[Saiden]

I've wrote to Schiit about my problem.
In the meantime, when you plug the headphones does both of the outputs get muted or just the variable one?

 

[SomeTechNoob]

The power port does not add more power.  It will simply pull power from the power-only port and the other microUSB will be data only.  If you notice a sound improvement with the power microUSB plugged in, then your laptop probably lacks the power output on its USB port.
 
Have you tried other usb power bricks?  Only testing one kind of makes it hard to figure out the issue.

 

[MisterEwing]

Well, after branching out and first buying the Magni 2 Uber to use with the Fulla 2's dac, and then deciding I might as well go for the complete 'stack' and purchasing the Modi 2U, I'm now back to just the Fulla 2.
 
Since day one my Fulla 2 had performed flawlessly, no build quality issues, no weird behaviors, it's just simply worked as it is supposed too. So, why upgrade? After many hours reading various forums I was convinced my HD650s needed 'more' power. That's not to say I had any issue with the way the Fulla 2 and the HD650s paired, but... the powers of suggestion.
 
Enter the Magni 2 Uber. Honestly this worked perfectly fine. I noticed slightly more impact to the low end, but once the Fulla 2 and the Magni 2 were 'close' to volume matched the differences were very minimal.Then I started researching the Modi 2. I knew they used the same dac chip, (note to the audio police, I know, the same chip doesn't mean the same absolute performance, but it's a good comparative base) but I read a couple reviews of the Fulla 2 where people mentioned simply preferring the sound of the Modi 2. Also the idea that optical is the preferred connection method, etc. swayed me to try the Modi 2.
 
And here is where the problems started. Once the Modi 2 arrived I connected everything up, and... it wouldn't work. Turns out my motherboard won't ouput 24/192 via optical. No problem connected a USB, installed the drivers and I was off and going... only, something wasn't right. 
 
I'll try my best to describe the problem... when a song featured low bass all the other frequencies would noticeably 'wobble'. I tried two USB cables, multiple ports, a pc, a mac, and via optical 24/96. The problem was still present. I then connected the Magni back to my Fulla 2 and noticed the problem didn't exist.
 
All that got me thinking... how far down the rabbit hole do I need to go? My Fulla 2 performs flawlessly, it's relatively inexpensive, sounds good to my ears and works with pretty much any device I throw at it. Granted the Modi 2 that I received clearly has a problem, but even A/Bing with the Fulla 2 and the Magni 2 (Fulla 2 as the dac) the difference wasn't enough for my ears.
 
Moral of the story, some will say the Schiit stack is a huge improvement over the Fulla 2, and depending on your source material and headphones it might be. But for me, Google Play Music, Tidal Hifi, HD650s and Philips X2, the Fulla 2 is my perfect solution.

 

[Ancipital]

 

...maybe i cannot understand your advice: for me it makes a difference in the sound when I take the power in addition from the laptop than when I get it from the iPhone charger.
Does it mean, that my iPhone charger does not bring 5V?
 
And here is no two times expensive power cord, but sorry, maybe here is a serious Listener.

 
Of course it makes a difference to the sound; USB outs from laptops tend to be very electrically noisy. Plugging into a laptop twice will likely sound different (i.e. worse) than just using a single cable. It does not enable the Fulla 2 to draw more power, it will just degrade its performance.
 
Really, it's not hard. Use a single cable, or a decent external USB phone charger. Also, I'm having a hard parsing "And here is no two times expensive power cord, but sorry, maybe here is a serious Listener." - could you please either stop or start using Google Translate? It's not easy to follow you.

 

[Selbi]

  And here is where the problems started. Once the Modi 2 arrived I connected everything up, and... it wouldn't work. Turns out my motherboard won't ouput 24/192 via optical. No problem connected a USB, installed the drivers and I was off and going... only, something wasn't right.

 
They mentioned this on their website:

Modi 2 Uber: 16/44.1 to 24/192 via USB. 16/44.1 to 24/192 via Toslink* and Coax.  
*Note: many optical transmitters cannot output 24/176 and 24/192 reliably

 
So the issue was kinda given from the start. How does the Fulla 2 compare to the Modi 2 (when used with USB) compare?
 
This has gotten me very interested in getting more facts down. I'm currently on the huge undecided factor of buying a Fulla 2 or Stack 2.

 

[EthanB]

  Well, after branching out and first buying the Magni 2 Uber to use with the Fulla 2's dac, and then deciding I might as well go for the complete 'stack' and purchasing the Modi 2U, I'm now back to just the Fulla 2.
 
Since day one my Fulla 2 had performed flawlessly, no build quality issues, no weird behaviors, it's just simply worked as it is supposed too. So, why upgrade? After many hours reading various forums I was convinced my HD650s needed 'more' power. That's not to say I had any issue with the way the Fulla 2 and the HD650s paired, but... the powers of suggestion.
 
Enter the Magni 2 Uber. Honestly this worked perfectly fine. I noticed slightly more impact to the low end, but once the Fulla 2 and the Magni 2 were 'close' to volume matched the differences were very minimal.Then I started researching the Modi 2. I knew they used the same dac chip, (note to the audio police, I know, the same chip doesn't mean the same absolute performance, but it's a good comparative base) but I read a couple reviews of the Fulla 2 where people mentioned simply preferring the sound of the Modi 2. Also the idea that optical is the preferred connection method, etc. swayed me to try the Modi 2.
 
And here is where the problems started. Once the Modi 2 arrived I connected everything up, and... it wouldn't work. Turns out my motherboard won't ouput 24/192 via optical. No problem connected a USB, installed the drivers and I was off and going... only, something wasn't right. 
 
I'll try my best to describe the problem... when a song featured low bass all the other frequencies would noticeably 'wobble'. I tried two USB cables, multiple ports, a pc, a mac, and via optical 24/96. The problem was still present. I then connected the Magni back to my Fulla 2 and noticed the problem didn't exist.
 
All that got me thinking... how far down the rabbit hole do I need to go? My Fulla 2 performs flawlessly, it's relatively inexpensive, sounds good to my ears and works with pretty much any device I throw at it. Granted the Modi 2 that I received clearly has a problem, but even A/Bing with the Fulla 2 and the Magni 2 (Fulla 2 as the dac) the difference wasn't enough for my ears.
 
Moral of the story, some will say the Schiit stack is a huge improvement over the Fulla 2, and depending on your source material and headphones it might be. But for me, Google Play Music, Tidal Hifi, HD650s and Philips X2, the Fulla 2 is my perfect solution.

What do you mean by "the frequencies would wobble?"

 

[Selbi]

Anyway, I've decided to just jump on the Fulla 2 now instead of the Stack. I could sit here for another month contemplating which is better, but in the end, it all comes down to personal experience. My headphones (X2 and Nighthawks) are super easy to drive anyway, so I don't need the extra power of the Magni.

 

[MisterEwing]

   
They mentioned this on their website:
 
So the issue was kinda given from the start. How does the Fulla 2 compare to the Modi 2 (when used with USB) compare?
 
This has gotten me very interested in getting more facts down. I'm currently on the huge undecided factor of buying a Fulla 2 or Stack 2.

 
As I mentioned the problem wasn't the lack of 24/192 support via optical; it's a very strange anomaly that happens when music with low bass is playing... bass hits distort the rest of the music. For non bass heavy music the problem wasn't present. I was able to recreate the problem with both USB and optical, via multiple ports and multiple computers. When using the Fulla 2 as both the dac and amp, or as just the dac with the magni 2 the problem wasn't present.
 
I'm convinced my Modi 2U is simply defective. Even still, I can't imagine a 'healthy' unit will provide sounds 'above and beyond' that of the Fulla 2. I was more interested in how the Magni 2U would impact overall sound, and to my ears, with my headphones, and my source material, the answer was 'not much'.
 
Maybe if all of my music was 24/96 FLAC etc, there would be a more noticeable difference, or maybe it's simply my ears. All I know for sure is that adding the Magni 2U didn't make a huge difference. And the consensus seemed to be that better amping would have a greater impact that a 'better' dac, especially since both are based on the same dac chip.

 

[waynes world]

  Anyway, I've decided to just jump on the Fulla 2 now instead of the Stack. I could sit here for another month contemplating which is better, but in the end, it all comes down to personal experience. My headphones (X2 and Nighthawks) are super easy to drive anyway, so I don't need the extra power of the Magni.

 
Really looking forward to your impressions of Fulla 2 and Nighthawks!

 

[MisterEwing]

  Anyway, I've decided to just jump on the Fulla 2 now instead of the Stack. I could sit here for another month contemplating which is better, but in the end, it all comes down to personal experience. My headphones (X2 and Nighthawks) are super easy to drive anyway, so I don't need the extra power of the Magni.

Congrats! I think you'll be very happy with the X2+Fulla 2 combo. I don't own the Nighthawks so I can't comment on those.

 

[blasjw]

  Look at the comments on that video, the majority of people said that their units did not do that, so his unit is most likely broken. 

I was having a different problem on my Macbook Air where it would disconnect while playing a video when I touched the volume knob.  Then I moved it upstairs and tried the same scenario as Zeos and was able to reproduce that as well.  i.e.  While unplugging the headphones with the volume level up, the unit would stop functioning and I would have to disconnect/reconnect to get it to work again.  Perhaps I should exchange it?

 

[ld100]

  I was having a different problem on my Macbook Air where it would disconnect while playing a video when I touched the volume knob.  Then I moved it upstairs and tried the same scenario as Zeos and was able to reproduce that as well.  i.e.  While unplugging the headphones with the volume level up, the unit would stop functioning and I would have to disconnect/reconnect to get it to work again.  Perhaps I should exchange it?

 
Mine was doing out quite often before I returned it. I say 2 out 10 times... I did not discuss that problem with Schiit, but I was told by them that they checked the unit when they received it and it had no issues according to them... 

 

[stalepie]

Wish the amp alone was louder. It doesn't provide much of a boost when connecting portable devices via stereo cables. Neither did the TEAC HA-P50, though. 

 

[K 240 DF]

Also, I'm having a hard parsing "And here is no two times expensive power cord, but sorry, maybe here is a serious Listener." - could you please either stop or start using Google Translate? It's not easy to follow you.

 
Hm...sorry for bad english, i try to do well - sorry for hard suffering.
Hope u want to follow after all.
 
Does anyone check the Groove (Apogee) vs Fulla2 ?
 
For me it comes to clear Sound and not so much to functionality.
Maybe the AKG K712 Pro is difficult to drive because they show all..

 

[Enigma974]

I was so excited to get my Fulla 2.  it arrived to but was defective 

.  the 1/4 inch works ok, it has some static but only sometimes so I was at least able to try it.  the 3.5 jack does not work at all, as I pull the cable out I do get mono but nothing while seated properly.   I have read a good number of reviews and even saw some YouTube videos of defective Fulla's how common is this?  I really liked their business model (USA and Build Quality, no nonsense approach) but I don't want to spend 100 (or way more) and have it fail later.
 
So it seems there are a fair number of defective units, but if i get a new one and it works how many see failures later?  15 day return is pretty small