šŸ”· Schiit Magnius

To be fair, I only make that comparison because it’s what has landed on my desk over these wild past few months. I don’t think many people would cross shop these, like almost none.

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So far, my impressions are still in line with how I’m feeling, been using it exclusively for the past few days. Some at least semi interesting pairing notes below, but if I don’t mention a pairing it was prob meh/followed my general impressions above

With a 58x it’s actually pretty nice for something simple and good, overall enjoyable in that regard for something neutral and quality sounding

One pairing I really didn’t like was the adx5000, extremely lifeless and boring, pretty bad

Balanced 880 600 ohm was solid enough but again I think they took off more on the asgard 3 (although the magnius was more neutral here so potentially what I might lean towards for studio use over the asgard, but honestly I might prefer something like an el amp ii or lake people g103s instead for something more neutral and clean with the 880s in the same price range)

The Gjallarhorn was pretty pleasant because no noise or unusual coloration which I had issues with compared to some of my tube amps, sounded cleaner than the a3 but I think the a3 had better control it felt like and also emphasized the more unique presentation of the kennerton. But if you find the kennerton too colored the magnius will give it a more neutral tone

Grado ps2000e was a no go lol, not super pleasant and sounded wrong

Tried the mysphere 3.2, now that was weird tbh. It didn’t sound as bad as I was expecting, but it did make the myspheres sound real cheap and not worthwhile lol, like they lost most things that made them special but did retain a good sense of control and technicality level, but like lost refinement somehow? idk

Uh dac wise I found myself using a lampizator golden gate ii, nagra hd dac + mps, and the modius most of the time. Other dacs weren’t worthwhile to use or were poor matches. Although the allo revolution dac was an interesting choice and when I tuned the allo dac to give more bite in the treble while giving a bit more warmth and body it was pretty nice

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How do you feel about the mysphere 3.2? I’ve seen some mixed opinions on it. I wonder if it just happens to be very picky when it comes to its amp and source.

It is extremely picky electronics and fit wise, but I’m really loving it tbh. So much so that I really want to buy the 3.1 for my tube amps as well lol. I much prefer it over the raal sr1a (but that’s also a very good headphone as well). If you have the electronics for it, it’s probably the closest you can get to a nearfield setup on your head in terms of presentation, soundstage, and naturalness/speakerlikeness

Although initially it’s like wearing a vice grip on your head, needed to have them wear in

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94dB sinad because of a 2khz harmonic distortion vs 120dB sinad for XLR is not what I would call a bad 1/4 out by any means… probably virtually indistinguishable by human ears (Edit: according to @M0N it’s not the case, oh well – 90dB sinad still doesn’t mean something sounds bad).

I heard this one sounds chocolatey. :stuck_out_tongue: sorry

The SP200… because it’s ā€œfakeā€ balanced lol.

Oh and schiit, I’m late to the party.

Just saying it didn’t sound as good as the balanced out, it’s not like there were obvious issues with it, just sounded a bit more dull and boring compared to the balanced out, no issues with noise or distortion. Sinad isn’t really going to reveal much about the sound of an amp tbh, I have things with low 80s sinad that sound excellent, really mostly anything above 70 is going to be just fine, you are taking an audible quality loss in other ways when you use the se out on the magnius

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Got it. And thanks for your impressions!

I heard this one sounds chocolatey. :stuck_out_tongue: sorry

Np…some love it some dont…but unless I hear it I wouldnt rely on anothers opinion or even a review for that matter.

We all hear differently and have our bias etc…

All’s good…

Alex

Right… I didn’t say a thing about how it sounds either way; or even predictions about how it might sound. There was early anticipation of this unit, there was an ASR review the day of release, and I was reporting what it said about measurements, largely in comportment with M0N’s predictions.

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I spent yesterday listening to the SE output on my focal clears. Sounds great to me. I set it up with the modius feeding both balanced and RCA inputs, so I had this highly variable output gain because I could switch from the louder xlr to rca, as well as hit the gain switch. It provides tons of control and I think it might be a nice way to find what input/output/gain level works for you.

I think it’s really cool that our experiences are so different with this amp @M0N. I feel like this is a really great little stack that can drive all of my cans to a satisfactory level. It does not blow me away. However it’s a nice listen and the layout is, by comparison to my BF2/gs-x mini stack, quite minimal.

I see some talk of RNHP above and I don’t think this really does what that amp does. That said I’ve had two, one was great, perfect, sounded noticeably warm and had smoothish highs, the other had a weird channel imbalance and didn’t sound great. I would say the magnius is a neutral amp that was clearly designed to sound good with the modius, in that it renders detail without being fatiguing unlike a lot of THX amps and the like. It’s got plenty of thump and bass detail for me. I don’t think the RNHP provided much ā€œtextureā€ down low but it’s hard to say just from memory.

Some of my impression could be due to my primary music genre of electronic and hip hop. I have been dabbling more into some Radiohead, nine inch nails, and tool (so glad they’re on Spotify now). But I haven’t noticed anything abhorrent in the way anything is rendered with this stack. I do from time to time spend a day with Dave Brubeck and Thelonius Monk, or an afternoon with string quartets but it’s rare so I don’t listen for that.

This amp is also clearly capable of great power, I almost never go to 12 o’clock. On low gain I’m typically around 10, high gain often 8/9. I find this is the case with me on most amps though. Maybe I’m just a quiet listener but I’d rather be able to hear well into my 80s than push it too hard.

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Easily agree, would rate this higher than thx for sure, it has the benefits of thx without the downsides

Honestly I think that is coming down to amp manufactures getting obsessed with power output, you really shouldn’t use most of that power at all lol. Agree on wanting to continue having hearing when I get older lol

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I will tell you Thursday…

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Always interesting to hear others thoughts and point of view. Very much appreciate it.

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Will do as I as well…we all have opinions and bias’s and hear differently …and like different music…

Its all good!!

Enjoy the music, while you can!

Alex

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Ok, so, bottom line seems to be that if I’m sticking with SE, I should stick with Asgard 3 or Heresy to save some money.

Right?

Ps. I’ve never tried any of the THX stuff, but I remember the fuss people made over it when it came out, and now it seems that everyone’s done with it. I expect to see more and more Drop THX items on the secondary market. Makes me think we should be leery the next time everyone gets all excited about some new bright and shiny thing.

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Imo stick to the asgard 3 if you want a higher quality amp, but yes if you have single ended go asgard 3 as well lol

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Lol. Got it.

Josh Valor Magnius Review:

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i mean he is basically right because its just a magni heresy with a balanced output…

but im still buying the cheaper 3+ because it works well with a schiit stack