Schiit Magni Unity Fully Discrete Headphone Amp and Preamp - Black

After watching bad advice on Youtube, I had been powering my DT 1990 Pro 250 ohm headphones from my interface headphone output (amplified) into another cheap headphone amp. I knew something was always off with the audio and started researching headphone amps. This one had the perfect amount of power, looks awesome and I was glad to see they had a cheaper / non-dac version as I only wanted to run a line level signal from my interface into it. I do wish this amp used TRS or TS 1/4 cables instead of RCA but I was able to find conversion cables on Amazon. I found the highest gain setting on these between 1/4 to 1/2 volume is PERFECT for driving these. Did some A/B testing and it makes such a difference. Everything is much more clear, punchy and crisp sounding now. Really happy with the sound and build quality.

Connected it to my daughter's Windows 10 machine.It connects painlessly and it sounds quite good. Plays 24/96 and more...

Good product good price for this quality sound amazing for pc user music or gaming size and design is perfect to me

I tried using this as a DAC via the usb-c port and the audio balance is noticeably off. The right channel is far quieter than the right. Pretty bummed

Bought this for desk top system for casual listening while doing day to day computer work. Tried a highly rated chi fi product and could not get PC to recognise or discover it. Sent it back and got this unit. It was a hunnet more but its made in the US and it works. Win 11 settings, sound, properties made default audio device. Using AudioTechnica ATH-M20x cans. Fiddy I think. With the Magni and cans right out of the box the sound is dynamic but a little bass heavy at times.. Highs feel a little rolled off but this "system" is dead cold with no break in. Played a cruddy live track off u toob, remastered cd from '75 and then 16/44 rip of some early 80's jazz rock and other than the u toob track, this little system sounds fantastic. Demoed a comparably price dac only from same mfr and it sounded as good if not better than an eighteen hunnet hi end dac. They make amazing sounding products at working man prices. Oh and the wall wart PS that comes with this thing is massive and thats a good thing. Over sized, over built power supplies make audio gear sound better. Cheers!

TLDR: This amp has tons of clean power, but I can't tell the difference between this amp+dac and the built-in headphone jack from my budget 4K monitor unless I use sensitive IEMs.Headphones/IEMs tested:Philips Fidelio X2HR (Impedance: 30 ohms, Sensitivity: 100 dB @ 1mW)Sennheiser HD 58X (Impedance: 150 ohms, Sensitivity: 104 dB at 1V, 1 kHz)Sennheiser HD 430 - from the 80s (Impedance: 600 ohms, Sensitivity: 94 dB @ 1mW)Truthear Hexa (Impedance: 20 ohms, Sensitivity: 120dB/Vrms, 1 kHz)Audio sources: Spotify premium (highest audio quality setting) and youtube. I also used various lossless vs lossy A/B testing websites.I dove back into the world of audiophilia again after a 4 year hiatus. I've had various headphones over the years including a brief stint with Hifiman Edition XS, but my undisputed all-time favorite headphone for music (and comfort) is the Fidelio X2HR. The Hifiman planar could resolve more detail, but it had less bass and was too uncomfortable to enjoy for me.I decided to buy a Schiit Magni Unity with integrated DAC because of the myriad reviews I'd seen and my perception that my macbook pro m1 3.5mm jack was outputting audio of higher quality with more detail and more bass than the (presumably) cheapo amp+dac integrated into my budget 4K monitor, Samsung LU28R55. So I thought I could benefit from a dedicated "end-game" headphone amp using an "exotic, bespoke amplifier stage ... with the best parts, from a custom, sorted Alps potentiometer to silicon and film capacitors and 0.5% thin-film resistors", "backed up by an ESS 9018 DAC, OPA1656 op-amps, and optimized filtering".Setup: My PC's Nvidia RTX 4070 is connected to the monitor via DisplayPort, so audio is digital, and all the analog conversion and amplification is happening in my monitor and output via the rear 3.5mm headphone jack. I simultaneously connected the Magni DAC to my PC via USB. A/B 3.5mm switch to jump between sources.Listening primarily to Spotify (streaming quality "very high"), for a while I thought I could hear an increase in the quality and depth of the bass and the resolution of the finer details. I also ran online A/B tests comparing lossy to lossless audio. But I wasn't convinced that I was being honest with myself. So, I bought an A/B 3.5mm switch to see if I could distinguish between the cheap integrated solution and the external "end-game" Magni. Output sources were volume-matched, and I explored multiple sample rate and bit depth settings for both the monitor (max 24bit 48Khz) and the Magni (max 32bit 192Khz). I would jump between the sources within a fraction of a second by manually flicking the A/B source switch. With volume level above my general listening levels (ie moderately loud so I could hear everything well), I couldn't tell the difference. I really wanted to find an improvement with the Magni, so I tried this for all my headphones. The only difference I could detect was with my old 80s HD 430s which are insanely hard to drive at 600 ohms. But I rarely use those. I thought I could hear a slight difference in the resolution of minor details when songs start to get busy with many pads and vocals and drums all overlapping, but I am not certain. I concluded that with my daily Fidelios in my optimal listening conditions, there was no perceptible benefit to me to using this external Magni Unity.However, for a final comparison, I did the same A/B test of built-in jack from my 4k monitor vs Magni using my Truthear Hexa IEMs. I noticed a definite difference on some modern recordings with vocals (eg. Cannons, Miles Away) where the Magni was less harsh on vocals and provided deeper bass. This was very apparent, and I didn't have to A/B it much to discern this difference. The harshness was at the level that I would find fatiguing after a few minutes of listening, and the Magni undisputedly dampened it. Based on my observations, it is only detectable with sensitive IEMs and not open-back headphones. So there is an improvement in the overall sound from the magni over built-in monitor or PC audio. To be clear, I couldn't detect this improvement on most other songs.Would I recommend it? Yes. But only for hard-to-drive headphones (> 150 ohm) or very sensitive IEMs. It's built well, can drive any headphone, and I think the company is honest and transparent about their products. Do you need one? Probably not. If your headphones are loud enough and there isn't some weird hissing or other noise present, I don't think you'd notice any benefit.