Thank you for taking the time to write the reply. Just to clarify how I personally feel:
None of this āoffendsā me. It is your private life.
None of this āoffendsā me either, it is your personal autonomy. In fact, your contribution is greatly appreciated, at least by me personally.
However, I personally am under the impression that it is also your intention to give recommendations and purchase advice to members here, which, again, will not āoffendā me but is greatly appreciated by me.
But, when (3) is combined with (1), namely, when, given your expertise and experience, it is unavoidable that you would, from time to time, be giving recommendations of products from companies that you have done testing for or worked with, I personally feel there might be a potential, either actual or perceived, conflict of interests, and it might be more appropriate to either refrain from doing so, or, to declare such potential, either actual or perceived, conflict of interests when doing so. Still, this will not āoffendā me, because āoffendā is a heavy word, and I donāt consider myself as someone who is easily offended.
Having said that, these are only my personal, at best, constructive opinions, at worst, prejudiced complaints, that you are absolutely entitled to ignore or dismiss. I sincerely hope they wonāt offend you or make you feel unwelcome here.
Many folks here give advice and often very strong recommendations to buy this or that.
I do want to make it clear " Never have I worked for any company" that has sent me stuff to try, test etcā¦and all of this stuff has come into my house unsolicited!
Just been around many great folks in the industry and count myself a very lucky person to have some great relationships.
Life is way to complicated at timesā¦and some make too much of peoples intentions etcā¦
Keep it simple.
Try stuff, listen, make your own conclusionsā¦buy what you likeā¦ignore the BS etc.
Its āYOURā moneyā¦if you dont like a product āDont Buy Itā there are many great choices out there.
When it was first announced I āboughtā it and the matching dac the slim Modius. $400 for the pair.
Had them here for a few weeks.
Reason was to see how well this amp would compare to a THX amp I had as wellā¦spec wise etc they both had stellar numbers for you folks that like numbers etc.
I also had a Asgard 3 here I again 'bought" B-Stock that I wanted to see how well they compared as well.
The Magnius has taken some hits in that the SE side is not as powerful or āgood??ā as the balanced side.
For me two things mattered. How well would a $200 powerful amp work in a balanced setup and compare to other amps in this price range.
I wound u selling the Asgard 3 and sending the Magnius and Modius back to Schiit.
Why?
Well in my case I have a lot of ampsā¦several vendors and my curiosity was satiated.
I have several amps for āmeā that are pretty decentā¦and if I find an amp that might be better in some way I usually would keep it or sell oneā¦in this case the Magnius (and Asgard 3) were both fine amps. but they just didnāt bring to me a really big differenceā¦but I had to hear or use them myself rather than rely on a reviewers āglittering generalitiesā. Like I say, try and buy or return.
I will say if I didnt have some of these other amps and was getting started out and wanted a low cost really decent balanced setup the Magnius is a really great price performerā¦
The other item was the dac which is a totally another discusion. (a comparison with the Bifrost 2).
To my ear the Magnius is the best amp of its kind that Iāve heard (havenāt heard a Geshelli Erish, yet). Iām defining its kind as high-feedback op-amp based amplifiers that are measurement chasers. I think Schiit did a good job of taking that amp topography and injecting a taste of musicality into it that THX and Topping amps lack. The only other amp of that type that does similarly that I have heard is the Zen CAN, but iFi screwed up the power delivery in the low end on that amp and it gets really sloppy below 100ish Hz. Magnius is still well in control in that range for its price point. Even so, to my ear, the performance gap between the Magnius and Asgard 3 is enormous in the Asgardās favor. Magnius is really hard for me to recommend over Asgard unless you absolutely must have balanced (which is almost never, TBH - even if there is noise there are other economical solutions to try).
Direct SE to SE comparison, not much. I listened to Magniusā SE enough to know it was not on the level of its balanced performance (to be clear, Iām talking about SE output, whether SE or BAL input was used made no difference that I can remember atm). The Magniusā SE output is maybe slightly better than the JDS Labs Atom amp, but on its own doesnāt justify the $100 jump in cost over the Atom, IMO. I compared āA-game on A-gameā between Magnius and Asgard 3 (among several others Get AMPed! WaveTheory's Roundup of (most) <$200 Head Amps) and found the Asgard 3 to pull way ahead of everything else <$200 Iāve been able to hear. At that point the direct SE-to-SE comparison felt superfluous since Magnius BAL is already > than Magnius SE and Asgard 3 was comfortably ahead already. The gap would only get bigger.
Late 2020/early 2021 the DAC stable I had on hand to test all of that would have been Bifrost 2, Modius, Topping D10, and Denafrips Ares II. I max out my PC system volume all the time - I donāt want the bit loss that comes from lowering the software volume. All of those DACs have fixed output level save the normal difference between SE and balanced outputs for the Schiits and Denafrips. When I compare amps I do my best to volume match everything to around a 72-73dB average. I donāt have fancy measuring gear so I match that by ear and use a phone app level meter to check. I also use the same DAC for each amp - especially at the entry and mid-fi levels where synergy is less important. On higher end gear I do my best to explain what I hear in how pieces interact. I let a test track play all the way through on one amp, then switch the amp and listen to the same song again. Once thatās done Iāll go back and listen to smaller clips of the same track on each amp if I think I hear something of note. However, I do such comparisons after Iāve had multiple days of listening to a piece of gear on its own to acclimate. For the shootout I used SE to directly compare all initially, then used balanced on the CAN and Magnius to hear the āA-game on A-gameā so to speak. Beyond that method and amateur level-matching, itās a subjective analysis. Any reader is welcome to agree or disagree with my conclusions and make their own decisions with their money. I just hope my mini-dissertations (haha) help someone. Hopefully that clears some things up.
Class A up to 500mW I believe, then it transitions to A/B. Schiitās Continuity circuitry they talk up is their way of smoothing that transition, FWIW.
@Shinidoshi be careful with that āClass A magicā thinking. Class A amps can be warm, wide, and smooth (Schiitās designs often lean this way) or they can be more neutral to bright and aggressive (GS-X Mini, for example).
Ah okay, good to know. I have already made the switch from the Magnius to the JDS Labs EL 2 amp. Iām loving that amp so far, and 1.3 wpc is good enough to drive my current lineup. Perhaps it will drive the planar headphones I plan to get: the Sundaras and Dekoni Blue.
If I want more power, Iāll most likely get the Asgard 3, cuz I donāt want to deal with balanced cables anymore Who knows, maybe Schiit will unleash an Asgard 4, and it has 1 watt of Class A Magic? Or perhaps a front-facing switch?
But if I do get the Asgard, what happens to my EL 2 amp? Do I just box it in and store it away? Or is there a way I could use both?
I can confirm 1 watt (for example: JDS Atom amp) is enough for T50RPs (I have T50RPs and the JDS Atom). Asgard 3 is 3.5W RMS per channel @ 32 ohms. Donāt get caught in the ābut itās not real class Aā. As far as I know, nothing is āreal class Aā anywayā¦ unless you buy an AVR from the 80s, lol.
A Class A power amplifier is one in which the output current flows for the entire cycle of the AC input supply.
Its as simple as this.
The real or preceivd differences are usually tied to whether the amp is direct coupled or not and selected values of components that might influence the amp,
Who knows, maybe Schiit will unleash an Asgard 4, and it has 1 watt of Class A Magic? Or perhaps a front-facing switch? 