Uhhhhhhhhhhhhh you are talking to someone who does a lot of diy amp stuff. That guy def knows his stuff and is no stranger to modification.
Hi and of course i did not mean to offend anyone.
However, as a principle, ANY unit can be improved. And in particular cheap units that are the result of some kind of comprimise to keep the price down.
A good pot costs like the all Magni 2.
Let me state again that as i see an UBER version of the Magni 2 i have the strong feeling that the basic version can be improved.
A better pot, a better power supply .... these come to my mind.
The issue with any audio device is there are times when good capacitors are absolutely crucial, and there are times when you should not even bother. Capacitors in the power delivery system of an amplifier only need to be of good quality.
They do not and should not be audio grade capacitors. If anything you would want to use low tolerance Panasonic caps or something along those lines.
The only thing you can hope to achieve by modding the power caps in this case is maybe a quieter sound stage and a cleaner sound in general.
And this is exactly what i am looking for. I do not have at hand instruments to measure the noise. But i am more than sure that replacing the power supply on board with something really serious and external can make a difference ... audible difference. This can also be seen in some high end preamps for instance like the Threshold but many others have separate power supplies. And of course very low noise ones.
But we are talking less than a 5% improvement.
this is open to discussion ... like we cannot quantify the sound quality we cannot quantify improvements.
I believe in measurements ... unfortunately i have not seen any on the Schiit Audio. But better parts can only be better ... if you replace a cap with a better one you cannot get a worse sound.
I would also be willing to bet that the CD player you listened to was not using audio grade caps for the power system. If the power capacitors were swapped it was probably because the guy felt like if he was replacing the audio caps that he might as well do the power caps as well.
I canot tell what they did. The sound was amazing.
If that were the case, I can almost promise you he used low tolerance caps in the power system.
It is not only a problem of tolerance ... but lower impedance, ESR, etc. a better cap is a better cap in general.
And some are so much better that they become object of cult like the Siemens Sikorel now Epcos.
The power supply is very important always. Like the exact transformer used.
Using something like nichicon FG caps would just be stupid.
so you mean that who use them is stupid ? or just a marketing play ?
i have been recommended these caps here on this site by some members. I would bring them in but it will be OT i guess.
The FG cost quite more than the basic version ... there must be a reason and they sell them quite well also.
And the magni 2 uber just uses slightly different parts and just puts out a bit more power. That is it.
One thing i know for sure, looking at the pics. It uses a different pot and some more caps in the PS.
I was worried about the pot being noisy but it seems ok ... no noise and not big unbalance.
I will try with the transformer and the ps caps ... and then listen
In this way i will not modify the unit substantially.
One thing about price.
The web is full of reviews about units performing like other units 2, 3 times their price.
This adds to confusion ... which is for instance the 200 USD headphone amp of reference ?
What means a unit performing at the 80% of a reference unit ?
they are just chit chat showing the huge confusion around.
I prefer to talk about good sounding units and worse sounding units.
The Magni 2 is already good sounding to me.
If you take it and., as an example, replace the necessarily cheap pot with a high quality attenuator of same value you cannot make things worse. it is impossible.
And the sound will be surely better ... how much better ? 6-7% at least
Thanks again.
gino
