Schiit Magni Heretic Headphone Amplifier Review

The two new models of the Magni Headphone Amp really caught my eye and the new red bottom of the Heretic looked wild. I last reviewed the original Magni way back in 2016, so it’s been a minute. The good news is, the price has only gone up by $9 to $109, back in 2016 it was $99. So, does Schiit still have it? Let’s find out!

Test System

DAC – ASUS Prime B660-PLUS D4 Motherboard (built-in)
Interconnects – AudioQuest
Headphones – Sennheiser Momentum on-ear (with TRRS conversion)

Test Music

Valiant Hearts – Alaska
Lindsey Stirling – Crystallize
Nerv – Demons

Headphone amps can make or break a good set of headphones and I’ve been using my set of Sennheiser Momentums for nearly 10 years now. So, I am quite curious how the Heretic sounds on the Momentums. I found the gain controls on the front quite handy for whatever type of headphone you have to listen with, even if you have in-ear monitors, a -10dB negative gain setting is ready and waiting. Just note that you should NOT use headphones with TRRS, which are the three stripes on the male connector end of headphone cables, used with headphones that have a mic built in. If you do, like me, get yourself an adapter.

Once you get it set up, you’ll notice the power switch is on the back, I’d rather see it next to the gain switch, which is on the front. The more annoying thing is that once it’s on, there is no indicator light on the front, there is one inside the unit, but if there is anything stacked on the Magni, you can’t see it. I have my Rekkr on top and I can’t see the light at all. An odd design here. One last thing, the volume control is great, but I wish it felt less sticky, or had some more tactile feedback to it. But do I love the red accent on the black unit, it’s very cool and unique!

Once powered up I got to try out some music as I was working. Like every headphone amp I’ve tested from Schiit, plenty of power is available here, you could run speakers from this amp with headroom to spare. Listening was fantastic; soundstage and clarity abound! Noise was non-existent and I couldn’t find any downsides or weaknesses to the listening experience. I like the FAQ section on the Schiit’s website that says “These sound so great! Why would I buy any of your other amps? Seriously, you really don’t need to. Hence the “no excuses.” Yeah, that’s pretty true, I mean, maybe a tube amp is more your thing? Honestly though for $109, you can’t go wrong. It just sounds great and doesn’t seem to be lacking anywhere in the audio quality department.

Insane power, great price, cool new look, but still an odd design with the power switch and indicator light. It’s near perfect here from Schiit. No excuses is right; this amp has it all and for a small asking price of only $109.

Unless you want to go the tube amp route or just don’t care to spend way more, this is the end-all amp for headphones. I see no reason to look further.