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

Yeah, I really wanted it to have that "tube-like" look when it's on. Not super important since the amp is mostly out of sight for me but whenever I swap headphones, amber gives a nicer look than a bright white LED.

 

This right here has possibly made me more interested in the Piety than anything else so far

 

was wondering if I could put a blackout lightdim on it... I assume I wouldn't overheat anything?

 

Or some water based acrylic paint. Just a dab.

 

I am curious if any Piety + HD650 or HD600 users prefer low gain with the volume between 1:00 and 3:00 like I do.

 

Only when listening to Christmas carols

 

this is probably a good 'in' for me to share some initial impressions. first of all, personally, I don't find low gain usable at all with HD650. even with high gain I have to turn the volume knob to at least 2 PM to hear something agreeable in terms of sound quality and volume. still, it's funny: the sound is missing just a bit of slam at 2 PM which is remedied by turning the volume to 3 PM, but that makes it just a tiny touch too loud for my liking, and the sharpness (the splashiness in highs everyone keeps mentioning?) becomes fatiguing. either way, I am not impressed at all with HD650 driven by Piety: something is lacking, some sort of scale, authority... it's a tiny sound produced by the tiny amp is what I can't shake. moreover, I am not hearing any musicality per se, the engaging 'just one more song, just one more song' effect is just not there. I had to really force myself to keep listening in order to just put more hours on it and form an opinion. for what it's worth, my HD650 have ZMF perforated lambskin pads installed.

now, it's a completely different picture when I switch to TR-X00 Mahogany: I get all the volume and the slam I need at 11 AM knob position on high gain, and yeah... now we're talking: I had the nice 'time flies by' two-hour long session of pure listening pleasure on par with what I had with SW51+

 

I might be overly sensitive, but with 600s/6XX and Piety on low gain I find that 10-11 is plenty loud and sounds quite nice.

High gain i'm at 9 ish and its as loud as I want it. Yggdrasil A2 gen 5 usb is my source.

Focal clears on high and 7:30 to 8 remains as loud as I can go.. It gets loud quick.

 

yes, I should have mentioned my source: it's Geshelli J2.

 

Is the J2 known for low output ?

 

it's know for low output on the XLRs as far as I know, they have taken a design decision to match it to 2.5 V of the RCAs apparently.

 

With the HD650s, if I level match, on high gain the pot sits from 11:00 to about noon, on low gain at around 2:00~3:00. On low gain, bass is a tiny bit softer but the midrange is a bit more open and the top end isn't as splashy.

 

Is the new case used in the Piety lighter than previous units? It seems to move around a lot more on my desk than I remember other Magni's I've had. Anyone with a new Magni+, does it seem lighter than past models?

Is it ok to reverse stack with the dac on top of the amp? That might help hold the amp in place. Otherwise I may add some weights like JDS does for the Atom.

 

Slipperier could be due to different feet?

People have mentioned imbalance. A buddy got one from the 2nd batch released and has zero output in the R channel for a whole "hour" from zero volume. Anyone else have imbalance that bad?

Mine is at the forwarder awaiting consolidation with a slow order Amazon order, and should ship out soon.

 

Try a little Blu-Tack at the bottom?

 

Too impatient to wait for shipping. Will try my partner's pasties. I will report on effectiveness later if I survive.

 

Did you ever try an Aegir in stereo with the SR1A ? Curious if only the Tyr is stable for that challenge.