[papazoid]

here is a Magni/Modi review from Headfonia....
 
http://www.headfonia.com/schitty-magni-and-modi/
 
 
the review,  while giving the magni/modi combo high marks, suggests that the Aune T1 (amp & dac combo) is better than the magni/modi for sound quality and tube customization options, while being very close in price after adding in cables.
 
any comments ?

 

[BrokeStudent]

Quote:

here is a Magni/Modi review from Headfonia....
 
http://www.headfonia.com/schitty-magni-and-modi/
 
 
the review,  while giving the magni/modi combo high marks, suggests that the Aune T1 (amp & dac combo) is better than the magni/modi for sound quality and tube customization options, while being very close in price after adding in cables.
 
any comments ?

 
The guy is nuts to think that you need to add another $100 worth of cables to get good sound out of the M&M stack. All you're missing is a single USB cable and RCA cables. You don't need to spend any more than $5 on a USB cable, the RCA's are up to you.
 
Also, if he's so set on his $80 USB cable, how come he doesn't add it to his Aune T1 stack? The cable that comes with it must surely(/sarcasm) be worse then the $80 one he mentions, so why not add it to the cost of the T1 stack too ?
 
Next thing I'm going to hear is that the stack needs special fairy electricity to sound good, which is another $100 at least!

 

[proton007]

Quote:

 
The guy is nuts to think that you need to add another $100 worth of cables to get good sound out of the M&M stack. All you're missing is a single USB cable, you don't need to spend any more than $5 on one. 
 
Next thing I'm going to hear is that the stack needs special fairy electricity to sound good, which is another $100 at least!

 
Any review that suggests a cable upgrade >> not good.

 

[Tequilasunriser]

here is a Magni/Modi review from Headfonia....

http://www.headfonia.com/schitty-magni-and-modi/


the review,  while giving the magni/modi combo high marks, suggests that the Aune T1 (amp & dac combo) is better than the magni/modi for sound quality and tube customization options, while being very close in price after adding in cables.

any comments ?

What a waste of time reading that was. I facepalmed when he said the Asgard has a wider soundstage than the Magni. It's an amp... amps do nothing but power your headphones, so they'll either power them adequately or they won't. Tubes are another story, but that's of no concern here. The factor that will affect soundstage will be your headphones and your DAC but even mentioning the DAC is stretching it. The superstitions and misinformation in this hobby has gotten way out of hand and it's one of the reasons I haven't been around for a year, because of knuckleheads like the guy at headphonia.

 

[imackler]

I'm really disappointed by the usb thing, too, in the review. I overall enjoy their website, but stuff like that makes you wonder how much other ideas like that influence their reviews... Even with that, that review was not not their best. I don't always agree with their opinion or their end conclusions, but most of the time you have a really good idea why they like something or not. 

 

[adydula]

All this subjective analysis although interesting is well just that...interesting.....need I say more?
 
I want to see the specs of the O2 and the Schitt amp side by side....
 
Too many adjectives and superlatives....need real data....
 
Alex

 

[keanex]

Quote:

 
I don't agree with this at all yet. I've had the DJ100 for 3 years and it definitely makes it more trebly. The problem though is that the amp doesn't have more than 8 hours of use on it. Supposedly some say the amps brightness smooths out with use. It definitely seems to have slightly emphasized treble out of the box. I'll know more soon. How do you know it's truly neutral? Are you just going by what someone says or random posters? Even if Schiit says so, it doesn't matter much to me.
 
Even the HD-650 sounds slightly different than it should. It's a lot less forgiving and I do like this sometimes. It's soundstage magically increased in size too.
 
The differences are not huge and the Magni could very well measure flat, but I doubt it. It sounds like it has slightly rolled off low bass and very slightly emphasized treble. It'll be interesting to connect up different sources and compare it to the O2.
 
My Micro Amp sounds much more balanced and I don't find it warm or having rolled off bass/treble (saw some measurements recently, but for the portable version). I'm going to use the Magni for 25+ hours and hope I can eat my words about it's treble. I don't believe or not believe burn-in of amps. Should be an interesting experiment.
 
It'll be fun to connect up different sources to the Magni and see if I can hear the differences easily. On my E9 it's very difficult, but on the Micro Amp it's stupid easy. I don't know the technical reason for this.
 
I do love the Magni with my HD-650, Sextett and HD-598. A bit disappointed with it when using the Q701 and K601. Probably needs burn in

 
I'm going buy the measurements provided by Schiit in regards to the Magni. There's nothing that should indicate it changing the sound through the signal path at all. I'm not going to touch the idea of burn-in for a solid state amplifier though, I'll just say that I think that it's a silly notion.
 
As for Headfonia reviews, I know that they have many writers, but the only thing I ever go there for is the pictures. I haven't ever read a review there I have agreed with.

 

[proton007]

Quote:

 
I'm going buy the measurements provided by Schiit in regards to the Magni. There's nothing that should indicate it changing the sound through the signal path at all. I'm not going to touch the idea of burn-in for a solid state amplifier though, I'll just say that I think that it's a silly notion.
 
As for Headfonia reviews, I know that they have many writers, but the only thing I ever go there for is the pictures. I haven't ever read a review there I have agreed with.

 
I agree with Alex above, I'd like to see a proper test of the Magni.

 

[mikeaj]

Well, people already complain about 5x gain, volume pot in lower range, etc.  Doesn't seem like a good fit for most IEMs, somewhat like FiiO E9.  At least output impedance is low.  Schiit believes in one-size-fit-all and no gain options to keep prices lower—not sure if I do, and I usually am against the feature-creep side.
 
Note that distortion figures are given at 1V with an unspecified load.  Many people are looking to (sometimes) exceed that, and with lower-impedance headphones like the current popular planar magnetics.  Listed figures would be plenty great, but it's possible that real-world performance may be worse enough to make a difference.
 
 
 

Interesting. Seems like Schiit is really trying to compete with the O2, and looks like the same thing Google did with their Nexus line, selling it at lower margin to penetrate the market.
 
It will be interesting to see how the two compare in terms of measurements.

 
Well, I think a lot of the things done are what make sense for any commercial product.  You're not going to just use an existing enclosure like the aluminum Box Enclosures option the O2 has.  Also, except at the high price points, you're going to avoid through-hole components whenever possible.  Sure, you can get a small performance advantage with some through-hole parts in critical locations, but if the O2 were not designed for DIY, you would see a different structure and surface-mount parts, probably a Li-ion battery, and so on.

 

[TheGame21x]

Well, after my experience with the Magni and Modi (referenced here and here), I went ahead and ordered the JDS Labs O2 + ODAC and plan on selling my Schiit stack when the replacement gets here.

 

[adydula]

Here is what I am looking for for a spec comparison:
 

1. Impedance less than 2 ohms
2. Input impedance >= 10K
3. Frequency response +/- 0.25 dB 20 hz – 20 Khz 400 mV 16-600 Ohms
4. Phase response less than +/- 2 degrees error 100 hz - 20 Khz 16-600 Ohms
5. Absolute phase: Preserved
6. Slew Rate greater than 3 V/uS using 10 Khz square wave near full output 600 Ohms
7. Distortion under 0.01% 20hz – 20 Khz into 16 – 600 ohms from 10 mV – 400 mV RMS
8. Channel separation better than -40 dB @ 16 ohms and –60 dB @ 150 ohms 400 mV RMS
9. Channel balance error less than 1 dB at any setting down to –45 dB below max volume
10. Noise under –105 dBv (103 dBu) unweighted (5.6 uV or -97 dBr referenced to 400 mV)
11. DC offset under 5 mV typical, and ideally, under 20 mV worst case
12. 100% stable with any realistic reactive load from 16 – 600 ohms
13. Transient ringing and overshoot tightly controlled with all realistic headphone loads and 0.01 uF
14. 166 mA per channel, both channels driven, peak current capability at < 1% THD
15. 6.25 volts RMS on AC power at < 1% THD into 150 ohms

 
I removed any ones that pertain to the battery in the O2, this would not be fair.
 
Alex

 

[papazoid]

Quote:

Well, after my experience with the Magni and Modi (referenced here and here), I went ahead and ordered the JDS Labs O2 + ODAC and plan on selling my Schiit stack when the replacement gets here.

 
 
the O2+ODAC combo or seperate units ?

 

[TheGame21x]

Quote:

 
 
the O2+ODAC combo or seperate units ?

The O2 with ODAC built in.

 

[Tequilasunriser]

The O2 with ODAC built in.

I'd get them separate in case you'd ever like to hook your DAC up to a receiver or integrated amp in the future if you plan to listen to speakers.

 

[TheGame21x]

Quote:

I'd get them separate in case you'd ever like to hook your DAC up to a receiver or integrated amp in the future if you plan to listen to speakers.

Eh, that doesn't concern me. I plan on using it exclusively with headphones from one computer or the line in from my iPhone or whatever.