Is the Schiit Magnius up to the task ???


My sysem has

  • a Simaudio MOON lp5.3 RS phono stage 
    • is has both RCA and XLR outputs
    • it is connected to my Bryston B135 Amp
      • via exceptional single ended IC's
    • NOTE: The amp does not have XLR inputs

But I'm curious to know if the XLR outputs from the LP5.3 will provide any sonic improvement over he RCA outputs.

So I went looking for an active unit to insert between the LP5.3 and the Bryston and stumbled upon the Schiit Magnius Headphone amp

I do not want to use a simple convertor plug 

So My Questions...:

  • is the Magnius up ot the task of providing a "high end" single ended output from its XLR balanced inputs
  • The Freya might be another choice, but the price is getting up there 
  • Or are there any other units I should be looking at - around the same snack bracket i.e. <$500

 

Many Thanks - Seve

williewonka

Showing 1 response by mulveling

I would put my money on your current single-ended setup being better than inserting an active Schiit component for no good reason. Honestly you’d have to put a gun to my head to get me to insert any Schiit into my analog chain.

If you’re concerned that the Simaudio’s balanced out has some magical sonic properties over SE - it might in fact only be using half its circuitry for SE outputs, in which case the balanced outs *might* sound better (maybe). In that case I’d go for a Jensen ISOMax line-level converter (XLR to RCA) before anything else. I’ve used one of these in the other direction - taking a SE phono stage into a balanced headphone amp - and it sounded great; there was distinct sonic advantage over full SE in that particular case, because that headphone amp only used half its circuitry in SE (note: an amp with differential input stage wouldn't have cared whether SE or balanced).

Somebody else can speak the the potential usefulness of simple XLR - RCA adapters (Cardas makes nice ones) in this application, but both the adapters and the Jensen box are handy to have in your audiophile toolkit :)