Schiit 'Magnius' - new $199 fully balanced headphone amp

[loregnum]

Bad side effect of trying to win over the idiot ASR crowd unfortunately.

The idiot ASR crowd. How dare people actually value how things are measured and value facts over feelings.

 

[Rattle]

Rush grace under pressure hi res
Frank Zappa zoot allures 2012 cd
Frank Zappa hot rats 2012 cd
Fleetwood Mac Tusk hi res
First 3 santana albums hi res
Led Zeppelin Houses of the Holy orignal US cd
Heart first 3 albums
Opeth Pale communion 24/96
Opeth Heritage original cd

99% of what I listen are albums with hi dynamic range originally recorded analog that have tons of layering and spatial info along with decent to above average soundstage.

 

[Randolf711]

I am glad you all felt the same way. I will be returning mine as well and just feel like it just isn’t musical or fun to listen to. My Asgard 2 can be listened to for many hours and I never tire of it. The Magnius just made me want to just shut it down and plug back into the Asgard.

 

[Rattle]

The idiot ASR crowd. How dare people actually value how things are measured and value facts over feelings.

Oh you mean how they use one exact measurement and grade the viability of everything based on that alone? You might as well pic amps based in color at that point.

 

[Rattle]

I am glad you all felt the same way. I will be returning mine as well and just feel like it just isn’t musical or fun to listen to. My Asgard 2 can be listened to for many hours and I never tire of it. The Magnius just made me want to just shut it down and plug back into the Asgard.

Yes shrieking shrill quickly fatiguing sound. Measurements do not tell the whole story.
However it has a really nice feature set with the XLR and excellent POT. If someone enjoys it that's all that matters. My opinion is just that. I will just say listen to an Asgard 3 before some weird measurbator confirmation bias makes the choice for you. If you like magnius better than enjoy the music. I find chip based amps sound boring and fatiguing and without much life or 3d like sound.

The amp does look sweet however kind of pissed I dont like it lol, have a modius too. love the buttons and the volume knob in black. Buttons is a nice change and they feel good. Red led inside is nice touch, like the asgard 3's white LED shining through the vent holes. It never gets warm had it on like 32 hours, dead quiet. Used BF2, LCD2, 6xx all XLR

 

[XERO1]

I am glad you all felt the same way. I will be returning mine as well and just feel like it just isn’t musical or fun to listen to. My Asgard 2 can be listened to for many hours and I never tire of it. The Magnius just made me want to just shut it down and plug back into the Asgard.

Fun Fact:

Yesterday, I bought the last B-stock silver Asgard 2 they had left, probably ever!

That was the first amp that really kinda blew my mind when I was just starting to seriously get into headphones. It runs as hot as a boiling tea kettle, but it sure sounded pretty damn good to me!

 

[Randolf711]

It’s a pretty special amp and $150 is impossible to beat. I’m considering upgrading to the 3 but I may just hang on for a few years. Plus I’ve got my bank account ready for the transport.

Fun Fact:

Yesterday, I bought the last B-stock silver Asgard 2 they had left, probably ever!

That was the first amp that really kinda blew my mind when I was just starting to seriously get into headphones. It runs as hot as a boiling tea kettle, but it sure sounded pretty damn good to me!

 

[Runrunsmithfly]

Does the Asgard 3 run cooler than the Asgard 2

It’s a pretty special amp and $150 is impossible to beat. I’m considering upgrading to the 3 but I may just hang on for a few years. Plus I’ve got my bank account ready for the transport.

I own other Schiit products but never Asgard. Should I buy a used or B stock A2 or go for the Asgard 3? Was thinking Magnimus but I'm going to pass. Like the Magni 3+.

 

[XERO1]

Does the Asgard 3 run cooler than the Asgard 2

Yes it does. While the Asgard 3 can run fairly warm, the Asgard 2 can get too hot to touch if it's run in an ambient temperature of >80°F.

So the A2 is definitely not a summertime amp, unless you're cranking the AC.

 

[Randolf711]

I can only tell you what I ran and how it sounded. I liked the Asgard 2 with my HD 650s way more than the Magnius (again, I only ran it unbalanced). I think the match I have, which was recommended to me, is really, really good. The Asgard 3 is definitely not as hot and is really well well reviewed. I don’t think you can go wrong with either.

Does the Asgard 3 run cooler than the Asgard 2

I own other Schiit products but never Asgard. Should I buy a used or B stock A2 or go for the Asgard 3? Was thinking Magnimus but I'm going to pass. Like the Magni 3+.

 

[cgb3]

Does the Asgard 3 run cooler than the Asgard 2

I own other Schiit products but never Asgard. Should I buy a used or B stock A2 or go for the Asgard 3? Was thinking Magnimus but I'm going to pass. Like the Magni 3+.

My measurements:
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/schiit-asgard-3-impressions-thread.914012/page-82#post-15727610

 

[Runrunsmithfly]

Yes it does. While the Asgard 3 can run fairly warm, the Asgard 2 can get too hot to touch if it's run in an ambient temperature of >80°F.

So the A2 is definitely not a summertime amp, unless you're cranking the AC.

I live in the desert of AZ where it might hit 119 so the AC will be on. For 200 why not just go for the 3. You can find good deals on the A2 but you get so much for 200 with Schiit.

 

[tcellguy]

Sadly, I must agree with all the other less-than-great initial impressions (both here and elsewhere) about the Magnius' SQ. After letting it warm up for over 24 hours (although it runs completely cool to the touch), I gave it a serious listen, and I have to say I wasn't very impressed by what I heard. It has a flat, two-dimensional presentation that always seemed to keep me at arms lenght from the emotion in the music, regardless of which combination of inputs and outputs I used.

This is a real head-scratcher because Jason is clearly capable of designing some amazingly good sounding amps at all different pricepoints. Even his Magni Heresy is compelling to listen to. Although the Heresy is by no means reference quality, it proved that it was even possible for him to squeeze some soul out of an inexpensive op-amp based design. But the Magnius just lacks any of that compelling quality, instead offering a technially proficient but relatively lifeless and colorless presentaion.

In his Schiit Happens post about the Magnius, he mentioned that he had 3 different designs he was persuing. The one he was most interested in, a kind of discrete component/op-amp hybrid, he couldn't get to work, which is a shame because that sounds like a fantastic idea for an amp. The other two were both purely op-amp based. Now here is where the story gets weird, because instead of going with the one he thought sounded the best, he ultimately decided to go with the other one, because everyone else who listened to both couldn't reliably tell them apart in listening tests. Why would he do that? It's his ear for what sounds good (among a lot of other things, of course) that has helped Schiit Audio get as far as it has come, so why now start letting someone else tell you what sounds good and what doesn't? While there have been a few Schiit amps that I haven't liked the SQ of, I could always at least see what Jason was going for with them, and how they might be appealing to someone who was looking for that particular kind of sound signature. But with the Magnius, I can't help but think that this amp was a big misstep in the wrong direction, but hopefully one that can be learned from.

This sounds like my experience with the THX789. I really wanted to like that amp but it sounded sharp and grainy in the treble with recessed mids and an overall sterile presentation despite having a fast transients and a clear sound signature. I realized after that experience that I value tonality over absolute clarity. That said I was hoping the Magnius would be a version of the chip op-amp signature with the warmer Schiit house sound. For some reason I've still been interested in trying a more clinical sounding amp to complement my Jotunheim and Lyr 3 but without ultra fatiguing treble.

 

[Empyah]

Been waiting for something to fit the Modius, and am still hoping for a Valius.

 

[CoryGillmore]

I can only tell you what I ran and how it sounded. I liked the Asgard 2 with my HD 650s way more than the Magnius (again, I only ran it unbalanced). I think the match I have, which was recommended to me, is really, really good. The Asgard 3 is definitely not as hot and is really well well reviewed. I don’t think you can go wrong with either.

Schiit themselves have said that if you aren't intending on running this thing balanced, get the Heresy 3 and save $100. The entire point of this amp is its balanced output. So buying it and evaluating it on its SE output is akin to buying Porsche and evaluating it by how it handles going over speed bumps in a parking lot.