NITSCH x Schiit Magni Piety

*note: the volume knob has been replaced with a larger gold-colored knob as shown in this photo


The Piety is a custom run of a previously prototype design of a Magni by Schiit that was taken by longtime audio community member CeeTee and produced by hand on a small-scale with his own branding, Nitsch. This Piety borrows some of its Continuity circuit amplifier topology from Schiit's Jotunheim 2, but in a much smaller form factor.

One of the reasons Schiit never took this specific design to market was due to a shortage on some of the parts, as they were no longer being produced. That allowed CeeTee to do a limited run with the scarce parts available and make this somewhat of a rare collector's item headphone amplifier.

The Piety shares the same chassis and exterior looks of the Magni series that Schiit is probably most famous for. It blends the black and silver options of the sibling product into a Gunmetal gray finish that makes the Piety stand out a little bit more unique than the Schiit line. There is also a square Nitsch logo on the top corner of the amp.

The Piety does not offer quite as much power as the other Magni amplifiers, but it does supply adequate power for the majority of headphones on the market, with only some challenges with the most difficult to drive planar headphones in my experience. I had no issues with headphones like the Sennheiser HD600 series, or any IEM I threw at it, and it worked well with the ZMF Caldera. It struggled a little bit more with my Hifiman HE400SE and Susvara.

With IEMs, there was surprisingly no noise floor issues at all. I've had hit or miss experiences with Schiit products on this front, and the Jotunheim 2, for example, had some audible noise with some of my IEMs. The Asgard 3 did not however, and neither does the Piety.

Speaking of the Asgard 3, I would think that this was the most similar characteristics of the Schiit amps I've tried/owned and remember hearing. I did not have any Schiit amps to compare to directly, but I had owned the Asgard 3 for quite a while and really enjoyed it for its warm and pleasant sound, and the fact it had a very, very low noise floor. The Jotunheim 2 was a bit brighter but very punchy, and despite sharing the same topography, I did not find these two similar at all, from reviewing my notes.

Sound Impressions​

The Piety is marketed as a Triode-like sound. For those unfamiliar with what this may mean, its representative of a tube-amp sound, while still being a solid-state. For the most part, I can see why the marketing print states this, and early listening impressions provided such statements.

With every IEM and headphone I threw at it, and with my primary listening coming off of the Empire Ears Odin and Hidition Viento IEMs, I found the Piety to be quite a bit darker, warmer, "slower", and rounder than my other gear. This type of description can be what you may hear on what a typical tube amp could sound like, however not all tube amps I've heard are necessarily dark. Some can be bright too, however, but that's for another day.

The Piety, when compared to a typical op-amp based solid-state, sounds quite unique. I spent some time comparing it to the SMSL C200 DAC/Amp, as well as my iBasso P5 Falcon portable amplifier, which I've modified with a custom configuration of op-amps (TI OPA1622, MUSES 02, and a pair of Burson V5i discrete op-amps).

The C200 gave the most precise and probably most in your face sound of the three. The customized P5 had a nice gentle and smooth treble with a wide soundstage, but felt open and grand, while still having quick transients and precision sound. The Piety was quite noticeably darker with slower progressions. It had a soundstage in-between the two, and a much thicker sound.

The Piety works as advertised I'd say. It gives users a different sound that is unlike others that I have found in this price range, with a darker, thicker, and more lush sound. It lacks on power, but should work well with most headphones. I found the crazy warm-warm pairing of an R-2R DAC and the Piety to work quite well surprisingly, but its definitely something I think users would enjoy with neutral and brighter headphones, and it may be just too warm-bodied for already darker headphones.

Welcome to my first every review on Head-Fi, an unusual review in that it is so un-current that I might as well be writing about a NAD 3020. Well, not quite - given that many potential readers are either wondering what they missed out on, or wanting to confirm their expectation bias isn’t in hyperdrive, or wondering whether to buy one of these hen’s teeth on eBay.

If you are in the second category, I can happily confirm that you are not deluding yourself. If you are in the third category – good luck. If you are in the first category you might not want to read this review, or see someone about that FOMO problem.

I did consider taking the Piety out of my system to make some pretty photos – but sorry, I am listening to it is as I write – and there are plenty of other photos on this thread and elsewhere. Just typing this article is proving to be a challenge as my concentration is divided between drafting this review and being really engrossed by what I am hearing.

To give you some system context, gain was kept to low, and the Piety is partnering:

• a heavily customised PiCorePlayer with HiFiBerry Digi+ Coax/SPDIF board (Transformer Version) and Gallium Nitride power supply.
• Schiit Modi Multibit (current version)
• Mogami 2549 cables.
• Audeze LCD-X 2021, Hifiman HE-5XX, Hifiman Ananda 2021.

Also with my Audio Note DAC 2.1 Signature, I have not felt any urge to connect it into the chain – mainly because of how well the Modi Multibit and Nitsch Piety synergise. Yes, what others have said is absolutely true, more on that later.

After switch-on it will take about 30 minutes for the sound to settle, After 12 hours the Piety sounds even more natural and effortless, so I recommend keeping it switched-on if you can.

So let’s hit the play button.

‘The Primrose Path’ from Jonathan Bree brings out the tone and space around Jonathan’s voice - great sound stage depth too. Width is pretty good, but the depth is a particular strong point. What I really want to underline here, probably the most important point of this review, is how well this amplifier is at portraying tunes and timing. The inflection is Jonathan Bree’s voice is outstanding and the build-up at the end of the song is rousing.

With ‘People in the City’ from Air’s 10,000 Hz Legend, the Piety does everything to preserve the momentum of the song. Even down to the piano tinkling in the background in unison with the other performers. ‘Don’t Be Light’ from the same album has you in no-doubt about the dramatic arrangement of this song - with its insistent drums bringing underlying tension to the proceedings, while the Piety’s tunefulness allows the song to swoop through its many transitions with ease.

The synths on Hotel Pools’ ‘Eclipse’ sound even juicier and bouncy, and even more makes me want to escape the December freeze of the UK.

Musically it will hold the attention and do so with class and refinement. Yes it sounds unlike most sand-amps out there, having a fullness, smoothness and harmonic presence akin to an excellent valve amplifier. Its spaciousness is great, although the Ly3 will just have a bit more atmosphere and spatial reverb. This is an amplifier with no nasties. Treble is sweet, but without muting the plucked strings on Teho Teardo’s ‘London Offered Us Possible Mothers’ – which has great attack and weight. The Lyr 3 will have a tad more leading-edge definition though.

No weakling bass either – in fact it betters the Lyr 3 in terms of bass weight.

With the listed headphones, the Piety drove them with plenty of headroom and no apparent distortion or strain. But keep in mind that this refined amplifier is not specifically designed to power a Susvara, HE-6, or an arc welder.

When it comes to using the Piety with a Modi Multibit, it is a heavenly match. I can’t praise the Modi Multibit high enough, except for a very mild graininess to the treble harmonics that was apparent on the Asgard 3 and (to a lesser extent) the Lyr 3. With the Piety that graininess is gone and the Piety has that tonal warmth and articulate bass of the Modi Multibit.

At its initial price, this amplifier is real one-off, okay a 1000-or-so-off, and I am truly glad I took the chance to buy this. Well done @Jason Stoddard in putting together an outstanding design and @CEE TEE in offering us this little box of juicy wonder.

Amp colorings;
A lil subtly hazy (in a positive holographic manner), gives some slammy midbass copium, is forgiving to the shrill of crisp transient DACs (like the DC2).

Gain Switch:
High GAIN,
Sounds less forgiving by a step. I mostly hear it in vocals. Not sure how to describe it.
High gain has more of a etch, that can compensate for details missing in your DACs presentation.

Low Gain,
Is more forgiving and further reduces the shrill/crisp nature of a DAC. Low gain does not have less slam than high gain. The low gain can slam just as hard on my dx300 or DC2 chains. It's just a matter of how forgiving you want the presentation to be.

Only time I found high gain was needed for slam was for an outlier headphone I have on hand my lcd-xc. But that is a quirky headphone.

With Dangerous convert 2 Dac & my DX300 Amp12 dap (Cirrus Logic DAC) , Piety's low gain works out better in synergy.

With my AKM & ESS stuff & other dongle's aroind, the high gain gives better synergy. They need more help in getting an extra crispness to the dynamics.

iFi Gryphon dac/Amp had a weird behavior that didn't work well for the Piety. As if the signal is being impeded somehow. Not as slammy, and just more hazy as a combo. Though, it oddly worked out great for my Focal Utopia headphone.

Oh on that note of impeding the signal....
I tried using my -10db Rothwell RCA attenuators to let my Dangerous Convert 2 9.75vrms hot signal pair with the Piety, and it worked fine.
BUT, when I used my Jbl MPatch2 passive preamp to bring down the hot signal of the Dangerous Convert 2 Amp, there was a crazy amount of more bass slam to the combo.

The Rothwell attenuators resulted in less of a contrast to the bass (slam).... Instead you got a more.....continuous rounded warmth to the bass/mids presentation.

As for the Treble, the Rothwell Attenuators gave rounded down feeling to the treble. Like less of an etch....but this might be less "fun" for many people. Though it did also feel cleaner.

Overall, I stopped using the RCA attenuators for the chaining.





My silliness with a compatible AC power bank, the Piety slams more on the bass, but the LO Gain becomes as unforgiving as the High gain.

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Okay A/Bing the Magni Piety versus the Bryston BHA-1 amps:
Okay time to actually A/B.

DC2-to-MPatch2

MPatch2 outputs #1 Bryston BHA-1 & #2 Magni Piety
Headphone Focal Utopia

Out of the bat, BHA-1 feels more presenting with music from further a holographic plane. And the bass is less upfront. I need to go louder on the BHA-1 to reach the same slam on the Utopia.

The ending resolving movement of the bass excursion on the Utopia feels more controlled w/ a smoother movement in resolving back to position on the BHA-1.

Piety comes out more slammy. But that is in an expected compressed way. Bass resolves & ends notes much quicker. But not less fun to listen too. Just less sweet in the mids in comparison.

Piety does not make Bryston BHA-1 Amp obsolete for a solid state Amp that tries to emulate analog aspects. But Piety does an amazing job at emulating it as well...... and with more slam if that is your priority!


The song "Just the Two of Us" by Grover Washington really highlights the holographic difference between the BHA-1 & Piety.

If I am to set the BHA-1 as the baseline of being really analog and holographic presentation that encompasses feeling "ethereal". Then

Off the Piety, this song simply doesn't like the low gain mode.

On Piety high gain, the vocals sound with a step more intimacy compared to the BHA-1...but if you focus on the things around the vocals.....

Things sound as if in an airy cathedral room instead of sounding "sweet". On the BHA-1 however, rather than simply feel airy, things seem to be coming off from a different stage.

On the Piety, things are not happening on a seperate plane, but just there is an airy cathedral kind of dsp effect to things. Things still sound uncompressed and airy, but on the BHA-1, you get a sense of the echoes in the room rather than just the airiness of the cathedral.


Piety is still the more slammy presentation between them. You get an open airy sound that is great. It has plenty of fun strengths!