Magni 2 report

[topslop1]

I have Beyer Dyanmics DT 770 250 ohm headphones. My computer has an Audigy 2 ZS soundcard that comes out to the Magni 2 headphone amplifier.

First impressions of amplifier:

Nicely built, positive clicks for on/off hi/lo gain setting. Volume knob seemed like it needed to be broken in, bit stiff off the rip. I actually expected the unit to be a bit heavier than what it was and that was a little deceiving.

What does it do:

Gives extra juice. I didn't notice much in terms of clarifying or adding 'power' to bass.. or any kind of extra range on the highs. Everything, for the most part, stayed at its original level pre-amp.

What it did do was allow me to crank the shit out of everything I listened to. Does it provide more power than I'll ever need - yes absolutely. You can rock your skull before the amp quits. Big range for volume. The lo/hi gain switch is a nice touch. I won't be needing it, as it'll sit on hi powering my larger headphones but to have a second range of volume control is a nice added benefit.

Blown away:

Not quite. But I'm spoiled..sort of. At one time I had a pair of Sennhesier HD580's that were hooked up to a full size Denon amp from the late 80's through the same Audigy 2. Is that the best setup in the world? Of course not: but it's probably on the same range.


Take aways:

Great amp, lots of juice. Nice and compact too. Weak point is obviously the sound card I am using. Will I grab a DAC from Schiit? Not sure...will dacs process directional footsteps as well as a soundcard? Since I still game I would say a better soundcard altogether might be the next step. And or after that, ponying up the big $400-$500 for headphones. But I can't really justify that as I don't spend enough time listening to beautiful music. That money would be better spend in car audio if ever I was fool enough to do that to my now 19 year old ride.

Conclusion:

Nice little amp, nice price, good build quality, nothing mind blowing.

 

[Nicholars]

Maybe get a Xonar STX, that has a very nice dac and RCA out section, that and the magni should be decent enough for any headphones.

 

[zone74]

What it did do was allow me to crank the shit out of everything I listened to. Does it provide more power than I'll ever need - yes absolutely. You can rock your skull before the amp quits. Big range for volume. The lo/hi gain switch is a nice touch. I won't be needing it, as it'll sit on hi powering my larger headphones but to have a second range of volume control is a nice added benefit.

Just thought it was worth mentioning: for the best audio quality, it is best to use as little volume attenuation as possible.
Generally with amplifiers/DACs, you cannot increase the volume level, you can only adjust how much the volume level is being reduced from 100%.
So it is always best to use the lowest amount of amplification possible, because that will minimize the amount of volume attenuation you will use on playback.

So if you find that you can achieve a good listening level on the low range output, that should sound better than the high range output reduced to match that same volume level.

Of course the higher range exists because high impedance headphones - and your Beyers may fall into that range - may not go loud enough on the low range output.

But I'm spoiled..sort of. At one time I had a pair of Sennhesier HD580's that were hooked up to a full size Denon amp from the late 80's through the same Audigy 2. Is that the best setup in the world? Of course not: but it's probably on the same range.

I would be very surprised if that is the case: the headphone output of most Amplifiers/AVRs is terrible: the output impedance is often 100-ohms or greater, which is unsuitable even for 600 ohm headphones.

As a general rule, the output impedance needs to be 1/8th your headphone impedance or lower.
So with your 250 ohm headphones, the output impedance should be ≤31 ohms.

Most sound cards fall into the 20-40 ohm range for output impedance, while most headphone amplifiers should be <10 ohms. The better headphone amplifiers will be <1 ohm.
Some people will argue that exceeding this ratio of ~1/8 can over-damp the headphone, but I've not found that to be a problem. It seems like people making excuses for a device which has a higher output impedance.

So with higher impedance headphones, there may not be much need for a headphone amplifier, even with a sound card's moderately high impedance output.
However, even if the output impedance is not a problem, the card may not be able to push enough volts into them, so they not be able to go loud enough.

Where you really benefit from a proper headphone amplifier is with low impedance headphones.
Low impedance headphones require very low impedance outputs, and are difficult to drive because they require lots of current rather than lots of voltage.

With high impedance headphones, you generally only need to buy an amplifier if you need a higher volume.
With low impedance headphones, an amplifier should improve the sound quality, and probably give you better control over the volume as well if the amp lets you switch between a low/high mode.

Great amp, lots of juice. Nice and compact too. Weak point is obviously the sound card I am using. Will I grab a DAC from Schiit? Not sure...will dacs process directional footsteps as well as a soundcard? Since I still game I would say a better soundcard altogether might be the next step. And or after that, ponying up the big $400-$500 for headphones. But I can't really justify that as I don't spend enough time listening to beautiful music.

No - the DAC will only receive a stereo signal and does not offer any audio processing like a sound card.
Unless you are getting a hiss or other noise when connected to your sound card, there should be zero improvement from buying an external DAC.

What options does your Audigy 2 ZS have for virtual surround in games?
The card needs to be seen by applications as a 5.1 device, but it needs to output a downmixed version to your headphones for this to work correctly.
Try something which includes a 5.1 audio test and see if you can actually locate the sounds correctly. Off the top of my head, the original Dead Space is a game which includes a 5.1 test, but I'm sure there are many others.
With the Sound Blaster Z, SBX Surround works very well to create positional audio - and it's a relatively inexpensive upgrade at ~$80-90 right now.
With SBX Surround enabled, the front-left and read-left channels are very distinct in Dead Space, and without it, the front-left and rear-left channels sound exactly the same, for example.

For a less expensive option, there is the Xonar DGX at $35 which offers Dolby Headphone, but that is less effective in my opinion, and it seems to be processed on the CPU rather than processed in hardware on the card itself.

With an external DAC you either need to use software-based processing, or a sound card which lets you output a processed signal over an S/PDIF connection to the DAC. (which rules out USB DACs)

95% of audio quality comes from your headphones, things like the Amp/DAC do not matter nearly as much as people on audiophile websites would have you believe.