Do you have a youtube channel?
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I thought the Spark was 1.5w? the Magni’s are 3w, no?
@Marzipan that’s the spec sheet from monoprice 2.4 -2.7 is more in line with others that independently tested the liquid spark found.
The Magni has been measured over 3 watts. But it’s closer to the listed measurement more so than the underrated output on the liquid spark
FWIW maximum power is among the least useful stats for any amplifier.
It’s just the point the manufacturer decided to limit the gain because distortion reached some arbitrary floor because of clipping. There is no standard for it.
In practice the only real value is that amps with significantly more rated power are likely to have more headroom.
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Only very few manufactures will underrate their products unless there are issues, because it is in their best interest to show dominance spec wise (on paper)
Agreed, but it’s how much they want to push the distortion to claim the number.
I really wouldn’t consider the difference between 3 Amps and 2.5 Amps to be significant enough to worry about.
The biggest difference with the Schiit stuff, is prior to the Herresy, they all use Discrete components rather than the chip op amps that almost everything else in that price range uses.
I’d suggest that probably has more to do with the differences people hear than anything else.
Yeah, it’s just that I didn’t think their discrete class a stuff sounds as good as their new stuff like the asgard 3 lol
the new smsl sp200 thx 888 amp is a lot better than the schiit magni i used to have. the schiit magni paired with the schiit modi seemed to increase the treble. so it was always too much treble for me. this hasnt been a problem on the sp200. i guess the geshelli amps wouldnt have this problem since they are a little uncolored, would they?
I don’t think so. The schiit stuff is kinda colored and has those other schiit quirks that changes the sound a bit
It’s all preference at some point, a lot of the arguments against chip based op amps are specious in the headphone space. The limited package voltage and heat dissipation are somewhat moot.
There is still a reasonable argument to be made around the use of feedback in the designs.
I happen to like the Schiit sound, though I haven’t listened to the Asgard and to be honest while I can hear a difference to my ears the Schiit stuff is more similar than different to the other competitors with similar power levels.
Short of spending a lot of money on amps your probably not going to see big differences in SS amps with similar power levels.
The topologies are all much to similar, especially the op-amp stuff, it’s basically just copied straight off the manufacturers demo boards.
Well both of those put out a lot more power.
The Modi is 49xx based DAC, they apparently do sound different to the ESS Sabre DACs in the SU8.
I like the SU8, and I’ve been listening to it for the last week or so, and I really like the volume control. I swapped back to the DAC card on my Jot last night, which is a balanced version of what’s in the Modi, which a bit more measurable noise, and while they are different, I wouldn’t want to describe one as better.
the Su8 is awesome. i love it. its the best DAC ive heard so far. but thats not saying much lol
The output stage of the modi isn’t that great and I think the overall coloration comes from the implementation. Typically the ak dacs are fairly balanced and not overly bright
I agree, I was responding to the question about the power output of the amp. The Geshelli Archel 2 pro is proof that you don’t need tons of powet to get a quality sound.
But…
When a track calls for sub bass / bass while pumping out mids and treble the extra power can be noticed…
I believe that’s the reason the initial bass impact is more apparent on the Magni 3… So while the max power spec doesn’t mean as much as the RMS spec it’s nice to know that if needed, in that instance it can push itself closer to max if required.
As for underrating, I’m not sure why some amps are. Coming from a car audio background there are amps that get a following because the output is much more that the started output. I don’t have the years when it comes to Headphone amps but in car audio every few years there seemed to be an underrated amp that people flocked to because of the over producing. I doubt this is the reason but under rating can drive sells.
The 888 is in another league in my mind. It’s almost 3 times the price. I haven’t heard one, but I expect it will sound better. Hopefully I can find out for myself soon though.
I really want to get my mitts on the Archel 2.5 Pro. I’m not sure that most people need more amp than 1 watt RMS.
I’m glad to have all these options.
Also I don’t think I shared a link to Geshelli.
This. I literally didn’t need the 2.5 pro at all, but I bought it for 2 reasons, 1 to support a U.S. based company, and 2, it looks awesome.
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I’m waiting for the 2.5 as well. Side note I have an 888 on the way so I’ll be able to compare it with the others. To Mon’s point, the only DAC I have here is the Modi 3 but I’m comparing all the amps on the same DAC 
I have the 888 and the 2.5 on the way (also the JDS labs EL amp), feeding with the RME ADI 2. Comparisons will be made here as well.
So far, I notice no major difference between the EL amp and the 888. Actually seem to prefer the EL amp. Curious to see how the 2.5 pro compares. EL amp I’ve had for over 2 years, just got the 888 a few weeks ago.
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I’m listening to the Archel 2 Pro, Liquid Spark and Magni 3 right now. A/B Testing. I realized I have some setting that might have me throwing off the True sound signature of the amp. I have to admit there are no real looser in the bunch. It might sound like a bit of the cop out. That’s not to say I don’t have a favorite…lol
Lol that’s no problem if there isn’t a loser, that just means you really can’t go wrong with any of them
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