[sennsay]

Just got tracking notice from Schiit for my M3! It will be here Saturday.

Excellent! It'll sound a bit up tight initially, but give it a few days and it will be sweet.

 

[DavidA]

I just got through listening to my He-400 planar headphones. And it is a terrible combination. There is no bass at all. Even with high gain and the volume pot to the max. The sound is very thin.

What was your previous amp and was it better or worse than the Magni3? While I didn't try a HE400 on my friends Magni3 I did try my HE400i and it was quite nice, the bass was there, about like what I get with my Ember and Asgard2.

 

[sennsay]

What was your previous amp and was it better or worse than the Magni3? While I didn't try a HE400 on my friends Magni3 I did try my HE400i and it was quite nice, the bass was there, about like what I get with my Ember and Asgard2.

My previous (latest) amp cost over twice that of the M3, the Schiit Valhalla 2, with really nice input tubes. With the HD540 Ref1s the Magni cleaned it up, shocked me initially, then I found the M3 was getting all the time with the Senns, so I sold the V2 and bought a Mimby instead, with change to spare Best trade! The Magni 3 was significantly more transparent from top to bottom, had superior fine detail retrieval and focus, with a joy of life that is utterly addicted! No contest eventually, despite the fact that before I started to use the Ref1s for longer than a few minutes initially, I was really enjoying the V2. It didn't take long before the M3 was the only show in town and that was before the Mimby!

 

[henree]

And did you switch the gain to high with the switch on the back? I occasionally use my HE400S with the Magni 3 and certainly don't have that issue. Are you using a DAC with 2V output? Or something with a lot less, like a phone, iPod or similar? Admittedly, the HE400S is a little more efficient.

Using High Gain. I use the Schitt DAC Bifrost Multibit upgrade. Schiit EITR to mac mini. Audirvana is my software player. The bass is non existent with the Magni3. I have had a hard time getting bass out of any of my modern day headphones amps. Including the Matrix, and Little Dot Hybrid. When using the HE-400. The only thing that sounds good, is old school integrated receivers. I am using a Nad from 1984. My Denon D7000 though, sings with the Magni3.

 

[sennsay]

Using High Gain. I use the Schitt DAC Bifrost Multibit upgrade. Schiit EITR to mac mini. Audirvana is my software player. The bass is non existent with the Magni3. I have had a hard time getting bass out of any of my modern day headphones amps. Including the Matrix, and Little Dot Hybrid. When using the HE-400. The only thing that sounds good, is old school integrated receivers. I am using a Nad from 1984. My Denon D7000 though, sings with the Magni3.

Gotcha, so the HE400 needs some serious erg power! The HE400S is far more efficient and I get loads of power, bass included, with the Magni 3. I still much prefer my fab 'old' HD540 Ref1s though Son of Bifrost Multibit (Mimby) is a chip off the old block!
I have the earlier Denon AH-D1000 cans with the Merkel mods and they sound great with the M3 too! Still love those Denons, the way they can soak up midrange energy without going to harshness is fantastic.

 

[almarti]

Has anyone tested Ether Flow with Magni 3 and Mimby?
I am doubting about Lyr 2 or Magni 3.
I already own Mimby and Ether Flow, but Ether Flow only used with Mijo and want to expand it with a headphone amp in living room.

 

[MustangVxD]

FYI Inexperienced user here.
I'm currently using and original magni/modi combination with the HiFiMan HE400.
The sound is enjoyable but around the 1 o'clock volume mark the sound seems to struggle with bass heavy music (lossless edm).
*I have boosted the low end a slight bit with foobar to give me a little more oomph*
I'm wondering if the Magni 3 will alleviate this issue or would I be wasting my money? (Schiit support couldn't answer my question)
Thanks for any opinions.

 

[crazychile]

I bought the HE-400 a few years ago to use with the original Vali. They didn't sound right. I upgraded to the Lyr 2 and they still didn't sound right. Got rid of the HE-400 and could never get what all the hype was about. Used the Lyr 2 for a couple years with a variety of headphones and generally enjoyed it until I got a MicroZotl 2 w/LPS. The MicroZotl was far more transparent and sounded really good, but didn't have enough balls for higher impedance headphones like the HD-650. Bought a Magni 3 for the office system. I thought it was every bit as good as the MicroZotl, but enough power to drive almost anything easily.

The Magi 3 is now my main amp for dynamic headphones. I can't see wanting anything else short of a very expensive end game amp that might be a little better for a ton more money. Unless Schiit pulls off another insane jump in performance on a <$300 amp like a revised Asgard type product that has a lot of power.

 

[bixby]

FYI Inexperienced user here.
I'm currently using and original magni/modi combination with the HiFiMan HE400.
The sound is enjoyable but around the 1 o'clock volume mark the sound seems to struggle with bass heavy music (lossless edm).
*I have boosted the low end a slight bit with foobar to give me a little more oomph*
I'm wondering if the Magni 3 will alleviate this issue or would I be wasting my money? (Schiit support couldn't answer my question)
Thanks for any opinions.

Your best bet is to get the HFMan A pads. Does much more for the bass than eq. Assuming you have the 400s or maybe look into whether these pads will fit the regular 400. As for Magni3 low end vs Magni 2. 3 is tighter than 2 but still a bit soft and is not a sub bass monster. It is also cleaner in the lower mids where the 2s bass can infringe on the mids. Overall a more open amp. As for wasting money, we are talking about $115 amp, so maybe you get $60 for the 2. $55 upgrade with freight, only you can decide.

The Magi 3 is now my main amp for dynamic headphones. I can't see wanting anything else short of a very expensive end game amp that might be a little better for a ton more money. Unless Schiit pulls off another insane jump in performance on a <$300 amp like a revised Asgard type product that has a lot of power.

Yes the Magni 3 is crazy good, but there are steps in between "very expensive" end game amps for a ton more money. And you do have to spend many times more than the $115 Magni 3. But there are satisfying stops on the way up to crazy price land. I have retired my Magni3 for the time being due to one of those steps. Still may press it into service in my desktop work machine.

 

[Kevin Tam]

Your best bet is to get the HFMan A pads. Does much more for the bass than eq. Assuming you have the 400s or maybe look into whether these pads will fit the regular 400. As for Magni3 low end vs Magni 2. 3 is tighter than 2 but still a bit soft and is not a sub bass monster. It is also cleaner in the lower mids where the 2s bass can infringe on the mids. Overall a more open amp. As for wasting money, we are talking about $115 amp, so maybe you get $60 for the 2. $55 upgrade with freight, only you can decide.



Yes the Magni 3 is crazy good, but there are steps in between "very expensive" end game amps for a ton more money. And you do have to spend many times more than the $115 Magni 3. But there are satisfying stops on the way up to crazy price land. I have retired my Magni3 for the time being due to one of those steps. Still may press it into service in my desktop work machine.

Just curious, after retiring the magni3, which amp are you currently using?
Thanks

 

[bixby]

Musical Fidelity M1-HPA

 

[sennsay]

FYI Inexperienced user here.
I'm currently using and original magni/modi combination with the HiFiMan HE400.
The sound is enjoyable but around the 1 o'clock volume mark the sound seems to struggle with bass heavy music (lossless edm).
*I have boosted the low end a slight bit with foobar to give me a little more oomph*
I'm wondering if the Magni 3 will alleviate this issue or would I be wasting my money? (Schiit support couldn't answer my question)
Thanks for any opinions.

From what I've heard here, you might indeed be wasting your time with the Magni 3. Schiit probably haven't heard the HE400 with any of their amps, hence the reply. It seems my M3 can power even my 600 ohm Senns much better than the HE400. However, I think someone may have suggested the Focus A pads for your HE400 and they have certainly and significantly changed my HE400S for the better. It would be your cheapest option and you just might get a surprise The Magni 3 is by all accounts (and from Schiit themselves) a better amp than the M2, a totally different design. I haven't heard the Magni 2.

 

[DavidA]

Using High Gain. I use the Schitt DAC Bifrost Multibit upgrade. Schiit EITR to mac mini. Audirvana is my software player. The bass is non existent with the Magni3. I have had a hard time getting bass out of any of my modern day headphones amps. Including the Matrix, and Little Dot Hybrid. When using the HE-400. The only thing that sounds good, is old school integrated receivers. I am using a Nad from 1984. My Denon D7000 though, sings with the Magni3.

I have found that my old NAD 3020 (1982) works well with my HE400 but it also sounds really good on my newer Sony ES receiver along with the headphone jack of my Teac UD-301, Asgard2, Lyr2 and Ember. If you are missing the bass I'd suggest changing the ear pads if you haven't done so to Ori, Focus-A or Dekoni sheepskin, and install some attenuation rings, these mods make my HE400 into basshead cans and if you want even better then add sorbothane in the cups and install a more open grill with a rubber patch in the middle to bring up the mids. Before doing the mods I also felt that the bass was a little lacking. I've also changed the ear pad mounting ring to the newer aluminum version which has notches in it so the tabs on the pads don't spin around.

@MustangVxD, see what I wrote above. I think you will benefit from the sorbothane since it seems like you are getting distortion due to vibration of the housing which the sorbothane will help clean up.

 

[DJ The Rocket]

From what I read from the previous posts, it seems like with the new volume pot on Magni 3, the volume gets loud very quickly.
Does this mean that low impedance/high sensitivity headphones could suffer from channel imbalance. Does anyone know how Audio-Technica headphones would pair with the M3?
I am using a pair of A2000X.

Thanks!!

What's this about a new volume pot? The old crappy, noisy pot was why I sold mine, but I've been thinking about getting a new one and just replacing the pot with one of my choice, that will likely cost $25+ on its own. Maybe an Alps RK27, maybe an ebay SMD stepper, but the old pot seemed to be the amp's obvious weakness. I think the design has tons of potential otherwise.

BTW, I have a pair of ATH-AD2000, and they're so sensitive I don't really gain anything with an amp vs. straight out of an iPhone or V20 headphone jack.

 

[MustangVxD]

Bixby, Sennsay, DavidA,
Thanks for the advice. I do have the Focus-A pads and they did improve it over the stock pads (ill check into the information on modding the HE400 as well)
Looks like i'll wait until I find a comfortable upgrade in earphones before switching out my Schiit set.
Again, thanks for all the opinions and information.