[bildar]

Work Stack:

 

[gylyf]

Can anyone speak to how the Piety does as a preamp to powered speakers? I'm currently using my Lyr+ as both a preamp and for headphone listening, but I don't want to have it on all day if I'm only listening to music on my speakers. If the Piety does well as a preamp, I'd be tempted to use it (and for occasional headphone listening) during those times I don't want to burn up the tube in my Lyr.

 

[mystaiced]

Can anyone speak to how the Piety does as a preamp to powered speakers? I'm currently using my Lyr+ as both a preamp and for headphone listening, but I don't want to have it on all day if I'm only listening to music on my speakers. If the Piety does well as a preamp, I'd be tempted to use it (and for occasional headphone listening) during those times I don't want to burn up the tube in my Lyr.

So I use it mainly as a preamp before my Emotiva a2m amp and passive speakers. I think it sounds fantastic as a preamp. I tried a Vali 2++, but was getting some extra noise with it. Switched to the piety and everything is golden. I prefer the Piety over my Magni Heresy as a preamp, FWIW.

 

[Jimmyblues1959]

So I use it mainly as a preamp before my Emotiva a2m amp and passive speakers. I think it sounds fantastic as a preamp. I tried a Vali 2++, but was getting some extra noise with it. Switched to the piety and everything is golden. I prefer the Piety over my Magni Heresy as a preamp, FWIW.

The Emotiva a2m, like its predecessor A-100 is a great value. The Magni Piety should be a nice match using it as a preamp with either. As for Nitsch Audio future projects, someone on the SBAF forum recently mentioned the Eddie Current
solid state headphone amp's. Owning an Eddie Current EC/SS, I think it would be nice if CEETEE were able to work with Craig at Eddie Current to resurrect either the EC/SS or Black Widow. These are really nice sounding headphones amp's.

 

[Rattle]

Piety is such a banging little amp. I had not tried it with ZMF Atticus, I figured it's a warm midbassy headphone. Might be to much of a good thing especially with bifrost 2 OG. Wrong !!?
It's actually insanely good synergy. I don't even take it out of low gain about 11-1 on the pot. Best $150 ever spent on audio even with bigger better amps in the arsenal it's just a joy to listen to.
Love it with HD600 with ZMF perforated lambskin pads very much as well. In fact the piety has become my HD600 amp.

 

[Jimmyblues1959]

Piety is such a banging little amp. I had not tried it with ZMF Atticus, I figured it's a warm midbassy headphone. Might be to much of a good thing especially with bifrost 2 OG. Wrong !!?
It's actually insanely good synergy. I don't even take it out of low gain about 11-1 on the pot. Best $150 ever spent on audio even with bigger better amps in the arsenal it's just a joy to listen to.
Love it with HD600 with ZMF perforated lambskin pads very much as well. In fact the piety has become my HD600 amp.

I agree. The Piety does sound great with the HD600, HD650, and HD6XX. It's one of most pleasant sounding headphone amplifiers I have ever heard.

 

[Rattle]

I agree. The Piety does sound great with the HD600, HD650, and HD6XX.

I actually didn't love it with HD6xx but HD600 was much better for me.

 

[Jimmyblues1959]

I actually didn't love it with HD6xx but HD600 was much better for me.

I hear you. Lots of subjectivity in this hobby.

 

[KaiFi]

Got my Modi+ today so I am finally able to test out the Piety. First impressions are that it's quite amazing! Although I don't have a Magni 3 or 2 to side-by-side comparison, I owned both of those in the past and this seems to be a notable step up.

It's more powerful than I thought it would be. I remember my old Magni having to turn up the volume quite a bit to power my Sennheisers, now using the HD 660S, I don't have the volume up much and it's in Lo gain as well, which is more than adequate. I've never heard a tube amplifier before, so I don't know what "tube like characteristics" are that this amp supposedly has. I'm just hearing a balanced sound, a lot of detail and not lacking any area.

Ultimately I bought this to use with my new ZMF Atticus, but I don't have the unbalanced cable for that, so still waiting, but if it sounds this good with the HD 660S, I think it will be great with the Atticus.

 

[Jimmyblues1959]

Got my Modi+ today so I am finally able to test out the Piety. First impressions are that it's quite amazing! Although I don't have a Magni 3 or 2 to side-by-side comparison, I owned both of those in the past and this seems to be a notable step up.

It's more powerful than I thought it would be. I remember my old Magni having to turn up the volume quite a bit to power my Sennheisers, now using the HD 660S, I don't have the volume up much and it's in Lo gain as well, which is more than adequate. I've never heard a tube amplifier before, so I don't know what "tube like characteristics" are that this amp supposedly has. I'm just hearing a balanced sound, a lot of detail and not lacking any area.

Ultimately I bought this to use with my new ZMF Atticus, but I don't have the unbalanced cable for that, so still waiting, but if it sounds this good with the HD 660S, I think it will be great with the Atticus.

Glad you're enjoying your new Piety! I had an original Magni 3 and liked it. Its sound stage was basically a wall of sound but it was pleasant enough to
listen to at moderate listening levels. The Magni 3 was nice with my low impedance planars, but could be over driven easily with my higher impedance headphones and
sound very harsh when this occurred. I suspect that this is why the Magni developed a reputation for having glare in its treble. Anyway I do find the Piety - despite its lower power rating - to be a significant improvement sonically over the M3. I'm using it as part of my summer headfi system since it runs fairly cool.

 

[BS5711]

I have read numerous comments here about sonic differences between low and high gain and the couple of video reviews mentioned the same. The consensus seems to be that there is a marked difference.

I don’t hear that.

If I flick the gain up while listening and then adjust the volume to suit I hear what sounds like a more edgy dynamic sound on high gain and rather softer and more mellow on low gain.

However, if I listen with HD600 or Dan Clark Aeon Noire (two very different drivers to highlight any specific characteristics of the amplifier) and quite carefully figure out the change in volume pot position to keep the volume as close as I can to the same while simultaneously changing the gain I literally hear no difference in sound. It is like nothing changes at all if I coordinate the gain switch and volume pot well.

What am I missing ?

What specific differences are you hearing ?

Are these immediately obvious differences in an A/B comparison or noticeable longer term ?

Are you sure it isn’t just a volume mismatch or expectation bias ?

 

[Rattle]

I have read numerous comments here about sonic differences between low and high gain and the couple of video reviews mentioned the same. The consensus seems to be that there is a marked difference.

I don’t hear that.

If I flick the gain up while listening and then adjust the volume to suit I hear what sounds like a more edgy dynamic sound on high gain and rather softer and more mellow on low gain.

However, if I listen with HD600 or Dan Clark Aeon Noire (two very different drivers to highlight any specific characteristics of the amplifier) and quite carefully figure out the change in volume pot position to keep the volume as close as I can to the same while simultaneously changing the gain I literally hear no difference in sound. It is like nothing changes at all if I coordinate the gain switch and volume pot well.

What am I missing ?

What specific differences are you hearing ?

Are these immediately obvious differences in an A/B comparison or noticeable longer term ?

Are you sure it isn’t just a volume mismatch or expectation bias ?

You're not missing anything I came to basically the same conclusion.

 

[Jimmyblues1959]

You're not missing anything I came to basically the same conclusion.

I find the sound signature for the Piety is similar in low and high gain. The differences I notice have more
to do with the impedance load of a particular headphone and how that either synergizes with the Piety or does not.
Thus far, I have used the Piety with several headphones ranging from planars with 35 - 50 ohm impedances,
to Sennheisers with 300 ohm and AKG K240 Sextetts with 600 ohm impedances. They all work very nicely
with the Piety. The Piety works well in low gain for the planars, but understandably, sounds better in high gain
with the higher impedance headphones. What surprised me was that the Piety actually sounded good in low gain
with my AKG K240 Sextett. It sounded better in high gain, but did not disappoint in low gain.

 

[BS5711]

I find the sound signature for the Piety is similar in low and high gain. The differences I notice have more
to do with the impedance load of a particular headphone and how that either synergies with the Piety or does not.
Thus far, I have used the Piety with several headphones ranging from planars with 35 - 50 ohm impedances,
to Sennheisers with 300 ohm and AKG K240 Sextetts with 600 ohm impedances. They all work very nicely
with the Piety. The Piety works well in low gain for the planars, but understandably, sounds better in high gain
with the higher impedance headphones. What surprised me was that the Piety actually sounded good in low gain
with my AKG K240 Sextett. It sounded better in high gain, but did not disappoint in low gain.

Why "understandably better in high gain with higher impedance" ? What is it that will definitively make that so, technically I mean ?

I don't hear any difference that can't be equalised by volume matching or in fact reversed by lowering the volume intentionally, both with 13 ohm planars or 300 ohm dynamics.

I don't understand how the change in gain is achieved with the Piety so could somebody tell me technically if there is a reason why the gain will result in a change in sound other than simply a change in volume which on its own will alter the impression of the sound, nobody turns down the sound to better enjoy their favourite drum solo.

Output impedance changes alone between low and high gain are not going to explain a change in sound, both output impedances are something like 0.6 ohms.

If anything a 300 or 600 ohm dynamic should actually suit a much higher output impedance like 30 - 50 ohms as is more typical in a tube amplifier but the Piety numbers indicate that there isn't a noteworthy shift in output impedance between gain settings.

Additionally, a planar doesn't care about the output impedance since the frequency response is not altered by the output impedance of the amplifier.

 

[Rattle]

I don't find any of my 300ohm headphones better on high gain.