Well, I was listening to the HD-650 with the Magni for about 3 hours today. Left the thing running all day even without listening to it. It only gets warm and not hot like the Asgard. Just slightly warm. I switched back to the Q701 after maybe 8 hours of use and it seems to have smoothed itself out. Now the Q701 sounds relatively normal. It's really odd how it sounded so thin right out of the box. I mean the treble was so harsh and it made the Q701 sound so much like my AD700. Pretty strange. I won't say anything about this amp burn-in nonsense and I hope people will just ignore this and discuss the Magni itself. Just give it a good day before judging it too harshly. Someone mentioned their Q701 sounding weird and you all blamed it on the headphone!
The Magni clearly has a larger soundstage than my Headroom Micro, Fiio E9 and all my other amps. The Magni doesn't sound even remotely warm to me (plus for me!). It seems pretty flat up until the treble. I'm not 100% sure if it's perfectly ruler flat in the treble, but it does seem a bit more trebly than my E9 and Headroom Micro. The difference isn't huge. I wonder how someone got the idea that the Magni had a small soundstage. Not with the ODAC. There is always a chance that my brain is just being fooled due to sounding less full than with my Micro Amp. It's easy for this to happen. This is perhaps why the Q701 sounds like it has a smaller soundstage than the K702. The Q701 probably sounds a tad thinner with the Magni than my Micro Amp. I don't feel like comparing them and it's minor.
If you get the Magni, you should check the low bass. It doesn't seem as extended as my Micro Amp or even portable sources. I guess it is like listed at 20hz+ or something. Maybe some slightly roll off down low, but it's $99! Try the Magni with the Clip+ and without. I'll check this, but I could care less. Everything is still there and it doesn't go missing. Just a little less noticeable. I only noticed this with my DJ100 since it has better low bass than my HD-650.
BTW I can't say it enough, but to my ears the Magni is a bit better than the E9 so far. Sounds much clearer and far more detailed. Larger soundstage too. The mids on the E9 seem a little more forward too, but based on memory. The mids of the Magni seem dead neutral to my ears. I can't wait until some weirdo call this thing "dry"..ugh..
I'm off to play Dark Souls with my new Magni!
As if you couldn't tell, I do love this little amp. Definitely worth the $99. I would say it's better than expected.
Oh yeah! I can't believe how clear sounding this thing is. Not sure how they pulled that off..I can't only hope the O2 sounds this clear.
EDIT: It seems i'm having more of a problem picking out the placement of instruments than before with my other amp. Impossible right? Never had this problem with the Q701. One example is "Aiya" from the Yoshida Brothers. Sometimes with vocals too. Often they're placed further back in the recording and with my other amp it's like you could pick out the distance in exact inches. Yeah..even on the Q701. The idea that the Q701 had poor imaging was always a joke to me. Maybe it's all due to an impression of a larger soundstage. I don't know how the brain works when this happens. The K601 does have better imaging than the Q701 though, but the pads play a roll. Really. Going to test all this some more. BTW I did notice much better imaging when I got my ODAC. Never knew how much a DAC would even help in that area.
