Schiit Magni+ and Magni Heretic :: Impressions Thread

[frkasper]

The Unity is heading right away to the office, while the Heretic is staying here a little longer. I will try to A/B against the Liquid Spark.

The good news: I'm happy I did the A/B against the LS.
The bad news: I was awarded with a faulty unit.

... and my Magni+ has a slight channel imbalance. The vocals instead of being at 12 o'clock they are slightly to the right ...

Same here. Pulled up my tooling and it has a measurable difference of at least 1dB, according to the decibel meter.

Had my first email from Tom at 9am my time asking me to do all sorts of trouble shooting. Probably protocol, ...

How did this end for you? Did you get a new unit? It is my turn now.

Moreover, now my are on the Magni Unity (also new), which I just left in the office, a few hours ago. Will confirm with the other amp first, before contacting Support.

 

[Hofy]

The good news: I'm happy I did the A/B against the LS.
The bad news: I was awarded with a faulty unit.



Same here. Pulled up my tooling and it has a measurable difference of at least 1dB, according to the decibel meter.



How did this end for you? Did you get a new unit? It is my turn now.

Moreover, now my are on the Magni Unity (also new), which I just left in the office, a few hours ago. Will confirm with the other amp first, before contacting Support.

cold solder joint on the volume pot. Reflowed and all is right now.

 

[TinearedOne]

Well, mine works great other than occasionally dropping the left channel - odd, but not returning, because I think it's a gain switch issue and re-switching the gain fixes it every time (I have two years to decide if it needs fixing). As for sound, still liking the Heretic, but my ears are pretty inconsistent and switching to the Magni 3+ I seem to be getting better instrument separation at the moment. Next up, Vali 2 with a JAN 5670W and an adaptor to see if it can be better - of course, I still need to order the tube and adaptor.

 

[frkasper]

The Heretic I had here is already on its way back to TX.

Tried it a last time this morning and the channel imbalance was definitely there. 25% of the "last call price" was gone in a shipping label. Now I truly hope they're able to reproduce the issue onsite, otherwise there will also be a 15% restocking fee to swallow.

At least the Unity purchased in the same order came out perfect.

 

[kman1211]

The Heretic I had here is already on its way back to TX.

Tried it a last time this morning and the channel imbalance was definitely there. 25% of the "last call price" was gone in a shipping label. Now I truly hope they're able to reproduce the issue onsite, otherwise there will also be a 15% restocking fee to swallow.

At least the Unity purchased in the same order came out perfect.

How do you find the Unity compares to the Heretic? Haven't had any issues on the Heretic so far thankfully, but do worry it may have issues eventually. I did have a Heresy in the past have some problems.

 

[frkasper]

How do you find the Unity compares to the Heretic?

Unity is way more convenient as a combo. Ended up not comparing both, sound-wise.

Briefly compared the Heretic against the Liquid Spark though. Aside from the channel imbalance issue, I would certainly fail in a blind test. Maybe with time I would be able to spot differences, but I'm not confident about that either.

 

[frkasper]

My experience with the Heretic finally had its closure today. TL;DR: it cost me a shipping label.

---

I received a refund earlier this week from the return process. The fact that they axed me with the restocking fee made me think the following:

1. Technician received the returned unit, and upon testing, found that a channel imbalance close to 1dB is within their tolerances.
2. Return package was received, not tested and interpreted as a simple return.

The 2nd reason led me to inquire them about it. After a coupled of days, I received a message stating that I should also expect a refund for the restocking fee. They also apologized for the situation.

Those are the facts. It is undeniable there's some good room for improvement in their processes.

Heretic case closed. Now it's time to watch some gratitude videos on Instagram, and celebrate my Magni Unity which came out perfect.

 

[JeroenNietDoen]

I own a Magni Heretic and have been running into issues. From the day I got mine the sound on the left channel was fading as if it was slowly turned down. Than it came back slowly again. It would do this for about 5 to 10 minutes until the issue stops and the channel balance is fine. The problem would then not occur anymore until the next day when the unit is powered on again. The right channel doesn't have this issue. It was a bit annoying but it's not a massive issue.

So as I was planning to upgrade the Magni I made contact with the EU reseller and they send me a new Heretic mainboard. Issue resolved. New board solved the problem. Until about 2 weeks ago out of nothing the issue is back. Today I contacted the reseller again, in reply to the mail conversation about the initial RMA. It's in warranty until August 4th so better get that done.

So I'm curious if anybody else has had this issue? Could this also be a design problem, as the Heretic has a different design than the non-Heretic version of the Magni.

What annoys me is that I really like their products, but having the same issue occur again leaves me with a bit of trust issues towards the brand. I was planning on selling this Magni and upgrade to the Midgard.

 

[adias]

I own a Magni Heretic and have been running into issues. From the day I got mine the sound on the left channel was fading as if it was slowly turned down. Than it came back slowly again. It would do this for about 5 to 10 minutes until the issue stops and the channel balance is fine. The problem would then not occur anymore until the next day when the unit is powered on again. The right channel doesn't have this issue. It was a bit annoying but it's not a massive issue.

So as I was planning to upgrade the Magni I made contact with the EU reseller and they send me a new Heretic mainboard. Issue resolved. New board solved the problem. Until about 2 weeks ago out of nothing the issue is back. Today I contacted the reseller again, in reply to the mail conversation about the initial RMA. It's in warranty until August 4th so better get that done.

So I'm curious if anybody else has had this issue? Could this also be a design problem, as the Heretic has a different design than the non-Heretic version of the Magni.

What annoys me is that I really like their products, but having the same issue occur again leaves me with a bit of trust issues towards the brand. I was planning on selling this Magni and upgrade to the Midgard.

You ought to ask Schiit Auduo directly.

 

[TinearedOne]

Well, my Magni Heretic, which I bought almost a year ago, has been the preamp and headphone amp in my system for almost that entire time. I prefer it to the Vali 2 and the Magni 3+, which are currently gathering dust, for its accuracy and detail retrieval. I did have a channel imbalance problem at first but, knock on wood, that problem has not shown up for more than six months. No idea why it would cut out on occasion, but fiddling with the gain switch would fix it. Hopefully, it never comes back. I still have more than a year of warranty, though, so I'm sure Schiit will take care of me.

Next piece of Schiit will definitely be a Valhalla, probably the 3. Hoping it has two inputs, which would make my stack easier to manage.
______
8 March Edit:

Hmm, thinking about Jotunheim 2 upgrade, so pulled out all three little Schiits the last couple of days. Confirmed - something I just don't like about the Magni 3+. YMMV, but mine simply grates on me. Vali 2 is great, but my system is just too sensitive for it for the most part and I barely get the pot to out of channel imbalance (around 8 o'clock) before hitting my listening volume. The best fit is still the Heretic. It is resolving, if less romantic than the Vali 2, and I can listen to all gain levels without exceeding my preferred volume.

That leaves me wondering about the Jotunheim 2, which in balanced would likely give me the same problem I'm having with Vali 2, but in SE would probably be fine. From what I've read, it is an upgrade in every area, and the phono card would let me me clear my desk of a phono preamp and my SYS. Decisions, decisions...

Well, there's always Valhalla 3 or Vali 3...