Storytime: NITSCH x Schiit Magni Piety, Magni Pi, etc.

Well the only Geshelli stuff I've owned or heard were the original Jnog and I think the Enog 2 Pro. But this was a bit ago and I was churning gear like crazy at the time trying to figure my shit out. But the Geshelli stuff I heard seemed to play it pretty straight and not try to impart their own sound more than absolutely necessary. I wouldn't say I was particularly fond of the Geshelli stuff, but it didn't offend me either.

I would say that the Paradisea+ absolutely imparts its own sound into the chain and you either like that sound or you don't. It's a lower res DAC, not a decay champ at all, but it's a comfy cozy listening experience. It has a fair amount of clarity but it's a mixture of sins of commission and sins of omission that works for me. It's a tone champ and music just flows out of it. Before mods it was a lot more unfocused and just more generally lo-fi. Still had pleasing tone but was fuzzy.

So I guess I'd say that the Geshelli stuff was mid fi because it has to be, and the Paradisea+ is mid fi unapologetically and is very comfortable in its own shoes.

 

Finally got some time with the Piety and I have no idea how you guys have the volume at 3:00. The highest I get mine is 1:00 with my 600Ω headphones on high gain and it’s definitely loud. The 300Ω HD6xx is quite usable at 10:00 and my IEMs don’t go past 8:00 even on low gain

My early report is it’s good but I think I need swap DACs a bit to get some better read on its signature. Here is what it looks like at night with a vaulted ceiling:



Night photography makes it look much brighter than it actually is

 

Thank you!

So I guess you can say that Gishelli is the safer conventional choice, while Paradisea is the higher risk higher rewarding one. I will also wait for Modi Multibit 2 and hopefully we will have impressions of how these budget DACs synergize with the Piety.

 

The Piety does have a linear power supply. The wall wart is just an external transformer to produce the low voltage A/C, putting some space between the transformer and the amp.

 

I guess beefier regulators...I mean, PSU's can always be improved. But with a few special cables, you can make your own balanced Piety with two Pieties.

 

Oh, sure. From the numbers of diodes and single AC supply, the linear PSU seems like it must use a voltage doubler to generate the negative rail, so definitely scope for improvement. Just wanted to snuff out the idea that it might have been a switcher.

But I'm really not sure what people might expect from a balanced version. Balanced can give you up to double the voltage swing, and double the current for four times the power. But that is ONLY if the amp can keep up with the current demands. I'm not convinced Piety can do that, it does seem current or heat limited.

In terms of specs, it can supposedly manage 1.2 W at 16 R, which is 4.38 V and ~275 mA. You'd assume that's the current limit. Then at the top end, 0.4 W at 300 R, which is 10.95 V and 37 mA. You'd assume that's the voltage limit. Then in the middle, 0.8 W at 50 R, which is 6.32 V and 0.127 mA. Not hitting either the voltage nor current limit. Which leads me to believe heat.

Either way, just doubling the number of amp units isn't going to give you much 'more', unless you can get more current at low R and manage the resulting heat. Might be very difficult to do with the small surface mount devices. Certainly don't need more voltage swing at high R, it's already going to be deafening. And the biggest criticism I've seen of Piety is lack of volume knob travel, so with double the voltage swing you'd need to drop the gain even further; is that even possible?

 

I'm going off of reports from @Ksorota who's running dual Pietys in mono, and @pure5152 who added a beefy power supply to Piety. Seems like combining both of their reports into 1 new product could yield some pretty excellent results.

 

NITSCH Pietus

 

If anyone has heard both the Piety and MCTH, could you please post a quick comparison?

 

I might as well put some notes up. I've had this for a couple weeks, but no sense rushing, especially because it's not like people can easily buy these now anyway. I mostly listened on Eikon from Bifrost 2/64, usually low gain, and the main comparison is a Lyr 3 with Psvane UK tube.

The Piety is a neat amp that sounds good. Relative to Lyr 3, it's missing a lot of texture in the lows, and really just isn't very, er, plankton-y? in general. But it has an excellent musical presentation of everything from the mids on up. Very cohesive, doesn't overdo or underdo anything. Puts everything it can dig up into place nicely, unlike some that would probably sound better if they left some musical info out.

The included note about trying both low and high gain on headphones is worth keeping in mind, too. Mostly, high gain is harder-hitting and more dynamic, low gain is softer and low-fatigue. But I think headphone interactions might be more complicated than that. I can't quite explain, but how speed, impact and dynamics changed on HD6XX, Eikon, and Aeon Closed felt a bit more complicated than just "high is more dynamic".

Anyway. I think I actually prefer Lyr 3 with Eikon. Kind of suspect that a lows-emphasized headphone like Eikon isn't the best with something that's got weaknesses there. HD6XX maybe leans a bit more to Piety. So it's not like this is obsoleting the entire headphone amp market, but it has some definite strengths.

And, uh. If the mids this has are what people mean when they talk about tube magic, a Magni was the last place I was expecting to learn about that.

 

From what I recall of MCTH (it's been a minute), but MCTH had much more air and top end energy. Low end energy on that amp was more quick and controlled. It had good separation of instruments and maybe lacking in overall slam and really good at microdynamics.

The Piety on the other hand, is more warmer, more lush in the mids with some low end warmth and maybe some blunted top end transients. However, it is very spacious and wide.

The MCTH was probably quicker with a deep soundstage. Piety has both a deep and wide soundstage and bit more laid back in presentation.

 

Refreshed impressions: Roon>iFi Zen Stream>USB>Soekris dac2541>Piety high gain>ZMF Verité open silkwood.

VO silkwood are my first ZMF headphones, which I hadn't listened to in a while because of a slow migration of gear to a location that I visit only occasionally. I finally got my total digital music setup, with a Linux Roon server mirroring my main location server, so I have been able to do a lot more listening.

As some others have noted about Piety, stage is wide but shallow. What I'm most appreciating with this setup is the subtle wetness that does not detract from layering or fine detail. Just listening to some delicate jazz percussion and well-miked bass work on the delightful Fegus McCreadie trio album "Cairn" (Edition Records) and all the fine print of sticks on drums, cymbals, and fingers on bass are all here, even while enveloped by a rich piano tone (McCreadie is one of my very favorite rising jazz pianists).

Even though this setup would not be confused with my over-the-top HQPlayer>May KTE>Stellaris with silly tubes at main base, yet it brings out the lovely work of these fine young musicians. I'd prefer a bit more depth and separation between the piano, which sometimes almost overwhelms, and the other instruments, but that's where the big system shows its worth.

(Digression: if you have a soft spot for Scotland as I do from five memorable years in Edinburgh, you owe it to yourself to listen to McCreadie's recreation of Scottish tunes and landscapes through jazz).

 

To add on to what @Azimuth said regarding MCTH (from memory) vs Piety, I'd say the bass is about halfway between stock and LPS (where I heard the biggest gains) and treble/speed are where you get with a "more liquid" tube - IOW, it's pretty different in character but on the same performance tier as the MCTH + LPS + Pretty Good Tube. Not an upgrade, but certainly shows how far things have come since the MCTH was IMO a solid value at $250 at release, and punched above its weight with $150 in stuff hooked up to it.

 

On the subject of the somewhat unlikely combination of Scottish music and jazz, I'm a fan of Ken Hyder's Talisker, on Japo/ECM. Rather unique and playful slice of the avant garde.

 

Does everyone else's Piety have a honkin' bright LED inside? Or have I been punk'd?

Received mine and plugged it in. No LED, no nuttin'. I thought it was DOA. Connected it to a source and music came out of the sound hole, so all seems well.

Mine is CTπ0432. Did some get built using a non-LE D?


PS: I kind of prefer it this way as I'll be using it with my bedroom rig, and not having a spotlight on my nightstand is a good thing.


Edit: It would seem the LED in question is at location D3.

Edit 2: I just looked in through the cooling vent and could see D3. It's an LED but does not light up. I wonder if this affects operation in any significant way ...

 

I don’t really think it’s that bright and since it’s upward facing and you could stack something over it and it might give a cool under lighting effect

at first I thought it was to bias the amp but there would be one LED per channel in that case. However there’s no longer the power indicator LED in front so I think it’s for that. Probably was supposed to have a lightpipe connecting to the front but didn’t work out this time. Shouldn’t really affect operation

 

Guys @Bill-P already showed you how to "fix" this LED a few pages back here.

 

I think @gixxerwimp was saying his doesn't light up at all and is wondering if this affects the functioning of his Piety.

 

Someone on Head-Fi also didn't have their LED working.
"To be clear - it was not just an LED. Christian was the one who advised that something must have shorted and its better to replace the PCB to be safe. I had the same thoughts as you...a lot of work for just an LED. Objectively speaking, it is probably better to get everything addressed now and make sure all is working the way it should be...especially given the limited parts for this amp."

"For us newbs, Christian's exact response was..."if there is no light, it means no one is home". I imagine @Zer0.p0int.Zer0 is on to something with the LED having something to do with the circuit bias."

EDIT: read post below

 

Hi guys, so Jason confirmed that the LED is only to help indicate that the amp is on. Initially, we thought it was for biasing and just in case to replace the PCBs.

But now, if the LED is not on, it is just an LED issue and you can safely run the amp with the LED off @gixxerwimp .