Усилители для наушников — Schiit Audio MIDGARD

The Midgard is a fully discrete headphone amplifier and preamp from Schiit Audio, priced by the company at USD 219 and built in Corpus Christi, Texas, with casework stamped in California. It replaced the Magnius, which used op-amps, and like the larger Asgard it is a discrete current-feedback design, although it runs from an external transformer and cannot take an internal DAC card. The name comes from the Norse word for the earth, and the warranty runs two years.

Key specs that matter

Each channel delivers up to 5.5 W into 16 ohm, 4.8 W into 32 ohm, 3.2 W into 50 ohm, 750 mW into 300 ohm and 375 mW into 600 ohm. Frequency response is 20 Hz to 20 kHz within 0.01 dB. At 4 V RMS into 300 ohm, THD+N is under 0.0001 percent (-118 dB) in low gain and under 0.0003 percent (-108 dB) in high gain, and CCIF IMD is below -112 dB and -110 dB respectively. SNR exceeds 128 dB in low gain and 118 dB in high gain, referenced to 4 V RMS, and crosstalk stays below -80 dB into 300 ohm. Gain is 1 (0 dB) or 5 (14 dB). Output impedance is under 0.1 ohm at the 6.35 mm jack, roughly 2 ohm at the 4-pin XLR and 75 ohm at the preamp outputs, with 50 kohm input impedance. The box measures about 229 x 152 x 38 mm and weighs about 0.9 kg. Consumption is 3 W at idle and 16 W at most.

Engineering and use context

Internally the amplifier is single-ended, highly linear in open loop and uses only a small amount of loop feedback, so both headphone jacks deliver the same power. Balanced inputs are converted to single-ended, and the balanced preamp outputs are derived from the single-ended signal. The 4-pin XLR exists to carry Halo, a mixed-mode feedback scheme that brings the headphone driver into the loop and needs separate left and right ground returns. Schiit presents Halo as an open question and invites owners with acoustic test rigs to measure it. Current-sensing protection sits outside the signal path and lifts the output on overcurrent, alongside a muting relay and a failsafe on the DC input. A 14 to 16 VAC wall transformer feeds stacked regulated rails of plus and minus 20 V and 30 V with 10,000 uF of capacitance in total. Parts include film and silicon capacitors, MELF resistors, Neutrik connectors, Alps switches and the 27 mm Alps RK27 volume potentiometer.

Pairing

XLR and RCA inputs accept balanced and single-ended DACs, and Schiit sizes the Mimir DAC to stack on top. The preamp outputs stay live when headphones are connected, so powered monitors can run alongside. Schiit states it is quiet with in-ear monitors.

Alternatives

The Schiit Lyr 5 is a 6SN7 hybrid headphone amplifier that switches between tube and MOSFET gain.