WARNING: Schiit Magni 3 / Modi 3 / Jot are overheating

I just found this… leave it off/unplugged when you leave.

Well… that’s unsettling. This kind of thing can happen with electronics though, and the time differences and different products talked about doesn’t exactly spell out a chain of connected events. Reads slightly like a hit piece… Not too sure what to make of it. Is it a trend for this to happen presently, half a year ago, and before that a vague ‘long time ago’? My intuition says probably not.

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Buy schiit and you get schiit or what Z said. :smiley:
For electronic, i just like a good old fashion power button to turn off & on.

Think the small water boiler cooked itself… can’t remember if or when hifi?

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Actually, this has been an ongoing issue for Schiit. There have been many stories of schiit products interior wiring not being properly grounded. I experienced this for myself when my stack started on fire about a year ago. It was still under warranty, so I received a replacement and sold them and got a JDS Labs El Stack. Talk about some hot schiit…

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official word from Schiit on the issue?

Oh, crap. :open_mouth:

I have a stack of Schiit too and I haven’t experienced overheating with any of it, yet.

They’re amplifiers, they get warm, some even get hot. That’s typical for certain classes of amps. However, I take certain steps to mitigate excess heat build up. I’ll either have the amp, DAC, and the tone control side by side so they don’t collectively retain heat. Or if I stack them, then I put the amp on top since it produces the most heat.

I also don’t like or buy into the notion where some people or manufacturers say it’s okay and even encourage people to leave their equipment on all the time. Perhaps it’s fine in most cases to do so from a safety perspective and a component lifespan perspective. However, I don’t subscribe that. I feel more at ease knowing my high powered equipment is powered down when not in use or when I’m not home.

At the very least, I also know I’m not running up my electric bill needlessly by leaving stuff on when it doesn’t need to be.

Now, if Schiit has a manufacturing or quality control issue with their stuff, that’s another thing altogether which needs to be addressed before someone gets hurt or loses a home to a fire. If this story is more of an isolated incident, I’m not too worried. But if it’s to the level of the Samsung Note that had exploding batteries all over the world, then we should be a little more concerned.

I’ve been using my Modi, my Magni and the Loki almost daily for a year and it’s all been a good experience for me.

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+1 :+1:

That’s my recommendation too. Don’t throw your schiit stuff away lol, just be careful.

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When EVGA saved cents on thermal pads and GPUs had their VRM stages spew sparks at high sustained workloads (before killing the Core), that was bad.
That article is… unreasonably harsh. Products fail. Happens to the best companies.
FFS people! Don’t leave electronics running unatended!

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To be honest, no one I know ever turns off their AVR or TV “decoder” before leaving or even before going to bed… but that’s the exception. These are built like tanks because they know some people will just power them on and… unplug em in like 5 to 10 years (or 20 lol – AVRs especially).

That’s definitely not the same with headphone amps. And, why leave a headphone amp on? I like my JDS Atom… White, glowing ring when it’s on. Volume down, clicks, power off.

I was concerned as I have a Modi 3. FYI, reading the original reddit post, seems like the op had a typo, and it’s the magni that had issues (saying his amp blew up), which makes the few incidents a little more consistent but still rare.

Am I wrong in assuming that we need to be more watchful of amps than dacs? My modi is usb powered and doesn’t even have a power switch.

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I was about to say something stupid like “yeah DACs are basically sound cards, just an integrated circuit, plastic and metal, enclosed” but there’s some some huge ass DACs now lol.

Anyway, amps need more power for sure (so, generate more heat, easier, too).

Also, this comment, lol…

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I picked up and smelled my Modi as I was reading this. I don’t ever recall my DAC even getting marginally warm for as long as I’ve owned it. Regardless, I’m taking no chances and buying a micro USB on/off switch just in case.

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Just an FYI…my stack that literally started on fire was a Modi 3 Magni 3. Schiit wouldn’t comment on what caused the malfunction…but if you google Schiit Ground Issues, you will be provided with more than enough case examples of this being a common issue…not sure if it is faulty design or manufacturer deteriorization of materials…needless to say, it was enough for me not to ever consider a Schiit product until something about this issue is rectified.

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I read up on those grounding issues too. When I first got it I thought there was something off but it turned out to be a ground loop issue than something having to do with the amp itself. I also did a small experiment where I left the thing on 24/7, and so far nothing wrong happened in that period of time. It was warm, sure, but nothing outside what was expected based on reviews about it. I mean there is a smell of hot plastic or something like that if I get really close to it, but again, it seems to be more of the norm, than the exception.

That’s a bit different, you had a ground loop and that can occur for most amps

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Right, I should be a little more clear on that hold on-

Welps, you just scared me into buying an SU-8. This is all of your fault! Disregard that I was planning on getting one anyways, but you just convinced me to speed up the process. I hate that even saw this post! :stuck_out_tongue:

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Yeah that’s “for your safety”… :stuck_out_tongue:

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