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Magni+ & Heretic

Affordable, No-Excuses Headphone Amp & Preamp

Version
Finish
AC Adapter

$59.00

Ships 1-3 days

Description

Specs

FAQ

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Ten years ago, we introduced the first Magni. Since then, we’ve been refining and improving the line, to the point where Magni is now the only affordable, true no-excuses headphone amp and preamp. It’s literally the only headphone amp you’ll ever need.

No Excuses—Across the Board
No excuses. Not in parts, from its high-spec, sorted potentiometer to high-end thin-film resistors and silicon capacitors. Not in looks, with an all-new steel chassis using advanced stamping techniques. Not in safety, with new protection systems help protect your best headphones. And not even in manufacturing, with USA suppliers and Corpus Christi, Texas production.

Insane Measured Performance
Choose Magni Heretic for insanely great measurements from a unique op-amp topology that includes no overall feedback and a massively paralleled feedforward output stage, or choose Magni+ for a fully discrete amp with exotic current-feedback topology.

Total Confidence for All Headphones
Magni offers three gain levels, including negative gain, to span all of your headphone needs. Use power-hungry planars…or super-sensitive IEMs. We’ve also incorporated a decade of learning in protection systems. Don’t worry about plugging your favorite headphones into Magni—included overcurrent and DC protection help ensure they’re totally safe.

Create a Complete Desktop System
Magni includes preamp outputs. This means you can connect Magni to your desktop powered monitors for a complete system—or even connect it to a speaker power amp and use it as a preamp.

Designed and Built in Texas
By “designed and built in Texas" this is what we mean: the vast majority of the total production cost of Magni—chassis, boards, transformers, assembly, etc—goes to US companies manufacturing in the US. In the case of the Magni family, the chassis are made in California, the PCBs are made in Nevada, and it all comes together at our Corpus Christi, TX facility.

2-Year Warranty and 15-Day Return Policy
All Magnis are covered by a 2-year parts and labor warranty. And, if you don’t like your Magni, you can still send it back for a refund, minus 15% restocking fee, within 15 days of receiving your amp. 

 

Magni+

Frequency Response: 20Hz-20Khz, +/-0.02dB

Maximum Power, 16 ohms: 2.8W RMS per channel
Maximum Power, 32 ohms: 2.4W RMS per channel
Maximum Power, 50 ohms: 1.6W RMS per channel
Maximum Power, 300 ohms: 410mW RMS per channel
Maximum Power, 600 ohms: 215mW RMS per channel

THD+N: 

High Gain: Less than 0.0007% (-102dB) ref 1V RMS, 300 ohms
Low Gain: Less than 0.0003% (-110dB) ref 1V RMS, 300 ohms

IMD: 

High Gain: Less than -103dB ref 1V RMS, 300 ohms, CCIF
Low Gain: Less than -112dB ref 1V RMS, 300 ohms, CCIF

SNR: 

High Gain: Greater than 110dB, unweighted, ref to 2V RMS
Low Gain: Greater than 121dB, unweighted, ref to 2V RMS

Crosstalk: Less than -85dB at 1V RMS out

Output Impedance: Less than 0.2 ohms at either gain

Input Impedance: 25k ohms

Gain: -8dB, 0dB, or 14dB, selectable via front switch

Topology: Fully discrete, fully complementary all-bipolar, symmetrical current-feedback design with driver stage and Vbe multiplier, no capacitors in the signal path and DC servo

Protection: Transparent overcurrent sense and protect, DC correction, failsafe DC power input and muting relay

Power Supply: “Wall wart” style 24VA 14VAC transformer, regulated +/- 16V rails with over 8,000uF filter capacitance

Power Consumption: 6W

Size: 5 x 3.5 x 1.25”

Weight: 1 lb

APx555 Report for Magni+


Magni Heretic

Frequency Response: 20Hz-20Khz, +/-0.01dB

Maximum Power, 16 ohms: 2.8W RMS per channel
Maximum Power, 32 ohms: 2.4W RMS per channel
Maximum Power, 50 ohms: 1.6W RMS per channel
Maximum Power, 300 ohms: 410mW RMS per channel
Maximum Power, 600 ohms: 215mW RMS per channel

THD+N: 

High Gain: Less than 0.0002% (-112dB) ref 2V RMS at 300 ohms
Low Gain: Less than 0.0001% (-119dB) ref 2V RMS at 300 ohms

IMD: 

High Gain: Less than -112dB at 1V RMS into 32 ohms, CCIF
Low Gain: Less than -115dB ref 1V RMS into 300 ohms, CCIF

SNR: 

High Gain: Greater than 115dB, unweighted, ref 2V RMS
Low Gain: Greater than 123dB, unweighted, ref 2V RMS

Crosstalk: Less than -86dB, ref 1V out

Output Impedance: Less than 0.33 ohms at either gain

Input Impedance: 50k ohms minimum in all gains

Gain: -10dB, 0dB, or 15dB, selectable via front switch

Topology: OPA1656 op-amp for voltage gain with local feedback, OPA1656 (6 stages per channel) as output buffers with local loops, no overall loop feedback.

Protection: Transparent current sense and protect, DC sense and protect, ESD protect, failsafe DC power input and muting relay

Power Supply: “Wall wart” style 24VA 15VAC transformer, regulated +/- 16V rails with over 8,000uF filter capacitance

Power Consumption: 6W

Size: 5 x 3.5 x 1.25”

Weight: 1 lb

APx Report for Magni Heretic

Can I get an answer for this whole “no excuses” claim, which I find hard to believe on a product of this price? And I’d prefer a serious answer, not more snark.

Well, we broke it down a bit in the copy, but here’s the thing: Magni really is a no-excuses amp, no matter how you look at it.

  • Overall design and quality? It uses insanely high grade stuff, from 0.5% thin-film resistors to silicon caps, it’s totally DC coupled, the power supply uses a ton of filter capacitance, the power output is no joke. Magni Heretic is our own unique op-amp topology with no overall feedback and massively parallel output stage based on one of the best op-amps on the planet, the OPA1656.
  • Or do you want to talk flexibility? With 2.4W on tap, and three gain levels, including negative gain for IEMs, you’re set for every headphone out there.
  • Or are we talking safety? In which case the overcurrent and DC protection systems—both, by the way, 100% transparent and out of the signal path—mean your most treasured headphones have the highest level of protection.
  • Or are we talking ideology, in that our products are made in a country (the USA) with everyone being paid well above a living wage.
  • Or are we down to looks, which are subjective, but our new (USA-made) advanced-form steel stamped chassis eliminates visible fasteners and looks way sexier…hell, and we even added a milled aluminum knob.

I mean, holy moly, if all of that ain’t “no excuses,” then we don’t know what is.

Is it powerful enough for inefficient, planar magnetic headphones?
Yes—specifically 2.4W RMS per channel at less than 1% THD, though it typically performs comfortably above that.

All right then. What’s this about DC coupling?
Magni has no capacitors in the signal path at all—that’s what we mean by DC coupling. This eliminates any sonic effect a capacitor in the signal path might have on your system.

So you probably cheaped out and left the protection off these amps, or something stupid like that, right?
No. In fact, Magni+ and Magni Heretic have the most advanced protection we’ve ever included in an affordable amp. This includes completely transparent current sensing and overcurrent protection (great when someone accidentally plugs in a TRRS headphone with a wonky adapter) and DC sense and protect, or DC correction, which protects your headphones in the unlikely event of a catastrophic failure.

So I bet you don’t have enough power for hard-to-drive headphones.
With 2.4W RMS per channel (the only real way to rate), you’d lose that bet.

And you’re probably not set for IEMs, either.
With a -10dB negative gain setting, you’d lose that bet too. Fun fact: the -10dB gain setting even decreases the inherent noise floor of Heretic, making it even quieter than quiet (because both Magni has an inaudible noise floor.)

This sounds great! Why would I buy any of your other amps?
Seriously, you really don’t need to. Hence the “no excuses.” But, you know, different people like different things, and they may want to try out tube amps, or balanced amps, or Class A/Continuity™ amps.

I want a combined DAC/amp! Why didn’t you put a DAC in here?
We did. They’re just in a different chassis and costs another $129-249. They’re called “Modi+” or “Modi Multibit 2.” 

Hey, so does that mean I can plug in some uber-special, gold-plated, cryo-treated, 85-lb 2000VA wall wart and have even better performance?
Unless you know what you’re doing, we don’t recommend that. Magni uses an AC wall wart. Most are DC. DC won’t work with either Magni. Plus, seriously? This is an affordable amp. You want to use some $599 power supply with it? Nah.

What the hel is a Magni?
In Norse mythology, Magni was one of Thor’s sons. 

Headphoneus Supremus
adydula

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