[Jason Stoddard]

Not sure about the red, but Modi is now available in black.

Also, a red/black Bifrost 2 would be amazing—but since I’ll be stacking it with a regular Jotunheim, I’d rather have red/black on the latter rather than the R version

Ultimately, red/black makes everything better!

Fun story: we were getting all set to launch these products, and they sent Magni Heresy out for photos with a silver Modi. The resulting photos were, well, let's say they were ABSOLUTELY TERRIFYING.

So I go to Alex and say, "We need to get a black Modi 3 out ASAP to match with Heresy."

Alex looks at me blankly and says, "We don't have any black Modi 3s."

I just blinked. "None? When do they come back into stock?"

"They've never been in stock," Alex said.

"What?"

"We never made any," Alex clarified.

Now, we're like two weeks out from launch. I know that if we launch Heresy without a matching Modi (at least the top), we'd be eviscerated. Alex realizes this about the same time and goes pale. "I'll see how fast we can get them."

The good news? We had a box of black tops on the shelf. So we were able to send one off for photos...and have them available to match Magni Heresy.

BIG sigh of relief.

 

[Jason Stoddard]

You might want to rephrase the product page, because it will cause confusion.

Choose Magni 3+ for the ultimate expression of an affordable all-discrete current-feedback headphone amp. It’s now seriously a mini speaker amp, right down to the driver stage and Vbe multiplier.​

Fixed!

 

[Jason Stoddard]

OK, I'm probably being a fool for doing this but here goes. Simplified answers off the top of my head:

1) Tighter tolerances from being part of an integrated circuit
2) Lower gain = lower voltage = operating farther away from limits + lower heat generated
3) Any time a gain stage is introduced the distortion values are also amplified along with the signals
4) Feedback will change since it is proportional to voltage gain and you don't want it going positive or ringing
5) Other than what? And what measurements should we use as a baseline? (cop-out answer, sorry)
6) Basically, feed-forward is a form of "error control" or distortion reduction and is different from feedback in that it imposes positive control to a desired state all the time while feedback requires output that deviates from a desired state (an error.) And holy sschiit man, a formula? I got my BS in the 70's how can I remember formula that I don't use all the time?
7) No friggin idea. That's why god made Google.
8) Hundreds of variables in play here, but basically anything and everything that surrounds the opamp (including how well the socket is soldered to the PCB) will affect measured system performance and it may or may not approach listed specs depending on the implementation.
9) Connections can introduce orders of magnitude differences when taking measurements or when using a system, and this can be true for all measurable values - and it's often unpredictable.
10) There are hundreds of possible loudspeaker distortion factors, some audible and some not so audible. Very very good loudspeaker designs might offer THD on the order of 5% average 20-20K with 10% below 100Hz being common.
11) Headphones tend to be better because the transducers and the signals involved are so much smaller but I'd still say around 1%. I've seen some published specs of 0.1% but I don't believe them.
12) Transducer distortion is several orders of magnitude greater than amplifier distortion. 10% VS 0.01% or better
13) A very good microphone has THD around 1% @ 1Khz

Thanks for answering! Any other takers?

 

[Ableza]

Thanks for answering! Any other takers?

I await my score, dunce hat at the ready.

 

[sam6550a]

Magni 3+ has no LED. For the moment, Magni Heresy does. It's being phased out of both eventually. However, there is a place for it on both boards.

The board porn photo show that the PWB was made by Allfavor, a Chinese company. Is this a new trend for these products to contain costs?

 

[QueYo]

I have a favorite. The black top with the gray base. Doesn't matter which electronics you put in it, that sounds the best to me. Luckily I'm happy with my Vali2.

 

[Jason Stoddard]

The board porn photo show that the PWB was made by Allfavor, a Chinese company. Is this a new trend for these products to contain costs?

The PCB is assembled in Nevada from a kit sourced by us with a US- and UK-based strategic partner.

It's possible that the Nevada assembly house is using a Chinese-made PC board, but the PCB isn't being assembled in China. Alex selected this company from a short list of candidates, and has verified they actually produce our products in their factory. He was just out there on Monday.

That said, we'll contact them and see why they aren't using a US-based company, like most of our other products, but I suspect they are outsourcing the boards for cost reasons. (Which happens even at many US PCB manufacturers as well, sigh.)

For those of you wondering what all of this is about, there are many ways to have products made:

1. Buy the product from an ODM in China, complete down to the shipping box. Boxes show up on your doorstep, you ship them out, you support them. You need to have 100% confidence that your design will be produced as intended--no counterfeit parts, no quality slip-ups on the chassis side, etc. There's nothing wrong with this approach, but you're not going to claim "Made" or "assembled' in USA on this one.

2. Buy a finished, stuffed PCB from an assembly house in China, and mate it with a chassis (also maybe from China, Malaysia, Mexico, wherever). You screw it together. Again, you have to have confidence that no fake parts are going on the PCB, etc. Again, nothing wrong with this approach. This is also legit "Assembled in USA."

What we do:

3. Provide a kit of components sourced from the actual suppliers (Vishay, Nichicon, Alps, etc.) to a US-based assembly house, either in California or Nevada. Much of the time we also provide the PCB. In some cases, we provide the assembly house with the PCB files so they can "panelize" the boards to fit their exact requirements in order to keep costs down. We then take in the finished PCBs, test them, mate them with chassis that are produced literally minutes away from us in California. If the PCB has transformers on it, or if there are transformers in the chassis, they are also made in California. Then, after assembly, everything is tested on instruments (Avermetrics, etc) and is listened to. Anything $199 and above gets 1-4 days of burn-in and is tested again.

This is ALSO legit "Assembled in USA." This is, however, NOT "Made in USA," because we cannot tell you that literally every resistor came from the USA. Yes, this matters to the FTC.

You can also go beyond what we do, and make your own chassis in house, heck, you can make your own PC boards. Heck, there are tube amp companies that make their own transformers. That's called vertical integration. There's nothing wrong with that.

But, here's the kicker: you could be making your own boards, chassis, and transformers...and you STILL can't claim "Made in USA!"

Why? Any manufacturer that cannot prove that literally everything--the cold rolled steel in the chassis, the plastic in the knob, the thin-film resistors on the board, all of it comes from the USA, cannot say "Made in the USA," per the FTC. So if you're making your own transformers, but the laminations come from China, well, that's not made in USA. Or worse, your lamination supplier changed to a Chinese source and didn't tell you. Yeah.

Hope that clears things up!

 

[sam6550a]

The PCB is assembled in Nevada from a kit sourced by us with a US- and UK-based strategic partner.

It's possible that the Nevada assembly house is using a Chinese-made PC board, but it's the PCB itself isn't being assembled in China. Alex selected this company from a short list of candidates, and has verified they actually produce our products in their factory. He was just out there on Monday.

That said, we'll contact them and see why they aren't using a US-based company, like most of our other products, but I suspect they are outsourcing the boards for cost reasons. (Which happens even at many US PCB manufacturers as well, sigh.)

I did this post just to bring it to your attention----you cannot be aware of all happenings in a relatively large organization. The outcome might modify your "assembled in the USA" claim.

 

[Ableza]

I did this post just to bring it to your attention----you cannot be aware of all happenings in a relatively large organization. The outcome might modify your "assembled in the USA" claim.

Not at all. "Assembled in the USA" means exactly that: The components might be of foreign origin but it was put together in the USA. Even "Made in the USA" means that "all or substantially all" of the components were physically made in the US, but the product might contain some parts of foreign origin. See the Federal Trade Commission web site.

 

[Mad Lust Envy]

I feel like I've owned the Magni 3 for the better part of half a year,

Jason, Y U DO DIS

Not that I'm the intended market anymore.

My next baby is probably gonna be the Asgard 3 or Lyr 3.

I still gotta do the writeup of the Hel/Fulla 3. I haven't forgotten. It should be done this coming week, all hoping. I hate holding on to loaned gear, but it's been a terrible time for me getting anything done.


Led inside chassis = god yes.

If there was one thing, I'd want.... is volume knob on top of all your amps like Asgard and Magnis. I mean, sexy top knobs are best knobs. Anyone who disgarees...fight me. After having the top volume knobs on both the Fulla 3 and HEL, I look at the volume knob on the Magni 3 with disdain.

 

[Jason Stoddard]

I did this post just to bring it to your attention----you cannot be aware of all happenings in a relatively large organization. The outcome might modify your "assembled in the USA" claim.

Nope, see my expanded comment above, where I go into the nuances.

Not at all. "Assembled in the USA" means exactly that: The components might be of foreign origin but it was put together in the USA. Even "Made in the USA" means that "all or substantially all" of the components were physically made in the US, but the product might contain some parts of foreign origin. See the Federal Trade Commission web site.

Yep, and if you want to claim "Made in USA," you better have a very strong stomach. All it takes is one supplier not telling you they're using Chinese steel and you're fried. They really want 100%, and if you want to claim under "substantially all," you better have 100% proof and hope nothing changes. For every product.

Hence, "Assembled in USA."

 

[bcowen]

I'd break the "no big purchases without asking" promise to my wife if purple was an option

ROFL!!

 

[Rensek]

Alot of companies have wording in their contracts regarding origin of materials, with their suppliers. Granted many of the companies I deal with are worried about Nafta claims and have to calculate Regional Value Content, net cost, etc. But the safeguards they put into their terms to satisfy Nafta admissibility would transfer over pretty easily to what you are concerned about.

 

[AudioGal]

I'd love the silver top on a purple body.

 

[Jason Stoddard]

Alot of companies have wording in their contracts regarding origin of materials, with their suppliers. Granted many of the companies I deal with are worried about Nafta claims and have to calculate Regional Value Content, net cost, etc. But the safeguards they put into their terms to satisfy Nafta admissibility would transfer over pretty easily to what you are concerned about.

True, but when it comes down to it, we have to prove it if the FTC comes knocking. Plus, there are exactly zero US manufacturers of thin-film resistors, etc. So it's better to claim "Assembled in USA," and explain what we mean by that on every product page. Makes life a lot more sane.