[SomeTechNoob]

 
I am just curious, why did you order a Full 2 and a Magni 2? 

I limited my budget to around $200 and I liked the Fulla 2's featureset quite a bit.  Having a Fulla 2 + Magni 2 setup lets me have a nice setup at home, but I can simply detach the Fulla 2 and take it with me if I want to setup at a library or coffee shop with my laptop.
 
Sure, the Modi 2 might sound a tiiiiny bit better than the Fulla 2, but with the Fulla 2's line out and variable out, I can hook up speakers(measly Creative D200) and the Magni 2 at the same time.
 
Both my DACports have better amp specs on paper as well, so simply getting a Fulla 2 seems like a downgrade.
 
----
 
Speak of the devil, the postman just rang my doorbell.

 

[SomeTechNoob]

Well I posted in the Fulla 2 thread, so why not also do a picture dump here too?
 
Box!
  
Unboxed.
  
Stacked.
  
Some size comparisons.

 
Can't give much audio impressions.  Magni's maybe slightly better than my DACport HD in the bass regions with my HD 6XX.  But so far it's not a night/day difference.  Kind of expected that though.  The volume pots are nice though.

 

[InsTwin]

  I decided to order and see if the Multibit Modi will sound nicer than my Uber Modi. I'll let y'all know.

Interested to hear your impressions, I was looking at making this upgrade recently as well.

 

[Selbi]

@SomeTechNoob: Huh, Magni is smaller than I thought. It's only double the size of the Fulla 2, thought it would fit in there like four times.
 
Would like to have your audio impressions between Fulla 2 standalone vs Magni amp with Fulla DAC line-out.

 

[SomeTechNoob]

@SomeTechNoob
: Huh, Magni is smaller than I thought. It's only double the size of the Fulla 2, thought it would fit in there like four times.

Would like to have your audio impressions between Fulla 2 standalone vs Magni amp with Fulla DAC line-out.

Yep. If you follow Jason's blog here on head first, he says its's half as wide and 75% as tall without the knob. I always thought the magni was going to be bigger though until I saw a stack at a local meet.

Magni 2 > Fulla 2 basically. Fulla 2's sound isn't bad by any means though. The characteristics I'm about to describe are more like subtle changes.

The Fulla 2 sounded a bit thin and harsh, especially with my HD 6XX. Adding the Magni 2 results in more and tighter controlled bass. The Fulla 2 has an audible noise floor as well, even with the pot at its lowest setting. You can only hear it with efficient cans and IEMs, but it is there. On the contrary, at listening level, the Magni 2 has zero noise floor.

I've also mentioned this previously, but the pot on my Magni 2 had much better characteristics when it came to channel balance. My new Fulla 2 comes on Monday though, so I'll update you guys when it comes.

 

[chuckwheat]

 
Interested to hear your impressions, I was looking at making this upgrade recently as well.

A box in the mail! WOW. ok. I'll just say off the bat there's a huge difference I can hear...
I'll give it some listen and write a more detailed comparison in a little bit.

 

[Andrew LB]

It's finally time for me to step up and buy a new amp since my Little Dot MKIII's tubes are crapping out and i'd rather not buy another pair of ElectroHarmonix 6H30Pi-ER tubes which cost as much as a Magni 2. I'm gonna start with just the Magni 2 and use it initially with my Fiio D3 DAC or plugged directly into my X-Fi Titanium HD. Its a shame They don't offer the normal Magni 2 with the aluminum chassis because thats the only reason why i'd go for the Uber.
 
The main issue I see here is by getting this new amp, a seemingly benign $99 purchase... will likely result in me realizing how shot-out my Sennheiser HD580's are requiring me to buy some HD600's or HD700's, followed by of course throwing the Fiio D3 in the trash for a Modi 2 Uber.
 
I remember when i first joined this site someone made the comment to me "Sorry about your wallet". lol. Ain't that the truth!

 

[coolcrew23]

Hi just wanna ask. Has anyone compared the Magni 2 to the Xduoo ta-02. I have a chance to get both wondering what's better for an hd600.

 

[380734]

Just to give you an idea on my setup I'm using desktop speakers (AudioEngine A5+) and playing Spotify Premium (320kbps). No FLACs or any lossless formats. I have no plans on getting a headphone as of yet. Yes, I play games, some movies but really mostly for music. Btw, I don't have any distortion, cracking sound or whatsoever in my setup.
 
I'm new to these kind of things. My questions are:
1. If I buy an external DAC - will I hear a sonic improvement if I get the Modi Multibit compared to my motherboard's DAC (Asus Z97A - Realtek ALC89 DAC)? OR will I be just wasting my money since it's a subtle gain?
2. What's the difference between pre-amp and a regular amp? Do I need for my setup?
 
Thank you very much

 

[Selbi]

You will always get an improvement. The question is if the price is worth it for. For speakers only, I think having the Fulla 2 is enough. Multibit is literally useless when all you do is Spotify, as Spotify has I think standard 16 bits at most. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Pre-amp is when an amplifier offers an additional out that takes the adjusted signal from the volume pot, but doesn't feed it the extra energy yet that you need to drive stuff that isn't sensitive. Usually for powered speakers which I think yours are.

This allows one to have everything (headphones and speakers) hooked up to the same control unit with the same volume control. In case of Schiit products, the pre-amp also mutes whenever you plug in a headphone. Pretty handy.

Compare line-out, which like pre-amp also bypasses the power feed, but furthermore also bypasses the volume control. It's the direct, unaffected output from the DAC. You use this when your speakers already have a physical volume control.

 

[Letmebefrank]

You will always get an improvement. The question is if the price is worth it for. For speakers only, I think having the Fulla 2 is enough. Multibit is literally useless when all you do is Spotify, as Spotify has I think standard 16 bits at most. Correct me if I'm wrong.

The modi multibit only processes 16 bit audio anyway, and many report that it improves lower resolution audio very much.

Most schiit amps mute the preamp output when headphones are plugged in but not all. The balanced amps like Jotunheim and mjolnir 2 do not mute.

 

[darkfireblade25]

Can you use just the Modi 2 to feed directly into a powered monitor with its own volume control like say Swan M50W? Would there be any noise problems?

 

[crowman]

  Can you use just the Modi 2 to feed directly into a powered monitor with its own volume control like say Swan M50W? Would there be any noise problems?

 
I use my Modi2 Uber with my JBL LSR305 with no problems. I assume you would just max out one of the volume knobs so only have one variable if that makes sense?
 I would suggest maxing the Swans volume knob as you don't risk blowing up cans which would be plugged into the Magni. Then just control the volume of both your swan monitors and cans from the Magni.
 
What inputs do the swans have?

 

[winders]

  Can you use just the Modi 2 to feed directly into a powered monitor with its own volume control like say Swan M50W? Would there be any noise problems?

Yes!
 
I have Swan M200MKIII powered monitors and I use my Vali 2 to control them. The Vali 2 operates just like the Magni 2 Uber. I turn the speaker volume control all the way up to max and use the volume control on the Vali 2 to mange both the speaker volume and headphone volume. It works great this way.

 

[guywithtwohands]

I'm thinking about buying the Magni 2, but can't quite decide whether to spend the extra on the Uber version. I don't really have any use for the preamp outputs at the moment. The aluminium top cover as opposed to painted steel sounds nice (and the aluminium volume knob), but I don't imagine these matter much. Does the volume knob feel more "solid" on the Uber?
 
I understand the Uber can provide a little more power, but are there any headphones that would benefit from this in practice (where the regular Magni is not enough but the Uber gives them that tiny bit extra that's needed)? I imagine at that point you need something even more powerful than the Uber.
 
I don't understand what Schiit means when they list 'complementary-input VAS' as a feature for the Uber under Gain Stage. Can anyone explain?
 
Thanks.