[timidteddy]

Hey guys! So, I finally saved up some money to buy an dac+amp. I've been reading up on the schiit products. I'm interested in getting the magni + modi stack. The thing i'm concerned about is what people have been saying about the limited volume adjustment for lower impedance/higher sensitivity headphones ( I own the senn HD 558 and akg K 550). Do you guys think it's a good idea for me to buy the M&M stack in my case then? Thanks in advance for your opinions! 

 

[UmustBKidn]

  Hey guys! So, I finally saved up some money to buy an dac+amp. I've been reading up on the schiit products. I'm interested in getting the magni + modi stack. The thing i'm concerned about is what people have been saying about the limited volume adjustment for lower impedance/higher sensitivity headphones ( I own the senn HD 558 and akg K 550). Do you guys think it's a good idea for me to buy the M&M stack in my case then? Thanks in advance for your opinions! 

 
I've run my M+M stack into a Sony MDR 7506 (63 ohms), and ATH M40fs (60 ohms) with no issues. Sounded fine to me. I could run them at lower volumes with no problem.

 

[antikryst]

   
I've run my M+M stack into a Sony MDR 7506 (63 ohms), and ATH M40fs (60 ohms) with no issues. Sounded fine to me. I could run them at lower volumes with no problem.

its a bit noisy with no music playing for my shure SE425 IEMs. no problems controlling the volume though whatsoever. the noise seemingly disappears with music also.
 
i would say thats not too much of a concern. 

 

[idlelabor]

Hi guys, recently just purchased a pair of VSONIC GR07 Bass Editions. I've decided to try IEMs after having my Grado SR80is for a few months. What I wanna ask is will the Magni/Modi make any positive difference towards these IEMs? I'm thinking of buying the HE-500 later on down the line as well, will the Magni be sufficient? Thanks

 

[PXSS]

  Hi guys, recently just purchased a pair of VSONIC GR07 Bass Editions. I've decided to try IEMs after having my Grado SR80is for a few months. What I wanna ask is will the Magni/Modi make any positive difference towards these IEMs? I'm thinking of buying the HE-500 later on down the line as well, will the Magni be sufficient? Thanks

I would keep any IEMs away from magni due to its gain

 

[Kamakahah]

I tried some monoprice 9927s on the M/M stack just for the lawlz and lack of risk since they are so cheap. Worked really well.

Obviously not much play with the volume knob but the pairing was nice. Other IEMs not so much

 

[TsukiNick]

Going to see how this Magni pairs with my FiiO E18 DAC and my Beyerdynamic DT990 Pro 250ohm

 

[dremic]

   
There are several popular sound cards that have separate headphone and line outputs. This includes even onboard codec chips that allow for disabling their built-in headphone amplifier. Additionally, there are sound cards that only have line outputs - while these can drive headphones directly, the performance would be sub-optimal. Note also that the "headphone amplifiers" on most sound cards are op amp chips that are not designed for this purpose, and work much better as line output buffers.
 
Finally, the significance of "double amping" is commonly overrated. With optimal gain and volume settings, the addition of a low gain headphone amplifier stage that does not actually drive headphones (which is much harder than driving a line input) can actually be inaudible.

 
Im sorry I am new and really inexperienced in terms of sound.
 
Currently I am using 
 
Magni Amplifier
Sennheiser 558's 
connected to my PC using a soundblaster Z SBX
 
are you saying I should buy a DAC or disable the built in amp thats apart of my soundcard? Have I potentially ruined my Magni Amp?
 
 
Thanks in advance.

 

[TsukiNick]

   
Im sorry I am new and really inexperienced in terms of sound.
 
Currently I am using 
 
Magni Amplifier
Sennheiser 558's 
connected to my PC using a soundblaster Z SBX
 
are you saying I should buy a DAC or disable the built in amp thats apart of my soundcard? Have I potentially ruined my Magni Amp?
 
 
Thanks in advance.

Don't double amp, the amp is made for a line level signal.

 

[dremic]

 
Don't double amp, the amp is made for a line level signal.

would a DAC fix this?

 

[Traum]

would a DAC fix this?

What TsukiNick is saying is, when you are hooking up your Magni to the Soundblaster, connect it through the Soundblaster's line out connection. That is the clean, line level output that you should feed to your amp. If you connect the Magni through the sound card's phones out line, the signal coming out from there has already been amp-ed by the Soundblast. So when it comes out of the Magni, it will be double amped. Generally, double amping is something we'd frown upon as far as sound quality is concerned.

If you pick up a DAC, your PC will output the sound signals directly to the DAC (via USB, SPDIF, or optical). Your Soundblaster will then be completely bypassed.

 

[antikryst]

  
Im sorry I am new and really inexperienced in terms of sound.
 
Currently I am using 
 
Magni Amplifier
Sennheiser 558's 
connected to my PC using a soundblaster Z SBX
 
are you saying I should buy a DAC or disable the built in amp thats apart of my soundcard? Have I potentially ruined my Magni Amp?
 
 
Thanks in advance.

Don't double amp, the amp is made for a line level signal.

You won't ruin the amp. You are just not giving it a clean signal which means more noise that may or may not be acceptable to you.

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk

 

[TsukiNick]

Yeah double amping won't ruin the amp it's just going to be feeding in an amped signal which 'might' clip the amp.  DAC's will have a line out.  So either use the speaker out connections on a soundcard not the headphone amp connection.  I have the sound blaster Z and if I connect it to a receiver to amp it I use the speaker out which isn't going to be amped as much.  I'm not sure how the other sound blasters are, but if there is an option to disable the amp on your's you should be good to go, but for the most part separate USB DACs would be a cleaner way to go, I'd just use the Creative Sound Blasters output if I'm gaming or watching movies if I want to use the virtual surround effects.
Other than that I'd use my FiiO E18 DAC.

 

[Solarium]

Just hooked up the Magni to my Titanium HD sound card, to my HD 598's. Oh. My. God.
 
All I have to say that I have no idea how I have been listening with the HD598 directly plugged into TiHD's headphone jack this entire time. The details, the "airiness," the sound separation. Holy schiit!
 
I wasn't a strong believer in headphone amps until now (have been using Fiio E6 and E11 before I returned them thinking they didn't really do anything).
 
Now. I'm waiting my Vali to come and compare it to Magni. I have to admit though, after reading Vali thread I'm pretty stoked. I'm sure they have different purposes, but I'll let them have a duel to the death and return the loser

 

[UmustBKidn]

  Just hooked up the Magni to my Titanium HD sound card, to my HD 598's. Oh. My. God.
 
All I have to say that I have no idea how I have been listening with the HD598 directly plugged into TiHD's headphone jack this entire time. The details, the "airiness," the sound separation. Holy schiit!
 
I wasn't a strong believer in headphone amps until now (have been using Fiio E6 and E11 before I returned them thinking they didn't really do anything).
 
Now. I'm waiting my Vali to come and compare it to Magni. I have to admit though, after reading Vali thread I'm pretty stoked. I'm sure they have different purposes, but I'll let them have a duel to the death and return the loser

 
You may find that they both sound good with different music.