[frkasper]

Folks, allow me to quote myself:

My little Magni 3+ at the office is now 4 years old and has recently developed some weird behavior: big popping at the left channel when plugging anything into the jack, and channel imbalance (-3dB in L). My work-around has been an attenuator -- also for the obvious reason of more granularity in the volume pot -- and somehow that voltage divider addresses the channel imbalance, but I fear that I should retire the little fella ASAP before it decides to play Kamikaze with one of my transducers.

So my interest in the Piety is due the form factor and "coloured" sound. Here's my setup at the office, by the way:

Magni 3+ / Modi 3 stack with the dust cover (a.k.a. paper towel)​

Is it true that Piety's magic only happens on high gain? Transducers include IEMs and a couple of Sennheisers.

Anything else I'm missing and should consider? Thanks!

 

[InvisibleInk]

Folks, allow me to quote myself:


So my interest in the Piety is due the form factor and "coloured" sound. Here's my setup at the office, by the way:

Magni 3+ / Modi 3 stack with the dust cover (a.k.a. paper towel)​

Is it true that Piety's magic only happens on high gain? Transducers include IEMs and a couple of Sennheisers.

Anything else I'm missing and should consider? Thanks!

There's a pamphlet included which urges the buyer to try their headphones on both low and high gain. I don't know why, though.

 

[Hyde00]

Magni 3+ / Modi 3 stack with the dust cover (a.k.a. paper towel)

LOL I kind of get where you're coming from. But isn't Magni 3+ has vent holes at top to dissipate heat?

Maybe best not to cover it?

Also to prevent paper towel set on fire (probably low risk but better to be safe).

Is it true that Piety's magic only happens on high gain? Transducers include IEMs and a couple of Sennheisers.

So a few things to note:

Low gain I find it warmer but less treble, but vocal a bit more forward. So I liked low gain.

When you go high gain you lose a little bit of warmth but everything opens up, you get wider sound stage, better layering, more air, vocal slightly further away.

But if you use IEM you might run into the same issue I had. Even in low gain it's just too loud for my easy to drive headphone.

So I don't recommend it unless you have some kind of hardware preamp to lower the output. Lowering it digitally changes the sound, not recommended.

Something to think about lol.

 

[frkasper]

Thanks for your thoughts!

But isn't Magni 3+ has vent holes at top to dissipate heat?

Calculated risk. In my OCD ranking system dust comes before thermal issues.

I mean, Magni is always warm but nothing I can't touch. Office environment is pretty dry which also helps to dissipate the heat quicker. The paper towel also helps the Magni to reach steady operating conditions faster.

Low gain I find it warmer but less treble, but vocal a bit more forward. So I liked low gain.

When you go high gain you lose a little bit of warmth but everything opens up, you get wider sound stage, better layering, more air, vocal slightly further away.

Nice. This is what I would like to find out, should I board into this train.

Even in low gain it's just too loud for my easy to drive headphone.

Still a drama then. Probably got this covered with the attenuator though -- or an iEMatch.

---

Assuming the volume knob is all the way down, do you guys hear any pops when interacting with the jack , i.e., inserting/removing? Memory may fail me but I think this always happened with my little Magni, even though it is much louder now. Sitting in front of me there is another 4-years old Liquid Spark which is deadly quiet on this regard.

 

[dstarr3]

Folks, allow me to quote myself:


So my interest in the Piety is due the form factor and "coloured" sound. Here's my setup at the office, by the way:

Magni 3+ / Modi 3 stack with the dust cover (a.k.a. paper towel)​

Is it true that Piety's magic only happens on high gain? Transducers include IEMs and a couple of Sennheisers.

Anything else I'm missing and should consider? Thanks!

You might want to try something like my approach here:
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/nit...ressions-thread.964304/page-103#post-17746916

Protects from dust without affecting heat dissipation

 

[artur9]

A bit of a synergy report, in a longwinded story kind of way.

When I got the MagPi, I had a Gumby A1 to play through it, using some DT770 headphones from a Mac laptop. I thought it sounded great but the full/warm/organic nature of the Gumby coupled with the warm/full nature of the MagPi was too much. It was fun but not something I could listen to day in/day out. And the Gumby was ridiculously large compared to the MagPi. I ended up using a Fulla 2 as a DAC in that setup. Not very satisfying at all.

Obviously, I could just get a MMB2. I wanted to try a different DAC and I'm concerned that the MMB2 and MagPi would be too syrupy as the Gumby/MagPi combo was to me.

Sometime later, for other reasons, I got a Benchmark DAC1. I mistakenly got one without USB (doh!) and so couldn't hook it up to the above system. The system I did hook it up to, I only used it for a while because the DAC1 is super-analytical and hard. Kind of the extreme opposite of the Gumby/MagPi combo.

On a bit of a whim (why? who knows), I got a Schiit Eitr. With that I could use the DAC1 and the MagPi together. And, yeah, keeper there (well, it would be better if the DAC1 were MagPi size).

The sharp, analytical nature of the DAC1 is nicely mitigated by the MagPi. Instrument placement is pinpoint, the sense of space is expansive, and the tonality is great. This is through Eta Mini-C headphones, which took over from the DT770s. The DAC1's hardness is still evident but not a showstopper.

It's one of those times where one can't stop trying another song and another because it just sounds so good.

So, Mac laptop with Roon -> USB -> Eitr -> Coax -> DAC1 -> MagPi -> Eta Mini C.
Figuring out what the USB cable and the coax cable are would be a chore, please don't ask

 

[Alenotta]

I'm so woefully late on my review of the Pietus, but I'm just checking in here and saying it sounds really nice with Caldera Closed. Very natural pairing.