesn't like the low gain mode.

On Piety high gain, the vocals sound with a step more intimacy compared to the BHA-1...but if you focus on the things around the vocals.....

Things sound as if in an airy cathedral room instead of sounding "sweet". On the BHA-1 however, rather than simply feel airy, things seem to be coming off from a different stage.

On the Piety, things are not happening on a seperate plane, but just there is an airy cathedral kind of dsp effect to things. Things still sound uncompressed and airy, but on the BHA-1, you get a sense of the echoes in the room rather than just the airiness of the cathedral.


Piety is still the more slammy presentation between them. You get an open airy sound that is great. It has plenty of fun strengths!

Well after owning most all of the Magnis from Schiit Audio and still owning a Magni OG, a Magni 3+ (also a Magni Hersey - sold), and having gone thru so many amps over the years. I am a sucker for new designs and at a low cost of $149 how could I resist in not trying out a Piety?




One thing about this amp, that is very important to me is not the amp itself. Nope. Its about how and why this amp came to be. In a cut throat industry at times when it often all about the money. Mine is bigger, better than yours. Here I saw a person who was willing to help another person get started in this crazy industry of audio. Yes a collaboration between Schiit and a new young startup called Nitsch. Jason Stoddard giving one of his headphone amp designs to help a guy called Christian Tanimoto a.k.a. CEE TEE. My hats off to Jason and all the best for Nitsch as well!

Well way back when Jason was pontificating about Thunderdomes and the like, testing stuff in house and having many versions of Magni type amps floating around there was mention of an "Apostolic" edition that was good but stuff like parts, availability etc precluded it from becoming a Schiit offering. From what I read at Nitch's website the many discrete parts and availability deep six'd the amp.

We have no schematic to really examine Jasons design. Being and EE type I love to explore schematics, but with all the copying of stuff from low cost folks around the world, protecting your assets is a necessary thing now-a-days. That said the Piety is a new take on the Continuity circuit used in the Schiit Jotenheim 2. I have had both the OG JOT and the new Jot 2 here for months. The Jot 2 has always been a favorite here...so imagine having a "mini" Jot of sorts! Piety!



Piety is tuned or tweaked for more of a tube like sound. Lots of transistors paralleled that creates a kind of triode - like sound. Half the size of a Jot 2, having a whole lot less power but at a lower cost of $149. The Jot 2 is $399. So having a whole lot less power, does it stop you from having a great listening experience? No.




So the specs:



Yes the amp is not a powerhouse compared to other amps, half the power of a Schiit Magni 3 + or Magni +. But as measured by some on other sites, it was touted with a 300 R load, low gain of producing over 30 Volts Peak to Peak!
And when it does clip, its a soft clipping much like a tube amplifier. Think - Having a SS amp that has tube like characteristics without the hassle of tubes ! Piety!

Rest of Specs:



Headphones I used in listening:

HD 650 impedance 300R, sensitivity 98 dB/mW
ADX 5000 impedance 420R, sensitivity 100 dB/mW
D8000 Pro impedance 60R, sensitivity 98dB/mW

The Stack:


I did not use any IEM's not my cup of tea...only normal headphones here. I did compare and contrast to my Magni OG, Magni 3+ and a Vali 2 +. All decent amps from Schiit.

First thing I noticed with the headphones I presently use is in HIGH gain with the HD650's driven by a Soekris 2541 dac I did not have to move the volume knob past 9 o'clock to get really LOUD levels. On LOW gain I moved the volume pot knob to 10-11 oclock to achieve the same "sane" listening level. So power for high impedance cans with decent sensitivity is NOT an issue. No sense of the amp straining at all. Same experience with the 420 ohm ADX 5000's. IMO the ADX 5000s are what the Senn 800 series should have been, again MY opinion...They come alive with the Piety...just expansive, clear, open, articulate...and really decent accurate bass....Any of the Senn 8XX series will sound SPECTACULAR with this amp.

With the D8000 Pros's at 60 ohms, it turns out about the same positions, interesting. One thing in switching from LOW to HIGH gain, the usual it sounds better in HIGH gain experience happens to me. But if you take the time to level set with a meter then test the differences are much more subtle. But there are differences for sure. HIGH gain for me is the preferred listening position with my cans. More fire and ice here....things to me just stick out better, crisper or more articulate. Wish I knew more about what the circuit is doing here with feedback.

When we stop the music and turn the volume knob full on, the amp us dead silent with all of my cans. Again no real sensitive stuff here anymore. The only negative thing I did run into is the volume pot on HIGH gain did exhibit some pot wiper noise. The only real weak point for me in an amp at this price level and form factor is the small pot used. Even though its a decent pot, I would much rather have a larger ALPS RK27 pot...but that doesn't fit well here. Also low level tracking might be an issue as well, my unit tracked nicely here.

NOTE: I contacted Christian on this issue, and FYI I also have seen this issue with other vendors small pots. The usual fix is to use some pot lube or replace the pot. I squirted in some pot lube and this helped out a lot. Done.



Take a look at all those discrete parts!
A really different white pcb. All the solder joints looked very well done. No flux residue etc...Very neatly laid out.
Just admire this simplistic/build, layout....great job here IMO.

Typical Schiit layout. Neat. Clean. Easy to discern flow. No wires ! Where are the wires ?? Easy to assemble. Easy to take apart. 4 screws, a knob, and 2 screws for the RCA jacks. Easy.

Note that Piety in design is pretty much the opposite of the Schiit Magni Hersey, the Hersey being an all op amp design, some of the best measuring specs out there. Piety has distortion characteristics built in the design all resembling tube amps. Soft clipping etc.. So how does it sound or not sound, shouldn't an amp be just a straight wire with gain ? :>)

One of the folks on the net that I admire for his honesty and candid opinion is a guy referred to as "atomicbob, Audio Engineer" who often measures stuff and posts at another website. He posted a good set of measurements and technical explanations to the performance and attributes of the Piety. Also here is a statement from him posted at Nitschsound.com



I who heartily agree with this comment. This is not a measurement amp, but does measure fairly well, but not a SINAD killer!

Left / Right ....


So back to the original Magni 3 era and the three amp prototypes. All submitted to the Schiit staff for listening. The Apostolic edition was the one that was most "musical". But again due to out of production parts killed it. So it was squirreled away in Jasons office. After hearing it in Schiits office, Christian fell in love with this design. An example of great audio gear just not making it out the door for whatever reason. And now this is history as 1,000 units have been sold in less than 12 hours. Whats that tell ya....almost sight "unheard".

After an hour listening last night, all really great. I stopped and shut everything down reluctantly...Got up at 5:30 am took some pix and started level setting and setting the switchbox's up do some AB'ing. First listen was "yup it still sounds amazing."

We all hear differently, have differing tastes in music, favorite songs, and recordings. This part is VERY SUBJECTIVE. Period.

The old I want to go and re-listen to ALL my music syndrome was present in spades. Its that good or that different. So the Piety gets a "A" from me here.



When level set the differences between the Vali 2 + and the Piety were hard to discern for me. When switching to the Magni 3 + I noticed a much more stark difference. The Magni 3 + IMO was more analytical, less warmth, less veil...musical but not as soft as the Piety. Soft for the Piety doesn't mean its well...soft or toned done, its listening profile here for me was just a tad softer...maybe those triode like characteristics..

I found that I really liked the Piety with my higher impedance cans, the HD 650 and ADX 5000's...what a superlative pairing. I dont think the HD 650 ever sounded this nice. WIth the ADX 5000's its another level up for sure. 10/10.

Note: No nasty thumps when turning off/on! Great!

The D8000 Pros worked well, but my older ears seem to prefer the brighter sound signature of the ADX 5000's here.
The Piety had no issues driving the D8000's very loud. No breakups, audible distortion. More than enough power.
No feeling that the amp was lacking in EMF.

The overall feeling listening with the Piety is its really and enjoyable sound. It is a musical amp, that makes you just want to listen for hours. With well recorded music its as good as it gets...the limits are your source material and headphones. This is an amp that has gain but the wire part is not perfectly straight, if ya get my drift!



I look forward to countless hours listening with this amp, Its that good. Congratulations to all that ordered one, several of the community have been lucky enough to get one already in early testing etc. Many more will be getting theirs soon! Christian is going to be really busy for several weeks getting these all out to you all. This amp will be a collectors edition of sorts. A solid state tube amp with no tubes...now how did Jason figure this one out!

From Jason: " It's an interesting application of Continuity, creating an output stage with a square law characteristic, hence the tube-like distortion."

Thanks Christian for taking this one on !!

Alex

NOTE: Please post your reviews as well!