PreSonus HP4 vs Schiit Magni+

Both are desktop amplifiers, $150 against $109. This page puts them side by side on the only three things a maker can be held to — power, output impedance and noise — and then asks the question that actually matters: which headphones do they treat differently?

The Schiit Magni+ reaches 100 dB on 567 of the 567 models here, the PreSonus HP4 on 558.

Every published figure, next to each other

SpecificationPreSonus HP4Schiit Magni+
Power into 32Ω69 mW2.0 W
Power into 150Ω52 mW560 mW
Power into 300Ω26 mW260 mW
Power into 600Ω13 mW130 mW
Output impedancenot published0.2 Ω unverified
Output noisenot published1.5 µV unverified
Price$150$109
Headphones it reaches 100 dB on
out of 567
558567

A figure marked not published is missing from the maker’s own material, which is not the same as being good or bad. Where one of these two publishes a number and the other does not, the comparison on that axis cannot be made at all — and saying so is more useful than guessing.

The headphones that tell them apart

9 headphones reach 100 dB on the Schiit Magni+ but not on the PreSonus HP4 — Moondrop COSMO, Moondrop PARA, Moondrop PARA 2, 6 more.

558 of the 567 models here reach 100 dB on both. That is a power count and nothing more; whether either source suits a given headphone also depends on the two lines above.

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: PreSonus HP4 and Schiit Magni+. Or put either against your own headphones in the source comparison tool.