I'm trying to decide which amplification to select (Vali 2 or Magni 2/Uber) as I try to address a problem with my signal chain.
I just got an iMac 4K on Black Friday, which is stellar in all respects except the headphone out, which does not sound as good to me as the one on my old MacBook Pro, which I actually found to be an acceptable driver for my two pairs of headphones -- some modded Fostex T50RPs and some modded Pioneer HDJ 2000s (high end DJ headphones).
Sending that output to my BioScienceGeek CMOY is louder, and the sound is clearer, but the bass on a lot of my music gets quite ragged, like it's halfway to a guitar-amp type of distortion. (The music in question is breakbeat techno, mostly.)
I thought maybe that the double-amping was the culprit, so I got a Modi 2, and ran THAT into the BSG CMOY. The sound is wildly better, but the problems with the bass remain.
So (hopefully) the problem is one that can be remedied with a good headphone amp. (If not, I've just discovered a layer of bass that my old MacBook Pro output never exposed, and which my extremely bass-capable headphones just can't reproduce. Doesn't seem the most likely explanation.)
So that's the problem: my amplification seems incapable of hanging with fast, bassy passages. I have never had a tube amp, but think it would be really cool, in the abstract, to have one on my desk. And ideally, I guess, I'd want to get the amp that gives me the best chance of sticking with that one amp on my desk even as I someday upgrade from the Modi 2. But enough of my listening involves quick/deep bass that keeping those passages clean would be my primary consideration -- I have no issues at all with any of the rest of my sound.
Unless both these choices are badly wrong for my problem, don't bother bringing up other brands. I would like to standardize on Schiit if at all possible.
I just got an iMac 4K on Black Friday, which is stellar in all respects except the headphone out, which does not sound as good to me as the one on my old MacBook Pro, which I actually found to be an acceptable driver for my two pairs of headphones -- some modded Fostex T50RPs and some modded Pioneer HDJ 2000s (high end DJ headphones).
Sending that output to my BioScienceGeek CMOY is louder, and the sound is clearer, but the bass on a lot of my music gets quite ragged, like it's halfway to a guitar-amp type of distortion. (The music in question is breakbeat techno, mostly.)
I thought maybe that the double-amping was the culprit, so I got a Modi 2, and ran THAT into the BSG CMOY. The sound is wildly better, but the problems with the bass remain.
So (hopefully) the problem is one that can be remedied with a good headphone amp. (If not, I've just discovered a layer of bass that my old MacBook Pro output never exposed, and which my extremely bass-capable headphones just can't reproduce. Doesn't seem the most likely explanation.)
So that's the problem: my amplification seems incapable of hanging with fast, bassy passages. I have never had a tube amp, but think it would be really cool, in the abstract, to have one on my desk. And ideally, I guess, I'd want to get the amp that gives me the best chance of sticking with that one amp on my desk even as I someday upgrade from the Modi 2. But enough of my listening involves quick/deep bass that keeping those passages clean would be my primary consideration -- I have no issues at all with any of the rest of my sound.
Unless both these choices are badly wrong for my problem, don't bother bringing up other brands. I would like to standardize on Schiit if at all possible.