Storytime: NITSCH x Schiit Magni Piety, Magni Pi, etc.

Thank you. I’m using Grado GH4, the impedance is 32 ohm. I saw a comment around here that the Piety wasn’t best for certain impedance though the subjective range the poster listed would put my Grado on the cusp.

 

My Ollo S4R is also 32ohm and I preferred it out of the piety vs the OG Vali (although, primarily due to the background noise inherent to the vali). From an FR standpoint, the vali sounded a little fuller to me, and the piety has a slight upper register etch that may not synergize with an overly bright headphone (my only grado experience was 15+ yrs ago, so no idea what the GH4 sounds like).

My understanding is that the Pietus solves the Piety etch... but I haven't put ears on a Pietus, so others will need to chime in.

 

Interesting notes, thank you. The GH4 isn’t a Grado with emphasized treble, it leans warm and midrangy which is one of the reasons I went with it. My understanding about Grado these days is that their current lines are more focused on mid and lower range, with the Hemp even emphasizing bass more so than any previous or current model.

 

@dasman66 I just want to add that a sonic quality of the Piety I find interesting, from what I’ve read here, is the very black background. The noise level of the Vali 1 has never bothered me, especially after I got the Eitr, though perhaps if I heard a different amp that presents a much lower noise floor I wouldn’t be able to go back. I’ll also say that after upgrading my RCA cables from generic to Snake Oil Taipan there’s been an increase in clarity. Like another level of veil was lifted.

 

Have not tried the Piety with Grados yet, but for whatever it's worth the background isn't particularly clean on the Piety. It's perhaps a bit worse than the Magni 3+ in this respect and definitely worse than the Magni Unity.

The cleanest backgrounds I've heard (granted I've not heard nearly as much stuff as many on the forum) are the Eddie Current Studio Jr 300B and a random amp that came out in the mid-2000s-- mind, in the case of the latter a clean background and ludicrous macrodynamics were its only redeeming qualities. On that note, the Piety does kick a fair lot which I can see working well with Grados.

The Piety is very much an amazing amp for the price, and while I much prefer the velvetier, more refined treble presentation and less upfront headstage of the Unity (the Piety's treble does get on my nerves sometimes), it's just a more fun listen. I jump between the two every now and again, and while the Unity is a definite step up over the Magni 3+ in terms of not being an overly dry and staid listen (have never heard the Magni+), I just happen to be in a Piety mood more often than not.

 

In my experience, with low impedance headphones, the piety blackground is inky, jet black compared to the OG Vali. Compared to my 3F and Studio B, the piety is a dark charcoal. On high impedance headphones, the OG Vali is dark charcoal.

I can completely live with dark charcoal... but I couldn't handle the OG Vali with the 32ohm headphones. Of course, different Vali's may have different noise levels (age of tubes).

 

I've been playing with this amp about half a week now: Hifiman EF400(NOS) -> Dekoni Cobalt, mostly been using amp within the EF400 but have a Drop THX & MCTH that have been in this system within the past couple weeks. I've never heard any Magni amp before but have owned Asgard 3 with other headphones.

My experiences do & don't align with others' impressions.
Big bloomy bass, rich/lush a few steps below A3, crisp but smooth/serene highs are all there. Its not an airy amp despite having good treble volume(>THX, <EF400, ~MCTH.) Where things start to go wrong; the 'effortless sound at all volumes' these Hifiman topology drivers have on all my other amps is gone. The piety is zen.. until it's not; there's a certain splashiness somewhere in the mids that makes it the least refined amp at hand. The harmonics of the bassoon hit square in the problem region(Been feeling nostalgic & playing the Pillars of Eternity soundtrack.) See around 1:40 here


Where my impressions differ most is that I do hear this as a slow amp with smeared transients in the bass & find low-gain more trebly than hi(the splash region seems the same on both, it's not quite in the treble.) High gain just sounds thicker to me, maybe with a treble roll-off. I think maybe the difference I'm hearing comparing gains could be output impedance related, I'm using 16ohm dynamics.

Overall I'm liking it with acoustic music when the splash doesn't annoy. It bests the EF400 amp with its recessed mids/lowmids here easily. Against MCTH/THX.. I don't love how tubes stage but the lack of splash & actual air/stage vs the THX would make the Cavalli my choice. With metal/synth music the sluggish bass & splash is a no go which is disappointing as the mids have a perfect quantity of richness + excitement for these genres. THX/MCTH are too boring, EF400 wins the show with it's exciting sparkly large-staging sound. EF400 will be unexciting for some, its a unit with strong macro but predominantly in the upper-mids if that makes sense(gunshots in games/movies are impressive.) The bass is more pure/refined leaning ethereal than a lot of equipment(this is separate from volume & articulation.) EF400 is subjectively U shaped with a floatier larger sound that I enjoy for most things. If it could be injected with Piety mid-density it'd be nigh perfect.

 

Has anyone else tried the Piety with a NOS DAC? On a hunch I flipped the EF400 over to OS and was met with a larger than expected difference. The sound is much more focused & tactile; the splash is reduced significantly. It'll take time to determine fatigue factor but with my other amps I quickly decided I found them better behaved on NOS and just left them that way.

Possible the Piety is fussy when fed the ultrasonics or aliasing that isn't being filtered out?

 

I do occasionally find the Modi Multibit 2 in oversampling mode fatiguing with the Piety when listening with the HD600s, but while NOS does help take a lot of that edge off there are just a few sonic compromises (mainly in terms of staging and imaging) that have me flipping back and forth depending on the music/what I'm watching/doing e.g. gaming.

(been meaning to share impressions of the MMB2 but keep getting sidetracked)

EDIT: oh my reading comprehension tanked again. Gotcha, you're saying that NOS might be MORE fatiguing because of lack of shaping and just a lot of upper frequency stuff that doesn't get filtered out. My bad!

Curious what qualifies as an example, if you can be bothered to share one. NOS generally is a less fatiguing experience to me, though a lot of what I listen to is Redbook standard, 48kHz on the outside with the odd "high res" 96/24 track that I use for audio nerd street cred (I do enjoy those tracks too of course cuz listening to music you hate just because "audiophile" is dumb-- Dave's True Story is fun); I don't have any issues with NOS on those high-res things either.

 

Woodwind instruments seem a consistent that hits just that wrong range like the Pillars of Eternity soundtrack I linked above. The flutes are harsh then that bassoon enters and really doesn't sound good.

There seem to be two distinct things going on. There's the splashiness when in NOS and then the normal(for me) high treble/timing fatigue in OS. The splash is significantly lower down in frequency. This is a new experience for me, I've never been more fatigued with NOS & I've enjoyed a NOS DAC before that was very forward & rougher sounding(UltraFi DAC41 many years/systems ago.)

 

I've never played PoE and am unfamiliar with the soundtrack but I do like Larian games and have spent quite some time with Divinity: Original Sin 2 and have been meaning to continue playing BG3 for months now (mental inertia)-- the soundtracks of both do feature quite a bit of woodwind as well.

I haven't tried nearly as much gear as loads of others on here and have no legitimate experience with NOS beyond the MMB2 that I can think of, even in demo settings, but what I do notice with NOS mode on this DAC is how the "body" of instruments and voices tends to take a backseat relative to harmonics. I'm just guessing but I can see how accenting the upper harmonics on things can be... not nice.

I agree that NOS tends to present as hazier, splashier (though I don't think I'd fall back on using that word-- eugh, language), at least in my very limited experience with this one DAC. That's one of the main reasons I don't care for it as much, because while the more sedate treble response and the greater "plankton" (still feel weird using that word but it really fits here) vis a vis OS mode are excellent to have, I'm just not a fan of that more diffuse sound.

The Piety is definitely unrefined higher up (I disagree with Marv that the Piety's highs are similar to those of the Magni 3+'s-- 3+ is more lower treble glare and hardness, Piety is more tizz and etch). Interesting that it's NOS haze that bothers you more than the treble stuff, but maybe I'm just inured to that.

 

I turned on my Piety a few minutes ago after taking a break from using my desktop setup for 2 days & its now exhibiting severe distortion & variable/significant reduced volume in the right channel. I haven't troubleshot cables yet but EF400 as an AIO sounds normal. That adds context to my impressions..

What's the correct approach for editing impressions in this scenario assuming the piety was on the verge of failure? If there was a lighter channel imbalance previously it would have escaped my attention, I lay on my left side for medical reasons so I'm used to that side coming in louder(pad compression puts me closer to driver.)

EDIT: Swapped cables/channels, no issue. Swapped back & R channel took additional time to power up on boot but working fine? I don't understand this problem. I had an RCA cable fail last year and it simply didn't play in the problem channel. Not sure what else would be variable here, adjusting volume doesn't re-provoke it though the R channel has mild static on adjustment(that isn't unique at this price point.) Just keep trying it I guess?

 

Hey @RedFuneral , that issue is not something I have heard of with a Piety yet. And since the cable is changing the behavior (in your post EDIT) I would be inclined to think it is the cable. Also interesting that you "had an RCA cable fail last year". That would make me interested in the brand of RCA cables and then also wonder if something strange might be outputting from the source. Is this the same type of cable that you had a failure with last year? Looking for patterns and suspicious components...

 

I don't think the cable changed it but the fact I power cycled to swap cables around. So far it hasn't been repeatable & happened just that one time. Best guess is a relay on the power up protection circuit had a hiccup. Is it possible that a relay could have partially clicked?

The failed cable was a DIY affair that had a weak strain relief; currently using Blue Jeans RCAs that I've had since forever.