ART HeadAmp 4 Pro vs Schiit Magni+

Short answer

  • More power: the Schiit Magni+, with 2.00 W into 32 Ω; the ART HeadAmp 4 Pro has 98 mW. The Schiit Magni+ drives 6 headphones to 100 dB that the ART HeadAmp 4 Pro cannot (Moondrop COSMO, Moondrop PARA, Symphonium Crimson, 3 more).
  • Hiss with sensitive IEMs: cannot be compared — the maker of the ART HeadAmp 4 Pro publishes no noise figure.
  • Price: the Schiit Magni+ costs $21 less, and wherever both makers publish a figure the ART HeadAmp 4 Pro shows no advantage for the extra money.

Both are desktop amplifiers, $130 against $109.

The Schiit Magni+ reaches 100 dB on 567 of the 567 models here, the ART HeadAmp 4 Pro on 561.

Every published figure, next to each other

SpecificationART HeadAmp 4 ProSchiit Magni+
Power into 32Ω98 mW2.0 W
Power into 150Ω67 mW560 mW
Power into 300Ω33 mW260 mW
Power into 600Ω17 mW130 mW
Output impedance47.0 Ω0.2 Ω unverified
Output noisenot published1.5 µV unverified
Price$130$109
Headphones it reaches 100 dB on
out of 567
561567

Not published means the maker leaves it out, so that axis cannot be compared.

Where each power figure comes from

LoadART HeadAmp 4 ProSchiit Magni+
32 ΩDerivedUnverified
150 ΩDerivedUnverified
300 ΩDerivedUnverified
600 ΩDerivedUnverified

Schiit Magni+ publishes no electrical specification at all. That is true of 10 of the 280 sources here, and the figures in that column come from independent measurement rather than from a maker document — which is not worse, but it is not the same thing, and it cannot be checked against anything the maker will stand behind.

The ART HeadAmp 4 Pro column stands on figures its maker printed, but not at these loads — every row of it is worked out from power published somewhere else. Reading the two straight across sets one kind of claim against another, and nobody has written down the conditions of both side by side.

What the labels mean.

The headphones that tell them apart

6 headphones reach 100 dB on the Schiit Magni+ but not on the ART HeadAmp 4 Pro — Moondrop COSMO, Moondrop PARA, Symphonium Crimson, 3 more.

561 of the 567 models here reach 100 dB on both.

Headroom and hiss on 8 models, both sources

Headroom is at a 100 dB SPL peak.

The widest gap on the list is the HiFiMAN HE400se: Schiit Magni+ has +23 dB of headroom there against +10 dB. 13 dB is about 19 times the power, which matters for peaks rather than for how loud the music sits.

The hiss columns are empty for ART HeadAmp 4 Pro and Schiit Magni+ because neither maker publishes no output noise figure.

HeadphoneImpedanceNeedsART HeadAmp 4 Pro headroomSchiit Magni+ headroomART HeadAmp 4 Pro hissSchiit Magni+ hiss
Shure SE8469 Ω0.04 mW+29 dB damping+42 dBnot publishednot published
Campfire Audio Andromeda 20209 Ω4.0 mW+9 dB damping+22 dBnot publishednot published
Audeze LCD-2 Classic70 Ω0.79 mW+21 dB damping+31 dBnot publishednot published
Beyerdynamic DT 1990 Pro (250Ω)250 Ω0.63 mW+18 dB damping+27 dBnot publishednot published
HiFiMAN HE400se25 Ω7.9 mW+10 dB damping+23 dBnot publishednot published
Audio-Technica ATH-R70X470 Ω1.6 mW+11 dB+20 dBnot publishednot published
Sennheiser HD 600300 Ω6.6 mW+7 dB damping+16 dBnot publishednot published
HiFiMAN Susvara60 Ω50 mW+3 dB damping+14 dBnot publishednot published

The gap in dollars, against the gap in numbers

The ART HeadAmp 4 Pro costs $21 more than the Schiit Magni+, and on these three axes the money buys nothing: among the 567 models here there is not one that the ART HeadAmp 4 Pro handles and the Schiit Magni+ does not — not on power, not on the one-eighth rule, not on hiss. The traffic runs the other way: the cheaper Schiit Magni+ drives 6 models to 100 dB that the ART HeadAmp 4 Pro does not.

Only published figures count here; blank axes are counted separately.

Both pages in full

Each has a page of its own with a full headphone list and the provenance of every figure — worth opening here, because Schiit Magni+ has published no electrical specification at all and everything above comes from independent measurement: ART HeadAmp 4 Pro and Schiit Magni+.

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