Headphone Heights

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Schiit Modi and Magni combination -- Finally, a desktop/portable headphone solution I can live with!

Posted by willkayakforfood on March 29, 2013 at 17:37:03:
Given the choice between speakers and headphones, I'll always choose speakers. There are times however--travel, or even late nights at home, for that matter--when headphones are the only practical option. For those moments, I wanted something that would both sound good and wouldn't cost too much. After a couple of interesting, yet ultimately disappointing attempts at doing justice to both music and my Sennheiser HD600 headphones (Audioengine D1 and HiFiMan EF2A), I've found the solution...

Schiit Modi DAC, along with Schiit Magni headphone amp!

I've been a happy Schiit Bifrost user at home for quite a while now (I have two of them), and a couple months ago, in looking for something to send to a friend for a "taste of DAC", I tried a Modi. I was favorably enough impressed with the Modi that I did send it to my friend, and he's currently very happy with it.

Ever since my short and happy audition of that Modi, I decided that my next attempt at a portable headphone kit would likely be the Modi/Magni combination. Jason Stoddard at Schiit has always been helpfully forthright in answering my questions, and when I asked him if he felt the Modi/Magni combination would play nicely with my HD600 phones, he gave me a resounding "yes". And so I ordered the pair earlier this week, and they arrived today (along with a pair of Schiit's "PYST" interconnects). The USB cable I'm using for this connection is an Audioquest "Forest", 1.5m.

I couldn't be happier! :)

Both the Audioengine D1 and HiFiMan EF2A retail for $170 (not including shipping). For the EF2A "tube upgrade", I paid an extra $45 for a matched pair of NOS Raytheon 6AK5 tubes, so that particular experiment cost me $215 (again, not counting shipping). The Modi/Magni/PYST combination, before shipping, cost me $218 ($235.55, USPS Priority shipping included).

For just about the same as I paid for the EF2A w/tube upgrade, and for just a bit more than the Audioengine D1, the Schiit combination leaves them both in the dust (at least in terms of sound quality with my HD600 phones).

The Audioengine D1 has the edge in "portable size", and even the EF2A, with its extra bulk (plus bulky wall wart) may be just a bit smaller than the Modi/Magni combination (Magni comes with a small wall wart, while Modi is USB powered), but none of that matters to me as much as the quality of sound I was after. Even with Magni's small wall wart, and the "two component" package, it's still quite a small kit, and perfectly portable.

Schiit makes some fancier--and no doubt, "better"--headphone amps, but for someone like me, whose use of headphones is minimal, the small and inexpensive Modi/Magni combination is, in fact, much better than "good enough". It's actually quite good, regardless of comparisons to other systems. In the "$200 range", it's the best I've heard.

Once again, the guys at Schiit have proven that "really good" doesn't have to come with an absurd price tag.